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SSD question

GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9
in Hardware
Hello, I apologize I am not tech savy. I was hoping I could get help here. I have a Crucial MX 500 ( I think ) for several months and for the past 2 weeks my activity light stays solid and locks up my screen. This happens 4-5 times a week maybe more.

I only have a few things installed such as Steam and a few games nothing else really. My question is, can I clean out the SSD without removing the Operating system ? I was thinking about restoring the pc back to factory settings but I only done that with a HDD and I replaced the HDD in this pc with the SSD. Thank you. 


Comments

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,351
    So basically, the problem is that your computer is locking up?  I suppose that it's possible for the SSD to be the culprit, but it isn't the first thing that I'd suspect.
  • GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9
    Quizzical said:
    So basically, the problem is that your computer is locking up?  I suppose that it's possible for the SSD to be the culprit, but it isn't the first thing that I'd suspect.
    Sometimes it locks up, sometimes it's very slow. I installed a few things over the past 2 weeks but have since deleted them all but not sure if all of it is really gone. I installed a few mods for games, installed something for my Corsair mouse, forget what its called. Things like that.

    I was hoping I could just get rid of everything without losing the OS and start fresh again. I've done that with HDD's before but never a SSD. Unsure what to do.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,351
    Next time that it gets really slow, open Task Manager and check on your memory usage.  (Ctrl+Alt+Delete will bring up the option.)  If something is consuming an enormous amount of memory and forcing massive amounts of paging to disk, that could be the culprit.  Task Manager will tell you what is using how much memory.  That would be a software (and possibly malware) problem, not a hardware one.

    Speaking of which, do you have anti-virus software installed and properly updated?
  • GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9
    I just use the windows defender thing. I'm trying to upload a screenshot ,doesn't seem to work.
  • GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9
    Btw. This only happens when I start the pc , not every time but I would say 1 in 5 startups it happens.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,351
    If you can make it happen, then try rebooting until it does happen.  Then open Task Manager and see what your memory usage looks like.

    I'd also recommend downloading some anti-virus software, having it scan your system, and seeing if it finds anything.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,351
    You might as well also try Crucial's SSD diagnostics tool, since they made your SSD:

    https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-storage-executive

    That's more specifically tailored to your particular SSD than anything else that you're going to find is.
  • GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9
    What I'm asking is. Can I use the reset pc to factory settings option like I did when I had a HDD ? Is it safe for the SSD ?
  • GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9
    DMKano said:
    GaryNeil said:
    What I'm asking is. Can I use the reset pc to factory settings option like I did when I had a HDD ? Is it safe for the SSD ?

    The answer to that is - when you installed your SSD, did you clone over the partition from the old hard drive that containsed the factory default image?

    If you did a clone entire HDD to SSD with all partitions - then yes.


    Yes. On my HDD, I reinstalled windows and cloned from that. I was surprised at how fast and easy it was.
  • GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9
    Just to be safe, I would like for you all to see a screen shot of my drive management but I can't seem to upload it. Any suggestions ?
  • SephirosoSephiroso Member RarePosts: 2,020
    Upload to imgur. Paste the link here.

    image
    Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

  • GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9


  • gervaise1gervaise1 Member EpicPosts: 6,919
    SSDs are pretty robust and unlikely to go wrong. Viruses are, sadly, all to common and hackers pretty sophisticated. So I suggest you check for viruses first - and looking at the report that suggests its not the ssd.

    Not sure whether Windows Defender is the same for all versions of Windows but if you have Win10 there is an option to "Run an Advanced Scan". This allows you to run both a full scan and an Offline Scan. These are the easy first steps. It may not be a virus of course but worth checking. And if its a nasty virus you may have to start your PC in safe mode but easy steps first.

    Also do you have something for cleaning out tracking cookies e.g. CCleaner. You can download from e.g. FileHippo. Its unlikely that the problem will be down to thousands of cookies but getting rid of them won't do any harm!

  • SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 527
    edited February 2019
    First thing i would do is use this. Use free DL to check your system.

    https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/

    See if that finds any issues.  From your description it does not sound like a HD issue to me. Possible but i would check other things first.

    Then go to control panel/programs and features see if something is installed you did not want to install, and if you know it is something you can safely uninstall do so. 

    Check all the programs. Look on google for any you do not recognize, make sure you do not get rid of anything you are not sure of. 

    After that reboot and see if any issue remain. If so then it may be time to go the replace from a backup/restore.


  • DvoraDvora Member UncommonPosts: 499
    Just let they guy wipe it like he wants to, thats always the best fix unless you have tons of files you cant back up for some reason.  Installing from a usb nowadays is a 40 min job, plus a some afk auto updates.

    Even on my friends laptop where his recovery partition was borked, just throw the basic drivers (storage drivers, maybe network drivers most important) from your laptop manufacturer's website on the usb also just in case, then redownload the rest after windows is reinstalled.
  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,888
    GaryNeil said:
    Btw. This only happens when I start the pc , not every time but I would say 1 in 5 startups it happens.
    A problem with SSD is usually either more random, or something that happens every single time.

    Something that happens in 1 out of 5 start ups sound more like some software trying to run its updater and failing.


    Like Quizzical said, you should try to use the task manager to see if you can find out what program has problems: When you've got the problem press ctrl + alt + del to go into task manager, from there you'll find list of all running processes, and hopefully you can find one process that's using huge amount of CPU or memory.
     
  • GaryNeilGaryNeil Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 9
    Thank you everyone. I did a reset back to factory settings and so far, so good.
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