SSD on-demand TRIM

It could be some auto-maintenance routine that windows runs, but it isn't TRIM. TRIM won't cause your fan to engage-it is something the drive does pretty much independent of the rest of the system. It won't use CPU cycles and it won't generate much or any extra heat.

Your ssd is not the cause of the fan speeding up.

What fan do you mean? CPU fan, GPU fan, case fan, or something else?

Did you check your motherboard's system BIOS. The BIOS has fan settings for the CPU heatsink and several additional fans. The fan(s) might be set to increase rpm based on an increases in cpu temperature. The settings might be off.

Check the fan settings for your graphics card too.

In all probability the problem is a Windows setting. When at idle the cpu is not actually 100% idle. There will be some fluctuations. Sometimes one of the cpu cores might hit as much as 30% usage when Windows is running something automatically in the background.

What applications and utilities do you have running in the background?

TRIM is a feature that was first introduced in Windows 7. It is designed to complement an ssd's garbage collection. In its simplest form TRIM is nothing more than a message from Windows to your ssd. The message is sent when you delete data from the ssd. The TRIM message notifies the ssd that you deleted data and it gives the location of the deleted data. By providing the exact location of the data you deleted it actually makes ssd garbage collection more efficient. Prior to TRIM, ssd's had to search for the data you deleted. In essence, TRIM speeds up garbage collection.

Once an SSD receives a TRIM message from Windows, it may or may not start garbage collection. Garbage collection is a common term for the process of actually deleting data and preparing the ssd data blocks for reuse. It does this with a small electrical charge. There are two types of garbage collection - aggressive and passive. Aggressive garbage collection is when an ssd starts the process immediately after receiving a TRIM message. Passive garbage collection is when a TRIM message is received but the ssd waits until the cpu is at idle or near idle before starting the process. Samsung uses passive garbage collection.

You can disable the TRIM feature by accessing the Windows registry and manually disabling it. However, the ssd will no longer know the location of the deleted data. On the other hand you can manually force garbage collection. Sometimes individuals incorrectly use the word TRIM as in "forcing trim" when what they actually mean is forcing garbage collection.

If you haven't already done so, then download and install the Samsung Magician utility from the Samsung web site. You can use it to force garbage collection. Under Disk Management click on Performance Optimization and then click on Start. There is a downside. During the performance optimization the ssd will enable TRIM in the Windows registry because it makes garbage collection more efficient. Otherwise the ssd will spend more time searching for the deleted data and use more resources.

BTW - I just used the Samsung Magician to force garbage collection on a Samsung 840 EVO 256GB ssd. The entire performance optimization, including garbage collection, took only 4 seconds. Naturally the time for completion will vary depending on circumstances.

Notebook explains why you mentioned just one fan.

I am not familiar with the type of utility you are asking about because I do case mods and build custom pc's. My current pc has four 140mm intake fans, four 140 mm exhaust fans, and three 140mm cpu heatsink fans. Temperature is not an issue.

I took a look at the TweakTown article. Looks like it would be a nice replacement for Windows TRIM and the Samsung Magician ssd optimizaion. What interested me was the fact that the utility keeps track of the location of deleted data and TRIM / garbage collection can be scheduled for a specific time of day.

Give it a try and let us know what happens. One of the fun parts of doing it yourself is being able to experiment and find out what works best for you.

How to disable TRIM in Windows 7:

http://mywindowshub.com/check-enable-disable-ssd-trim-support-windows-7-windows-8-1/

I have a suggestion. Before disabling TRIM in Windows download and install Core Temp:

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

It is a free utility that monitors cpu temperatures. I use it when running tests and experiments. Start the utility and let it run during the night. The utility records the current temp of each cpu core, the minimum core temperatures, and the maximum core temperatures. Tell us what the maximum cpu temps were during the night.

Windows sends the TRIM message to the ssd when a consumer deletes data. Windows does not do it on a regular schedule.

edit - I did a little research. According to several sources it is not necessary to schedule TRIM on a daily basis. In fact, there is no need to schedule TRIM at all. Instead, the recommendation is to manually run TRIM whenever you "feel" that ssd performance "might" be lagging.

1. I edited my previous post with information about scheduling TRIM. Not really necessary.

2. Yes, the TRIM/garbage collection process is something that wears down flash memory. However, is not a serious problem for consumers. For years now some individuals have been concerned that the flash memory in an ssd will wear our rather quickly. Part of the problem is that technical reviews sometimes mention that the flash memory will eventually wear out. Some readers overreact to the information. Then readers overreacted a second time when they read that newer types of flash memory will wear out quicker than older types of flash memory. What concerned individuals failed to realize is that it is still going to take a really long time to wear out the flash memory. Essentially some individuals made mountains out of molehills.

