Disk usage 100% need answers
Hey Reddit, I need your help diagnosing a really weird storage behavior after physically cleaning my PC. I've done a lot of cross-testing between two rigs, and the results are pointing toward a very specific hardware culprit, but I want to see if anyone has encountered this.
The Background:
My PC suddenly gave no video, so I decided to open it up, clean it, and reseat the components.
Got the video back! But immediately after, my storage usage started pinning at 100% constant usage with massive system lag.
My Troubleshooting & Swapping Tests:
1 The Primary SATA SSD Test: Took the original SATA SSD (the one hitting 100% and lagging) and plugged it into my Main PC. Reinstalled Windows there \rightarrow Works perfectly, 0% idle, zero lag. (Drive and cable are completely fine).
2 The NVMe M.2 Test: Took the working M.2 NVMe drive from my main PC, put it into the problematic PC, and did a fresh Windows install \rightarrow System is smooth as butter, no lag, normal usage.
3 The Secondary SATA SSD Test: The problematic PC also had a secondary SATA SSD that was functioning completely normally before the cleaning and video issue. I tried installing Windows on this secondary SSD while it was connected via SATA \rightarrow Hit 100% usage and lagged immediately as well.
4 The Twist: Right now, in the problematic PC (booting from the M.2), I am downloading Fortnite onto that exact same secondary SATA SSD. It hits 100% usage during the download (which is normal for Epic Games due to decompression), but there is absolutely zero system lag on either computer now.
The Core Question:
What could be causing multiple different SATA SSDs to completely lock up the system at 100% usage when used as the primary boot drive, while an NVMe M.2 drive handles everything perfectly?
My main suspect is the motherboard's SATA controller/ports getting damaged or shorted during the cleaning/video troubleshooting. However, if the SATA ports are completely broken, shouldn't that secondary SSD still lag the system
when downloading onto it?
Could it be a localized power delivery issue from the PSU to the SATA power cables under boot load, or is the motherboard's PCH (SATA controller) partially failing only when handling primary OS traffic?
Would love to hear your thoughts before I pull the trigger on buying a new motherboard!
TL;DR: Cleaned my PC to fix a no video issue. Video is back, but booting from any SATA SSD now pegs usage at 100% with massive system lag. However, booting from an NVMe M.2 works flawlessly, and using those same SATA SSDs as secondary storage causes zero lag. Are my motherboard's SATA ports/controller dying, or is it a weird power delivery issue?
Made with AI because I’ve been trying to fix this issue this whole day and installed windows like 2 times on 5 different SSDs