Question The C: Drive is overheating ?

[koberulz]

Got an alert from CrystalDiskInfo earlier today to say my C: drive had hit 62°. On the "Performance" tab of Task Manager, its Active Time was basically stuck at 100%. I had a look at I/O Read/Write on the details tab, Waterfox was highest and had actually been quite sluggish, so I killed it. C:'s Active Time crashed down to around 5-10% for the most part, with intermittent spikes to 100% still occurring.

Came back later, reopened Waterfox, did some browsing, and C: has hit 61°.

The one common factor is VidCoder. Both times, I was running a tonemap encoding of some iPhone HDR 4K video into SDR 4K. In between, I ran a tonemap encode of a UHD-sourced video into SDR 1080p, which the C: drive was just fine with, even with Waterfox still open.

None of the video, though, is or was stored on C:. The UHD-sourced video was stored on my NAS, and the iPhone-sourced video was stored on D:. D: remains at 45°. So...I'm confused. There shouldn't be a huge activity spike on C:, and I have no idea how to figure out what's causing it - and even if there is one assumes the drive should still be capable of remaining cool enough. It's warm in here but not exactly hot, I think it was around 25° outside today and in a month or two it'll be hitting 40° on the regular so if it's not coping now...

 

[Misgar]

If your C: drive is an M.2 NVMe, then 61°C under heavy load is not unusual. These drives tend to throttle around 80° to 90°C.

If on the other hand it's a spinning hard disk, it's getting too hot. I get anxious when my hard disks exceed 51°C.

 

[koberulz]

If your C: drive is an M.2 NVMe, then 61°C under heavy load is not unusual. These drives tend to throttle around 80° to 90°C.

If on the other hand it's a spinning hard disk, it's getting too hot. I get anxious when my hard disks exceed 51°C.

It's an NVMe, yeah. So I should tweak the threshold in CDI?

Either way, though, it's never spiked above 60° before today, and it doesn't make sense that it's "under heavy load" given all my data is kept on other disks. So I'd like to figure out what's using all that I/O bandwidth, especially since it seems to be slowing my machine to a crawl.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

If your C: drive is an M.2 NVMe, then 61°C under heavy load is not unusual.

That really depends on the drive gen. PCie 3.0, way to high. PCie 4.0 still high. PCie 5.0 yeah, 61 is about normal.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

It's an NVMe, yeah. So I should tweak the threshold in CDI?

Either way, though, it's never spiked above 60° before today, and it doesn't make sense that it's "under heavy load" given all my data is kept on other disks. So I'd like to figure out what's using all that I/O bandwidth, especially since it seems to be slowing my machine to a crawl.

Please list your full PC specs, and the drive make and model obviously

 

[koberulz]

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Windows 10 Pro
16.0 GB RAM
WD Blue SATA III M.2 SSD - 2TB (WDS200T2B0B)

 

[koberulz]

I just got another alert, this time for my data HDD, which spiked over 50°. That one was under load at the time, encoding video. But it's rather concerning to have two different drives spiking to high temperatures given the outside temperature is going to climb another 15° over the next couple of months.

 

[CountMike]

I just got another alert, this time for my data HDD, which spiked over 50°. That one was under load at the time, encoding video. But it's rather concerning to have two different drives spiking to high temperatures given the outside temperature is going to climb another 15° over the next couple of months.

There are many heat sinks for M,2 SSDs, easy to assemble. HDDs on the other hand need good airflow to stay cool but also tend to get hotter with age and bearings wear. All together, I think you may have inadequate case cooling.

 

[Lafong]

I'm not sure what sensor on the NVME might be read by Crystal Disk Info.

I'd look at HWInfo64 for temps also. It finds 3 different sensors on my Gen 3 NVME (no heatsink).

Right now, in a 72 degree room, the sensors on my drive read 40, 61, and 35....a 26 degree range. I am under a low load.

The 61 degree sensor is on or near the controller, the hottest spot on the drive. It is always much higher than the others, and occasionally hits 70. It will throttle at 80, but has NEVER throttled in the 2 years I've owned it.

I updated to the most recent version of HWInfo64 a year or so ago. BEFORE that update, it showed only 1 sensor on the drive, usually around 40. Obviously NOT the controller sensor.

I wouldn't be concerned with the temps you are seeing, but if you are...get a heatsink.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Windows 10 Pro
16.0 GB RAM
WD Blue SATA III M.2 SSD - 2TB (WDS200T2B0B)

What motherboard?
What pc case?
How many fans installed?

