Question SSD or MB damaged? PC crashes, freezes and slowdown.

[Anton Ellot]

Hello,
The issue began a few days after I replaced my failing Hdd with an Ssd.
Since the Hdd had a few crashes and the installation of Windows was damaged, I did a clean install and copied important files selectively, so that no damaged files were on the new drive.
I still had it connected at that point.
After a few days I had extreme problems with slowdown, so that within seconds the PC went from normal performance to complete halt, with the mouse and sound sometimes working, sometimes not, but the system would never respond.
I had to force power off my system a few times, since it was completely unresponsive.
I then removed my HDD, since I figured that some process ran automatically and somehow killed my performance.
That seemed to be good for a few days, until it came back, I don't know if this is related or not.
After a few hours of uptime the PC would just slow down, very noticeably, but with patience it could still shutdown.
I noticed that shortly before the slowdown occurred, the SSD's queue length spiked up to several thousand, I also noticed that the active time was 100%, at all times. Even when barely anything is using the SSD.
I also noticed some relation to chrome, as when I had chrome open, it nearly instantly froze my PC. Or it didn't shut down after I initiated shutdown, I waited for several hours before force powering off, with no change to what was displayed on the shutdown screen.

At this time, a new issue came up, after every shutdown, my POST screen wouldn't show my SSD, until I powered my PC without connected power, and the BIOS reset.
Then it would show my SSD, but power down again on the POST screen.
When it did that it started up again, and booted windows.

So I did a fresh install of chrome, and the problem persisted.
As long as I am not using chrome, it seems to work, I thought, as I ran into no problems after a few days without chrome.

Then, whilst typing this on my PC, in opera, the PC just froze up. Mouse was still reacting, and windows told me that Opera and the taskbar were unresponsive, but it didn't close them.
It again doesn't recognize my SSD.

I am at the end of what I could try and think of:
Chkdsk, apparently no errors.
Sfc, no errors.
Memtest tells me that ram is fine.
Samsung magician and smart are good.
BIOS Firmware Update didn't do anything.

System:
OS: Windows server 2016 datacenter.
SSD: Samsung 840Pro
MB: B85M-E45
CPU: I5-4590
RAM: 1600MHz 16GB
GPU: GTX 1050 Ti


Between all these issues were myriads of other issues, like chkdsk boot loops etc.

If anyone could help me I would be very grateful
-Anton

 

[Obakasama]

Not sure, but a couple of thoughts and hopefully others can also chime in with more suggestions.

How are you connecting the SSD? I would like to eliminate the connection path as an issue first, i.e. the cables, the ports. The obvious thing to do, if it is a SATA connection is to use a different port to see if the problem still occurs.

The other thing is what PSU do you have? It is said that if a PSU is going bad it can do odd things to the system's stability. Can you either enter BIOS or use a hardware monitor (like HWiNFO) to see the voltage readings?

 

[Anton Ellot]

Thanks for the reply, after posting I also thought that it might be a damaged connector or something.
The SSD was plugged into slot 1 (SATA3) and the HDD into slot 2 (SATA3), I put the SSD into slot 3 (SATA3), but for some reason plugged the HDD into slot 1.
It is running stable so far, even when Chrome is opened.
However, the active time is still at nearly all times at 100%, only lowering itself, when there is any disk activity. (When in the resource monitor a peak of disk activity is shown, the active time goes down along the peak.) This might only be temporary, as the other 'fixes' I tried were successful for some time, but then it crashed again.
I have HWiNFO installed now, I guess you want the sensor readings?
I again am grateful for your help.

 

[Obakasama]

Voltages should be under motherboard, so something similar to this:

https://imgur.com/a/dul1r1z

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/dul1r1z


While unlikely but worthwhile eliminating are viruses and malware.

