Installed SSD not showing in Task Manager or Device Manager

[SiHy]

I have a HP Pavilion Desktop - 550-106na (ENERGY STAR) bought some years ago. It contains a a 1Tb HDD and a

128 GB  SSD. When I originally got the PC the initiial boot up failed with "No operating System" After contacting the support centre, they posted be the Win 10 installation disks which I installed with no problems.

Since I first got the PC I have had lock up problems - at first very occasionally, but now quite frequestly with the PC locking up for several minutes at a time before continuing. Task manager usually shows that even moderate I/O traffic sends the HDD into solid 100% usage.

The Task manager or the device manager does not show a SSD installed.

How can I check that the SSD is installed and working as it should do?

If the SSD acts as a high speed cache for the HDD, could the SSD getting overloaded appear to the task manager as the HDD at 100% usage?

I have spent some hours on support sites and have gone through many of the "resolutions" to high HDD usage and lockup problems without any success.

Any help / guidance welcome - Cheers

[Bill_To · Accepted solution]

Hi @SiHy 

A lot of stuff to unpack in your post. I may not be able to solve any of your issues.

I don't think you have a Intel Optane cache drive setup. Intel Optane normally deploys an M.2 16 GB or a 32 GB NVME SSD. There is no M.2 NVME socket support on your MB.

You have a 128 GB SATA SSD. The operating system should be installed on this disk. You could not run Windows if the 128 GB SSD was out of commission.

The 1TB platter HDD is for data.

Try running HP Hardware diagnostics. It should detect two storage devices.

Start the PC. Tap "ESC".

Select "F2". Run tests to check the disks and other hardware.

Run a Check Disk per instructions at this Site.

Check "Storage" in the BIOS to verify both disks are detected. Start the PC. Tap "ESC". Select 'F10".

The high disk usage in Task Manger is a tough one to pinpoint the problem. I would look at the specific process or processes causing the problem. Check what they are on the net. Shut them down if safe to do so to see what happens.

Check Task Manager Startup stuff to see if you can disable unnecessary startup programs.

You have multiple issues converging into a complex problem. Very tough to diagnose in a forum.

It could be a hardware problem with either disk, or RAM, or something else which is causing random lockup problems.

[SiHy]

Hi Bill_To.

Thanks for the info - very helpful.

I did the HW disk and the Bios checks - and it only shows the 1 TB Toshiba drive.

As you mentioned the Win 10 O/S is installed on the 128 Mb SSD - which makes sense as the PC did not boot when I first got it.  I had to install Windows myself (to the HDD).

This leaves the question(s):   Was I sold a duff PC without the SSD or is it physically there but not connected?😡.

As it is well out of warranty nw, I suppose there is not a lot I can do.

I may take the back off the PC and have a rummage. Are there any detailed HW guides on this?

Thanks

SiHy

[Bill_To]

Hi @SiHy 

My pleasure.

You can undo the solution since the problem has not been resolved.

Maybe a different forum member can assist.

I would remove the side panel. Verify you have a 128 GB SATA SSD and it has a SATA data and SATA power connection. 

The system is going to be slow if you installed Windows on the slow platter 1 TB HDD.

Regards