SSD REFUSES TO MAINTAIN BOOT!!! KEEPS SWITCHING TO SATA!

[problematic88]

OH MY LORD.

New Asus ux31A.

32 gb SSD
500 SATA

i wiped everything clean, installed win7 on SSD.

The laptop will randomly shut down every two weeks or so and the boot order will automatically switch to the sata and will force me to go to bios and switch it myself.

What in the world is going on?

is this dangerous for my hardrives, could this mean the SSD is failing? or do the cables need to be switched or something.

What is the best solution to this problem? should i install win7 back to the SATA?

 

[RealBeast]

No its not dangerous for the HDDs and your SSD is probably okay -- run crystaldiskinfo on it to check its status: http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

Random shutdowns are more likely memory or heat related. Just to rule out memory, run Memtest86+ ( http://www.memtest.org/ ) just make a CD or USB stick to run it from. If the shutdowns occur with heavy use it could be a heat issue.

Also, check to see if there is a newer bios for the laptop.

 

[problematic88]

I have been getting a lot of error messages lately indicating that the memory is low and that i need to close down windows, I have no idea whats eating up he memory besides chrome.

 

[problematic88]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39801512@N05/8234611767/ (sata disk screen shot)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39801512@N05/8235675452/ (SSD)

 

[RealBeast]

Look in the task manager to see what processes (and services) are running and how much memory they are using. Do you run a good and up to date antivirus on the machine? How much physical memory does it have -- the standard 4Gb? That should be plenty if you don't have too many non-essential services running and no background programs. Does the C drive have a paging file set up on the SSD?

 

[problematic88]

How can it be heat related when my laptop will turn right back on after i switch the bios configs so I can boot. Its gotta be memory if the computer forgets which harddrive to boot from. ay caramba.

 

[problematic88]

the paging file is set to the SATA 500gb, its 4gb (non upgradable)
yeah i ran avast and avg and it found nothing but my serial keygenerators that were downloaded a looong time ago.

 

[problematic88]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39801512@N05/8235689298/ (processes in task manager)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39801512@N05/8234625595/ (mem)

 

[problematic88]

I just realized that all the programs that i had downloaded onto my D: Sata drive have been deleted, what does that mean? could it be because i named the folder "program files" ?

 

[babernet_1]

I'd guess your SSD is full.

 

[problematic88]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39801512@N05/8234688129/ Harddrives screenshot : SSD has 7 gb free

 

[RealBeast]

How can it be heat related when my laptop will turn right back on after i switch the bios configs so I can boot. Its gotta be memory if the computer forgets which harddrive to boot from. ay caramba.

While a computer can restart immediately after a heat related shutdown, you failed to mention the memory problem in your initial description -- so yes that of course make a memory insufficiency far more likely to be the issue.

 

[problematic88]

Please read all the messages posted, with images of task manager. I re-routed the paging file to D:

 

[RealBeast]

Google Chrome is using an awful lot of memory. Any other significant programs along with that could be enough to cause the shutdown occasionally.

Also, yes you need to keep more empty space on your SSD if at all possible -- it isn't causing the shutdowns, that is a memory shortage, but it will slow your SSD performance.

 

[problematic88]

What explains the program files for programs i installed on D: being deleted? I deleted all the extraneous add ons for chrome which is helping.

 

[RealBeast]

What explains the program files for programs i installed on D: being deleted? I deleted all the extraneous add ons for chrome which is helping.

With the computer crashes you can get registry errors and other problems that things can do strange stuff like disappear.

You can direct all FUTURE program installs to the D drive in a directory called program files if you change the registry key for that: http://www.intowindows.com/change-default-installation-directory-in-windows-7-vista/

You cannot just move programs over there, but there are how-to's to accomplish a move, although I would recommend just uninstalling them from the SSD and reinstalling them with the new registry key setting.

And you don't have a ton of space left on that D drive either, so keep an eye on it.

Above all, back up important stuff elsewhere.

 

[problematic88]

are you guys using chrome? is it suppose to suck up that much memory? should i switch do a different OS? im ready to kick win7, ive never had a laptop crash so many times. and I have absolutely nothing fancy running and its eating up all the memory, that just doesn't sound normal. The interesting thing is that I dont get a memory low warning when the laptop randomly shuts down. thats not fair!

 

[RealBeast]

I use Firefox. Windows 7 is a great OS, but you have to recognize the limitations of your system and not use so many start up services that use all your memory up and fill up that pretty small SSD.

 

[problematic88]

thats the thing ive disabled as many start ups as I possibly can, i have no idea what this laptop was made for if it keeps crashing, this is the first time i dished out 850 bucks for a "new" laptop, and ive never had this much drama.

 

[RealBeast]

With the tiny SSD, you may get the best performance by using Intel RST and disk caching instead of using that SSD as an OS disk.

There isn't much that you can do with 4Gb of ram that cannot be upgraded so you have to use very efficient programs -- like a light weight good browser such as Avant ( http://www.avantbrowser.com/default.aspx?uil=en-us ) or Slimbrowser ( http://www.slimbrowser.net/en/ ). With either of those you should be using way less ram that will allow you to do more than just run a browser.

 

[Sakkura]

are you guys using chrome? is it suppose to suck up that much memory? should i switch do a different OS? im ready to kick win7, ive never had a laptop crash so many times. and I have absolutely nothing fancy running and its eating up all the memory, that just doesn't sound normal. The interesting thing is that I dont get a memory low warning when the laptop randomly shuts down. thats not fair!

It's not unusual for a browser to use that much memory. It's a bit on the high side but it also depends on addons installed, number of tabs open, and the content of the pages loaded.

 

[problematic88]

Can you elaborate on what disk caching? like partioning the sata for the OS?

 

[Sakkura]

Can you elaborate on what disk caching? like partioning the sata for the OS?

You can set the SSD up to act as a cache for the hard drive. The SSD will cease to act as an independent drive, and instead speed up the hard drive enormously. Then you'd install everything on the hard drive and use the computer as if it had one big and fast drive, instead of one small, very fast SSD and a big, slow hard drive.

 

[RealBeast]

Can you elaborate on what disk caching? like partioning the sata for the OS?

Read more about it here: http://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/intel_smart_response_technology_user_guide_2.pdf

Basically, it creates a "smart cache" of the most used data requests on the SSD, but somewhat in RAID fashion the SSD and HDD appear as one drive. It is used to enhance HDD performance by using the SSD as a large HDD data cache.

 

[problematic88]

I think there is a hardware problem, today it shut off twice, and i wasnt max runing 2gb memory, there has to be something wrong. i really cants stand this problem on a new laptop. im going to try re-installing win7 on the sata and hope the issue stops.