Question High Response time, 100% active time and very low transfer rate during write state in ssd

[Aeropro]

So I have a lenovo laptop and a few weeks ago, I replaced its hdd with an ssd. After using it for some days my windows was lagging for some 3-5 minutes after booting so when i checked task manager... the ssd was showing 100% active time and response time of >2000ms

Like the above it just hangs for like 2-5 minutes so I was fine with until now, its been getting frequently like every 10-15mintues it hangs so i read some posts and forums but none of them helped
So Please someone help as i am fed up with this.

PS: Full System and OS information

 

[Ralston18]

Make and model, specs of the new SSD?

Where purchased?

= = = =

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU and other disk drive(s).

Look in Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to determing what the system is doing or trying to do when the lags begin and continue.

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Also, open Disk Manager, expand the window so all can be seen.

Take a screenshot and post the screenshot here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

 

[Bob.B]

So I have a lenovo laptop and a few weeks ago, I replaced its hdd with an ssd. After using it for some days my windows was lagging for some 3-5 minutes after booting so when i checked task manager... the ssd was showing 100% active time and response time of >2000ms

Like the above it just hangs for like 2-5 minutes so I was fine with until now, its been getting frequently like every 10-15mintues it hangs so i read some posts and forums but none of them helped
So Please someone help as i am fed up with this.

What size is C and how full is it?

Same question for D.

 

[Aeropro]

Make and model, specs of the new SSD?

Where purchased?

= = = =

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU and other disk drive(s).

Look in Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to determing what the system is doing or trying to do when the lags begin and continue.

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Also, open Disk Manager, expand the window so all can be seen.

Take a screenshot and post the screenshot here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

Make and model, specs of the new SSD?

Where purchased?
I think it doesn't matter much. And I got the SSD sealed and in original pack.

Look in Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to determing what the system is doing or trying to do when the lags begin and continue.
When any program writes to ssd constantly for 2mins and then the ssd hangs

Screenshot of disk management

 

[Aeropro]

What size is C and how full is it?

Same question for D.

Well i posted it but here is another

well i know its full but when it was pretty much empty then also it reacted like that

 

[Ralston18]

@Aeropro

Did you deliberately partition the drive (Disk 0) into C: and D: ?

And what is Drive E: ?

Overall the disks are all showing as "full". Normally, many people, including myself, try to keep at least 20-30% free space always available on any given disk.

Another concern is with respect to:

"well i know its full but when it was pretty much empty then also it reacted like that"

If you did not "fill" the drive space then some app or utililty must be doing so.

What programs are being run and continue writing for two minutes?

Where is virtual memory (Page File) located?

= = = =

And it does matter where the SSD was purchased. There are many fake or othewise mislabled drives being sold.

 

[MWink64]

This looks potentially like more of a software issue than a hardware one. The Task Manager screenshot shows something thrashing the drive, transferring GBs of data. You should watch the Processes tab and see what program is doing that. The fact that it's now writing at ~6MB/s tells me that it's completely filled the pSLC cache. That's what tends to happen on drives with the SMI 2259XT controller. You need to figure out what's doing all that reading/writing.

 

[Aeropro]

@Aeropro

Did you deliberately partition the drive (Disk 0) into C: and D: ?

And what is Drive E: ?

Overall the disks are all showing as "full". Normally, many people, including myself, try to keep at least 20-30% free space always available on any given disk.

Another concern is with respect to:

"well i know its full but when it was pretty much empty then also it reacted like that"

If you did not "fill" the drive space then some app or utililty must be doing so.

What programs are being run and continue writing for two minutes?

Where is virtual memory (Page File) located?

= = = =

And it does matter where the SSD was purchased. There are many fake or othewise mislabled drives being sold.

Did you deliberately partition the drive (Disk 0) into C: and D: ?
Yeah during Windows installation.

And what is Drive E: ?
This laptop has an intel optane memory so when i switched sata configuration to ahci, the optane drive was there just like that so I made a partition of it. If u want here are the details :

If you did not "fill" the drive space then some app or utililty must be doing so.
Well its not apps that is filling C drive, its mostly movies which is consumed around 30 gb...... will transfer it to my external drive soon. And as for D drive its games and some ide.

What programs are being run and continue writing for two minutes?
Oh really sorry for not telling but that above task manager screenshot was taken during benchmark done through crystaldiskmark in which the read speed was perfect at 550mbps but the write speed was suffering. Other programs can be sometimes search indexing, copying/moving data between partition or writing data on partition, updating any software/game, etc.

Where is virtual memory (Page File) located?
Page File Space: 6.27 GB
Page File: C:\pagefile.sys
(Copied from System information)


And it does matter where the SSD was purchased. There are many fake or othewise mislabled drives being sold.
I am from India so I got it from local market here and the shop which I got from is famous here so here is same exact product on amazon with exact packaging:Consistent S6 SSD 512GB (CTSSD512S6)

 

[Aeropro]

This looks potentially like more of a software issue than a hardware one. The Task Manager screenshot shows something thrashing the drive, transferring GBs of data. You should watch the Processes tab and see what program is doing that. The fact that it's now writing at ~6MB/s tells me that it's completely filled the pSLC cache. That's what tends to happen on drives with the SMI 2259XT controller. You need to figure out what's doing all that reading/writing.

