PC Problems, suspect SSD failure. Please help!

[LobotikaNZ]

Lets just get straight to it.... So my PC today started stuttering and having major lag and freezing in games. Things would run fine for a while then boom stuttering freezing to the point where I had to reboot because even tabbing out I just couldn't do anything because the stutters were so bad. Weirdly when I was just running windows and chrome and just a few light applications the system ran silky smooth like usual. It was only in games that the stuttering occurred. Because I had music playing on spotify whilst gaming I also noticed when the stuttering occurred my music was stuttering also. So its not just the games and the same problem occurs on a variety of games, gtaV, Lol, and D3. I have 2xSSD's running in RAID 0 as my system drive. Check my specs for the specific drives. My drivers are up to date and nothing has changed since yesterday and only now is it doing this. I'm really unsure what is wrong however I suspect its an SSD dying have had similar problems with another SSD in the past. The drives are only 18 months old. Please help, my next move is to re install windows on my HDD and see if that fixes it which I would rather not do.

 

Many Thanks

 

 

LobotikaNZ

 

• CPU
  Intel i7 4770K
• Motherboard
  Asus ROG Maximus VI Hero Z87
• RAM
  2x8GB Kingston Hyper X Beast 1600MHz
• GPU
  Gigabyte GTX760 OC 2GB
• Case
  Corsair 450D
• Storage
  2x Samsung 840 EVO 120GB, 1x WD 3TB Red
• PSU
  Corsair AX 760i
• Display(s)
  AOC 27'
• Cooling
  Corsair H100i
• Keyboard
  Corsair K70
• Mouse
  Corsair M40
• Operating System
  Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

[MooCow]

It's hard to tell. Freezing mostly during gaming doesn't really suggest drive failure. When SSDs die the go really quick (1 to 2 day in my experience.) You might want to try updating your graphics driver and check your CPU and GPU temps while in game. You can also use the Samsung magician application to check the health of your SSDs.

[LobotikaNZ]

Yeah my graphics drivers are up to date. I have 350.12 which is the latest release they did for GTA V so no problems there. Just checking out the magician now, get back to you. Thanks

[LobotikaNZ]

Because my SSD's are in RAID I don't think the magician utility is recognising it as an SSD. I can only run a performance benchmark all other options are grayed out. Also my temps and loads are all fine.

[MooCow]

Maybe try a previous graphics driver. It may very well be your SSD's. They're unpredictable when they begin to fail. A while back my power went out and when I booted back up a few files were missing from my pc. The next time I rebooted about half disappeared after the fourth or fifth reboot everything was gone including parts of windows. On the sixth boot the drive wasn't even recognized by the motherboard.

[LobotikaNZ]

Well the drivers have been fine for the past few weeks, its only today that this has started happening which leads me to believe its not the drivers. It would just be good to know its definitely

the SSD's before I replace them in someway 

[smjpl]

Do some cpu & gpu benchmarking tests (Aida64 & Furmark). See if the stuttering occurs. These will put most components under serious load, except for the ssds (I think). Games and music will heavily rely on pulling info from the drives while the benchmarks are just computation. If they run fine without stuttering then it looks like it could be the drives.

 

Do a drive check as well with something like Crystal Disk

[LobotikaNZ]

So I ran the tomb raider benchmark because I have that and it ran fine. In saying that the games I tried (gtaV and diablo 3) are on my HDD but League of Legends is on my SSD Raid. Thoughts?

[smjpl]

So I ran the tomb raider benchmark because I have that and it ran fine. In saying that the games I tried (gtaV and diablo 3) are on my HDD but League of Legends is on my SSD Raid. Thoughts?

 

Test multiple different scenarios. Download Aida, Furmark and CrystalDisk (they're free). Try loads of different games/tests.

