Samsung SSD Causing Games to Freeze

[PearlsAnxiety]

I recently bought a Samsung 870 EVO 2TB SSD and had it installed into my computer. I redownloaded Steam onto it and have been having freezing issues ever since. I've tried several games with no luck, and I'm not sure what else to do. Sometimes it won't freeze for 20 minutes and sometimes it freezes every few seconds.

I've tried reinstalling Steam onto my C: drive and only installing the games onto the new drive, but that hasn't helped either. I've looked up the issue countless times and have tried the few fixes I understand but can't figure it out.

Here are some specs, not sure if everything here is needed and let me know if more info is needed:

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor 3.80 GHz
RAM: 16GB
Windows 11
The PC is a Lenovo Legion T5 26ARA8

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Do a drive health check.
Benchmark the drive
Updatessd firmware....

Using latest version of Samsung Magician

[Electric Cupcake]

Samdung often doesn't play nice with AMD storage controllers.

Update firmware if you can. Otherwise, start looking into RMA sooner than later, since it's 50/50 whether the bastards will honor the warranty or not.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

That's BS. I've always used Samsung SSDs on my systems; Intel or AMD; AMD from Phenom II AM2 to FX AM3 to Ryzen AM4 and AM5 stuff; never a problem.

Make sure you go download and install the Motherboard Chipset Driver and run the installer from Intel or AMD.

[Ralf]

Originally posted by Electric Cupcake:

Samdung often doesn't play nice with AMD storage controllers.

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

That's BS. I've always used Samsung SSDs on my systems; Intel or AMD; AMD from Phenom II AM2 to FX AM3 to Ryzen AM4 and AM5 stuff; never a problem.

But he's correct, from what I remember am2/am3/am3+ boards didnt really like Samsung(well at least the 860), there was freezing, no ACHI. On the other hand WD didnt like chipset lanes on AM4 boards.

My two 860 Evo worked fine on AM4 and AM5, on the other hand 870 Evo isn't that reliable.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by Ralf:

Originally posted by Electric Cupcake:

Samdung often doesn't play nice with AMD storage controllers.

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

That's BS. I've always used Samsung SSDs on my systems; Intel or AMD; AMD from Phenom II AM2 to FX AM3 to Ryzen AM4 and AM5 stuff; never a problem.

But he's correct, from what I remember am2/am3/am3+ boards didnt really like Samsung(well at least the 860), there was freezing, no ACHI. On the other hand WD didnt like chipset lanes on AM4 boards.

My two 860 Evo worked fine on AM4 and AM5, on the other hand 870 Evo isn't that reliable.

Ever AM2 board I ever used has proper AHCI for the SATA. Again I've done thousands of builds over the years. 7out of 10 were AMD. I've personally been using Samsung 850, 860, 870 EVO even on AM2 and AM3 boards. Was never a problem. Maybe if you bought junk, that's a personal problem really. I even have a Family PC here with an ASUS 890G chipseton it, purchased in 2011. Still running perfectly fine with a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB and 870 EVO 2TB. The other older AMD PC is ASUS Saber Tooth 990FX Rev2 and it has 860 EVO 1TB and 870 EVO 4TB. No issues. And all the SSDs have 93% or above wear & tear left. That 850 EVO 500GB was purchased in 2012 and had Wiin7 installed many times over. No issues. Later we put Win10 on it, Still working fine to tbis very day.

Most user issues I see over the years, especially since the release of Win8 and later is users not manually installing all proper drivers. If its an older board, not enabling AHCI forthe SATA mode, leaving Fast Startup and Hibernation enabled and using Sleep Mode. Don't use those junk features, disable them OS-wide. But yes, you must use AHCI otherwise the SSD will perform like a slow SATA1 drive.

[Illusion of Progress]

Originally posted by Ralf:

On the other hand WD didnt like chipset lanes on AM4 boards.

What are the specifics to this? I ask because I'm using a pair of Western Digital drives on an AM4 board and both are seemingly running fine.

[Andrius227]

Try a different sata cable, and maybe a different sata port.

[Bing Chilling]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

That's BS. I've always used Samsung SSDs on my systems; Intel or AMD; AMD from Phenom II AM2 to FX AM3 to Ryzen AM4 and AM5 stuff; never a problem.

Make sure you go download and install the Motherboard Chipset Driver and run the installer from Intel or AMD.

i also can corroborate that samsung drives have worked just fine with AMD
i used to have a phenom iix4 955 BE then a 1055T
and my first ever ssd was a 860 evo 250gb that i currently still use in my intel system.

like he said, make sure you have proper chipset drivers from your motherboard support page.

And in addition, if you have switch from INTEL to AMD or vise versa
but used the same windows copy i would suggest removing the old chipset drivers, via device manager as it's a good practice to avoid issues such as this. Or re-install windows
like i usually do. Though i know that can be a hassle so device manager is usually the simpler option.

[Bing Chilling]

Originally posted by PearlsAnxiety:

I recently bought a Samsung 870 EVO 2TB SSD and had it installed into my computer. I redownloaded Steam onto it and have been having freezing issues ever since. I've tried several games with no luck, and I'm not sure what else to do. Sometimes it won't freeze for 20 minutes and sometimes it freezes every few seconds.

I've tried reinstalling Steam onto my C: drive and only installing the games onto the new drive, but that hasn't helped either. I've looked up the issue countless times and have tried the few fixes I understand but can't figure it out.

Here are some specs, not sure if everything here is needed and let me know if more info is needed:

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor 3.80 GHz
RAM: 16GB
Windows 11
The PC is a Lenovo Legion T5 26ARA8

also OP
check this article about a similar freezing issue for your laptop
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Gaming-Desktops/Legion-T5-26ARA8-constant-freezes/m-p/5262136

[smokerob79]

Originally posted by Electric Cupcake:

Samdung often doesn't play nice with AMD storage controllers.

