3 dead Kingston NVMes in 1 year...why?

[ThePiePieper]

I built a new AMD rig back at the end of 2022, all my specs and parts below. And since then, I've had my boot drive die 3 times. I have been using the Kingston KC3000 1GB as my boot drive and can't find anything, anywhere as to why or how it would die 3 times. I've OCed the CPU through BIOs (3.5 min/4.5 max) and the GPU through Adrenalin. Anyone have any guess as to what would be killing drives in my M.2?

Windows 10 Home 22H2
Ryzen 5 5600
T-Force Delta RAM 32 GB
MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk MB
XFX RX6900 XT GPU
Corsair RM850x W 80+ Gold PSU
Toshiba P300 3 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM storage
Corsair 4000D Airflow with 5 fans
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Air Cooler (installed after the first 2 drives died)

 

[Deleted member 232534]

how they died? was it instant or was it a process?

 

[HD64G]

I built a new AMD rig back at the end of 2022, all my specs and parts below. And since then, I've had my boot drive die 3 times. I have been using the Kingston KC3000 1GB as my boot drive and can't find anything, anywhere as to why or how it would die 3 times. I've OCed the RAM through BIOs and the GPU through Adrenalin. Anyone have any guess as to what would be killing drives in my M.2?

Windows 10 Home 22H2
Ryzen 5 5600
T-Force Delta RAM 32 GB
MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk MB
XFX RX6900 XT GPU
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GA 650 W 80+ Gold PSU
Toshiba P300 3 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM storage
Corsair 4000D Airflow with 5 fans

Sorry to read about those failures of yours. I hope you get backups of your data at least rwice a month or so. We also happen to have the same CPU-board combo. Bad quality chips in that SSD me thinks. Have heard about that model again being prone to failure. On the other hand, repeatedly quick failure could mean they are overused by some settings not being disabled (indexing) or enabled (trim). Check this link about those optimizations.

 

[ThePiePieper]

how they died? was it instant or was it a process?

The first was over the course of a day, the last 2 would just stop booting or bluescreened.

 

[Bill_Bright]

With that many hardware problems. I would look at power. HWiNFO64 is very (if not overwhelmingly) informative. When using for the first time, I recommend you select “Sensors only” when prompted.

According to the ATX Form Factor standard, PSUs must maintain voltage tolerances within ±5% of required specifications.

Acceptable tolerance maximums:

12VDC ±5% = 11.4 to 12.6VDC
5VDC ±5% = 4.75 to 5.25VDC
3.3VDC ±5% = 3.14 to 3.47VDC
​

Even if the readings look good, those sensors are very low tech, and don't reveal other possible power anomalies. So consider swapping in a different PSU.

Also, use a good UPS with AVR.

And check your wall outlet. Note every home and every computer user should have access to a AC Outlet Tester to ensure the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground. I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK, or this one for German outlets) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

 

[Shrek]

How full did you keep the drives?

 

[GerKNG]

any BCLK overclocking?

 

[ThePiePieper]

How full did you keep the drives?

The first 1 was probably close to 80%, after that died i moved more off to other storage and kept it under 50%.

any BCLK overclocking?

I let the MSI bios overclock, which is just set ti auto. Its min is set to 3.5 and max is 4.45.

 

[Deleted member 232534]

The first was over the course of a day, the last 2 would just stop booting or bluescreened.

Can't say anything definite basing on this.

This is how they fail usually - first the writes fade and than the reads and the whole partition table.

FYI after the writes started to fail (problems with booting, bsod) you can still try to do the image of the drive to use in virtual machine on the other system as this involves only reads.

Check the voltages as Bill_Bright suggested.

 

[Space Lynx]

I built a new AMD rig back at the end of 2022, all my specs and parts below. And since then, I've had my boot drive die 3 times. I have been using the Kingston KC3000 1GB as my boot drive and can't find anything, anywhere as to why or how it would die 3 times. I've OCed the RAM through BIOs and the GPU through Adrenalin. Anyone have any guess as to what would be killing drives in my M.2?