 

[Anton Ellot]

Ok, I made a screenshot:

https://imgur.com/a/tWcTnOo

I did a scan with Roguekiller too, and nothing turned up.
A friend of mine told me that it could be a problem with message signed interrupts, after I deactivated it, I had a problem after the first boot but after that it was like before, but the Active Time is still most of the time at 100%, dips down more often right now though. Might just be luck/random.

I also looked into my Event Viewer and saw literal thousands of Error#153.
I tried to run sfc, but it failed. DISM tells me that there is an I/O problem.
I started my PC in safe mode (which I found out, is somewhat of a joke in Win10), and stopped everything, until only the system remained in the resource monitor.
It wrote ~500kb/s, there was no other disk activity.
Additionally, C: was still at 100% active time.
With no activity.
I hope anyone can do anything with this information.

 

[Obakasama]

The 12V rail reading is very low compared to accepted norms of fluctuation. I would suggest changing the power supply as soon as you can. It might not be the cause of the issues, but something which should be replaced for the sake of the system. A current PSU tier list for consideration: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1045610-new-psu-tier-list/

Anything in Task Manager which shows processes taking up disc usage?

 

[Anton Ellot]

Also noticed the low voltage, thanks for the tier list.

I am on Windows Server, and I don't see the disk Usage in Task Manager, it still is visible in resource monitor.
Generally the highest usage is:
System (a few hundred kbps)
SearchIndexer (even though I have turned indexing off completely.)

I noticed that in some of googles bold text font, and also on WolframAlpha, letters were missing, consistently. SFC and DISM don't work anymore, now because of "A device attached to the system is not functioning." Error 31.

I think I will backup my system now, and then reinstall, as there might be some residue damage from the broken HDD.
That will probably not solve it, and I won't do it now, but at least then my system files might be repaired.
I am still open for any advice

 

[Obakasama]

Hm... the only other thing I would consider (whether it helps or not is questionable) is clearing CMOS to see if can somehow reset the BIOS so the storage doesn't play up.

 

[Anton Ellot]

I suspect my CMOS is empty anyway, since it resets every time the PC is unplugged.
Also, after I disabled the Windows Defender real time protection, the active time is now ~0 when idle, and spikes when something is loading or similar... I think my Windows is just borked.

 

[Obakasama]

Certainly a possibility. I had a 100% disc usage issue with my Windows 10 laptop; tried every fix I could find. I decided to cut my losses and fresh install Windows and the disc usage issue doesn't happen now.

A fresh install is certainly worth considering if all other software solutions have been tried.

 

[Anton Ellot]

Interestingly, the windows setup doesn't progress beyond the windows logo when the SSD is attached now.
I tried accessing it on another Pc, same issue there, so I think I can kick that one out.

Additionally I've read my psu's pins, and the 12V rail gives 12V.
Why the MB sensor only gets 8 confuses me.

 

[Obakasama]

Might be worth using other hardware monitors to see if they read the same values. The main ones to look at are the 3.3V, 5V and 12V; with 5% tolerance for the first two, and 10% tolerance with the 12V rail. Values beyond those may indicate a faulty PSU.

 

[Anton Ellot]

I've used a multimeter to check all rails.
It gave correct values all the times (Although slightly higher than needed).
For some reason though, my, so far not faulty, 4TB drive started to act up.
For a time, when connected the PC wouldn't start. Not even the front fans. Sometimes some status LEDs and such turned on for less than a second, then power down.
That issue also went away.

 

[Obakasama]

Very strange behaviours then. If the multimeter readings check out then we can rule out a PSU problem. What that leaves is something more troublesome.

Have you attempted something like a Windows repair? It's probably the last thing I can think of (except for a complete reinstall).

 

[Anton Ellot]

When I attempted to do a clean reinstall, as the repair always did nothing, my Ssd stopped working outright.
I had it since ~2013, never used it until now, maybe that was a bad idea?
I found a 500 GB 860 evo for 83€, I ordered that and it let me install without any hassle.
So I guess it was the SSD after all.
Still thanks for your help.

 

[Obakasama]

As long as things are working again, that's good.