Short Self test = bsod WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR

[vtcdotr]

Hello! I installed HDSentinel (last stable version) and run Short Self test on SSD. In the middle of the test I got bluescreen WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR. Writing data about bluescreen was stuck at 0%. After that the computer rebooted itself and went right into bios, no SSD here, not detected. I rebooted the PC once and still no SSD in bios. After that I turned off the PSU and waited 5 minutes. After that the windows has been loaded successfully but no bluescreen dump (BlueScreenView).

Also my SSD's health is dropping very fast. Controller PS5018-E18-41, brand Edge Memory. The firmware is very old, do you know how to update the firmware for this controller? Edge Memory doesn't have any official tools.

April-29-2024
Health Status : Good (99 %)
Power On Hours : 112 hours
Power On Count : 109 count
Host Reads : 137 GB
Host Writes : 481 GB

May-17-2024
Health Status : Good (97 %)
Power On Hours : 395 hours
Power On Count : 151 count
Host Reads : 588 GB
Host Writes : 1398 GB

May-22-2024
Health Status : Good (96 %)
Power On Hours : 478 hours
Power On Count : 156 count
Host Reads : 1339 GB
Host Writes : 1895 GB

May-31-2024
Health Status : Good (95 %)
Power On Hours : 615 hours
Power On Count : 175 count
Host Reads : 3295 GB
Host Writes : 2554 GB

June-06-2024
Health Status : Good (94 %)
Power On Hours : 701 hours
Power On Count : 181 count
Host Reads : 3426 GB
Host Writes : 2691 GB

HDSentinel report:

-- Physical Disk Information - Disk: #2: SSDM2E16V2TB --

Hard Disk Summary
-------------------
Hard Disk Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2
Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : NVMe
Disk Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Standard NVM Express Controller (NVMe) [VEN: 1987, DEV: 5018] Version: 10.0.19041.1266, 6-21-2006
Disk Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Bus Number 0, Target Id 0, LUN 0
Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : SSDM2E16V2TB
Firmware Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : EIFM21.1
Hard Disk Serial Number . . . . . . . . . . . . : *
Total Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1907726 MB
Power State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Active
Device Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Fixed Disk
Logical Drive(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : C: [] D: [Games]
Current Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 35 °C
Power On Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 30 days, 7 hours
Estimated Remaining Lifetime . . . . . . . . . . : more than 1000 days
Lifetime Writes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.79 TB
Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ##################-- 94 % (Excellent)
Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : #################### 100 % (Excellent)

The status of the solid state disk is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found.
The health is determined by SSD specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute(s): Available Spare (Percent), Percentage Used
The TRIM feature of the SSD is supported and enabled for optimal performance.
No actions needed.

Properties
------------
NVMe Standard Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1.4
PCI Vendor ID (VID) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0x1987 (Phison Electronics Corporation)
PCI Subsystem Vendor ID (SSVID) . . . . . . . . : 0x1987 (Phison Electronics Corporation)
IEEE OUI Identifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : A7-79-64
Recommended Arbitration Burst (RAB) . . . . . . : 1
Multi-Interface Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . : 0
Maximum Data Transfer Size . . . . . . . . . . . : 512 (9)
Abort Command Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 4
Asynchronous Event Request Limit . . . . . . . . : 4
Number FW Slots Support . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1
Maximum Error Log Page Entries . . . . . . . . . : 63
Total Number Of Power States . . . . . . . . . . : 5
Admin Vendor Specific CMD Format . . . . . . . . : 1
Submission Queue Entry Size . . . . . . . . . . : Max: 64, Min: 64
Completion Queue Entry Size . . . . . . . . . . : Max: 16, Min: 16
Number Of Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1
Stripe Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0
Highest Possible Transfer Rate . . . . . . . . . : PCIe 4.0 x4
Negotiated Transfer Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . : PCIe 4.0 x4
Maximum Power (mW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 8800

