Problem with Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 - ST1000DM003

[NoKeR]

The hard drive in question is a 1 TB Seagate, its use is storage and to install some games. As the main drive I use an SSD.

The problem occurs when playing, occasionally there are micro stutters in the image within the game of about 1 second that are quite annoying, I have verified that it is the hard drive because they do not occur on the SSD, in addition the micro stutter coincides with a "strange" sound from the hard drive, according to what I read the sound comes from the APM (Advanced Power Management), but I really don't know much about the subject. At first I thought it could be a problem with the virtual memory, but I increased it and the problem persists.

Below I leave you a screen of the state of the drive in case you observe something strange. Let's see if we can find a solution.

[Sylver]

Hello,

Depending on how noticeable the microstutters are, we may be talking about an inevitable lag between the SSD's read speed (which governs the system) and the HDD's read speed (which contains the game, and due to its lower speed, the SSD has to "wait for it", that is, the system has to "wait for it").

If you were talking about microstutters that tend to be more like large stutters, then we could indeed be talking about a failure in the hard drive, either in the controller, in the wiring or it could be in the board (remember those famous failures in the SATA ports of the boards with revision B2 of the chipset for Sandy Bridge).

Best regards

[NoKeR]

Hello Sylver

The micro-jerks don't last long, what's annoying is that they repeat every so often in a non-uniform way, I don't know if the fact that the games are a bit old also influences it, the truth is that it's a bit strange.

What really worries me is that the hdd is not in good condition and since it's not carrying a considerable workload, the problem doesn't really show itself, anyway, I bought it in October of last year and theoretically it had a two-year warranty.

By the way, the motherboard is an Asrock z97 pro4

Regards

[krampak]

If the capture is good, that disk is bad (search errors, reallocated sectors, cyclic redudancy check..). I don't know at what point you can request a warranty replacement, I don't know what fault tolerance a disk has before entering warranty.
In any case, try running a CHKDSK /p /r to see if it finds/repairs anything.

[Sylver]

It's strange, because I have some older SATA than that (and as the main system) and with certain values slightly altered, almost worse than in this case, but it remains in "Good" condition and does not give me lag in games or fail in any aspect. It may be due to a confluence of everything said above, perhaps.

Regards

[Yorus]

It's curious that the values are marked as good and the one for reallocated sectors I see as zero.

In Hiren's Boot there is an application that does a more thorough check of the disk's operation, even the time it takes to read a specific sector. I have come across cases of hard drives that had more or less correct SMART problems but that program exposed them. I think it's MHDD, which is a bit abrupt to handle, but very reliable.

But don't discount software either, because that error might be more noticeable with a hard drive because it's more "slow to react" than an SSD, but it could be anything. I would try to disable all possible software at startup, including antivirus and test.

[krampak]

If they are above the threshold, they are bad, right?

[ferelxyx]

is the disk partitioned or whole? I suppose you will have it defragmented,
if you have it in a partition, if it is fragmented a little you will have that with games and some application that reads the disk a lot,

you also do not indicate what equipment you have, as it may be something else

regards

[NoKeR]

@ferelxyx:

is the disk partitioned or whole?, I suppose you will have it defragmented,
if you have it in a partition, if it is fragmented a little you will have this problem with games and some application that reads a lot from the disk,

you also do not indicate what equipment you have, because it may be something else

regards

The disk has two partitions, one I use to install games, another for videos and other downloaded files. Both partitions are defragmented, unfortunately it is one of the first things I did.

Equipment:
CPU: Intel core i5 4690K
Motherboard: Asrock z97 pro4
RAM: 8GB G Skill Ripjaw DDR 3 1600
SSD: Crucial M550 256 GB
Power supply: Templarius Imperator 650W 80 plus bronze

[Fassou]

Surely the problem is due to one of the modern energy-saving systems of the mechanical disks now, which in some cases, can not be deactivated :facepalm:

If you have Intel's software installed for HDD management, try disabling power management in the application.

Salu2!

[NoKeR]

@Fassou:

Probably the problem is due to one of the modern energy-saving systems of the mechanical disks now, which in some cases, can not be deactivated :facepalm:

If you have Intel's software installed for HDD management, try disabling energy management in the application.

Salu2!

I have it deactivated, I have even tried uninstalling it but nothing works.

[Fassou]

If you have already disabled it in Intel Rapid (Performance and Energy), check the BIOS, in case you have any more options, but perhaps you have one of those HDDs that save energy autonomously, and only by modifying the firmware could they be forced not to park heads every so often.

Salu2!

[Yorus]

@krampak:

¿ If they are above the threshold they are bad no?

I don't have much idea of how to interpret the 'Actual', 'Worst' and 'Threshold' values, but the column to look at is 'Raw values'. By default it is in hexadecimal, but there is an option to put it in decimal.

[Sylver]

@Yorus:

I don't have much idea of how to interpret the 'Actual', 'Worst' and 'Threshold' values, but the column to take into account is the 'Raw values'. By default it is in hexadecimal, but there is an option to put it in decimal.

I basically go by the color… When something is yellow, there is a risk of mortal death :ugly:
And I've seen some turn red overnight, so... Anything is possible :mudo:

The fact that the game is old should not affect its operation, in fact, it should make it easier for a recent computer to run it without problems.

I still insist on a hypothetical mismatch between the SSD and the mechanical drive, but try running an HD Tune on it, see what values it gives you. (Health status, sector test, etc).

Regards

[NoKeR]

@Fassou:

If you have already disabled it in Intel Rapid (Performance and Energy), check the BIOS, in case you have any more options, but perhaps you have one of those HDDs that save energy autonomously, and only by modifying the firmware could you force them not to park heads every so often.

Salu2!

The BIOS option to save energy on the disk was disabled.

The screenshots are a bit small, but I think they are well appreciated.

[Fassou]

I have an HDD like yours, although it has firmware C44, but the value that you show in blue I have as 200 and 200, not with 1 like yours.

Do you have the memory latencies very tight?

Regards!

[NoKeR]

@Fassou:

I have an HDD like yours, although it has firmware C44, but the value that you show in blue I have as 200 and 200, not with 1 like yours.

Do you have the memory timings very tight?

Cheers!

I haven't touched them, they are from the factory, AIDA64 shows 7-8-8-24 CR2

[Sylver]

That error I think was sometimes attributed to possible problems in the disk connection, either in ports or in cables, because in one of mine I also had it on alert once and I was checking it.

Greetings

[Fassou]

Pass a Memtest, and try changing the SATA port. Salu2!

[NoKeR]

@Fassou:

Run a Memtest, and try changing the SATA port.

Salu2!

I have run the Memtest and it has not given any errors, in the image it is the second pass.

I have also tried different SATA ports and a different cable, the problem persists