Question External SSD slows to crawl after 3GB of writing every time

[scubaslim]

I have a Silicon Power 2TB SSD in an ADATA ED600 enclosure. It is only 50% full. It has been working perfectly for about 3 months (although I don't regularly transfer a TON on it). Yesterday, it starting acting up. Whenever I try to write a large file to it, it'll zoom along at top speeds until it hits 3GB. Then it just halts to a crawl. When this happens, it makes my computer fairly useless. I can't open programs, I can barely browse the internet, I have to hold the power button just to restart, etc...

I have enabled write caching, optimized the drive (TRIM), updated all drivers, tried high performance mode, tried different USB cable, tried different enclosure, tried different USB port, tried different files, tried different drives the files are coming from, verified it is 4K aligned, and verified AHCI mode is enabled. Nothing is helping and none of my other external drives are having this problem.

Any help would be much appreciated!

https://imgur.com/tmCh1wa

https://imgur.com/8xLdeNX

https://imgur.com/KXZZE3K

 

[Lafong]

Offhand....that might appear to be a caching issue, but I can't explain the sudden onset of the problem if it had been working fine previously.

Different port, different enclosure, different cable are no help.

Is the "Family Movies" source known to be in good working order?

Have you taken a peek at Task Manager when it slows down? Reliability History?

I see from your pic that this is when transferring a single large file. Has performance also deteriorated if you tried to transfer, say, a few thousand small files totaling 15 GB instead of 1 big one?

Have you looked at SMART data or Crystal Disk Info?

Have you made any changes to Windows recently....formal updates, or anything at all?

 

[scubaslim]

Offhand....that might appear to be a caching issue, but I can't explain the sudden onset of the problem if it had been working fine previously.

Different port, different enclosure, different cable are no help.

Is the "Family Movies" source known to be in good working order?

Have you taken a peek at Task Manager when it slows down? Reliability History?

I see from your pic that this is when transferring a single large file. Has performance also deteriorated if you tried to transfer, say, a few thousand small files totaling 15 GB instead of 1 big one?

Have you looked at SMART data or Crystal Disk Info?

Have you made any changes to Windows recently....formal updates, or anything at all?

Yes, the "Family Movies" source is in good working order. I've tried from other sources, as well, and it's still happening.

I watched Task Manager after you suggested it, but I'm not noticing anything out of the ordinary. Not sure what I'm looking for though. When going to Reliability history, Security and maintenance did show I had to finish installing something for hardware to work correctly (not sure what the hardware was). I did that, but it didn't help. Nothing related was in Reliability history.

I tried large amounts of smaller files twice. It seems the more files, the faster the the speed drops. I tried a couple hundred files and it slowed down around 1.5GB. I tried a couple thousand files and it slowed down almost immediately.

Crystal Disk Info is the third picture in OP.

I don't think I've changed anything recently in Windows, but its been about a month since my last large file transfer to this drive.

 

[fzabkar]

Have you tried a SATA connection inside your PC?

BTW, I think the Total Host Reads and Writes GB numbers are incorrect.

 

[Lafong]

No issues AT ALL prior to yesterday? But you hadn't done any large transfers in a month? So you might have had the problem 3 weeks ago IF you had attempted a file transfer 3 weeks ago?

Let me grasp at a few remaining straws...just wild ideas.

Do you have any reason to believe the drive would perform poorly if it were hooked up internally direct to your motherboard...rather than through a port in an enclosure?

Task Manager: I'd try to look at Disk activity and unexplained/odd processes when it's slow.

Any changes recently in your anti-virus, anti-malware setup? Wonder if it is getting in the way?

What can you do with the Silicon Power drive? Firmware update? Secure erase? Diskpart "clean"?

Wondering about System Restore or somehow reverting Windows status to a prior state? Do you have any Windows backups?

I have seen transfer speed affected by chipset driver changes, but never EXTREME speed changes.

Have you done any tests for failing hardware...RAM?

 

[scubaslim]

Have you tried a SATA connection inside your PC?

BTW, I think the Total Host Reads and Writes GB numbers are incorrect.

I just put inside the PC. Same issue.

As for Total Host Read and Writes, I dunno... that's what it says in the SP Toolbox, too.

No issues AT ALL prior to yesterday? But you hadn't done any large transfers in a month? So you might have had the problem 3 weeks ago IF you had attempted a file transfer 3 weeks ago?

Let me grasp at a few remaining straws...just wild ideas.

Do you have any reason to believe the drive would perform poorly if it were hooked up internally direct to your motherboard...rather than through a port in an enclosure?

Task Manager: I'd try to look at Disk activity and unexplained/odd processes when it's slow.

Any changes recently in your anti-virus, anti-malware setup? Wonder if it is getting in the way?

What can you do with the Silicon Power drive? Firmware update? Secure erase? Diskpart "clean"?

Wondering about System Restore or somehow reverting Windows status to a prior state? Do you have any Windows backups?

I have seen transfer speed affected by chipset driver changes, but never EXTREME speed changes.

Have you done any tests for failing hardware...RAM?

It's certainly possible the issue arrived sooner, but yeah, I wouldn't have noticed. For the most part the drive is used for music and I transfer movies I've watched over to it (I hadn't watched a new movie for about a month). I guess a few weeks ago I might have restored my firewall settings, but I don't think it would only affect this particular drive.

I just tried it internally and the issue still came up.

The Task Manager didn't show me anything when watching Disk activity or odd processes.

No changes to the anti-virus. I use a combo of malwarebytes and Windows Security.

the Silcon Power app is pretty basic. It says there's no new firmware

I don't think its my Windows state or any failing hardware. I just tried it on my daughter's computer and it was actually worse there. It was really slow immediately.

 

[fzabkar]

I wonder if the slowdown occurs after the SSD fills its pseudo-SLC cache?

Edit: Is it possible that the drive is a 1TB fake?

 

[Rokinamerica]

I believe I have the same SSD, I use it as an internal backup, and yeah, once the cache is filled, it slows to a crawl. But it is only a backup drive and was cheap.

 

[scubaslim]

I wonder if the slowdown occurs after the SSD fills its pseudo-SLC cache?

Edit: Is it possible that the drive is a 1TB fake?

I assume it's not fake. They're a fairly known (albeit cheap) brand, and it was sold by Amazon.

Ah, well... Thanks for the assistance everyone.