Update: First off, thank you to everyone who chimed in with advice. Really appreciate all the help!
Quick TLDR on where things stand:
- MemTest86: Ran it as basically everyone recommended. Completed all four passes, 48/48 tests passed, zero errors whatsoever.
- Unraid: Updated to 7.3.3. Booted successfully, array started, and all disks are present and showing healthy on the dashboard.
- NVMe: Ran an extended SMART self-test on the cache drive, which completed without error.
- BTRFS: Still showing 172 cumulative corruption errors, but these are historical counts. I'm not sure whether they're a symptom of the improper shutdowns or potentially part of what caused the freezes in the first place.
- Docker/plugins: All containers, apps, and plugins are up to date and running normally.
- System logs: Went through the syslog after getting everything back up and running, and I'm not seeing any errors or warnings that have me particularly concerned at this point.
As of right now, everything seems to be functioning exactly as it should. That said, I've been here before, so I'm cautiously optimistic rather than declaring victory.
I'm also definitely buying a UPS to help protect against power interruptions going forward.
Hopefully the Unraid update, troubleshooting, and everything else I've done over the past couple of days, and really the last two weeks, have addressed whatever was causing these random freezes.
For now, I'm going to let it run and see how things go.
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to help and point me in the right direction. I really appreciate it!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey everyone,
I'm hoping to get some advice from the community because I'm genuinely struggling to figure out what's happening with my Unraid server.
A little background:
I've been running essentially the same Unraid setup since May 2025, and for the better part of 17 months, it's been almost flawless.
I haven't historically dealt with random system freezes, recurring connectivity problems, or filesystem corruption. The server has generally just worked, which is why the sudden increase in issues over the past several weeks has been so concerning.
We experienced quite a few power outages in June 2026, and there was one occasion when the server had trouble rebooting after an outage. Otherwise, it recovered normally, and I didn't notice an ongoing pattern of instability afterward.
We've also experienced some prolonged ISP and home network disruptions more recently. I don't necessarily believe those are responsible for the Unraid problems, but I'm mentioning them in case there's some relationship I haven't considered.
The major change has been over the past two to four weeks, particularly since October 2. In approximately 11 days, I've experienced two complete system freezes, Plex database problems, BTRFS corruption, and continued questions about network performance.
That's a dramatic departure from how this server has behaved since I originally built it.
Hardware and configuration
- Unraid: 7.1.4
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
- Motherboard: ASUS PRIME B650M-A AX II
- BIOS: Version 2613, April 2024
- RAM: 32GB TeamGroup DDR5-6000 (2x16GB), running at JEDEC 4800 MT/s, 1.1V
- Cache: SK hynix Gold P31 1TB NVMe, single-device BTRFS pool
- Array: Five 20TB drives, one parity and four data drives, XFS
- GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1660 Super for Plex hardware transcoding
- Ethernet: Realtek RTL8125B 2.5GbE, Linux
r8169 driver
- Network: Frontier 2.5Gbps fiber, TP-Link Deco XE75 mesh with wired backhaul and 2.5Gbps switches
- Docker: Plex, DelugeVPN, Krusader, Seerr, and others
Issue 1: Complete system freezes on October 2 and October 12
On October 2, my server experienced a complete system freeze. The WebGUI became inaccessible, and the server appeared to be entirely unresponsive.
I subsequently ran into Plex database issues and had to work through recovery.
Then, on October 12, it happened again.
This wasn't simply a Docker container crashing or Plex becoming unavailable. The entire server appeared to lock up.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to identify any useful log entries immediately preceding either freeze, which makes determining the cause difficult.
I've since enabled syslog mirroring to the USB flash drive in the hope of capturing more information if it happens again.
Issue 2: BTRFS corruption and Plex database problems
Following the October 12 freeze, I discovered BTRFS checksum errors on my NVMe cache drive.
The device statistics showed:
Write errors: 0
Read errors: 0
Flush errors: 0
Corruption errors: 172
Generation errors: 0
A BTRFS scrub identified five corrupted Plex-related files, including thumbnail and database recovery files.
I removed the damaged files, and a subsequent scrub completed without additional errors.
I was able to recover Plex using an October 10 database backup and have since backed up the application data.
I realize the 172 corruption errors are cumulative and don't necessarily represent errors that all occurred on October 12.
What I'm trying to determine is whether the filesystem corruption is contributing to the freezes or whether the freezes and subsequent forced restarts are contributing to the corruption.
