I’m running Ubuntu 24.04 on a Toshiba Satellite L840D laptop. This laptop came with an HDD, but about 3 years ago I upgraded it with a 2.5" SSD. Over the past couple of weeks, the laptop has sometimes had trouble booting. Earlier today it was worse than ever. It gets past the BIOS, but Ubuntu fails to load, either displaying a variety of error messages or just showing a blank screen.
I removed the SSD from the computer and connected it using an enclosure to a different computer. All of the files seem to be intact, and I could still copy them off of it for backup.
After some Internet searching, I ran smartmontools on the drive while in the enclosure. Here are the results:
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.15.0-60-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: WD Blue SA510 2.5 500GB
Serial Number: 222944807162
LU WWN Device Id: 5 001b44 8b02d708d
Firmware Version: 52015100
User Capacity: 500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
TRIM Command: Available, deterministic
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ACS-4, ACS-2 T13/2015-D revision 3
SATA Version is: SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Sat Apr 5 20:18:08 2025 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Status not supported: Incomplete response, ATA output registers missing
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Warning: This result is based on an Attribute check.
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: ( 0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x71) SMART execute Offline immediate.
No Auto Offline data collection support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
No Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
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: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 10) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 0
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0032 100 100 010 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 168
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1092
165 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 248476742919336
166 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 3
167 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 33
168 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 13
169 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 118
170 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
171 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
172 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
173 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 005 Old_age Always - 4
174 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 80
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 097 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 100 100 014 Old_age Always - 32 (Min/Max 16/56)
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
230 Unknown_SSD_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 25486341183278
232 Available_Reservd_Space 0x0033 100 100 004 Pre-fail Always - 85
233 Media_Wearout_Indicator 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 13
234 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1507771
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0030 253 253 000 Old_age Offline - 2616
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0030 253 253 000 Old_age Offline - 1888
244 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
Warning! SMART ATA Error Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
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.
I put the HDD back in the computer (it has 22.04 - the upgrade to 24.04 was obviously done after I installed the SSD) and it worked just fine.
Anyone know what might be going on with the SSD and if it can be fixed?
I was about to point to a number of past ubuntuforums threads (the old forum) where there are very helpful discussions on life expectancy of SSD’s. Even new SSD’s. Notably from expert TheFu (who I understand has not joined this discourse forum).
But for some reason, I find that searching is disabled in the old forum. Don’t know why. But I will investigate if only for my own interest in digging through archives.
There is a wealth of gems buried away in the old forum. SSD’s can fail sooner than expected.
I ran fsck on the SSD, and it fixed a large number of errors. I reinstalled it in the laptop, and it still failed to boot, but it did perform better than before. Instead of a blank screen, the Ubuntu logo with the scrolling dots underneath briefly appeared, followed by the error message
[FAILED] failed to start gdm.service
and once also with
[FAILED] failed to start rsyslog.service
Since the GRUB screen appeared (it typically doesn’t), I tried the four different kernels presented (6.8.0-40, 6.5.0-45, 6.2.0-39, and 5.19.0-50). I still had no problems copying data to and from the SSD while it was connected to a different computer, so I think the drive is actually okay.
Is there anything else I could try? Maybe reinstall Ubuntu if needed?
I will also keep looking around the old forums, just in case.
Doing a (comprehensive) test of the SSD wont hurt. Perhaps you can use bios for testing.
Or you can use sudo smartctl -t short /dev/nvme0. Replace nvme0 with your drive. If this passes you can try a long test.
Don’t quote me on this … BUT some say that this field is here (above) one looks at for life left on a SSD .
Using their quotes 100 = 100% life using that the 13 would indicate 13% life left.
(problem is each vendor uses a differing value so it’s not actually accurate, such as samsung vs kingston etc)
HOWEVER…(here is where you can quote me on)
There is a trick to refresh (rebuild) a SSD Which sometimes works (personal experience is about 90+% success rate).
power the laptop down.
connect only the power side of the drive , do not connect the data side of the connections.
(you may have to remove the drive completely and use a desktop or external powersupply as most laptop use a 1 piece connector for data and power)
Most will advise to boot into bios saying it will prevent data access to the drive. But honestly that is not required as if only power is connected and the data side is not connected the bios doesn’t know the drive is present.
Inside the SSD this power only connection will trigger a re-build of the cells within the firmware of the SSD.
Let this run in this state for 2 plus hours (usually 1 hour works but longer is better as in this state one cannot monitor the rebuild process of the cells so longer is better. Personally I’ve never went beyond three hours for the process).
reconnect the drive properly then you could attempt a reboot to see or dive directly into a recovery process.
The above method may or may not fix the issue… but it will conduct a self assessment and initiate a rebuild of the cells.
Used in conjunction with a Recovery Boot (usb/cd) is usually successful
using the procedure outlined by @rubi1200 works pretty well once the cells have been rebuilt.
Okay, this is all from Ubuntu 24.04 running on a live USB (since if it comes to a reinstall I would need that anyway):
The SSD is /dev/sda, and has four partitions (this info is from the Disks program):
/dev/sda1: 1.0 MB, BIOS Boot
/dev/sda2: 538 MB FAT, EFI System
/dev/sda3: 500 GB ext4
/dev/sda: 1.1 MB unallocated
That looks standard to me, but I’m posting it anyway in case anyone wants to refer to it.
Running fsck on each of these partitions gives these results:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sda1
fsck from util-linux 2.39.3
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda1
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
or
e2fsck -b 32768 <device>
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sda2
fsck from util-linux 2.39.3
fsck.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
/dev/sda2: 11 files, 1571/131063 clusters
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sda3
fsck from util-linux 2.39.3
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
/dev/sda3: clean, 461130/30498816 files, 10755531/121964544 blocks
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sda
fsck from util-linux 2.39.3
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
or
e2fsck -b 32768 <device>
Found a gpt partition table in /dev/sda
Here are the results of smartctl tests (short and long):
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 169 -
# 2 Extended offline Completed without error 20% 169 -
I really don’t know why it says lifetime of 169 hours for a drive I’ve been using for almost 3 years.
It doesn’t have UEFI, so I do not believe it is compatible. I just went with the defaults when I installed Ubuntu. It was a clean install on an empty drive.
It’s not a recent computer either. I bought it in 2012 (which is why it had an HDD at first).
A laptop from 2012 would perform better with a lighter flavour from the Ubuntu family such as Lubuntu or Xubuntu.
Secondly, for pre-UEFI PCs, there have been occasions where the OS may need to be installed on one partition only i.e. without the BIOS Boot partition ( yours is sda1)
I went ahead with the reinstall, and was careful with the partitions. For now, it’s working normally again.
Of course, I understand that the computer is 12 years old and could be close to the end of its life. I am sticking with regular Ubuntu, because I have never had any problems with performance. It has a quad-core CPU and 8 GB of RAM. I only use this computer for light tasks at this point anyway.
