SSD Problems?

[cjb4]

I have a Lenovo x201 running windows 7 64-bit SP1 with 8GB DDR3 Ram with a 256 GB Crucial C300 SSD installed. I did a clean install back in December and upgraded the firmware on the SSD to Crucial's version 06. I also performed many of lightninggltd's tweaks (disabled superfetch, boottrace, prefetcher, etc) after I installed. (thanks lightningltd!). Everything was running fine until recently. I have begun to get random shutdowns and freezes while idle. Each time it happens I have to use the power switch to re boot and each time I need to restart 2 or three times before it will recognize the HD and boot.
Performance is still great with the SSD. December and April shots below:

HD Tune: C300-CTFDDAA256MAG Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 234.1 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 257.3 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 236.6 MB/sec
Access Time : 0.2 ms
Burst Rate : 98.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage : -1.0%

Any ideas on what might be going on? Is there a good utility to test the health of my SSD?

 

[diehrd]

Change the Cable see if that helps

 

[Commodore Pet]

Try testing your memory.

Windows 7 Forums > Windows 7 help and support > Tutorials » Memory Diagnostics Tool

 

[whs]

I don't think that this is a specific SSD problem. There could be a cable problem as suggested, but most likely you are victim of all your tweaking - some of which is obviously counterproductive. I run 5 SSDs in 5 systems (some since 2 years) and never had any problem. The only "tweak" I did was to shut off defrag and delete the hiberfile. I would suggest you reinstall your system (save your data first as far as it is on the SSD) and refrain from any tweaking.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Why would you ever disable superfetch? That's counter-productive, and stripping away one of Windows 7's greatest advantages. As WHS said, shut off automatic defrag is about the only real important tweak, and to make sure the alignment is correct and TRIM is enabled.

 

[sygnus21]

I don't think that this is a specific SSD problem. There could be a cable problem as suggested, but most likely you are victim of all your tweaking - some of which is obviously counterproductive. I run 5 SSDs in 5 systems (some since 2 years) and never had any problem. The only "tweak" I did was to shut off defrag and delete the hiberfile. I would suggest you reinstall your system (save your data first as far as it is on the SSD) and refrain from any tweaking.

Why would you ever disable superfetch? That's counter-productive, and stripping away one of Windows 7's greatest advantages. As WHS said, shut off automatic defrag is about the only real important tweak, and to make sure the alignment is correct and TRIM is enabled.

+1

Agree that you may be a victim of all those tweaks.

BTW I thought Windows "automatically" disabled Defrag on SSD drives. I know I saw that on OCZ's site, and it was true in my case (Defrag turned off automatically). At any rate if it doesn't, yeah turn it off.

 

[cjb4]

Thanks for the suggestions.
On replacing the cable, not possible on the laptop
Tested the memory using several different utilities-no errors
You may be right on the tweaking but not sure which it might be. As I understand the rationale for disabling superfetch you want to minimize unnecessary writes to the SSD. Pre-loading is not needed on a fast read SSD, same with boottrace, prefetcher, etc.
I had to actively turn off defrag since mine was an aftermarket install.
I can try reversing all of them and see it the problem persists. It is a very intermittent problem. For example there has been no freeze since I first posted this and the x201 has been mostly inactive.

 

[whs]

BTW I thought Windows "automatically" disabled Defrag on SSD drives

Yes it does, but I always check it.

As I understand the rationale for disabling superfetch you want to minimize unnecessary writes to the SSD.

That is true if you want the SSD to last 100 years. But I bet, in 4 years you have a new one. And a few more writes will not hurt it in that timeframe.

And turning the tweaks off now, may not get you back to the original state. But that has to be looked at one by one.

 

[Wishmaster]

Superfetch/Pre-Fetch actualy writes very little to the drive. The large majority are reads. It really is insignificant and will not hurt the drive, nor will it cause accelerated wear.

I agree with the others. Too much tweaking is bad.
I too just disable the built in defrag & Hiberfile and leave it alone. (Other than turn Superfetch back On)
Honestly .. everything runs smoother and faster this way. Or at least my system seems to.

I wish I could find the article about this .. Intel themselves said you could write 100GB to one of thier SSDs and it would still last 5yrs.
Granted we are not talking about a Intel Drive here, but I would excpect similar results from most modern SSDs.

 

[whs]

This drive (a 1st Gen Intel) has been up and runing for 3320 hours and 2049GBs have been written to it. And the health is still excellent.

 

[sygnus21]

@whs - Where'd you get that program? Me wants one - Link?

 

[DeaconFrost]

Compare freeware and professional versions of SSDlife

 

[whs]

@whs - Where'd you get that program? Me wants one - Link?

Yeah, Deacon is right. It is SSDlife. I use the free version.

 

[sygnus21]

Got it. Thanks

 

[Shootist]

Funny but after installing my Intel 320 120GB SSD and installing the Intel SSD Tools, and running it, it disabled Superprefetch and whatever.

I was under the assumption you had to disable those 2 things to have Trim enabled.

 

[essenbe]

Trim will work fine with superfetch enabled. If you want to, turn it on. Then open an elevated cmd prompt and enter fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify. If it returns =1 trim is not enabled, if it returns=0 trim is enabled. That way you can check for yourself.

 

[cjb4]

OK, OK, I'm convinced, just following what seemed like good advice at the time.
But back to the intermittent shutdown problem. When I check system health in windows event log there is no evidence of the shutdown or freeze. Is there a good utility for check SSDs. Any other thoughts?

 

[essenbe]

Take a look at Crystal Disk Info. It can give some info.

 

[Shootist]

Trim will work fine with superfetch enabled. If you want to, turn it on. Then open an elevated cmd prompt and enter fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify. If it returns =1 trim is not enabled, if it returns=0 trim is enabled. That way you can check for yourself.

Done that already and got 0. Now how do I re-enable Superprefetch?
Google is my friend.

 

[essenbe]

I believe you can typr regedit in the search box, open regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchPerameters right click EnableSuperfetch, in the right pane right click on it and select modify. If superfetch is disabled there should be a 0 in values. Change it to 3. Then go to to Control Panel select Administrative Tools\Services double click SuperFetch select startup then select enable.

I believe this is the way to do it, however you may want to get some verification on it. there are several threads on in this forum.