Windows 10 Home 22H2
Ryzen 5 5600
T-Force Delta RAM 32 GB
MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk MB
XFX RX6900 XT GPU
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GA 650 W 80+ Gold PSU
Toshiba P300 3 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM storage
Corsair 4000D Airflow with 5 fans

i use kingston kc3000 1tb as well and msi b550 mobo, i think i can help you here.

are you doing clean installs of windows 11? cause every time i do this my kingston drive "dies" but is easily revived, its a thing with bitlocker auto turning on on MSI B550 mobos during win 11 installs with the latest two BIOS releases, the way i fixed mine was reverting back my BIOS, enabling CSM vs UEFI in BIOS, using RUFUS to install Linux Mint Cinnamon in MBR - that allowed me to reformat (and was the only way it would let me reformat the Kingston drive), after that i just reset bios, reboot, UEFI is on by default again and i do clean install of win 10 or 11 and everything works fine again.

this might not be your issue, since you use windows 10 it doesn't sound like it is.

i do know even without a clean install the last two BIOS updates for my MSI B550 board have messed up some stuff, and I had to revert back to the BIOS from May or April, can't remember which.

other than that I have had 0 issues, it was a pain in the ass though figuring it all out, I tried a bunch of other steps before I figured out the CSM thingy. it killed 3 of my flash drives as well, i would try to install win 10 or 11 on the corrupted Kingston drive and it would get like halfway through the install of the OS and then freeze corrupting my flash drive, did this when i tried to install Linux under UEFI as well, but under CSM MBR it worked fine and solved all my issues.

RIP 3 flash drives, you tried so hard.

that being said, I never have had this much trouble in my life, so I will not be buying Kingston or MSI in the future.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

I know with a power calculator everything looks fine, but XFX on their rx 6900 xt series graphics card pages, they list a minimum 850 watt PSU. For some of the models, in addition to the minimum, there is also a recommended requirement, which is for 1000 watts. All citation below are from product pages.
MERC&Gaming:

External Power: 2x PCI-E 8 pin connections
Minimum Power Supply Requirement: 850 watt
XFX Recommended Power Supply: XFX 850W PSU

SWFT:

Requirements

‍External Power: 2x PCI-E 8 pin connections
Minimum Power Supply Requirement: 850 watt
XFX Recommended Power Supply: XFX 1000W PSU

ZERO:

Requirements

‍External Power: 3x PCI-E 8 pin connections
Minimum Power Supply Requirement: 850 watt
XFX Recommended Power Supply: XFX 1000W PSU

A power supply operating at the edge of its capabilities can kill an SSD.

 

[ThePiePieper]

I know with a power calculator everything looks fine, but XFX on their rx 6900 xt series graphics card pages, they list a minimum 850 watt PSU. For some of the models, in addition to the minimum, there is also a recommended requirement, which is for 1000 watts. All citation below are from product pages.
MERC&Gaming:

SWFT:

ZERO:

A power supply operating at the edge of its capabilities can kill an SSD.

Crap, i listed my old PSU. I do have a Corsair 850 in now after i upgraded to the 6900xt.

 

[Bill_Bright]

A power supply operating at the edge of its capabilities can kill an SSD.

Not if its a quality supply. A budget, no-name generic could destroy anything connected to it if it becomes unstable or outputs "dirty" power when approaching its limits. But a quality supply from a reputable maker, unless otherwise damaged, will remain stable up to its limits, then safely shutdown if exceeded.

I would trust a good PSU calculator over any card maker's recommendation. And the best and only calculator I use and recommend is the eXtreme OuterVision PSU Calculator.

XFX wants to sell you a PSU and there is certainly money in it for them to recommend bigger than you need. I am NOT criticizing XFX. That's just business. The other reputable PSU makers do the same thing. And that's just another reason to use OuterVision's calculator.

NO PSU calculator or card maker ever wants to recommend an under-powered PSU. So they all pad the results. But card makers have NO CLUE what other hardware you have. So they have no choice but to assume you have very power hungry devices and so pad their recommendations even more - and are certainly willing to do so if it means more profits for them.

With a good calculator, like that from OuterVision, you plug in the CPU, number and type of drives, cards, RAM type and number of sticks, fans, etc. No guess work involved. They still pad the results, but very conservatively. You can always pad the results a little more if you wish. In fact, I typically recommend changing the CPU utilization to 100% just to add a little extra headroom for future upgrades or additions, and perhaps a little cooler and quieter operation.

 

[Wirko]

What about temperatures? No first hand experience here but the KC3000 runs pretty hot. Its successor, the Fury Renegade, while basically unchanged, has versions without and with heatsink. Look at the TPU review, also check out the recent MSI Spatium M480 Pro review (with power measurements too) since both drives have the same Phison E18 controller.

 

[Space Lynx]

What about temperatures? No first hand experience here but the KC3000 runs pretty hot. Its successor, the Fury Renegade, while basically unchanged, has versions without and with heatsink. Look at the TPU review, also check out the recent MSI Spatium M480 Pro review (with power measurements too) since both drives have the same Phison E18 controller.

our mobo's come with really nice heatsinks for the nvme drive. i was using the one that came with my MSI B550 mobo and it keeps it cold. i am assuming OP did the same, but yeah good point

 

[TumbleGeorge]

However to clean other possible causes.
Even in this situation, there is no full guarantee that there are no moments of overshoot. Does the first comment really describe all the hardware that is powered by this 850 watt unit? Some people for example include different USB devices with decent needs. Even small coffee makers.

