Sometimes the problem is hardware.

Cleffy

I was getting an error where Steam was taking a long time to allocate space. Usually this process takes no more than a couple minutes. So I run error checks to see if there is some error. Clean the registry of missing keys. TRIM the SSD its going into. Reinstall steam. Then I notice my SSD is only transfering at 3 MB/s with a 1000 ms latency. So I look over the net for SSD optimizations. Then when I was searching the steam forums about this issue there was 1 post buried under 30 replies. He pushed his sata cable in since it came lose. Low and behold problem solved.

In my case I have hot swap-esque bays that my SSDs are plugged into. So it may have become faulty. I replaced them with direct SATA connectors. One of my SSD's clip retainer doesn't work right and I can pop the cable right off. Luckily the area is a tight fit, so using the case to keep the cable in.

Grunty

Loose cables are human errors more often than hardware errors.

Ridelynn

Grunty said:

Loose cables are human errors more often than hardware errors.

Mostly, but I have seen cables mysteriously get loose or pop themselves out - especially SATA and Molex cables. Probably has something to do with repetitive expansion and contraction caused by thermal stresses.

Not that SATA cables get really hot themselves, but the inside of a case sure can get pretty warm. Heat that up and cool it down a couple dozen times a day, and things start to wiggle around a bit over time.

H0urg1ass

Every time that I take my computer apart and dust it off with my air compressor, I also re-seat all of the connections and RAM.  So about once a month I make sure that everything is still firmly in place.  

I had RAM issues on an old machine back in the early 2000's before I had a good routine and I thought I was going to have to buy a new set of matching RAM, but someone told me to take it out and put it back in again.  Sure enough, it fixed the problem.

Ridelynn

Yup, that's always one of the steps of random computer issues - unplug everything and plug it back in. It sounds stupid, but sometimes it works

Grunty

I just had it happen at a restaurant I went to.   I worked as an NCR field tech for a little while.  The cash register receipt printer wasn't printing.  I checked the cables on the Zebra printer and had the cashier check the cable on the register.  He tried printing a receipt and receipts for the last half dozen transactions started printing.