Hello!
I recently bought a new M.2 SSD (Kingston A2000 1tb) and installed it in my computer (HP EliteDesk 800 G2 mini). My intention was for it to replace a old SATA ssd (Sandisk X400 SD8SB8U-256G-1006).
The problem I am having is that when using the new SSD and running out of ram, but having a low of swap free, the system freezes and never returns. (It may also be freezing at other times, I’m not sure. I’m sure though that the system always freezes when it runs out of ram).
When I first got the SSD I did a clean install of Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.1. And experienced freezes 2-3 times a day. Thinking that I might have messed up some settings I decided to clone my old install to the new SSD (using gparted).
I now run Linux Mint 20.1 MATE on btrfs, which I cloned from my old SSD (which I have disabled in order to not create any conflicts of UUIDs). I was not able to copy the SWAP partition, so I created a new one and changed my /etc/fstab to use the new one instead, and it’s detected (activity monitor shows available swap).
I have read on some online forums that NCQ on some SSD’s could cause issues like this, although all threads mentioning it, that i found, was from 2012-2014, so it might have been solved.
Therefore I have set the kernel flag “libata.force=noncq”. It might have made the crashes less common, but it still happens every time the ram is filled up (maybe also at other times).
I have tested filling up the ram when using my old SSD. If I do it very quick, the system temporarily freezes whilst swapping to the SSD, but then resumes as if nothing happened. So the difference to the new SSD, is that the new one never recover.
After the freezes I experienced btrfs errors (mostly wrong amount of free space in block) but those was repaired by mounting with the clear_cache option.
Does anyone of you have an idea what could be the problem?
Extra question: If I’ll end up returning the SSD, what is the best way to securely wipe it?
