[RESOLVED] Need your professional opinion ...

[GreyGeek]

about the output of the HP NVMe that I installed a couple of hours ago. After I installed it I configured it as a 512GiB BTRFS subvolume for the storage of snapshots. My first send/receive worked well. The 27C idle temperature rose to a steady 68.8C and stayed there. Evidence of throttling?

I purchased it from Newegg, and it arrived last night.
https://www.newegg.com/p/1B4-001S-0A7B5
The photo shown on that page does not resemble the nvme I received, which has only one big chip on the connector end of the device.

On the Newegg listing it was not listed as a "refurbished" (I couldn't imagine how they do that) or as previously used. Yet, when I checked it:

root@jerry-hp17cn1xxx:~# nvme smart-log /dev/nvme0n1p1
Smart Log for NVME device:nvme0n1p1 namespace-id:ffffffff
critical_warning : 0
temperature : 27 C
available_spare : 100%
available_spare_threshold : 5%
percentage_used : 5%
data_units_read : 153,587,287
data_units_written : 36,136,998
host_read_commands : 1,949,028,239
host_write_commands : 277,058,968
controller_busy_time : 5,508
power_cycles : 65
power_on_hours : 3,300
unsafe_shutdowns : 31
media_errors : 0
num_err_log_entries : 0
Warning Temperature Time : 0
Critical Composite Temperature Time : 0
Temperature Sensor 1 : 27 C
Thermal Management T1 Trans Count : 0
Thermal Management T2 Trans Count : 0
Thermal Management T1 Total Time : 0
Thermal Management T2 Total Time : 0
root@jerry-hp17cn1xxx:~#

The output is identical if I use nvme0 or nvme0n1 or nvme0n1p1.

You can notice that it shows 3,300 power_on_hours. If these results were from a factory QC test, or a "wear in", then they did a very vigorous job of it. Almost 2 billion reads and 277 million writes (or 153 million reads and 36 million writes )

Have I been had?

[Snowhog]

Contact Newegg. Give them this data and bluntly ask them if they knew they sold you a used drive, and insist on a "new" replacement.

[MoonRise]

A lot of those people will say refurbished but what they mean in reality is they salvaged it from another system and cleaned up to as close to new looking as possible and cleared out any data to zero. In their minds, refurbished. Clearly a point of view. I would do as Snowhog suggested.

EDIT: Refurbished sounds better then Salvaged.

[oshunluvr]

Yeah, 3300 hours is hardly new.

Not sure if it's a true comparison or not, but my Samsung 970 Pro hovers around 40° C

[oshunluvr]

Also, I have 7987 hours on this drive that I bought on Dec. 17 2018 and is in a PC that is on almost 24/7.

On interesting difference the read vs. write counts are inverted:

stuart@office:~$ sudo nvme smart-log /dev/nvme0n1
[sudo] password for stuart:  
Smart Log for NVME device:nvme0n1 namespace-id:ffffffff
critical_warning                    : 0
temperature                         : 40 C
available_spare                     : 100%
available_spare_threshold           : 10%
percentage_used                     : 3%
data_units_read                     : 34,849,787
data_units_written                  : 98,133,529
host_read_commands                  : 255,916,693
host_write_commands                 : 1,096,698,974
controller_busy_time                : 5,304
power_cycles                        : 157
power_on_hours                      : 7,987
unsafe_shutdowns                    : 89
media_errors                        : 0
num_err_log_entries                 : 575
Warning Temperature Time            : 0
Critical Composite Temperature Time : 0
Temperature Sensor 1                : 40 C
Temperature Sensor 2                : 40 C
Thermal Management T1 Trans Count   : 0
Thermal Management T2 Trans Count   : 0
Thermal Management T1 Total Time    : 0
Thermal Management T2 Total Time    : 0

[GreyGeek]

