All NAND Flash based NVMe drives are prone to an issue that can cause the data stored on them to degrade over long periods of time. According to a study performed by OEM Lenovo, "this time should be greater than 3 years with a drive temperature of 43C (110F). Under most conditions, writing data to the drive will cause the data stored on the drive to get updated well before it can be lost. But if the temperature of the drive is high, or if a low level of data is written to the drive, then it is possible that data could be corrupted."
Running the drive with the PCIe Link State Power Management setting at Off or Moderate power saving can cause the controller on the NVMe drive to remain active, and this can cause the drive to run significantly hotter than expected. These are the default PCIe Link State Power Management settings for the High-Performance power scheme, and on desktop systems, the Balanced power scheme. Running the system continuously will keep the drive temperature high and so reduce the time to failure.
Because of the potential impact of data loss due to the elevated NVMe drive temperature, Lenovo recommends altering a setting in the High Performance and Balanced power management schemes.
- In Control Panel, open the Hardware and Sound section.
- Under Power Options, select Choose a power plan.
- For Balanced and High performance plans, click the Change plan settings link at the right.
- Click Change advanced power settings.
- In the pop-up Power Options window scroll down to PCI Express and click the + to expand the section.
- Click the + for Link State Power Management.
- Change the setting in the list from Off or Moderate power savings to Maximum power savings.
- Click OK to save the change and close the pop-up window.
For most uses the slight drop in performance is imperceptible.
Another option to add longevity to your NVME as well as your CPU, which is usually set along with the PCI Link State Power Management is to set the Maximum Processor State to 99% in Windows power options. While this effectively disables Intel Turbo Boost or AMD Precision Boost, forcing the CPU to run at its base clock speed, it also reduces heat generation, lowers fan noise, and prevents overheating, often resulting in slightly lower performance but significantly cooler, more stable operation.
- In Control Panel, open the Hardware and Sound section.
- Under Power Options, select Choose a power plan.
- For Balanced and High performance plans, click the Change plan settings link at the right.
- Click Change advanced power settings.
- In the pop-up Power Options window scroll down to PCI Express and click the + to expand the section.
- Click the + for Processor Power Management followed by Maximum Processor State
- Change the setting in the list from 100% to 99%.
- Click OK to save the change and close the pop-up window.
