Question Possibly failing SSD??

[ragemode_on]

Hello yall, I've been having this issue on my SSD for a while now but I have recently been getting fed up with trying to fix or atleast mitigating the issue.
The drive in question is a Verbatim Vi550 512gb ( I believe it is DRAM-less but cannot confirm due to lack of manufacturer specifications )

So the issue is as follows; I start downloading a game or anything above a few hundred megabytes in size, my SSD for no apparent reason stalls my whole PC and makes it unbearably slow.
Task manager and resource monitor shows my SSD hitting 100% active time while displaying reading/writing at extremely low speeds usually below 10mb/s, I have noticed the disk queue length average being at a minimum of 2.5 but goes up to 20, the response times vary from 200ms up to 4000ms in task manager.
I do have a secondary drive in my PC right now that does not have these problems, though the response times do go up I haven't noticed major stalling in games that run from the secondary HDD.

I have tried everything I could find on the internet, nothing seems to really work, atleast not long time so here's a list of 'fixes' I tried:
Disabling then after enabling TRIM
Disabling then after enabling writing cache in the device properties
Switching up the SATA cable with multiple different and new cables and switching the ports which it is connected in ( I have tried the same port which the HDD is currently connected in and I have tested the HDD for this issue in all other SATA ports to make sure they are all working )
CHKDSK commands, DISM commands and similar.
I have made sure that my PC is working correctly and no component is overheating/bottlenecking, and aswell ran several memory tests.

Now, the part that baffles me the most is that I have tested another Verbatim Vi550 SSD (128gb variant) and it worked as expected in the exact same configuration as the current drive is.
I have recently fully reinstalled Windows 11 and by miracle the drive worked perfectly even after I installed my essential programs ( Discord, Steam, WinRAR, and such ) now after 3 days the issue has returned and has left me empty of ideas on what to do.
I feel like I should mention, I noticed the problem return after I attempted to extract a large game using WinRAR, but whilst transfering said game to the secondary drive, I have not noticed any issues except a slight slow down while opening apps for the first time which I think isn't a big deal

My full PC specs are as follows;
CPU : Intel i5-6500 non K
GPU : R9 390x
RAM : 16gb (4x4) running at 2133mhz due to CPU limit
PSU : LC Power LC650 v2.3 (650W)
SSD : Verbatim Vi550 512gb
HDD : Toshiba DT01ACA100

I will edit this thread with some screenshots of software I used to attempt to diagnose the issue

https://imgur.com/a/rGaXFDM

https://imgur.com/a/ZZZCuT2

View: https://imgur.com/a/ZZZCuT2

 

[helpstar]

run AS SSD benchmark and post a screenshot from the result

try:
check windows integrity
open the command prompt as administrator and type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-open-an-elevated-command-prompt-2618088
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...em-files/bc609315-da1f-4775-812c-695b60477a93

 

[ragemode_on]

run AS SSD benchmark and post a screenshot from the result

try:
check windows integrity
open the command prompt as administrator and type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-open-an-elevated-command-prompt-2618088
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...em-files/bc609315-da1f-4775-812c-695b60477a93

I ran multiple "benchmarks" already using Victoria, you can see a speed graph and a response time grid in the first imgur embed (3rd and 4th slide).
As for the DISM; tried multiple commands multiple times on both the install I'm using now and the one before with no visible difference.

As mentioned in the title, this SSD could be failing and that is my current assumption, but I made this thread hoping someone could confirm or deny that just so I wouldn't waste money on a new one since this one is about a year old (Yes, I do have warranty on it but unfortunately lost the receipt a while back).

 

[helpstar]

please run AS SSD benchmark as well and post a screenshot from the result

 

[ragemode_on]

please run AS SSD benchmark as well and post a screenshot from the result

My apologies for an incomplete result but I have left this test on for about 20 minutes now and it has not been able to finish, I will leave it on for longer but just wanted to update on the situation

https://imgur.com/a/1eOV4xn

View: https://imgur.com/a/1eOV4xn

 

[ragemode_on]

I ran the benchmark a few more times, very inconsistent results, sometimes the SSD works completely normal but other times it slows down my entire PC to the point I am unable to abort the test

https://imgur.com/a/hn3hMSZ

View: https://imgur.com/a/hn3hMSZ

 

[MWink64]

I see a couple likely issues and potentially both are at play here.