NVMe Features
---------------
Doorbell Buffer Config . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Virtualization Management . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
NVMe MI Send/Receive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Device Self-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Extended Self-test Estimated Time . . . . . . . : 10 minutes
Only One Device Self-test . . . . . . . . . . . : No
Namespace Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Firmware Activate Download . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Format NVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Security Send Receive . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Firmware Activation Without Reset . . . . . . . : Supported
First Firmware Slot Read Only . . . . . . . . . : No
Command Effects Log Page . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
SMART Information Per Namespace . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Reservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Save / Select Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Write Zeroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Dataset Management Command . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Write Uncorrectable Command . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Compare Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Compare And Write Fused Operation . . . . . . . : Not supported
Cryptographic Erase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Secure Erase All Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Format All Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Volatile Write Cache Present . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Autonomous Power State Transitions . . . . . . . : Supported
Atomic Compare And Write Unit . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Scatter Gather List (SGL) . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Host Controlled Thermal Management . . . . . . . : Supported
Thermal Management Temperature 1 . . . . . . . . : 349 °K (76 °C)
Thermal Management Temperature 2 . . . . . . . . : 352 °K (79 °C)
Warning Composite Temperature Threshold . . . . : 357 °K (84 °C)
Critical Composite Temperature Threshold . . . . : 362 °K (89 °C)
Sanitize Overwrite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Sanitize Block Erase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Sanitize Crypto Erase . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported

NVMe Namespace Information
----------------------------
NS 1 Total Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 3907029168
NS 1 Bytes Per Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 512
NS 1 Active LBA Format Index . . . . . . . . . . : 0
NS 1 LBA Formats Supported . . . . . . . . . . . : 2
NS 1 LBA Format List (Disk Performance) . . . . : 512 (Good), 4096 (Better)

S.M.A.R.T.
------------
Attribute Threshold Value
Critical Warning 0
Composite Temperature (Kelvin) 308
Available Spare (Percent) 100
Available Spare Threshold 5
Percentage Used 6
Data Units Read (512000 Bytes) 7,933,560
Data Units Written (512000 Bytes) 5,984,848
Host Read Commands 60,100,309
Host Write Commands 86,045,083
Controller Busy Time (minutes) 732
Power Cycles 185
Power On Hours 727
Unsafe Shutdowns 66
Media and Data Integrity Errors 0
Number of Error Information Log Entries 272
Warning Composite Temperature Time (minutes) 0
Critical Composite Temperature Time (minutes) 0

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the information and the report.

Your SSD surely has a firmware bug which causes that it "hangs" during the self test as you can see until a complete power cycle. No BSOD dump - because the SSD completely "stopped" - so Windows could not read/write and file until the power cycle. This caused the BSOD, like if you'd disconnect the OS drive.

I encountered similar once with a cheap/noname SATA SSD and Hard Disk Sentinel automatically prevents short/extended self test on it to avoid issues. Seems the firmware of the SSD is half-completed only: it shows that it supports the internal self tests (according the Information page and from the details you sent) but it does not know what to do when the self test command issued.

Hard Disk Sentinel help explains that these hardware self tests may not always possible/useful, so it is better to use the appropriate testing methods (eg. Disk menu -> Surface test -> Read test).


The Health is also related to the firmware. These SSDs internally calculates the Health % value based on the amount of written data. I completely agree that the degradation is very fast: a 2 TB SSD should tolerate writes much better.
Please check
https://www.hdsentinel.com/kb/category/16/solid-state-drives-ssds/why-my-ssd-shows-98-health-if-no-problems-reported.html
for more details about this situation.

I'm afraid I have no firmware update for this SSD. Yes, I'd surely recommend to ask the manufacturer for a possible update - hopefully they can provide an official firmware update tool.

[vtcdotr]

I completely agree that the degradation is very fast: a 2 TB SSD should tolerate writes much better.

Does it mean that SSD has actually lost 6% of health, so it's not just a visual/calculation bug?

I'd surely recommend to ask the manufacturer for a possible update

No updates from them:

I am sorry, but the unit would have shipped with the latest firmware. I do not have an updated firmware to send you.

[hdsentinel]

Hard Disk Sentinel (and generally other tools designed to check/report the Health) report the wearout level as calculated and provided by the SSD itself.
Hard Disk Sentinel explains that on the Overview page:

The health is determined by SSD specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute(s): Available Spare (Percent), Percentage Used

If you check the Percentage Used attribute, it is now 6
This is why the Health is 94%: 6% of the lifetime of the memory cells used (according the SSD itself).
This is calculated by the SSD firmware, the software "only" reads and displays the results.

Good to know that saving lots of small files can cause really fast degradation: so even the total amount of written data is relatively small (compared to the total capacity of the SSD), it can cause really fast wearout.
If possible, try to minimise the writes. This will not increase back the Health - but can slow down further degradation.