1TB Storage Expansion Overheating

CJ_Elevated · August 29, 2021, 9:42pm

My 1TB storage expansion card quickly overheats. Anyone else have this issue? While doing moderate writes to the storage card (10Gb - 15GB) the write speed will start at about 650 Mb/S and within 10 seconds the SSD temp will hit 70C and the write speed will drop to about 54 Mb/S. Within 30 seconds the Temp will hit 75C and the drive will throttle down to about 1 MB/S. The drive is not just reporting hot, it gets physically hot. This also happens on reads too, but to a lesser extent. Is it possible I just have a defective SSD?

Atul_Ingle · August 29, 2021, 10:23pm

Could this be related to the EMI sticker issue? https://knowledgebase.frame.work/en_us/one-port-on-my-laptop-does-not-function-correctly-r1mqMnTet

CJ_Elevated · August 29, 2021, 10:43pm

@Atul_Ingle No the shielding is fine, but I guess I should also mention the drive overheats exactly the same when connected to other computers in a USB 3.2 Type C port.

ImaxinarDM · August 29, 2021, 11:48pm

@CJ_Elevated
I have not gotten my unit yet (next week hopefully) but I would be tempted to take it apart, remove the circuit board and drill holes in the covers. It’s a tiny enclosed space.

CJ_Elevated · August 30, 2021, 2:01am

@ImaxinarDM I’ve completely removed it from the enclosure and tested it, no change. I’ve also tried it with the laptop on a cooling pad with 4 120mm fans. It just overheats and throttles to almost a dead stop every time. It is in fact the NAND Flash chip overheating, I have a blister on my finger that confirms it.

ImaxinarDM · August 30, 2021, 4:38am

@CJ_Elevated

Ouch, that’s not a good thing then.

I wonder how hot the smaller one gets then?

nrp · August 30, 2021, 4:44am

Thanks for reporting this. We’re digging into what could be happening here. I have tested the 250GB Expansion Card I have on hand, but can’t get it to go over 70C while running CrystalDiskMark. I’ll try out some 1TB cards when I am in the office.

CJ_Elevated · August 30, 2021, 7:59am

@nrp This is the result of a single 16GB crystaldiskmark sequential run. The drive hit 70C almost instantly and crept up to 75C withing 1 minute.

DannyT · August 30, 2021, 1:15pm

I ordered one of these… *gulp

“I had the special!, Change my order to the soup!” - Barf

In all serious though I am hoping you just have a lemon. Anyone else with the 1TB expansion card have issues?

@nrp We will wait patiently for your test results

jma · August 30, 2021, 1:48pm

@CJ_Elevated Thanks so much for doing such a thorough job investigating this issue. I plan to add one of these to my laptop, hoping this doesn’t become an issue with all storage expansion cards(!).

nrp · August 30, 2021, 4:28pm

Thanks. It looks like something is wrong with that card. That benchmark should reach >950MB/s on read and close to that on write with those settings. Could you reach out to Support? We’ll trade your card so that we can analyze that one.

KOSTYANTYN_RUKHLIS · August 30, 2021, 7:09pm

By the way, it can be a short circuit issue, solder shorts 2 contacts or components. Few years ago I had the same issue with the Kingston SSD. And the company was laughing on me, saying it’s impossible because the 500GB model is tested by the millions of users and has no issues so far. But after the investigation they have confirmed it was poor manufacturing issue, solderer just shorts 2 contacts of their SSD chip. So I’ve got a 1TB free substitution instead and voucher code for 5% discount on my next purchase.

taeyeon · August 31, 2021, 5:47pm

~70 C isn’t bad for a NAND storage device. Flash is easier to write at higher temperatures.

CJ_Elevated · August 31, 2021, 6:38pm

@taeyeon No 70C is usually where 3D TLC NAND flash begins to thermal throttle, as it definitely did in this case, and 75C is where it completely throttles down to about 1.5MB/s.

Brendan_Seabrook · August 31, 2021, 6:56pm

Also there are laws/certifications restricting how hot ‘Information technology equipment’ can get if it is metal has a chance of coming into contact with exposed skin. IEC 60950-1 states that it is 55C at 35C ambient. Not sure if the rule would be slightly different because the module enclosure is plastic (right?) but anything above 55C on your lap will be uncomfortable.

nrp · September 1, 2021, 5:36pm

I tested 8 1TB Expansion Card in the office with the 16GiB test in CrystalDiskMark. The good news is that they all performed as expected. The bad news is that we still don’t know what caused the specific card in question to not perform as expected. We’re doing a trade to get that card back for failure analysis.

DannyT · September 1, 2021, 8:19pm

@nrp Good, you can send me one of those cards JK (was told my order will be shipped without the 1TB card and that the card would be sent out mid Sept. separately LOL)

DannyT · September 18, 2021, 10:35pm

WD Black nVME is great… but should I be worried about my 1TB Expansion card? Preforms great with the 1GiB test but 16GiB seems to pass a temp of 70 and throttles bad.

I have already put 700GB of games on the SSD… going to have to watch the temp when I play.

Eduimudzz · September 19, 2021, 2:47am

Not surprising for a phison controller with a single nand. Do all of them use the same nand chips?

o_o · September 25, 2021, 10:16pm

I have had the same issue with my 1TB card. I have troed a few different times copying data to it with different formats as well. (ext4 and exFat and NTFS). I finally had a working windows install, and benchmarked the module. I think I may have a faulty one, as it starts off fast then gets quite slow in less than two minutes. I’ve seen small drives with good performance. and on this, i’d like to find a way to sync to the metal bottom of the module to act as a heat sync.