Can you show a photo of your system with side panel removed?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

It's an NVMe, yeah. So I should tweak the threshold in CDI?

WD Blue SATA III M.2 SSD - 2TB (WDS200T2B0B) - is not NVME.
It is SATA drive - says right there in the description.

 

[Unolocogringo]

My 970 pro+ was always 60c or above. for as long as I have had it.
My 3060TI FE constantly blows hot air on it. So a heatsink would make no difference.
My other folder with a Asus 4070 Dual runs at 48c with the same drive in the top M.2 slot.

 

[koberulz]

What motherboard?

Gigabyte GA-H170-Gaming 3

What pc case?

No clue. It's an Antec that's old enough to no longer be listed on their site, and I don't even know when I bought it...might have been as much as 15 years ago.

How many fans installed?

Three, I think. Front, rear, and top.

WD Blue SATA III M.2 SSD - 2TB (WDS200T2B0B) - is not NVME.
It is SATA drive - says right there in the description.

Huh. I thought all the chip-style drives were NVME - I thought that's what NVME meant. Did I have it confused with M.2?

Can you show a photo of your system with side panel removed?

 

[Lafong]

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-2TB-SSD-WDS200T2B0B/dp/B073SBW3VD

M.2?? Yes.

NVME?? No.

It appears to be a standard M.2 2280 SATA drive. You don't see them too much because newer stuff tends to be M.2 NVME.

Nothing wrong with it. It should still perform quite well.

 

[koberulz]

Well I'm still getting overheating alerts, so that's a concern.

Especially with the overheating on C;, since it shouldn't have been under load at the time.

 

[Lafong]

Could you live with the temperatures if you were not getting the alerts?

Alerts are probably defeatable.

I wouldn't worry at all about 60 degrees, but maybe you can't stop worrying?

Heatsink or direct a case fan to that area?

 

[koberulz]

Could you live with the temperatures if you were not getting the alerts?

I'm assuming CDI knows more about hard drives than I do.

 

[Lafong]

I don't know what CDI means in this context.

It's up to you to decide about the correlation between heat and issues of whatever type. If you think there is a high correlation, then spend some money on whatever might reduce your concern.

Heatsink?

New case for more airflow?

More or different fans?

One fan at relatively close range directly at the drive?

Increasing fan speed might make some difference, but that could be quite small.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Well I'm still getting overheating alerts, so that's a concern.

Which M.2 slot is M.2 drive installed in?

Your motherboard has two M.2 slots. You could try moving M.2 drive to the other M.2 slot.
Or you could install M.2 drive in M.2 sata adapter and put it in drive cage.
Then it wouldn't be crammed near hot GPU and CPU.

 

[koberulz]

I don't know what CDI means in this context.

CrystalDiskInfo.

Which M.2 slot is M.2 drive installed in?

Next to the battery. The other one is, I believe, entirely hidden behind the GPU.

 

[Unolocogringo]

CrystalDiskInfo.


Next to the battery. The other one is, I believe, entirely hidden behind the GPU.

In that case you need some cable management and more air coming in the front bottom of the case. Where the hard drives are located.

 

[koberulz]

There's a fan directly in front of the hard drives.

 

[Ralston18]

How old is that Antec 650 Watt PSU? Original to build, new, refurbished used?

History of heavy gaming use?

Case/fan airflow directions - especially around the Cooler Master ?

Case indeed needs some cleaning and cable management.

 

[koberulz]

How old is that Antec 650 Watt PSU? Original to build, new, refurbished used?

New maybe five years ago? The case is the only thing I've kept from the original build, I think.

History of heavy gaming use?

Temporally heavy, or computationally heavy? Definitely not the former, I'm not much of a gamer, but I've run GTA V, PUBG, that sort of thing for a handful of hours here or there.

Case/fan airflow directions - especially around the Cooler Master ?

IIRC air comes in through the lower front - there's either one or two fans in front of the hard drives - then out through fans at the back and top.

 

[Ralston18]

A five year old PSU is a likely suspect. May be at or nearing its' designed in EOL (End of Life) or otherwise beginning to falter and fail.

Not sure about the overall paths of the airflows.

Take a look at all of the fans: their intake and exhaust speeds and directions.

A sketch would be helpful - there are members here who are quite knowledgeable about such things.