Suspected SSD issues

Hey Guys,

I have laptop that is a few months old, it has a 120GB Intel 520 SDD (boot drive), and a 750HHD.

Windows explorer crashes often, often take a long time to populate items, and notably take a very long time to open something as simple as a photo. Other than that, system performance seems O.K, boot times are very fast. Reason I think it has something to do with the SSD and not my windows installation is due to the fact that before I upgraded to windows 8, I had a similar issue with windows 7, sometimes explorer would be slow and also take a while to populate.

Any help on what could be causing this would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Matt

What is your CPU and Memory usage, when you experience this issue?

Normal.

CPU is being used very little, a few percent
Memory is at about 16%

OK, I personally wouldn't suspect Mal-ware under those conditions. It seems as if there is I/O dificulties, could be anyone of your media devices if this is the case. Do you have any USB sticks plugged in or possibly a CD/DVD in the drive? I've had these issues with both cases as well as faulty HDD's. What I haven't experienced yet is a faulty SSD, in which case I would suspect they could act the same way.

Unfortunately no USB stick plugged in and no CD.

If it adds anything I have both Bitdefender and Anti-Malware bytes installed

And it acts the same way with your HDD disconnected?

I'm not sure, it is an internal HDD. By disconnect, do you mean disable via device manager, or physically disconnect?

I meant physically disconnect but if you don't feel comfortable doing so, I will not ask it of you.

You mentioned the laptop is only a few months old. Is there a warranty still in effect for the laptop?

Well, I can disconnect it, but I'm going to have to wait until I get home.

Yea, the warranty is still in effect but as it came from California and I'm in Eastern Canada, that it the last thing I want to have to do LOL.

I'll get back to you once I have an opportunity to open this thing up.

Thanks,

Matt

Alright, so I've had a chance to take a look inside, but having no experience with taking apart laptops, I at best am going to make this a weekend project, because I can't afford to screw something up and then not have the laptop during the week.

Thanks for the help!