SSD voltage check

[strungout34]

My M.2 is overheating and I have a HDD i am going to use until I can buy a new SSD, but I am thinking that generally speaking, more voltage equals more heat...I am thinking this is my problem, and I am wondering if there are any programs that exist that can check the voltage of m.2 and/or tell me what the heck is wrong with it. There is next to nothing on the manufacturer web site. It is a few weeks past warranty, so I cannot go that route. Any help is appreciated, thank you

 

[fzabkar]

SSDs have their own onboard switchmode power supplies. These are generally unaffected by input voltage variations.

 

[strungout34]

So am I correct in understanding that if a few temperature monitoring programs tell me that my SSD is overheating and it freezes windows when it reaches 56 degrees, that my only real course it to assume it is bad and use another drive? It would seem there would be a way for me to make sure that the drive is bad, but then again I am not sure - hence my asking you.

 

[fzabkar]

I can't provide a definitive answer, and I don't know much about the M.2 form factor, but here is how I understand a typical 5V SATA SSD is constructed.

The PCB consists of a flash controller IC, an array of NAND flash memories, a serial EEPROM, several switchmode DC-DC converters and a power supply supervisor IC.

The onboard switchmode DC-DC converters reduce the +5V supply voltage to approximately +1V (Vcore), +3.3V, and one or more other voltages (Vio). The Vcore and Vio voltages power the flash controller, while the 3.3V supply powers the NAND array and the EEPROM. These DC-DC converters are efficient and dissipate very little power, so they shouldn't get hot. Also, these converters produce constant, well regulated outputs over a wide range of input voltages, so they would be relatively insensitive to your PC's supply variations, if any.

I don't know where the temperature sensor would be located, but it would be either a thermistor or a diode. A thermistor would be a discrete bead shaped component somewhere on the PCB whereas the diode would be embedded within one of the chips, most probably the flash controller. One way to locate it would be to use spray freezer on each of the ICs while observing the temperature readout.

If the sensor is located within the flash controller, then it would not be affected by any variation in the +5V supply since the IC only sees Vcore and Vio.

The M.2 device probably gets its power from the 3.3V rail of the computer's motherboard. I don't know whether it uses this voltage for the flash controller's Vio, but I suspect that it doesn't. I also suspect that the NAND chips might be 1.8V devices rather than 3.3V, in which case they would be shielded from any variations in the PC's 3.3V supply.

If you are concerned about the voltages, then there may be a hardware monitor in your BIOS. Otherwise there are hardware monitoring software tools that can report things such as voltages and fan RPM.

In short, I can't see how a variation in the supply to the SSD could cause significant heating problems since the major heat producing chips (flash controller and NAND array) aren't powered directly from the PC's power rails.

 

[mad-max79]

If you use m.2 in a desktop a fan could help to lower temperature.