[SOLVED] SSD SATA getting lots CRC Error Counts! Replacement Easy?

[eyeala]

Hey guy's I'm new hear, but I have been using this forum for good hardware advice for years. So here is one for ya:

I'm a Mac guy mainly for the production software choices and ease of use. Right now I have a brand new MacBook Pro that I primarily use, but before that it was just my Mac Mini 202012 (Quad Core i7). I bought it new in 2012 because you couldn't beat the price of $5-600 and I already had a monitor. So I got the Quad-Core, maxed RAM at 16GB, and I removed the internal HDD & optional optical drive. I believe I bought a dual-kit online, I ordered two Samssung 850 EVO's (500GB & 1TB) and followed the instructions on YouTube. Looking back I must've done a good job because I have not had 1 single problem with this computer for almost 9 years! Before I get lost in telling a story, I just added a copy of the DriveDx disk health monitoring app for Mac, I don't know if anyone uses it? Well within an hour of installing it, its giving me a friendly warning that my 1TB EVO is getting an error all over the place. Like... 32,000 times total - I assume thats.

#199 UDMC CMC ERROR COUNT! - I was going to post link for Dropbox screenshots here but I wasn't sure if we can get in trouble for that!

Based on the app, and google I am being told that the issues is with my SATA (3.1) interface's cable, the port (internal I guess?), our possible the whole interface or my SSD data. However, I ran a diagnostic on drive using the same app and 2 others and they all check out well. Its a 9 years old SSD but its been well cared core, exrcised (but not excessively) and all of its health score are in the 90s still, while younger external SSDs have started to die on me. I'm also not inclined to believe its the entire SATA interface since that would most likely cause some issues with the other SSD, and that one is doing well according to the tests.

So it's either busted SATA cable or a port if someone can explain that to me. Any advice on parts to order? I assume I should have no issues if I was able to install them. Also, out of curiosity I was wondering if there are any cool/affordable upgrades I can look into before ordering parts? This is the last official Mac (besides new Mac Pro) that could be customized DIY so Im very attached to it.

**DOES ANYONE know of a compatible I/O of ports that can be switched out with this one? It only has 1 Thunderbolt so I could never use a monitor with certain devices and had to use HDMI (but it is HDMI 1.4 so does output 21:9 widescreen without external software. So maybe there is a more modern I/O that could be switched with this ones if it works with SATA v3.1 (i think) def 6Gbps though.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Considering how you have Samsung SSD's in your Mac, why don't you use Samsung's Magician app to tell you if the drive's health is compromised or perhaps the interface? Sometimes an app might flag the issue to one or another due to the part not being what it should be from the factory(you have this with some cars that are modified and then you need to flash the ECU).

As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it - comes to mind since the errors wouldn't have come up if you didn't install the third party app. You should also backup your data, if anything in case things do go sideways.

 

[eyeala]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Considering how you have Samsung SSD's in your Mac, why don't you use Samsung's Magician app to tell you if the drive's health is compromised or perhaps the interface? Sometimes an app might flag the issue to one or another due to the part not being what it should be from the factory(you have this with some cars that are modified and then you need to flash the ECU).

As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it - comes to mind since the errors wouldn't have come up if you didn't install the third party app. You should also backup your data, if anything in case things do go sideways.

Hey sorry for the delayed response. I thought I replied earlier this week, but guess it didn't go through. Unfortunately, the Samsung Evo software does NOT run on MacOS. I have confirmed that my SSD is creating the same error in two different Drive Health Monitoring apps, so I'm inclinded to believe them when they say my SATA interface cable needs to be replaced ASAP.

Does anyone know if I need a very specific cable in order for it to fit inside my 2012 Mac Mini? Not sure if this detail matters, but the replacement cable is for the secondary SSD which is inside a mount kit where the Mini's optical drive used to go on earlier models.

 

[fzabkar]

UDMA CRC Error Counts are benign -- they are automatically detected and corrected. The problem could be an incompatibility between the device and the host's SATA controller rather than the cable.

 

[Rookie_MIB]

The CRC UDMA errors are normally caused by data corruption as it is taken from the drive and transferred over the cables to the motherboard and the CPU. In there the CRC is checked and if there was an error, the CRC comes up different and the data is re-requested and the drive registers it. That doesn't mean the drive is bad, it can be a cable, connector, or SATA controller issue. The simplest fix is a cable replacement, and you can usually find all types and lengths on amazon. Replace it and see if it fixes the issue.

All in all though, it's not a big deal as mentioned earlier. Until you looked, you probably hadn't even noticed any issues with drive speed. I have SSD's in my servers downstairs that have 78,000 power on hours, Crucial M4 64gb for the boot drive which has been out of production for a long time now but are still super-reliable. Just looked at the SMART data, and they have some CRC and ECC errors but the important one is no failed page writes or erasure failures, and no use of the spare NAND blocks and the wear-leveling is still in excellent health.

 

[Diceman_2037]

Sometimes its caused by a sata controller timeout, due to a driver issue with specific sata devices, (for example, server grade drives that have encoded raw smart data)

i've recently noted port-resets on port 3 (ranged 0-5) on a hdd, that were provoking CRC errors on the OS disk on port 0 specifically when opening the Crucial Storage Executive application that would occur with one version of the RSTe ahci drivers, - this corresponded to a period where input clicks registered no response until the Storage Executive UI either appeared or gave up trying to load.