 

Write down the test case and the result for each. Something like:

 

Test Case 1 - Benchamark Type: Tomb Raider - Drive being used: Hdd - Test time: 5 min - Result: No stuttering

Test Case 2 - Benchamark Type: LoL (in game) - Drive being used: SSD - Test time: 5 min - Result: some stuttering

 

Track the results. So far all we know is, some of the time shit happens and some of the time shit doesn't happen. You need to test different scenarios and see how the system behaves.

[LobotikaNZ]

Ok, I don't really have time to do all that tonight but I will tomorrow. Just quickly I played a game of Lol for 5 minutes. First everything is running fine then just a single stutter really nothing major for a split second, then they get more and more frequent a few black screens momentarily and eventually it gets so bad and the whole system even tabbing to windows is slow and mouse movements are impossible. This is in the space of 5 minutes. Similar story with GTA V except happens quicker and Diablo 3 isn't so bad actually but after a while gets to the same point.

 

Also if I close league before the stutters get to bad everything is fine and thats how I am writing this right now. Its just the games that seem to do it, but to be fair games are the only intensive thing I do to this pc.

[MooCow]

The only other things I can think of is the OS, the motherboard/SATA controller or your graphics card is pooping out. I'd give the methods that my bovinae brother suggested a try. Back up your SSDs first if possible.

[G33k 4 L1F3]

Ok, I don't really have time to do all that tonight but I will tomorrow. Just quickly I played a game of Lol for 5 minutes. First everything is running fine then just a single stutter really nothing major for a split second, then they get more and more frequent a few black screens momentarily and eventually it gets so bad and the whole system even tabbing to windows is slow and mouse movements are impossible. This is in the space of 5 minutes. Similar story with GTA V except happens quicker and Diablo 3 isn't so bad actually but after a while gets to the same point.

Also if I close league before the stutters get to bad everything is fine and thats how I am writing this right now. Its just the games that seem to do it, but to be fair games are the only intensive thing I do to this pc.

Have you enabled this?

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-8-after-installation/

And have you enabled TRIMM?

[LobotikaNZ]

AHCI is enabled? The thing is nothing has changed in the way the SSD's are configured. Also I have done further testing today and if I let it lag for ages then the game crashes and it says the nvidia driver crashed and recovered? Any ideas? The driver has been fine for the few weeks I have been using it but could this be the issue and not the SSD's or could the driver be crashing because of the SSD's?

 

I am testing the previous driver now btw.

[LobotikaNZ]

Ok so the old driver does the same thing. Can anyone confirm that its defiantly the SSD's dying or still unsure?? My thoughs were to reinstall windows on my HDD eliminating the SSD's which would confirm the issue.

[TrigrH]

Ok so the old driver does the same thing. Can anyone confirm that its defiantly the SSD's dying or still unsure?? My thoughs were to reinstall windows on my HDD eliminating the SSD's which would confirm the issue.

have u updated the firmware on the SSDs? the 840 evo has slow down issues out of the box im told.

[LobotikaNZ]

No I haven't updated firmware. Also I just went into my local tech store and they reckon its the graphics card either overheating or a fault with the graphics memory, which would explain why it only effects games and gets worse. He doubts its the SSD's because if it was the system would be crashing and BSOD and just not booting at all.

[alphaproject]

Yea...sounds like a GPU issue. If SSD it wouldn't boot probably or something wouldn't launch. GPU could be having issues. Maybe a friend can loan you a GPU to test out?

[Eniqmatic]

You should have updated the firmware to the latest in Magician, only you might find it difficult now with RAID. The 840 Evo did have an issue with previous firmware which Samsung resolved. Also, reinstalling to the HDD wouldn't really confirm anything, lots of things could be resolved by a simple re-install, too many factors.

[G33k 4 L1F3]

Ok so the old driver does the same thing. Can anyone confirm that its defiantly the SSD's dying or still unsure?? My thoughs were to reinstall windows on my HDD eliminating the SSD's which would confirm the issue.

If a solid state drive dies, it doesnt wait for a parting gift, it just dies. It seems like more then just the SSD.

Do you have anything in task manager that may be spiking while playing games, or doing anything that caused the stuttering to start?