Minisforum N5 Pro Issues

[andell]

Hey all,

Unfortunately, the forum simply refuses to send me an activation email despite my attempts, so I can only create a new thread and cannot reply to the existing one by rayven1lk. I also wanted to raise the same issue with the N5 Pro as rayven1lk did, as it appears to be quite serious.

Users across both the Reddit and Level1Techs threads have been consistently reporting data corruption on their spinning disks (not NVMe) as a result of what is likely a faulty SATA controller. The Reddit thread was initially opened a month ago, and additional reports continue to come in even to this day.

I, like Rayven, am not allowed to post URLs, so here are some broken URLs with a space in them so that you can quickly find the relevant threads:

PHP Code:

https://www[.]reddit[.]com/r/MINISFORUM/comments/1pbnql6/silent_data_corruption_on_n5_pro_nas/
https://forum[.]level1techs[.]com/t/aoostar-wtr-max-vs-minisforum-n5-pro/236285/2 


While MINISFORUM appears to be aware of the issue based on the comments in that thread and discussion in their discord server, the lack of any public statement or even a reply on the reddit thread is deeply concerning; it has now been over a month since the original Reddit thread began and zero clarification has been provided. 

Given the overwhelmingly positive reviews of the N5 Pro online, including coverage, even very recent coverage, from the NASCompares Youtube Channel, it's likely that many users are continuing to purchase N5 Pro units (e.g., with holiday gift money) despite the fact that they may all be defective. Especially for nontechnical users, this might mean irreplaceable data is subject to corruption.

If you are able to replicate the results of the various reports on Reddit/Lv1Techs--or even if your unit cannot replicate it--I think it is very important to make a public announcement or video to bring awareness of the issue. This is both (1) to ensure that people who already have a unit, potentially on the channel's recommendation, take proper precautions to ensure the safety of their important data rather than trusting what may be a faulty unit; and (2) to help push MINISFORUM to take the issue more seriously than they appear to be doing right now.

Either way, I love your videos and have fun at CES!

[ed]

Thanks for raising this. At this point there are several independent reports from Reddit and Level1Techs showing the same pattern on the N5 Pro. During heavy mixed I O or sustained write loads, the onboard JMB585 SATA controller appears to reset, which briefly drops all SATA disks. When that happens, any data being written can be corrupted before ZFS generates checksums, so ZFS only detects the problem after corruption is already committed.

This does not seem to be a single faulty unit, so until Minisforum makes a public statement or releases a firmware fix, anyone planning to use the N5 Pro as a main NAS should be cautious, especially if using ZFS for important data.

For users who already own the N5 Pro and want to test their unit safely:
1. Create a temporary pool with empty test disks only.
2. Run a long sequential write test, for example:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/pool/testfile bs=1M status=progress
3. Run a mixed workload test, for example:
fio --name=load --rw=randrw --bs=128k --size=10G --iodepth=32 --numjobs=1
4. Watch dmesg -w or journalctl -f for resets such as “link reset”, “SATA channel disabled”, or drives dropping then reappearing.

If the controller is unstable, you will see I O errors or SATA resets almost immediately under load.

I will update this thread as soon as Minisforum publishes a response or patch. In the meantime, users should keep verified backups and avoid placing critical data on a SATA pool until this is clarified.