You stated that writes sometimes drop below 10MB/s when installing games or extracting large archives. It's possible the large amount of writes is exceeding the available capacity of the pSLC cache. Unless things have changed, my observation has been that Steam writes the full size of a game's files, even before the download begins. I've seen several cheap SATA drives (usually based on the SMI 2258XT/2259XT controller) spend periods (sequentially) writing at only about 6MB/s, once the pSLC cache was filled.

The slowness opening programs (while not doing heavy writing) and those craters in your Victoria graph are the result of something else. Based on your descriptions and what I see in the screenshots, I strongly suspect this drive is based on the SMI 2258XT/2259XT. I've seen several such drives plagued by this issue, sometimes even more severely so. I have my theories as to the possible causes but the only solution I've found is to rewrite the affected data. Even so, this tends to be a temporary solution. Your experience seems to mirror mine, as you said it worked for a while, after reinstalling Windows.

I don't think the drive is outright failing. I see nothing particularly concerning in the SMART data. Thus far, none of the drives I've seen experience this behavior have failed, even after years of use. The problem is, the issue can be so severe it renders them borderline useless. So, I don't think it's necessarily failing but from a practical perspective, you might want to replace it anyway.

You mentioned having a similar drive that does not exhibit issues. There are a couple possibilities. One is that not all of these drives behave this way. I haven't been able to figure out what the key difference is between the drives that are and aren't affected. The other possibility is that they're not the same drive. Many of these companies sell completely different drives under the same model number, sometimes varying from batch to batch. Internally, it could be a drive with totally different components, manufactured by a different company. Aside from opening the drive up or using Flash ID programs, you can sometimes tell just from the info reported by CrystalDiskInfo. The SMART attributes reported, firmware style, serial number style, potentially even the temperature can offer clues. For example, I suspect your drive never reports a temperature other than 40C. A drive based on the Phison S11 will likely have far fewer SMART attributes and always report the temperature as 33C/99C.

 

[ragemode_on]

I could be wrong but I doubt the pSLC cache is an issue, as for what controller the drive is based on I am not sure, the manufacturer specifications lack information on which controller and which technology this SSD uses.

I suspect a large portion of the SMART data is incorrect, as you mentioned, the temperature has never changed no matter what, the health has been static at 98% for over half a year now.

The other Verbatim drive I own is the same model. only difference being it's a 128gb model running a vanilla version of Windows 10, I doubt this changes much but I'm using a copy of Tiny11 currently but planning to reinstall and use vanilla Windows 11 and manually optimize it myself unless the issue persists.

 

[MWink64]

From your one screenshot, it appears Steam is trying to write 15GB of data and has done 12GB. I've seen at least one drive with a pSLC cache smaller than that and it was a 1TB drive. That said, I'm not saying I think that's the issue, just that it is a possibility.

Why do you suspect a large portion of the SMART data is incorrect? There's only a couple notable things I see and I'm not sure either are all that significant. One is the high Power-Off Retract Count. That usually indicates the drive isn't receiving the proper power down command, before being powered off. Unless your machine is frequently being shutdown improperly, it's probably something (you likely can't control) that's been poorly implemented on your system. While I don't like seeing this number so high, it's probably not going to result in serious issues on modern SSDs.

The other interesting attribute is the Maximum Erase Count being so much higher than the Average (and Minimum) Erase Counts. This may not be a big deal either.

The reported temperature is no concern. Many cheap drives either don't report a temperature or report a static one. Even some that do report obviously erroneous readings (sometimes below ambient).

The 98% life remaining doesn't seem at all unreasonable. I'd be more concerned if it was dropping rapidly.

The most important thing is that none of the attributes that would indicate a failing drive appear to have moved. Yes, the SMART data could be incorrect. I've seen a number of drives report obviously faulty values but that doesn't seem to be the case here.