 

[ThePiePieper]

our mobo's come with really nice heatsinks for the nvme drive. i was using the one that came with my MSI B550 mobo and it keeps it cold. i am assuming OP did the same, but yeah good point

Yes, I used the heatsink that came with the mobo. Temps have been fine the few times i checked. I don't play a ton of games at length that would push my 6900 to generate a ton of heat on top of it.

Is you SSD in the top slot under the GPU or in the bottom slot closer to the bottom of the MB?

 

[Space Lynx]

Yes, I used the heatsink that came with the mobo. Temps have been fine the few times i checked. I don't play a ton of games at length that would push my 6900 to generate a ton of heat on top of it.

Is you SSD in the top slot under the GPU or in the bottom slot closer to the bottom of the MB?

I use the one under the GPU the primary one.

sounds like your issue is different than the one I was having. I am not sure what to tell you. my KC3000 1tb is still going strong though.

 

[ThePiePieper]

However to clean other possible causes.
Even in this situation, there is no full guarantee that there are no moments of overshoot. Does the first comment really describe all the hardware that is powered by this 850 watt unit? Some people for example include different USB devices with decent needs. Even small coffee makers.

Nothing out of the norm for gaming, Astro A50 headphones, Corsair keyboard, wireless mouse. I did forget to list my Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Air Cooler, but that was installed after the first 2 died.

I use the one under the GPU the primary one.

sounds like your issue is different than the one I was having. I am not sure what to tell you. my KC3000 1tb is still going strong though.

I appreciate the responses. I think I have one of those 1 in a million issues that only goes away after changing out all pieces of hardware. If it's not that, then i need to buy a lotto ticket as I must be the first to have 3 drives randomly within a year of basic use.
My post on other forums have not had any common responses outside the power issue, which i've updated to reflect the current PSU.

 

[Wirko]

As you bought them one by one, the three SSDs probably weren't from the same batch, right?

 

[ThePiePieper]

As you bought them one by one, the three SSDs probably weren't from the same batch, right?

No. The original I bought from Amazon, the last 2 were from Kingston as an RMA.

 

[wNotyarD]

@ThePiePieper out of curiosity, did you try using the other M.2 slot?

 

[ThePiePieper]

@ThePiePieper out of curiosity, did you try using the other M.2 slot?

If I don't replace my MB, i will on the next drive. The bottom slot isn't the main but if I'm only running the OS on it, it should be fine.

 

[HD64G]

No. The original I bought from Amazon, the last 2 were from Kingston as an RMA.

So, not impossible to be from a close batch that is faulty. I would change the disk asap for another manufacturer's one.

 

[Deleted member 232534]

if Kingston replaced them it's less probable they failed from a power surge or any kind of outer influence unless the customer service is very understanding

i use kingston kc3000 1tb as well and msi b550 mobo, i think i can help you here.

are you doing clean installs of windows 11? cause every time i do this my kingston drive "dies" but is easily revived, its a thing with bitlocker auto turning on on MSI B550 mobos during win 11 installs with the latest two BIOS releases, the way i fixed mine was reverting back my BIOS, enabling CSM vs UEFI in BIOS, using RUFUS to install Linux Mint Cinnamon in MBR - that allowed me to reformat (and was the only way it would let me reformat the Kingston drive), after that i just reset bios, reboot, UEFI is on by default again and i do clean install of win 10 or 11 and everything works fine again.

this might not be your issue, since you use windows 10 it doesn't sound like it is.

i do know even without a clean install the last two BIOS updates for my MSI B550 board have messed up some stuff, and I had to revert back to the BIOS from May or April, can't remember which.

other than that I have had 0 issues, it was a pain in the ass though figuring it all out, I tried a bunch of other steps before I figured out the CSM thingy. it killed 3 of my flash drives as well, i would try to install win 10 or 11 on the corrupted Kingston drive and it would get like halfway through the install of the OS and then freeze corrupting my flash drive, did this when i tried to install Linux under UEFI as well, but under CSM MBR it worked fine and solved all my issues.

RIP 3 flash drives, you tried so hard.

that being said, I never have had this much trouble in my life, so I will not be buying Kingston or MSI in the future.

@OP the drives were detected by the bios the whole time? have you tried to recreate the partition table, reformat the drives?