The Task Manager screenshot shows something thrashing the drive, transferring GBs of data.
Yeah you're right it was taken during an ongoing benchmark done through crystaldiskmark.

You need to figure out what's doing all that reading/writing.
Bro there's no intense work I do that can stress the ssd this much, only light stuff. I also have another lenovo laptop with nvme in it and i do the same tasks but it doesn't even go above 20% active time. In read and write both.

 

[Ralston18]

@Aeropro

Two thoughts here with regards to @MWink64 's posts:

1) "Bro there's no intense work I do that can stress the ssd this much".

You do not need to be doing intense work. The system is doing something that is having the same effect. May be something launched during startup or later triggered via Task Scheduler.

2) ". I also have another lenovo laptop with nvme in it and i do the same tasks but it doesn't even go above 20% active time."

That is good. Compare both laptops in detail via Task, Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer.

Setup as much as possible so both laptops are running the "same tasks" and are otherwise identical if and as possible.

Look for some performance difference be it known, unexpected, or unknown. You can vary the sorts to make comparisons easier.

For the most part, Process Explorer is likely going to be the most revealing.

Find the difference. There may be more than one difference so consider the magnitudes as well.

Take and post screenshots of what you find. No need to immediately start disabling or deleting things.

The screenshots may help someone spot some other problem or issue.

 

[Aeropro]

@Aeropro

Two thoughts here with regards to @MWink64 's posts:

1) "Bro there's no intense work I do that can stress the ssd this much".

You do not need to be doing intense work. The system is doing something that is having the same effect. May be something launched during startup or later triggered via Task Scheduler.

2) ". I also have another lenovo laptop with nvme in it and i do the same tasks but it doesn't even go above 20% active time."

That is good. Compare both laptops in detail via Task, Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer.

Setup as much as possible so both laptops are running the "same tasks" and are otherwise identical if and as possible.

Look for some performance difference be it known, unexpected, or unknown. You can vary the sorts to make comparisons easier.

For the most part, Process Explorer is likely going to be the most revealing.

Find the difference. There may be more than one difference so consider the magnitudes as well.

Take and post screenshots of what you find. No need to immediately start disabling or deleting things.

The screenshots may help someone spot some other problem or issue.

Ok thanks for the advice will update soon after observation.

 

[Aeropro]

Oh and one thing @Ralston18 when i got this laptop it was having windows 10 which was installed by lenovo's provided iso and after i updated to windows 11 it was consuming a lot memory u know adware and other useless stuff by microsoft, so after that I got to know about a custom OS called ghostOS which consume less ram and is very customizable, so sometimes i think if it is caused by this customOS or not but it happened in win11 aswell. I haven't tested it on lenovo win10 cause I updated to win11 before I got the ssd.... so what do u think?

 

[Aeropro]

Umm i noticed something when I was observing Process Explorer and sorry if my explanation is bad i hoped i could share a short video somehow but nvm.
So when I benchmarking SSD and seeing Process Explorer for any changes I noticed that the IO Read Bytes of DiskMark64.exe when touching 2GB flushes it and it starts from 0 and it goes like that smoothly.. but in case of I/0 Write Bytes when it reaches near 2GB then it slows down and slowly speed goes down from 450mbps to 16mbps then after a minute it again speeds up and goes till 4GB and it goes on until it reaches the test size like i tested it in 4gb.
Hoping this information may help in fixing the problem.

 

[Ralston18]

I am not familar with GhostOS so I will need to defer to those who are familar with GhostOS.

= = = =

After reading back a bit, my thought is to take a closer look at storage and the remaining drive space.

Drive space being an issue as has been mentioned....

Try to regain some drive space by deleting old files, data, temp files, etc..

However, before doing so be sure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations away from the laptop. Be sure to verify that all data is both recoverable and readable.

= = = =

DiskMark64. One immediate thought: It may be taking longer to write because the disks are very full and finding space takes longer.

Think of it this way: It is much easier to unpack a suitcase than to pack a suitcase. Even more of a problem packing as the suitcase fills up. And more and more needs to be packed.

Unpack ~ Reads, Pack ~ Writes.

 

[Aeropro]

I am not familar with GhostOS so I will need to defer to those who are familar with GhostOS.

= = = =

After reading back a bit, my thought is to take a closer look at storage and the remaining drive space.

Drive space being an issue as has been mentioned....

Try to regain some drive space by deleting old files, data, temp files, etc..

However, before doing so be sure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations away from the laptop. Be sure to verify that all data is both recoverable and readable.

= = = =

DiskMark64. One immediate thought: It may be taking longer to write because the disks are very full and finding space takes longer.

