Help: Continued extremely high temps from external NVME and case with SMART overheat warnings, worried about failure

[godzfire]

Back in january I posted concerns about my external NVME case overheating and possibly causing damage or failure to my NVME drive (https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ase-overheating-any-actual-good-ones.2415196/). Samsung 980 PRO 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe in an Acasis TBU401 Thunderbolt 4 enclosure (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08P7L6SDD/ , https://www.acasis.com/blogs/shopping-guide/tbu401-vs-tbu405-what-s-the-difference-keep-updated).

I run and offload my Chrome profiles off the drive along with a few other items and programs, since I stream watch on my Mac Mini (which has a small 256GB drive). It gets very hot and I was getting concerned at the time. I know NVMEs run hot and some people told me this, however it's gotten worse.

Recently I discovered it's almost always running at SMART alert temps 78c/172f, and recently warning temps of 91c/196f. I'm not putting that much strain on it and this definitely doesn't seem right. Could this be a physical NVME failure or what can I check?



EDIT, I'm also getting it where my normal write speeds should be 2300 MB, but it's dropped to 1400 MB.

 

[godzfire]

Anyone?

 

[meson]

Do you have good contact between the SSD, thermal pad, and enclosure?

Given that everything else looks fine, I would make sure the drive is able to dissipate heat better.

 

[cthompson94]

as @meson said, also have you tried getting replacement thermal pads and maybe even another brand? I have the OWC NVME enclosure so I am not sure how much room you have between the case and NVME but if there is enough gap maybe you can put a 2nd pad on top. The 980 like other NVMEs will generate a good amount of heat, but nothing these enclosures and a good thermal pad shouldn't handle.