[SOLVED] SSD freezes but HDD works fine ?

[ismmostaar1]

Dell Latitude E6230 Laptop
- Core i5 3rd gen
- 8GB Ram DDR3
- Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64bit
- Hard drive option 1: SSD Kingston KC600 (512GB)
- Hard drive option 1: HDD HGST Z7K (320GB)

So I tried replacing the hard drive of this laptop that i use for study to make it load apps and videos faster, after couple weeks of normal use the laptop would occasionally freeze and the fan would run faster almost all the time, just doing basic work and shifting between folders it would freeze for few seconds it's very annoying, and the apps and videos takes longer to load as if i'm using an HDD, sometimes

Photoshop would load in 10 seconds and sometimes it'll either take a whole minute to load or freezes and not load, CrystalDiskMark test shows that the speed is still as good as the first day, and the startup time is still fast, even CrystalDiskInfo health status is fine, i also re-applied thermal paste to make sure it's not a heat problem but nothing changed

Then I replaced back the new SSD with the old HDD and this freezing problem not happening any more, though the CrystalDiskMark test result shows that the old HDD is much slower than the new SSD, but in reality it's not, any thoughts or advice on this? please if there's a recommended Article or YouTube video that a i should follow please link it, thanks.

 

[Ralston18]

How full is each of the drives?

Open Disk Management and expand the screen so all can be seen.

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

 

[ismmostaar1]

How full is each of the drives?

They are both spitted into two partitions, disk C is 100GB in HDD and is 120GB in SSD, there's nothing stored on disc C except for the operating System so at least 50GB of free space in disk C, while disk D has around 50GB of free in HDD, was this info enough?

 

[Ralston18]

As I understand the post thus far:

The SSD is a Kingston product, capacity 512 GB with 120 GB being used by C:

The HDD is a HGST product, capacity 320 GB with 100 GB being used by C:

In both cases, my thought is that not enough space is being allocated for C: where the OS resides.

Moving thread from Laptop Tech Support to Storage.

Please post the Disk Management screenshot(s) so the existing partitions and sizes can be seen.

 

[ismmostaar1]

Moving thread from Laptop Tech Support to Storage.

Please post the Disk Management screenshot(s) so the existing partitions and sizes can be seen.

HDD​

SSD​

NOTE: Not that i know better than you, but i don't think it is a problem of disk space, i have used this SSD with my desktop PC for a month before replacing it with an NVME and never had a problem with it, the NVME in my desktop PC currently have only 50GB of free space and everything runs well, i bet it has something to do with the Bios or maybe it needs some advanced settings tweaking so it it'd work with this old laptop, the HDD works fine in this laptop but the SSD would freeze for few seconds every few minutes, and the apps do not load fast, even though the OS starts fast and the speed tests given are good, it's like if the laptop is not designed for SSDs!

 

[Ralston18]

Good work.

= = = =

For the most part the disks and partitions appear to be okay. There may be other posts about the disk configurations being presented.

My general rule of thumb is a minimum of a 256 GB drive for the OS.

Both drives are partitioned to be less than that: HDD = 106 GB and the SSD = 150 GB.

= = = =

The next thing that caught my attention is: "SSD would freeze for few seconds every few minutes,"

Very helpful.

You can use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to observe system performance. Use all three tools but only one tool at a time,

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

Leave the tool window open and viewable. Browse, game, work as normal while watching the tool window.

The objective is to discover what happens or changes when the SSD freezes.

What resources are being used, what is using any given resource, and to what extent?

Something that is different when the SSD is being used versus the HDD.

Those freezes are likely to stand out - especially in the graphical representations.

The reason could be the OS, some app, some utility. Perhaps trying to backup, phone-home, or update.

Also: There are two other tools that can be used. If the freezes are being caused by some error then you may be able to learn more by looking in Resource Monitor/History and Event Viewer. Either one or both tools may be capturing some error code, warning, or even an information event just before or at the time of the freezes.

My suggestion is to start with the SSD. Premise being that something will stand out with respect to when the freezes occur.

Take your time, be methodical and simply watch. No need to rush or start making changes. Simply post what is observed.

 

[ismmostaar1]

Good work.....

I thank you for your time and effort to help, i just can't accept the theory about the low disk space being the problem cause, they make 128GB SSDs and people use them with no problem, the free space in my SSD is bigger than in the HDD, plus 100GB of free disk C space is not small at all,
Anyways, i did more research and find something about enabling AHCI mode being better for SSDs, it was not enable in my bios, i followed some videos on how to enable it in safe mode, after doing that the freezing is not happening at the moment, but it still doesn't feel different from using an HDD especially in terms of apps loading time, i will do a fresh windows install now that the mentioned mode is enables hopefully it'll feel better,
after all, maybe the thread should not be moved from Laptops to Storage 😆 just kidding

 

[Ralston18]

If drive space can be eliminated as a potential culprit - all the better.

Before doing a fresh install:

Just remember to use the tools do discover what may be happening if/when SSD performance is not as expected.

Especially when loading apps.

Something else may be going on. Get some before and after performance references.

 

[ismmostaar1]

UPDATE: Solved
to anyone who might be going through this in the future, the way how i fixed this problem is by doing a BIOS update, just go to Dell website (or your laptop manufacturer website) and search for your laptop version, download its Bios update then install it then reboot PC and that's it, turned out that the BIOS version i had is A10 while the latest one is A20 which means i missed 10 updates,

Now here's how to check your current BIOS version, Open CMD and type this:
wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion
then hit Enter.

So yeah i had such hard times trying to get my new high-end SSD to properly work with my kind of old laptop, I have looked everywhere and watched lots of videos and asked here, but couldn't find anyone recommending a Bios update until i read a reddit post where someone couldn't move files correctly to his new SSD until he did a BIOS update, hopefully forum experts that are reading this would start telling people that are facing similar issues in the future to update their Bios, it's been few weeks now and My laptop never felt better, Thanks.