How can I tell whether my NVMe SSD is causing Steam to freeze Linux Mint?
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MangoVale42
I recently started using Linux Mint, and my computer completely freezes whenever Steam begins updating Dead by Daylight. Restarting hasn't fixed it. I also noticed the system sometimes had trouble shutting down before this started happening. I suspect the NVMe SSD, but I'd like to test it properly before buying a replacement. There's still about 400 GB of free space on the drive.
Answers
First, check the drive’s SMART data for warnings or errors with smartctl. Use the correct device name for your SSD, for example: `smartctl -a /dev/nvme0n1`. This can show whether the drive is reporting hardware problems.
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You can also use the NVMe command-line tools to inspect and test the drive. The `nvme-cli` utility provides more NVMe-specific health and error information than a basic storage check. Having plenty of free space makes a full-disk issue less likely, although the freezes could still involve the filesystem, memory, drivers, or another hardware problem.
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MangoVale42: I checked the SMART information and it doesn’t appear to report any errors.