When I sent my first @yyyymmddhhmm snapshot to /backup (the NVMe) it took about 15 minutes to complete the send and the temp rose to 68.8C.
From what I've read the controller gets very hot, but the NAND is much cooler. Rather than having a separate controller and NAND chips, plus the associated circuitry, the NVMe they sent me is all on one big chip, with associated circuitry. I've read that the NAND is not supposed to get over 70C, hence I believe that the temp reaching 68.8C and staying fixed there is more than likely a result of throttling. Regardless, the "heat sink" for this NVMe in the HP 17cn1**** is conductive strips of something, with no metal part. I put on three strips and estimated that would be enough to reach the bottom of the chassis, which is a metallic sheet. When the backup was running and the temp reached 68.8C I could feel the heat through the bottom of the computer and on the heel of my left hand as I typed.

PS - Neither the Thermal widget nor the HD Sentinel app see the NVMe, so I have to use the nvme command in a console.

[GreyGeek]

I wrote a msg to Newegg and listed the output of the command given in my OP.

They responded with an email listing an RMA number and detailed instructions, the heart of which stated I must return the component in its original box, with all the labeling intact, and with all the documents, papers, instructions, bagging, etc., that were shipped with the components. The email stated that when Newegg received AND verified the package I would be issued a refund.

I responded stating that I never expected Newegg to sell a used component as new without informing the purchaser that it was used, and that it had 31 failure modes listed. Not expecting such behavior from Newegg, I had thrown the packaging away, so there was no way I could comply with the RMA rules. So, my bad. Not being able to return what was listed as an HP part, I wrote that I had learned a valuable lesson: never buy a product from Newegg again.

A few days later, to my utter astonishment, I received an email saying my RMA package had been received, and I would be given a refund.

Sure enough, checking with my CC vendor I saw a credit for the amount of the NVMe, sans shipping costs. Better than nothing I guess.

About that NVMe. It's as slow as my 320Gb spinner running from a USB Caddy. Even with lzo compression when I attempt to send a 6th snapshot of @ to it, I get an out of space failure msg. That's with "btrfs filesystem usage ..." showing 274Gb unallocated! It really gets HOT! My suspicion is that even though it starts out fast, with the thermal pads connecting it to the metal pan inside the bottom of the laptop, the controller chip still heats up so quickly that it throttles the transfer rate, which locks onto 68.8C like it was welded there.

When my new Samsung EVO 980 M.2 NVMe comes the faux HP NVMe is headed for the trash can, if Newegg doesn't want me to send it back to them even without all the original packaging and stuff. I use my 500Gb Crucial SSD attached via a seven port powered USB hub for backup storage and haven't bothered with the "HP" NVMe since the send failures.

[Snowhog]

When it arrives, save the box/contents. Install and immediately examine it as you did in #1 above. If doesn't report as new, well you know what to do, and who not to buy from again!

[claydoh]

A tip for shopping Newegg, or Walmart and Target websites, even Amazon for certain items, is to check that the actual seller is NOT a third party.

Looking at your product link, it shows the seller as :

Sold and shipped by: OvernightComputers
62 Ratings (94% Positive)

So Newegg is not the actual seller here. But of course bears a decent amount of the blame, for sure.
IME 94% is an EXTREMELY LOW rating and would at the very best make me look for more info on the seller, and the item.

Looking at a zoomed-in image of the item, look at the "HP" sticker:




Zero product reviews, and no real in depth product info are more signs of sketchiness.

But buying from a third party seller on Newegg is basically a no-go for me.

[GreyGeek]

Ya, I noticed that Overnight Computers was the actual source, but as you say, Newegg is responsible for what it posts on it webpages. And, the NVMe they sent me does have an HP sticker on it but I can't show you a photo of the NVMe because it's still inside this box. When my Samsung NVMe comes I'll pull out the faux NVMe and photograph it. I'm wondering if Newegg is following this thread because I got another email this afternoon stating that my shipping costs had been refunded as well. This after I remarked that it hadn't been refunded.

Meanwhile, the static bag it came in shows: