Incredibly difficult SSD issue (I think).... Help!

[thecomputerguy]

I have a patient client. Thankfully very patient. They bought a computer from it it's a Dell Optiplex 3040 which has the following specs:

Intel Core i5
16GB Internal Memory
1TB Hard Drive
AMD FirePro (For 3D and Video Editing)
Windows 7 Pro
250GB Samsung 850 SSD (Added after delivery)

They contacted me a few months after install to tell me that they were having audio/video issues since install. Normally I'd call a little BS since it was so long after install but this is a good client and I wouldn't suspect they'd be lying.

So I go out there and sure enough ... after a couple of minutes the computer will stutter for like a 1/4 of a second and you'll hear brief feedback in the speakers, and the video will also stutter, even when just watching youtube in chrome/firefox. This is obviously unacceptable on a video editing computer.

So I spent a LOT of time troubleshooting it. Trying a new video card, trying onboard video, trying headphones instead of speakers, trying sound through monitor, different browsers, updating audio/video drivers, removing excess software, different cables, updating firmware etc ... After about 3 hours of troubleshooting and research I gave up and told him I'd take it back and reformat it and slap on a clean install of Windows 7 instead of the Dell Image.

I bring it back and a couple days later. Sure enough ... it's still stuttering. Completely dumbfounded I'm ready to admit defeat and bring out a brand new Optiplex 3050 with W10, and then figure out some way to re-coup costs on the 5 month old now used computer.

Then I get a call from another client right when I had decided to give up. "Hey since you imaged my drive and upgraded to the SSD the computer is a lot faster but now I get this weird video/audio stutter".

Then it hit me! What the hell? It's the SSD causing this? Sure enough I throw "SSD causing video audio stutter" and there are tons of people having similar issues.

Does anyone know what the heck could be going on?

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Interesting, I have SSD's in all of my machines with no issues. Did you check for/update the firmware on the SSD's before installing them?

 

[MichaelBits]

Well, I would first check that it's set to AHCI in the BIOS.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Going to try uninstalling Intel RST and see if that has any effect...

 

[Computer Bloke]

I'd be thinking about swapping issues here. Is the page file on the SSD or the HDD? Does moving it change the problem? How about disabling virtual memory altogether?

Also, when you say that the SSD was added after delivery does that mean that you moved the OS and applications to the SSD or is it just there for fast data storage?

 

[thecomputerguy]

Interesting, I have SSD's in all of my machines with no issues. Did you check for/update the firmware on the SSD's before installing them?

Yep, Firmware is up to date

 

[thecomputerguy]

Well, I would first check that it's set to AHCI in the BIOS.

Yep it's set to AHCI

 

[thecomputerguy]

I'd be thinking about swapping issues here. Is the page file on the SSD or the HDD? Does moving it change the problem? How about disabling virtual memory altogether?

Also, when you say that the SSD was added after delivery does that mean that you moved the OS and applications to the SSD or is it just there for fast data storage?

I believe the pagefile is on the SSD, it is set to "Let windows manage the pagefile on C:"

 

[cypress]

Very interested in this especially since it is a Samsung SSD. You say firmware is up to date, so it has Magician installed?

 

[fencepost]

How full is the SSD? Are you hitting a spot where it's doing cleanup? Also, using the resource monitor (from Task Manager, Performance tab) to watch disk latency and disk queues, is there a spike in latency or queue length that you can see?

Possibly relevant: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-ssd-caused-dpc-latency-spikes-solved.765854/
I also saw suggestions of other drivers in Lenovo laptops, notably NVidia drivers and Ethernet drivers, but that may not be so relevant to you.
Also one significantly older thread where someone did a DBAN instead of simple Secure Erase on an SSD and had all sorts of headaches until redoing with a simple Secure Erase.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Before the reformat and after the reformat Intel RST was installed.

Very interested in this especially since it is a Samsung SSD. You say firmware is up to date, so it has Magician installed?

Yep up to date firmware and the latest version of Magician installed with AHCI and Rapid mode enabled.

 

[thecomputerguy]

How full is the SSD? Are you hitting a spot where it's doing cleanup? Also, using the resource monitor (from Task Manager, Performance tab) to watch disk latency and disk queues, is there a spike in latency or queue length that you can see?

Possibly relevant: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-ssd-caused-dpc-latency-spikes-solved.765854/
I also saw suggestions of other drivers in Lenovo laptops, notably NVidia drivers and Ethernet drivers, but that may not be so relevant to you.
Also one significantly older thread where someone did a DBAN instead of simple Secure Erase on an SSD and had all sorts of headaches until redoing with a simple Secure Erase.

I'll look into the posts thank you ... the SSD has about 100GB left of space on it.

The only thing that strikes me as a little odd is that Magician has recorded nearly 200TB of usage in just 5 months. I supposed that's possible but ... little weird.

 

[Computer Bloke]

Magician has recorded nearly 200TB of usage in just 5 months. I supposed that's possible but ... little weird.

Perfectly normal if it's being used to hold the pagefile and there's something thrashing in there - video editors are notoriously memory hungry and 16GB RAM is a bit on the small side. You might want to try increasing the RAM to 32GB or more and turning off the pagefile altogether.

(Or use Resource Monitor to see what's hitting the SSD.)

 

[thecomputerguy]

Perfectly normal if it's being used to hold the pagefile and there's something thrashing in there - video editors are notoriously memory hungry and 16GB RAM is a bit on the small side. You might want to try increasing the RAM to 32GB or more and turning off the pagefile altogether.

(Or use Resource Monitor to see what's hitting the SSD.)

Removing Intel RST didn't do anything.

I've disable the pagefile and we'll see what happens.

 

[glennd]

I recently put a SSD in my HTPC and installed Linux Mint 17.3 It has combing artifacts on the video and occasional audio stutters that we never saw when Win7 was on it. Related?

 

[Computer Bloke]

I recently put a SSD in my HTPC and installed Linux Mint 17.3 It has combing artifacts on the video and occasional audio stutters that we never saw when Win7 was on it. Related?

Have you offended a major government lately?

 

[glennd]

Have you offended a major government lately?

Will that help?

 

[Computer Bloke]

Will that help?

Well, it can't hurt.

Mysterious audio problems after replacing a bit of "unrelated" hardware - what else could it be but enemy action?

 

[GTP]

Is "Trim" enabled for the SSD? fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify 0 a "0" means its on a "1" means it's not.

Also you mentioned they use chrome and firefox. Have you disabled the the "write caching" that can continually thrash the SSD with writes?

In FF type: about:config
search for: browser.sessionstore.interval and set it to from 15000 to 300000

FF and Chrome can write up to 10Gb or more to the SSD daily. It may not be related but its a handy tweak anyway.

 

[GTP]

Well, it can't hurt.

Mysterious audio problems after replacing a bit of "unrelated" hardware - what else could it be but enemy action?

Alien Goats speaking Latin carrying bowls of Custard?