Intel SSD 730 frequent freeze/hang Win 8.1 & 10

[BOsta]

I've endured this issue for weeks, and despite trying everything under the sun I can't seem to nail down what the problem is. My machine will consistently hit 100% disk utilization - even though nothing in Task Manager indicates much of a load on the drive - and freezes the entire machine for minutes at a time.

I noticed this for the first time earlier in the year, shortly after Witcher 3 came out. I'm playing the game, the HDD LED on my case goes solid and the machine freezes. Sound continues to play as though the system is still running as usual. Mouse is visible after attempting CTRL + ALT + DEL but screen is black and no further keyboard input is accepted; sometimes instead of CTRL + ALT+ DEL, I can ALT + TAB to desktop, but after that initial switch no futher input from mouse or keyboard are accepted. After 2-3 minutes, the machine snaps back to its normal state and "catches up" on the input from the time when the machine was frozen - in the ALT + TAB situation, clicking on Start menu, Window Search field, Quickstart icons, etc will all execute in order.

Once this happens (usually during a game), it is guaranteed to happen again within 5-10 minutes. System continues in running-frozen-running pattern indefinitely until I exit the game.

I did see a small number of BSODs - KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR and one other that I can't recall. System will not successfully write dump information to disk, even after leaving it for half a day in the hopes it would.

Whenever this happens, I can check the System log in Event Viewer and find tens if not hundreds of entries regarding the storage device. Most are in the following pattern:

Warning10/23/2015 1:35:14 AMdisk153None

The IO operation at logical block address 0x227b0708 for Disk 0 (PDO name: \Device\0000002d) was retried.

Or:

Warning10/17/2015 6:00:18 PMdisk51None

An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\DR0 during a paging operation.

After a ton of those, I will come across one or more entry that says:

Warning10/23/2015 1:35:12 AMiaStorA129None

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued.

As the errors point to an issue with the page file, I checked Advanced System Settings and under Virtual Memory, "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" is checked. Currently Allocated is 1024MB.

I've attempted the following software fixes:

- Installed Intel SSD Toolbox and ran Optimizer, Quick Diagnostic, and Full Diagnostic

- Installed and Uninstalled multiple versions of Intel RST software

- Installed multiple versions of standalone AHCI/RAID driver, both RST and RSTe

- Deleted all Intel RST and RSTe drivers from system

- Stopped and disabled Superfetch, Windows Search, BITS services

- Applied registry "fix" found here: http://www.ithacks.com/2012/10/14/fixing-an-ssd-freezing-on-windows-7/ Fixing an SSD Freezing on Windows 7 | IT Hacks

On the hardware side, this problem has persisted despite the following changes:

- Swapped out SATA cable that was attached (bundled with MB) for the one bundled with the drive, then a 3rd-party cable

- Two completely different sets of same speed/density memory (Crucial and PNY)

- Two completely different video cards (MSI GTX 770, PowerColor R9 390)

- Multiple power supplies

- Two completely different motherboards!

If this isn't a software/driver issue. I'm down to the drive or the CPU at this point. My machine is currently set up with the following components:

Intel Core i7-3820 (stock, never overclocked)

MSI X79A-GD45 Plus motherboard (most recent BIOS - 17.9)

4x4GB PNY Anarchy DDR3-1600

PowerColor PCS+ R9 390

Antec HCG-750

Corsair H90 Liquid Cooler

Intel 730 SSD 480GB

PLEASE HELP!

[jbenavides · Accepted solution]

Hello Thunderbolt7,

System freeze/hangs like the ones you describe can be caused by different reasons. I see that you have tried many of the possible actions, please consider the following to discard some options:

- Install https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/18455/Intel-Solid-State-Drive-Toolbox Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox, version 3.3.2, and verify that you are using the most recent firmware version for your drive.

- The specs of your motherboard indicate it supports SATA II and SATA III. Make sure that the SSD is connected to a SATA III port in you motherboard (SATA1~2).

- Use an updated antivirus of your preference and do a full scan of the system.

- For testing purposes, use a single memory DIMM and check if the issue happens with this configuration. In the past, we have seen bad memory slots, or compatibility can cause this behavior.

If the issue persists, please use Intel SSD Toolbox and "Export" the log for your SSD, then post the resulting file here for review.

[BOsta]

1) Intel SSD Toolbox 3.3.2 states "The selected Intel SSD contains current firmware as of this Toolbox release."

2) The drive has always been hooked up to the SATA III port 1.

3) Instead of going down this road - other than downloading drivers, I only use this machine for gaming - I simply reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. It had been a while, and it was a direct upgrade from 8.1 instead of a clean install.

The issue persists.

4) I've tried 1, 2, 4 4GB DDR3-1600 DIMMs from PNY and Crucial, 1 & 2 DDR3-1600 8GB sticks of Kingston HyperX Fury, and even 1x4GB DDR3-1600 AMD-branded memory from Patriot. No POST issues, no problems in the OS, still see freezing.

See attached file for Toolbox Export log.

[BOsta]

Also, I just got another freeze while playing World of Tanks - this time, the only event in the Windows System log was 129 as described above.

[jbenavides]

Hello Thunderbolt7,

There is a high count of SATA Downshift Count and CRC Error Count in the SMART log. These are often related to bad cables of communication issues, however, since you already tried different boards and cables, there are only a few options we can recommend at this time.

'ID' 'Description' 'Raw' 'Normalized' 'Threshold'

B7 SATA Downshift Count 9488 100 0

C7 CRC Error Count 43844 100 0

We advise you to check withhttp://www.msi.com/product/motherboard/support/X79A-GD45-Plus.html# support_download MSI support and obtain their version of the Chipset/Storage drivers. As second option you can run http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect?iid=dc_iduu Intel® Driver Update Utility to obtain it.

If the issue persists even with the latest storage driver, we would advise you to http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport Contact Support using your preferred method to engage your nearest support center.