My old Windows 7 pro sp1 laptop is becoming slow.
It freezes randomly for between 1 and 3 seconds before displaying a context menu, or when switching between windows.
After long searches, I suspect the hard drive, but Windows doesn't report any error.
Smartctl shows me that the Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy SATA Phy Event counter is increasing fast (about once per second) :
C:\windows\system32>smartctl -l sataphy /dev/sda
smartctl 6.4 2015-06-04 r4109 [i686-w64-mingw32-win7(64)-sp1] (sf-6.4-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-15, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)
ID Size Value Description
0x0001 4 0 Command failed due to ICRC error
0x0002 4 0 R_ERR response for data FIS
0x0003 4 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS
0x0004 4 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS
0x0005 4 0 R_ERR response for non-data FIS
0x0006 4 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS
0x0007 4 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS
0x0008 4 0 Device-to-host non-data FIS retries
0x0009 4 31518 Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy
[...]
Should I worry about this high value for the Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy counter ?
(I don't know what this counter means exactly)
Thanks for any information.
More info about the laptop :
Model : HP Probook 4720s
Hard drive : TOSHIBA MK3261GSYN
Edit : complete report for smartctl -x :
smartctl 6.4 2015-06-04 r4109 [i686-w64-mingw32-win7(64)-sp1] (sf-6.4-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-15, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Toshiba 2.5" HDD MK..61GSY[N]
Device Model: TOSHIBA MK3261GSYN
Serial Number: 41H4D37SB
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000039 33a70426b
Firmware Version: MH000C
User Capacity: 320 072 933 376 bytes [320 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is: SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Mon Jan 18 15:24:51 2016 PM
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
AAM feature is: Unavailable
APM level is: 128 (minimum power consumption without standby)
Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
Write cache is: Enabled
ATA Security is: Disabled, frozen [SEC2]
Wt Cache Reorder: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 120) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x51) SMART execute Offline immediate.
No Auto Offline data collection support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
No Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 64) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x003f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-K 100 100 050 - 0
2 Throughput_Performance POS--K 100 100 050 - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time PO---K 100 100 002 - 1252
4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 2132
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 073 073 010 - 563
7 Seek_Error_Rate POSR-K 100 100 050 - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance P-S--K 100 100 050 - 0
9 Power_On_Minutes -O--CK 071 071 000 - 193h+48m
10 Spin_Retry_Count PO--CK 142 100 030 - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 2125
183 Runtime_Bad_Block -O--CK 100 100 001 - 0
184 End-to-End_Error PO--CK 100 100 097 - 0
185 Unknown_Attribute -O--CK 100 100 001 - 65535
187 Reported_Uncorrect -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0
188 Command_Timeout -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0
189 High_Fly_Writes -O-RCK 100 100 001 - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O---K 060 050 040 - 40 (Min/Max 14/42)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate -O--CK 100 100 000 - 57
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O---K 100 100 000 - 983055
193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 085 085 000 - 151941
196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 59
197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
||||||_ K auto-keep
|||||__ C event count
||||___ R error rate
|||____ S speed/performance
||_____ O updated online
|______ P prefailure warning
General Purpose Log Directory Version 1
SMART Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]
Address Access R/W Size Description
0x00 GPL,SL R/O 1 Log Directory
0x01 SL R/O 1 Summary SMART error log
0x02 SL R/O 51 Comprehensive SMART error log
0x03 GPL R/O 64 Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log
0x06 SL R/O 1 SMART self-test log
0x07 GPL R/O 1 Extended self-test log
0x09 SL R/W 1 Selective self-test log
0x10 GPL R/O 1 SATA NCQ Queued Error log
0x11 GPL R/O 1 SATA Phy Event Counters log
0x80-0x9f GPL,SL R/W 16 Host vendor specific log
0xe0 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Command/Status
0xe1 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Data Transfer
SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (64 sectors)
No Errors Logged
SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 11628 -
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
SCT Status Version: 2
SCT Version (vendor specific): 1 (0x0001)
SCT Support Level: 1
Device State: Active (0)
Current Temperature: 41 Celsius
Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature: 14/42 Celsius
Lifetime Min/Max Temperature: 10/50 Celsius
Under/Over Temperature Limit Count: 0/0
SCT Temperature History Version: 2
Temperature Sampling Period: 1 minute
Temperature Logging Interval: 1 minute
Min/Max recommended Temperature: 0/60 Celsius
Min/Max Temperature Limit: 0/60 Celsius
Temperature History Size (Index): 478 (449)
Index Estimated Time Temperature Celsius
... ..( 25 skipped). .. *********************
441 2016-01-18 15:16 40 *********************
442 2016-01-18 15:17 41 **********************
443 2016-01-18 15:18 40 *********************
444 2016-01-18 15:19 40 *********************
445 2016-01-18 15:20 40 *********************
446 2016-01-18 15:21 41 **********************
447 2016-01-18 15:22 40 *********************
448 2016-01-18 15:23 40 *********************
449 2016-01-18 15:24 41 **********************
SCT Error Recovery Control:
Read: Disabled
Write: Disabled
Device Statistics (GP/SMART Log 0x04) not supported
SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)
ID Size Value Description
0x0001 4 0 Command failed due to ICRC error
0x0002 4 0 R_ERR response for data FIS
0x0003 4 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS
0x0004 4 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS
0x0005 4 0 R_ERR response for non-data FIS
0x0006 4 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS
0x0007 4 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS
0x0008 4 0 Device-to-host non-data FIS retries
0x0009 4 48982 Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy
0x000a 4 0 Device-to-host register FISes sent due to a COMRESET
0x000b 4 0 CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
0x000d 4 0 Non-CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
0x000f 4 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, CRC
0x0010 4 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, non-CRC
0x0012 4 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, CRC
0x0013 4 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, non-CRC
Edit 14/04/2016: 3 monthes later... Finally I replaced the original 320 Gb TOSHIBA MK3261GSYN by a Western Digital 500 Gb WD5000BPKX (I restored the original partitions and system, windows has only installed a new driver at the first reboot).
This has solved the latency problem, I don't fear opening Word or Visual Studio any more (although windows experience Index hasn't changed !).
However, smartctl still shows this "Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy" counter increasing at 2/seconds.
C:\windows\system32>smartctl -l sataphy /dev/sda
smartctl 6.4 2015-06-04 r4109 [i686-w64-mingw32-win7(64)-sp1] (sf-6.4-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-15, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)
ID Size Value Description
0x0001 2 0 Command failed due to ICRC error
0x0002 2 0 R_ERR response for data FIS
0x0003 2 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS
0x0004 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS
0x0005 2 0 R_ERR response for non-data FIS
0x0006 2 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS
0x0007 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS
0x0008 2 0 Device-to-host non-data FIS retries
0x0009 2 8736 Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy
0x000a 2 2 Device-to-host register FISes sent due to a COMRESET
0x000b 2 0 CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
0x000f 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, CRC
0x0012 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, CRC
0x8000 4 7019 Vendor specific
I give up, I understand neither what this counter exactly is, neither what causes it to increase.
