Is my NVME drive failing?

freebooter

freebooter

freebooter

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My windows pc has a Corair nvme m2 gen 3 drive. Sometimes it spontaneously reboots. The first few times it happened I was afk and came back to the windows login screen. More recently though it reboots into bios. It has happened a couple of times recently when I was using it. The screen briefly flashed the bsod and then rebooted into bios. When this happens the drive isn't visible in the bios and hence this is why it doesn't reboot back into windows. Ctl/alt/del reboots back into bios. I have to turn off and then turn back on to get back into windows.

I know instability can be caused by various things but the fact that the drive is no longer seen for a while when this happens makes me suspect the drive.

The corsair utility doesn't give a lot of details but it reports the drive health as ok and 94%. The only item in the smart report that looks strange is it reports almost 2500 bad shutdowns. There is no way this number is correct.
 
Thanks for the reply. I can't figure out at the moment how to insert an imgur image. I will have another go later if you need more info or I can just type any particular data you need. I have included the top part of the crystaldiskinfo text report. Unfortunately the smart info uses raw values in the text output. The Unsafe Shutdown value was 2044. The Power On Count seems high at 4089 for only 7243 Power On Hours but I suppose it includes waking from sleep? The temp is low as I had just booted. Last time the crash happened I had been looking at the drive info just before and the temperature then was 42.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 8.17.3 (C) 2008-2022 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World: https://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS : Windows 11 Professional [10.0 Build 22631] (x64)
Date : 2024/10/13 11:10:02

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
- Standard SATA AHCI Controller [ATA]
- Standard SATA AHCI Controller [ATA]
- Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller [SCSI]
+ Standard NVM Express Controller [SCSI]
- Force MP510
- Xvdd SCSI Miniport [SCSI]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
(01) Force MP510 : 960.1 GB [0/2/0, sq] - nv

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(01) Force MP510
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model : Force MP510
Firmware : ECFM22.7
Serial Number : 1940823800012888505C
Disk Size : 960.1 GB
Interface : NVM Express
Standard : NVM Express 1.3
Transfer Mode : PCIe 3.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4
Power On Hours : 7243 hours
Power On Count : 4089 count
Host Reads : 13740 GB
Host Writes : 11882 GB
Temperature : 26 C (78 F)
Health Status : Good (94 %)
Features : S.M.A.R.T., TRIM, VolatileWriteCache
Drive Letter : C:
 
freebooter said:
The only item in the smart report that looks strange is it reports almost 2500 bad shutdowns. There is no way this number is correct.
Click to expand...
It could be worth reseating the drive, maybe it makes bad contact with the M.2 slot. I'd also have a look at your PCIE power management settings, though that shouldn't be a problem in theory.

If the drive is under a board heatsink you could try removing it, assuming it is easily removeable and not integrated with the other heatsink(s).
 
I had disappearing m2 drives on a x570 auros ultra
Drove me crazy sometimes they were there
Other times they weren't
In the end turned out the drives were fine
Motherboard was the issue
If possible test the drives in a different pc
 
Thanks for the replies. As with a lot of pc issues it happens infrequently and so far with no clear cause so that it is difficult to diagnose what is causing the problem. The drive not showing up in the bios is the only real clue and why I am focusing on the drive and not RAM or gpu.

When I have time I will see if I can induce failure by stressing the drive somehow. I was playing the MSFS 2024 alpha the other day for quite a while and it was fine. Later it crashed again while browsing.

I will try reseating the drive. I could try it in the board's second m2 slot. I hope it isn't the mb failing as it is an AM4 system and I don't really want to put more money into it atm.
 
Intermittent faults are the worst
Never happen when you want them to
And of course happen when you don't want them to

Trying different m2 socket is worth a try
Though in my case it happened with all 3 of my m2 sockets
But didn't affect my 2.5 sata ssds
2 of my drives did happen to be corsair mp510
Just by coincidence
 
I checked the event viewer after the last crash and couldn't see anything relevant.