There are excellent web sites that publish technical reviews of ssd's. The Tech Report is a site that actually took the time to measure ssd endurance. The test took 18 months of continuous 24/7 operation just writing and erasing data over and over and over. The results were amazing. It turns out that ssd manufacturers and most technical reviews underestimated just how long an ssd can last.

Here are the links to all of their reports / updates:

http://techreport.com/review/24841/introducing-the-ssd-endurance-experiment

http://techreport.com/review/25320/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-22tb-update

http://techreport.com/review/25559/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-200tb-update

http://techreport.com/review/25681/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-testing-data-retention-at-300tb

http://techreport.com/review/25889/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-500tb-update

http://techreport.com/review/26058/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-data-retention-after-600tb

http://techreport.com/review/26523/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-casualties-on-the-way-to-a-petabyte

http://techreport.com/review/27062/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-only-two-remain-after-1-5pb

http://techreport.com/review/27436/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-two-freaking-petabytes

http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead

BTW - You mentioned a Samsung 850 Pro ssd. The Samsung warranty for that model is 10 years. Based on what we know is in the works, the 850 Pro will be obsolete long before the warranty expires.

Thanks for posting the cpu core temps. Those temps are for the cores embedded within the cpu. I did a little research over at Intel and discovered that technically the cpu core temps are within normal operating temperatures. The maximum temperature for your cpu is 100C. I found numerous threads in different forums posted by users who were concerned about the temps. Veteran posters and Intel maintain that temps between 45C to 50C at idle and 70C to 75C at 100% load for your specific cpu are considered acceptable. The general consensus is that an ssd would not cause a cpu to overheat.

Here are some things to check:

Improperly mounted heatsink(s), either not attached correctly or the thermal interface compound was improperly applied (if at all).

Blocked fans / airflow. Clean out the dust, clean the fins, etc.

Broken fans - either not working or not working well.

Too many processes running in the background. If you are using an intense application, find ways to disable or close applications running in the background to mitigate the CPU load.

Bad overall notebook design.

BTW - Are you using an external notebook cooler?

EDIT - OOPS! I forgot the Windows Event Viewer:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-information-event-logs-event-viewer#1TC=windows-7

Garbage collection is an ssd function which erases data stored in an ssd. It also clears the data blocks and prepares them for reuse. It is completely different from the way data is deleted from a hard disk drive. Garbage collection has the ability to work independently of TRIM.

TRIM is an operating system feature that sends a message to the ssd that a user has deleted data and identifies the exact location of data that is to be erased. TRIM was first added to Microsoft Windows 7 and Linux in late 2008. Since then, TRIM has been added to several other operating systems. Three years ago it was added to Android.

Tom's Hardware published the first ssd review in 2006. It was a Samsung prototype which was never manufactured due to problems. It took another 2 years for consumers to become interested in ssd's. The original SATA ssd's included garbage collection. Typically garabge collection was done automatically once every 24 hours. To this day all modern ssd's are capable of running garabge collection without an operating's system TRIM feature. There are two types of garbage collection - aggressive and passive. Aggressive garbage collection means that when an ssd intiates garbage collection it does so right away. It does not matter what the rest of the pc is doing. Passive garabage collection means that when an ssd inities garbage collection it might pause and wait until the cpu is in an idle or near idle state. Either way garbage collection works quite well by itself.

When as ssd initiates garbage collection it does not know which data has been deleted. In addition it does not know the location of the data. The ssd has to conduct a search to identify and locate the deleted data. That was the primary reason the international organization responsible for the SATA standard adopted the TRIM feature. The second reason TRIM was adopted was because the process of searching for deleted data and their locations could affect the write performance and endurance of the early SATA ssd's.

When Microsoft added TRIM to Windows 7 the explanation was that TRIM complimented and enhanced an ssd's garbage collection because the ssd no longer had to search for and identify the location of deleted data. In effect it eliminated some overheard and made garabage collection more efficient. During the early days some ssd's could read and understand the TRIM message and some could not. All modern ssd's all have the ability to read and understand the TRIM message. In Microsoft Windows TRIM is enabled by default.

Consumers have a tendency to confuse garabge collection and TRIM. It is not unusual for a consumer to refer to TRIM as if it were garbage collection. It definitely is not. We still see it here in the forums. Personally I have always made a distinction between garabage collection and TRIM in my forum comments during the past 8 years. In fact I usually refer to Trim as Windows Trim.

You're welcome. It was a pleasant diversion from my regular routine.

Actually I considered just posting a very brief comment:

TRIM = message sent by Windows

garbage collection = action taken by ssd.