HDDs have been in the market for so long, but when SSDs arrived, they became so much popular in no time. The reason being– users were looking to boost system performance and SSDs served the purpose. SSDs are far more efficient when it comes to speed and durability.
Traditional hard disk drives that use rotating disks are sluggish in accessing data and therefore, degrades system performance. On the other hand, SDDs are faster and can easily handle heavy programs.
As the name indicates, SSDs, aka solid-state drives don’t have any moving parts inside them. The lack of moving parts and the use of flash memory in SSDs is what makes them better and faster. SSDs also use less energy which helps them run cooler.
While it may seem like SSDs are the ultimate drives you will ever need in your computers, but even SSDs are not perfect.
SSDs generally won’t overheat due to the absence of moving parts, but sometimes they may overheat. A lot of users complain about their SSDs getting overheated and they try to guess the cause behind it.
Before we dive in and see what causes SSDs to overheat, we should first know what exactly is overheating SSD.
The optimal temperature for SSDs
How hot do SSDs Get?
SSDs run well within a temperature of 0ºC to 70ºC. Does not matter what brand or model you have, most SSDs work fine within this temperature range.
If you would touch an SSD running at a temperature of 50ºC, it would feel hot and you might think that it is overheating. But as said, SSDs normally run within a temperature range of 0ºC to 70ºC.
When nothing is going on in your SSD, it would remain cooler. The temperature of SSD may increase significantly when you put it under the workload of heavy tasks. Therefore, it’s usual for SSDs to heat up when under the workload and cool down again when it’s not in heavy use.
If you notice that your SSD is overheating even when not in use or minimal use, then there might be something wrong.
When in use, most SSDs get heated up and the temperature stays between 30ºC to 50ºC. Again, it might feel hot to a human hand but it’s within the operational temperature range for an SSD.
Does that mean you should not care about your SSD getting overheated? No, you should care about overheating issues with your SSD.
Though your SSD might work fine even when operating at a high temperature, still you should try to keep it cool. Why? Because studies suggest that when SSDs run at a higher temperature, they are more likely to wear out soon and their lifetime decreases.
Therefore, keeping an eye on your SSDs temperature might be a good idea. But how do you measure the temperature of an SSD? You definitely don’t need a thermometer for it.
Measuring SSD Temperatures
To measure the temperatures of your solid-state drive, you could use the Open Hardware Monitor. It is free software that would allow you to see the temperatures of your drives.
SSDs are smart drives, most SSDs will start throttling when their temperature approaches near 70ºC. The drive will slow down a bit and let itself cool down.
When your SSD reaches a temperature of 70ºC and above, it slows down considerably and you will see glitches and pauses in your system performance. You would not want this to happen, therefore, try keeping your SSD cooler.
How to keep SSD cool?
SSDs generally don’t overheat but if they do, you should try to find out the cause and fix it accordingly. If your SSD is not overheating and running at the optimal temperature then you should not try to cool it down.
1. Determining the usage and reduce it
When SSDs are put in heavy workloads of reads and writes, their temperature rises, it’s normal. But if you see your SSD overheating more than normal, you could try putting less load on your SSD. Or, you should think to upgrade to a better SSD option such as Samsung. That is not the best solution, but worth trying to avoid wear out of flash memory inside the drive.
You should regularly close applications and programs running in the background and taking up disk memory. Go to task manager to find and such applications and end their execution.
2. Let your SSD get some air
SSD consumes very little energy and overheats rarely. If your SSD is warming up at an unusual rate, consider checking if it’s getting good airflow. If your SSD does not have access to proper airflow, consider fixing it.
Many SSD comes in an enclosure, make sure the enclosure takes heat away from the SSD rather than heating it.
3. Malware causing overheating?
If your task manager shows no processes running and you see full disk usage, malware might be troubling you in disguise. Certain malware programs are known for taking up disk space by running programs in the background. You should be wary of viruses and malware. Use antivirus software to inspect malware and virus attacks.
4. Anything else causing SSD to heat up?
Most models of SSDs run cool but they may get heated up by nearby components.
If you are on a PC or desktop, keep an eye on if the CPU is overheating. You might want to install a fan or a heatsink if your CPU is overheating.
Put your SSD in a place where it does not catches heat from the components that usually overheats.
Inside a laptop, if your SSD is getting heated by nearby components then you can’t do much about it. One solution could be getting your laptop checked and fixing the overheating issues of other components.
Few SSDs known for overheating
There are some models of solid-state drives that are popular for causing the overheating issue. If you have M.2 then it might be the reason for overheating. And mSATA SSDs are also not that good at keeping cool.
You may want to upgrade to a new SSD if overheating troubles you. Another solution could be ensuring good airflow and maybe using something like thermal pads to extract heat.
At How much Temperature my SSD will burn out?
Any Solid State Electronics will start to break down once they reach the frying temperature i.e. 120 Degrees. So, even if your Hardware monitoring is showing a temperature above 80 Degree, it is surely a warning sign. At that time, you will have to do something to fix it up.
In my suggestions, it will be good to get in touch with a professional and seek help to get rid of this issue.
The Final Fix?
There could be various reasons for an SSD to overheat. Heavy workload, lack of sufficient airflow, heat from nearby components, some not-so-good SSDs, etc are the common causes of SSD overheating.
If you have tried common fixes and your SSD still overheats, you may seek help from an expert. Most SSDs come with a warranty, consider reaching out to the manufacturer for some assistance. There is always a chance that your SSD is faulty.
Thanks for reading and hope it helps.
Also Read: SSD Buying Guide 2022