Think of it this way: It is much easier to unpack a suitcase than to pack a suitcase. Even more of a problem packing as the suitcase fills up. And more and more needs to be packed.

Unpack ~ Reads, Pack ~ Writes.

Ok, will free up space and then test it.

 

[Aeropro]

Bro same thing happening even after freeing 29(C) and 40%(D) disk space in both partition and benchmarking on D.

I think something wrong with laptop as the cpu is also malfunction so i have to use throttlestop and its pretty old like bought in 2018 so i think i have to bear with it till its last breath.
@Ralston18 If there's something else that might be worth doing please suggest

 

[Ralston18]

This: "the cpu is also malfunction so i have to use throttlestop".

In what manner is the cpu malfunctioning? How are you using/applying Throttlestop with respect to the CPU?

 

[Aeropro]

This: "the cpu is also malfunction so i have to use throttlestop".

In what manner is the cpu malfunctioning? How are you using/applying Throttlestop with respect to the CPU?

@Ralston18 It gets stuck on 1.49 Ghz doesn't get more or less and after turning on throttlestop it works normally staying at average of 2.5 Ghz and going max 3.39Ghz
How are you using/applying Throttlestop with respect to the CPU?
I didn't do much just started it and checked the set multiplier and set it to highest. It worked fine so i configured it to start at log in using task scheduler.
here a screenshot of throttlestop

 

[MWink64]

Umm i noticed something when I was observing Process Explorer and sorry if my explanation is bad i hoped i could share a short video somehow but nvm.
So when I benchmarking SSD and seeing Process Explorer for any changes I noticed that the IO Read Bytes of DiskMark64.exe when touching 2GB flushes it and it starts from 0 and it goes like that smoothly.. but in case of I/0 Write Bytes when it reaches near 2GB then it slows down and slowly speed goes down from 450mbps to 16mbps then after a minute it again speeds up and goes till 4GB and it goes on until it reaches the test size like i tested it in 4gb.
Hoping this information may help in fixing the problem.

That sounds like the pSLC cache is filling up. These drives have a huge drop in write speed when that happens. It can sometimes take hours of (mostly) idle time to flush it to TLC/QLC. Do you know if TRIM is enabled and working? Though, I'm not sure this is related to your main issue.

Here's something to try. Download HDDScan and run the Read Test. When it's finished, go into the details and take a screenshot of the Graph tab (not the default Map tab). I'd like to see how that looks.

 

[Aeropro]

That sounds like the pSLC cache is filling up. These drives have a huge drop in write speed when that happens. It can sometimes take hours of (mostly) idle time to flush it to TLC/QLC. Do you know if TRIM is enabled and working? Though, I'm not sure this is related to your main issue.

Here's something to try. Download HDDScan and run the Read Test. When it's finished, go into the details and take a screenshot of the Graph tab (not the default Map tab). I'd like to see how that looks.

Sure here is the configuration before test:

 

[Aeropro]

@MWink64 here are the results

So please tell what these results say

 

[Aeropro]

That sounds like the pSLC cache is filling up. These drives have a huge drop in write speed when that happens. It can sometimes take hours of (mostly) idle time to flush it to TLC/QLC. Do you know if TRIM is enabled and working? Though, I'm not sure this is related to your main issue.

Here's something to try. Download HDDScan and run the Read Test. When it's finished, go into the details and take a screenshot of the Graph tab (not the default Map tab). I'd like to see how that looks.

Do you know if TRIM is enabled and working?
yeah trim is enabled, i checked in cmd

That sounds like the pSLC cache is filling up. These drives have a huge drop in write speed when that happens. It can sometimes take hours of (mostly) idle time to flush it to TLC/QLC.
oh i see that's bad i guess, so is there a workaround to fix this like write cache on the optane using some software or enabling optane(which i haven't tested with ssd

 

[MWink64]

The results aren't quite as bad as I expected but your description does sound similar to my experience with some drives using the same controller. Unfortunately, the only solution I found was to rewrite all the data. Even then, it was only a temporary solution.

As for the pSLC filling up, that's heavily impacted by how full you keep the drive. As the drive fills up, the size of the pSLC cache shrinks. Freeing up more space and trimming the drive may help with that.

If it's convenient, could you post a Task Manager screenshot from when the system starts hanging during normal use (not when benchmarking).

 

[Aeropro]

Unfortunately, the only solution I found was to rewrite all the data. Even then, it was only a temporary solution.

Well at least thanks for figuring out the problem even though there's no real solution.
And while some testing i activated my optane with ssd so its pretty much stable for now and doesn't hang like that unless i start something that writes data in bulk like file transfer or updating software/games or video processing.

If it's convenient, could you post a Task Manager screenshot from when the system starts hanging during normal use (not when benchmarking).

Yeah sure but do i have to remove optane or its ok like that cause with optane i have stress the drive a bit. Well nvm I will upload the screenshot at the earliest.