Kingston SSDNow V300 240G problem on asus G75vw

[Penhad]

hi everyone,

I've had my G75VW for over a year now, brought a few improvements since then, I now have:

Windows pro 8.1
16GB of RAM memory (8 from original build, 8 added)
SSD 240GB (Kingston SSDNow V300) partitioned 50GB for win8, the rest for main games and softs
HDD 500GB WD Black 7200rpm for data
nVidia Geforce 660GTX 660M (original build) with latest driver (340.52)
Intel i7 3630QM 2.40GHz (original build)

a few months ago I started having this lag problem in games, every 1second or so, the screen freezes for a brief duration. It always happens the same way, on this very regular 1s basis, yeah it's always the same amount of time between two freezes, and the freezes themselves are always the same time. Happens the exacte same way in different games. So I'm pretty sure this is not performance related.

It mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago, and now it's back.

My best guess ? it must be the SSD drive, since I installed it a few weeks before first seeing this problem, and games on the HDD seem to run fine. I dunno if it's hardware or software issue though. I really don't have a clue about what could be wrong with the SSD.

thanks for reading and if you have any ideas that might help, I'm listening!

Penhad

edit:
download the kingston SSD toolbox, my SSD's firmware is the 541 version. checked on kingston website for upgrades, latest FW available is 525, what am I missing here ? Should I try to install the 525 FW ?
Also, I know about the scandal of kingston switching the nand from synchronous to asynchronous nand, but how do I know which version of it I have ? can the native FW version tell me that ?

 

[kingstonhq]

Hi, I'm Jewel with Kingston Technical Support and would like to offer our assistance. The firmware update would not apply since the drive currently has a newer firmware version. The firmware version does not indicate the internal components of the drive. All of the current V300 drives can be manufactured with either synchronous or asynchronous NAND, regardless of the type of NAND used the drive should perform to our specifications. Complete specs available here: http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/sv300s3_us.pdf . You can check Windows Event Viewer or pull the SMART data to see if the drive is havinging any Read/Write errors. You can also run chkdsk on the volume where the games are to see if there is any file system corruption that is repairable. If not repairable or if the repair does not resolve the issue, there may just be an issue with the drive itself. The V300 has a three year warranty and we can replace it. We are here to help and can troubleshoot with you to get the drive working or if need be set up a warranty replacement. Please call us at 1-800-435-0640 (USA and Canada only) M - F 6am - 6pm PT and I or another available Technician will assist you.

Thank you for selecting Kingston as your upgrade partner.

 

[Penhad]

Hello and thanks for answering.

I just ran the chkdsk and nothing looks wrong, no corrupted files and no error detected.

here is the SMART data I got from the Kingstonn toolbox:

SMART READ DATA
Revision: 10
Attributes List
1: (SSD Raw Read Error Rate) Normalized Rate: 95 Sectors Read: 13328791 Read Errors: 0
5: (SSD Retired Block Count) Spare blocks remaining 97% Retired Block 0
9: (SSD Power-On Hours) Value 98 Total 1814 hrs 45 mins
12: (SSD Power Cycle Count) Power Cycle Life Remaining 100% Number of power cycles 390
171: (SSD Program Fail Count) Program Error Count 0
172: (SSD Erase Fail Count) Erase Error Count 0
174: (SSD Unexpected power loss count) Unexpected power loss Count 90
177: (Wear Range Delta) Wear Range Delta 0%
181: (Program Fail Count) Program Error Count 0
182: (Erase Fail Count) Erase Error Count 0
187: (SSD Reported Uncorrectable Errors) Normalized Value 100 lifetime URAISE Errors 0
189: (Unrecognized Attribute) Value: 33 Raw Data: 21 00 2c 00 14 00 00
194: (SSD Temperature Monitoring) Normalized temp 33 Current 33 High 44 Low 20
195: (SSD ECC On-the-fly Count) Normalized Value 120 Sectors Read 13328791 UECC Count 0
196: (SSD Reallocation Event Count) Normalized Value 100 Reallocation Event Count 0
201: (SSD Uncorrectable Soft Read Error Rate)Normalized Value 120 Sectors Read 13328791 Uncorrectable Soft Error Count 0
204: (SSD Soft ECC Correction Rate (RAISE) Normalized Value 120 Sectors Read 13328791 Soft ECC Correction Count 0
230: (SSD Life Curve Status) Normalized Value 100
231: (SSD Life Left) Life Remaining 100%
233: (SSD Internal Reserved) 2004
234: (SSD Internal Reserved) 1106
241: (SSD Lifetime writes from host) lifetime writes 1106
242: (SSD Lifetime reads from host) lifetime reads 1720


does anything looks wrong?

I contacted your support by mail earlier today, I hope we'll find a solution.
I'm not hundred% sure that the SSD is the problem, but if it is not, what could it be ?

 

[kingstonhq]

Everything is good and within range except this "174: (SSD Unexpected power loss count) Unexpected power loss Count 90" . Assuming you have your computer is connected to a surge protector and your area doesn't have frequent brownouts, the PSU could be causing a problem. Like variable amounts of power going to the drive which could cause it to lock up. If the power cable is chained with other devices like the HDD or ODD try using a dedicated power line to the SSD and see if that makes any difference.