Excessive power cycles and unsafe shutdowns reported by smartctl

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
1

Which Linux distro are you using?
Archlinux

Which release version?
(if rolling release without a release version, skip this question)

(If rolling release, last date updated?)
October 16th, 2025

Which kernel are you using?
6.12.50-1-lts

Which BIOS version are you using?
3.07

Which Framework Laptop 16 model are you using?
AMD Ryzen 7040 Series

First SSD: WD BLACK SN770 1TB
Second SSD: WD BLACK SN770M 1TB

RAM: 2x 32GB Kingston Impact DDR5 5600

Over in the Laptop 13 forum I saw a discussion concerning smartctl reporting excessive power cycles and unsafe shutdowns. Out of curiosity, I ran smartctl (which I am too lazy to do regularly :zany_face:) and found interesting values:

First SSD (nvme0):
Power Cycles: 1.111
Power On Hours: 80
Unsafe Shutdowns: 26

Second SSD (nvme1):
Power Cycles: 111.251
Power On Hours: 144
Unsafe Shutdowns: 110.166

I did not observe any problems with the second SSD, suspend and hibernate also work as expected; but I think that such an amount of unsafe shutdowns cannot be very healthy over time.

2

I’ve always seen smartctl show high power cycle counts on SSD’s, going all the way back to my first SSD’s about 15 years ago. It’s the SSD counting power-save mode as low-enough activity that exiting power-save counts as a cycle. I’ve not seen it affect the durability of devices.

K3n.

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