Question 100% SSD activity with notebook cooler while gaming

[Maetthy]

Hi Everyone,

I am facing an interesting issue with my MSI GE65 RAIDER SF.

Not a long ago I have purchased a Cooler Master Notepal XL cooler. When it is not under the laptop, I am able to play games with solid 40-70 fps. When it is under the laptop, I can play stable 100-120 fps, but sometimes my SSD's activity goes up to 100% and crashes my Windows 10.

Any idea what could cause this? I have literally no clue how this could be the difference between a suboptimal wooden table and a designated cooler pad. How can these affect my SSD?...

Checked with Crucial Storage Executive Software, SSD is in fine condition.

i7-9750H
16GB DDR4 2666 MHz
RTX 2070 8gb
1TB Crucial SSD CT1000P1SSD8

 

[Maetthy]

Hi,

There could be some thread that is using up the SSD at 100%

Steps
Check task manager when SSD is 100%
Tab on "process" check with task is consuming at the drive.
End that task.

It it starts again right click and make "end process tree"

This might help.

Hey,

Already tried that, but usually I am not even able to do anything on the PC when the activity goes to 100%, and when I was able to switch to Process tab, the disk was usually at low percentage and nothing has used it with extraordinary writing-reading numbers.

Usually I have checked the activity peaking at the Performance tab in task manager on the laptop screen, while the game was running on the secondary monitor.

 

[AlHuneke]

Having the SSD at 100% in and of itself should not crash windows. I would suggest you check the event log for critical events at the time of a crash. They are hard to decipher but may tell you something.

 

[Maetthy]

Issue is, it is not actually crashing, like a blue screen crash has happened sometimes, but overall, when it goes to 100% activity, I just cannot do anything, as it is keeps working on something AND SSD gets overheated as well. Either I am force restarting the PC, or somehow I am able to close the game, and maybe that will zero down the activity, otherwise restart again.

But, the important part is, it is only happening when the cooler pad is under the laptop. That is the part I dont understand at all.

 

[AlHuneke]

Can you hit cntrl-alt-del and then bring up the task manager? May be slow happening but should come up. It may provide insight into what is consuming the computer resources. Also look in the error log at the time of the problem and look at events being logged (restart the computer and use the time stamp to look at the right events).

As an engineer with many years of hardware experience I can tell you that thermal issues can be very difficult to resolve. What you are seeing is almost certainly a hardware issue. Maybe you just have to stop using the cooler. I don't have a way to help you resolve the issue. Sorry.

 

[Maetthy]

Thanks for the advices, it is just irritating to accept that I would have to stop using a tool that is able to boost the laptop's gaming performance, because someway it also causes damage to it, which I still do not understand how, and why, because as far as I know the overall result should be the actual opposite, less heat, increased performance and lifespan.