Update firmware if you can. Otherwise, start looking into RMA sooner than later, since it's 50/50 whether the bastards will honor the warranty or not.

where do these lies come from???.....I have samsung on my AMD rig and never had these issues.....I just dont understand why children need to lie.....

[Ralf]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

Originally posted by Ralf:

On the other hand WD didnt like chipset lanes on AM4 boards.

What are the specifics to this? I ask because I'm using a pair of Western Digital drives on an AM4 board and both are seemingly running fine.

NVMe SSD can experience a decrease in write performance when connected to a chipset M.2 slot on B550/X570 motherboards, max payload size (MPS) is set to 128 bytes (128B). WD released a firmware update for SN850 and X but for SN770 and 750 there's no fix.

[PearlsAnxiety]

Originally posted by Bing Chilling:

Originally posted by PearlsAnxiety:

I recently bought a Samsung 870 EVO 2TB SSD and had it installed into my computer. I redownloaded Steam onto it and have been having freezing issues ever since. I've tried several games with no luck, and I'm not sure what else to do. Sometimes it won't freeze for 20 minutes and sometimes it freezes every few seconds.

I've tried reinstalling Steam onto my C: drive and only installing the games onto the new drive, but that hasn't helped either. I've looked up the issue countless times and have tried the few fixes I understand but can't figure it out.

Here are some specs, not sure if everything here is needed and let me know if more info is needed:

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor 3.80 GHz
RAM: 16GB
Windows 11
The PC is a Lenovo Legion T5 26ARA8

also OP
check this article about a similar freezing issue for your laptop
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Gaming-Desktops/Legion-T5-26ARA8-constant-freezes/m-p/5262136

So this was actually my support post for a completely different issue when I bought my PC lol. Usernames are the same. That issue was resolved.

My friend is going to install the drive to his PC to see if it's an issue with the driver itself, if not I will try the recommendations above. If they don't work I'm just going to need to return it and get a different one.

[Illusion of Progress]

Originally posted by Ralf:

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

What are the specifics to this? I ask because I'm using a pair of Western Digital drives on an AM4 board and both are seemingly running fine.

NVMe SSD can experience a decrease in write performance when connected to a chipset M.2 slot on B550/X570 motherboards, max payload size (MPS) is set to 128 bytes (128B). WD released a firmware update for SN850 and X but for SN770 and 750 there's no fix.

Oh, okay, so what I was thinking of is indeed different to what you were mentioning.

Looking into it, I think (?) you were referring to seems to be this?

https://community.wd.com/t/fixed-sn850-1tb-nvme-slow-write-speeds-3100-on-x570-using-m2-chipset-slots-pch-confirmed-as-a-problem-on-msi-asrock-gigabyte-and-asus-motherboards/265038

I wasn't aware of that one. I never observed that on my drives (a pair of SN850Xs), but I got them in early 2023, which may have been after the issue was identified and resolved?

I thought what you might have been referring to was the more subtle speed difference that can exist on AM4 (even on X570 which has more bandwidth to go around) between the M2 connected to the CPU as opposed to M2 supplied by the chipset. That one isn't exclusive to SSD brand.

From what I remember when I looked it up, that one happens (at least on AM4) because the link between the CPU and chipset is PCI Express 4.0 X4 lanes. So if you populate a fast PCI Express 4.0 SSD in the second M2 port, even though the X570 chipset has enough bandwidth within itself to supply it, it's communicating to the CPU via the same amount of bandwidth a fast drive can use... while also having to share it with other stuff, like USB, SATA drives, Bluetooth, and other motherboard functions. Plus there's latency. In turn, this might have a slight impact on the speeds of the second SSD (if it's fast enough), but it's really only going to show up in some benchmarks. I don't notice a meaningful difference in real world use.

TL;DR: I wasn't aware of the more severe issue with write speeds on some Western Digital drives (probably because it was resolved for the drive I have before I got it) and thought you might have been referring to the other behavior.

[AmaiAmai]

Originally posted by PearlsAnxiety:

Sometimes it won't freeze for 20 minutes and sometimes it freezes every few seconds.

1. What does "freeze" mean. The entire PC freezes without blue screen or just the game? If it's that it freezes without a bluescreen that means that a kernel-mode driver issue exists, the device has an incompatibility with the board, OR the device or some other one is malfunctioning or throwing a flag that Windows cannot handle (overheat, hub/controller short from bad contact, drive disconnecting because of power save options and buggy implementation, etc.)

1B. Is that drive the BOOT drive or nonboot?

2. Are you certain the drive isn't a dud? It's always possible it's a bad one. Brand does not matter, any drive can be a dud.

3. Have you made sure that:

A. You are in UEFI mode -- you can use a tool like HWInfo to check it. To use a drive that size you have to be in UEFI mode.

B. SSD is properly installed and it in its socket and NOT overheating from bad airflow or a stupid design decision where the GPU will blow hot air on it. Most SSDs allow you to see their temperature with third party tools.

C. Drivers are properly installed for your computer. You can get the chipset drivers from AMD, caution though that some of these drivers can be an issue. You should not get drivers from Windows Update and disable automatic driver updates in Windows so it does not replace drivers without your consent

D. There is no board or BIOS update addressing the issue with SSD compatability (check manufacturer for firmware updates). If you don't know how to do it, contact the manufacturer -- you paid for their support after all.

--

First guess: sounds like either bad drive or incompatibility. SSDs also get firmware updates to fix problems and boards do too. I would check that first. Again, if you don't know how, best to contact the manufacturer as they will know what firmware is best for you and whether or not others reported such issues.