I have the pc plugged into an extension cord with switches on each socket. The led for the socket I was using flickers when on. I assumed that this was just the led failing. Just to test I swapped the pc to another socket on the extension cord and so far it hasn't crashed. Tbh I have difficulty believing that is the cause but so far it has survived quite a bit of game playing and some large file writing without crashing.
 
I had an MP510 that started rebooting and disappearing.

Had to RMA it. It'd start randomly disappearing and not booting at all.

E: The RMA took a little while but was painless, UK based via a competing online retailer you will know
 
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freebooter said:
I checked the event viewer after the last crash and couldn't see anything relevant.

I have the pc plugged into an extension cord with switches on each socket. The led for the socket I was using flickers when on. I assumed that this was just the led failing. Just to test I swapped the pc to another socket on the extension cord and so far it hasn't crashed. Tbh I have difficulty believing that is the cause but so far it has survived quite a bit of game playing and some large file writing without crashing.
Click to expand...
I have seen some dodgy extension cables from names you would assume to be half decent. For example, I've seen an Energizer extension with zero strain relief cause a few problems.
 
Probably a drive entering a death spiral.

Like old HDDs would come and go on reboot when they were failing.

sometimes they would work fine, others bios would struggle to detect them.

MY PC crashed the other day, first time in 2 years.

My Primary NVME samsung 980 went missing until I turned the pc off and on again.

I'm going to presume it's not going to live much longer
 
OPs MP510 is acting exactly how mine did before it died, at no point did any utility say it was anything but healthy.
 
adidan said:
I had an MP510 that started rebooting and disappearing.

Had to RMA it. It'd start randomly disappearing and not booting at all.
Click to expand...
Does sound exactly what mine was doing. The problem is it is so intermittent. Did yours fail completely before you sent it back? I will have to check everything is backed up but it is going to be annoying just waiting for it to fail. If I send it back now I suspect they will test it and say that it is fine if it starts up ok. I will also have to check when I bought it. It was probably quite a while ago now.
 
freebooter said:
Does sound exactly what mine was doing. The problem is it is so intermittent. Did yours fail completely before you sent it back? I will have to check everything is backed up but it is going to be annoying just waiting for it to fail. If I send it back now I suspect they will test it and say that it is fine if it starts up ok. I will also have to check when I bought it. It was probably quite a while ago now.
Click to expand...
No it was a gradual thing. It got gradually worse until it would boot straight into bios without finding it more than not. It was annoyingly very random to start with.

I think the warranty is 5 years on the MP510, so long as you're under the endurance limit and from an authorised seller of course. You'd have to double check that though.
 
Did you get anywhere with this @freebooter ? My parents have a similar intermittent issue and it's been a right pain to assess remotely. Now I'm home for Christmas I thought it would be easy to figure out :o

They've replaced the m.2 SSD so now there's a new Samsung 990 Pro in there. Gigabyte B550 board with two M.2 slots and both behave the same - the one M.2 SSD does not show up in the BIOS most of the time whereas the one SATA SSD always does.

It's going to be a pain if we have to get a new motherboard and talk them through fitting that over a video call...

Anyone in Bristol got a spare AM4 board we can try this holiday season? :D
 
NutritioN said:
Did you get anywhere with this @freebooter ?
Click to expand...
Sorry for the delay in replying, first time logging on for a while.
I saw a deal on a Crucial T500 and ordered that to replace the Corsair. The T500 is still sitting in its box and my Crucial drive has run without fault ever since I bought a replacement :D I am gradually sorting out all the things I need to do in preparation for reinstalling windows. Unfortunately when I checked the invoice for my Corsair I am about 3 months out of warranty.

Did you sort out your parents pc? I am hoping my problem was the drive and not the mb. I did run CrystalMark on my old drive and that often crashed during one of the tests. That coupled with the accounts above and elsewhere on the net of similar symptoms with failing Corsair drives persuaded me that it was probably the problem but it is always difficult to know for sure unless something fails completely.
 
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