[SOLVED] Kingston A400 SSD randomly "turns off"

[dontreadthis]

Hello,

Besides an HDD where my OS resides, I use Kingston A400 SSD for storage of VMs. Something causes the SSD to disappear / turn off all of a sudden. It can happen once a day, or once a week, as random as possible. Once it happens, the SSD can't be seen neither in My Computer nor in Device Manager. I tried a different SATA cable, used different SATA port. No change. Kingston software says no firmware upgrade available at the moment. 97% wear indicator, all other parameters are great.

The current solution to this problem is to simply restart the computer, upon which it's all back to normal, it's just this disrupts my operations. By knowing this, what could the problem be ? I'd hate to buy another SSD just to realize the problem lies elsewhere.

Thank you.

 

[Colif]

"something" is probably the drive. its pretty common for drives to just disappear, if they are starting to fail.
Its a good thing its not C drive, at least you can boot still.

shame its a storage drive as it probably doesn't show in bios... it might, could depend on your PC. It would just confirm its not windows.
What are specs of the PC?

I don't think ssd can power off unless you have it set to do it after 10 minutes. Nvme can turn off while not in use, even if C drive. My hdd and nvme installed same day but there is a 3k hours time difference between both.

 

[SkyNetRising]

what could the problem be ? I'd hate to buy another SSD just to realize the problem lies elsewhere.

A lot of people are having problems with Kingston A400.
It's just not a very good product.

Get Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860 instead.

 

[dontreadthis]

"something" is probably the drive. its pretty common for drives to just disappear, if they are starting to fail.
Its a good thing its not C drive, at least you can boot still.

shame its a storage drive as it probably doesn't show in bios... it might, could depend on your PC. It would just confirm its not windows.
What are specs of the PC?

I don't think ssd can power off unless you have it set to do it after 10 minutes. Nvme can turn off while not in use, even if C drive. My hdd and nvme installed same day but there is a 3k hours time difference between both.

A lot of people are having problems with Kingston A400.
It's just not a very good product.

Get Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860 instead.

Win10 Pro x64, 12 GB DDR4, Intel G4400...

Like I wrote, at random times, the computer could be used at the moment or not used for many hours, warm or cold temps in the room...

@SkyNetRising That's the only valid opinion I've found so far related to other who have reported the same. It just bothers me how come a simple restart fixes the issue if it's failing ? Something is causing the SSD to go AWOL... I wish I could prevent that from happening. Windows Event Viewer just shows a notification about the disappearance, no valuable data is being given.

 

[Colif]

it could be the controller chip on the ssd that just stops answering until its powered on again.

Windows may not know why. It can't see hardware problems unless they cause something else to fail.

 

[dontreadthis]

it could be the controller chip on the ssd that just stops answering until its powered on again.

Windows may not know why. It can't see hardware problems unless they cause something else to fail.

If it's not obvious to you guys, then it's something deeper, and I will try focusing on what you wrote. After a while I will pick the best answer.

Thank you.

EDIT: The answer marked as Best Solution is intended to raise awareness to whomever will see this thread regarding the disastrous quality of Kingston A400 SSD.