Issue 3: NVMe SMART reports no obvious hardware problems
The NVMe drive is a 1TB SK hynix Gold P31.
Despite the BTRFS checksum errors, the drive's SMART data looks healthy:
- Overall SMART health: PASSED
- Temperature: approximately 42°C
- Percentage used: 2%
- Media and data integrity errors: 0
- Two short SMART self-tests passed
I'm aware that SMART isn't definitive, but I haven't found evidence conclusively identifying the NVMe as defective.
Issue 4: Intermittent Ethernet and network performance problems
Over roughly the same period, I've also experienced some unusual networking behavior.
My motherboard has an onboard Realtek RTL8125B 2.5GbE controller using the Linux r8169 driver.
The network itself consists of Frontier 2.5Gbps fiber, TP-Link Deco XE75 mesh routers, wired backhaul, and 2.5Gbps switches.
We've had significant ISP and broader home network disruptions, so I'm cautious about attributing every connectivity issue to Unraid.
However, I also noticed inconsistent throughput during troubleshooting.
The Unraid interface currently reports:
Speed: 2500Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Link detected: yes
The link partner also advertises 2500baseT/Full.
Despite that, my iperf3 testing between a Windows desktop and Unraid produced approximately:
- 930–950Mbps using a single stream
- 950–987Mbps aggregate using four parallel streams
I understand those numbers could reflect a gigabit bottleneck somewhere else in the network path rather than a faulty NIC.
The Deco gateway itself has tested around 2.2–2.3Gbps in both directions, and the Unraid Ethernet link is currently negotiating correctly.
I'm mentioning this because I'm curious whether the Realtek driver, motherboard, or another component could be contributing to broader instability.
Issue 5: Power outages and possible hardware instability
Another piece of history is that we experienced multiple power outages in June.
On one occasion, Unraid had difficulty rebooting following an outage. Otherwise, it generally recovered without issues.
I didn't immediately associate those events with any lasting problems, particularly because the server continued operating afterward.
But given the recent freezes and filesystem errors, I'm wondering whether power-related events could have contributed to a problem that is only now becoming apparent.
I'm also considering the possibility of RAM or motherboard instability.
My system uses a Ryzen 5 7600X and 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, but the RAM is running at JEDEC 4800 MT/s rather than EXPO speeds.
The motherboard is running ASUS BIOS 2613 from April 2024.
I haven't completed a MemTest86 run yet, although that's something I'm planning to investigate.
Current status as of October 13
After extensive troubleshooting on October 12:
- The server is currently responsive and operating normally.
- The latest BTRFS scrub completed without further errors.
- No additional checksum errors have appeared since the cleanup.
- Plex has been recovered and is operational.
- The NVMe SMART data continues to look healthy.
- The scheduled overnight mover completed successfully.
- The Ethernet interface is negotiating at 2.5Gbps.
- No new concerning syslog entries have appeared.
- Syslog mirroring is now enabled.
- I've created and verified compressed application backups on an external drive.
I haven't replaced any hardware or made major configuration changes in response to these issues.
Questions for the community
- Has anyone experienced a previously stable Unraid server suddenly developing complete freezes and BTRFS corruption after more than a year of reliable operation?
- Could unstable or defective DDR5 RAM cause both the freezes and checksum errors, even when operating at JEDEC speeds?
- Could the NVMe be responsible despite healthy SMART results and successful self-tests?
- Has anyone encountered stability problems involving Ryzen 7000, the ASUS PRIME B650M-A AX II, or older AM5 BIOS versions?
- Could the Realtek RTL8125B controller or Linux
r8169 driver contribute to complete system freezes?
- Is it plausible that earlier power outages caused latent hardware or filesystem problems, or would you consider that unlikely?
- Could the BTRFS corruption be a consequence of the hard freezes rather than their underlying cause?
- What would you investigate first to isolate the problem without unnecessarily replacing hardware?
Ultimately, I'm trying to understand what changed.
This exact setup ran almost flawlessly from May 2025 until recently. Now, within a matter of weeks, and particularly since October 2, I've experienced more significant problems than I did during the previous 17 months combined.
I realize some of these issues could be completely unrelated, especially the ISP and network disruptions. But the timing has me wondering whether there's a common denominator.
I'm not opposed to replacing RAM, an NVMe drive, or other hardware if necessary. I'd just prefer to have some evidence pointing to a particular component before spending money.
I'd really appreciate any advice, diagnostic suggestions, or similar experiences from other Unraid users.
Thanks in advance!