AS SSD Benchmark Won’t Start or Closes Immediately — Startup Troubleshooting
You double-click AS SSD Benchmark and nothing useful happens: no window, a window that flashes and vanishes, or a German interface you never asked for. Because the program is a small, portable tool from 2020, startup failures almost always trace back to how the files were extracted, what Windows is missing, or what is blocking it. Work through this guide in order — and note that this site makes no claim that any file has passed a particular scan; instead, you will verify your copy yourself against the published hash.
Before you start: back up important files on the drive you are troubleshooting. Most checks below are read-only, but the fixes that touch BIOS settings, partitions or drivers should never be attempted without a current backup.
Symptom map: match your case first
A brief flash and then nothing usually means the program started and exited immediately — a missing runtime component, a blocked launch or an incomplete extraction. No reaction at all can mean the launch is being silently blocked or the file association/extraction is broken. A window that opens in German is a different, simpler case: the program ran, but it could not find its English language files, so it fell back to its default German interface — the developer’s own language. Each case has a different first fix, so identify yours before changing settings at random.
Whatever the symptom, start from a known-good position: an intact copy of the final version, 2.0.7316.34247, fully extracted to an ordinary folder such as a Benchmark folder inside your Documents or on the desktop. Troubleshooting a copy that lives inside a ZIP preview, a cloud-synced folder or a read-only location adds variables you do not need.
Check 1: the files must stay together
AS SSD Benchmark is portable and needs no installation, but portable does not mean a single loose file. The download is a ZIP containing the executable plus a language folder (en-US). The exe expects that folder beside it. If you copied only the exe to your desktop, or your unzip tool dropped the folder, the program can misbehave or default to German. Fix: extract the entire ZIP again to a fresh folder, keep the exe and the en-US folder together in it, and launch from there. If the interface is German but the folder is present, use the program’s Language menu to select English once it is running.
Also confirm you are launching the real exe, not a shortcut left over from an older copy or a similarly named file from an unrelated bundle. Old download folders accumulate versions; a 1.x-era copy carries old bugs — including the physical-device bug fixed in the final build, detailed in our physical-device guide — and is not worth debugging. Replace, do not repair.
Check 2: .NET Framework must be present and enabled
AS SSD Benchmark requires .NET Framework — that requirement is documented, but no specific version number is officially stated for this program, so be suspicious of any page that insists on a precise version as gospel. On a current Windows install the framework is normally present; on stripped-down, very old or modified installs it may be disabled or damaged. The generic, safe checks are: open Windows’ “Turn Windows features on or off” panel and confirm the .NET Framework entries are enabled; run Windows Update to completion, since framework servicing arrives through it; and, if the framework itself appears damaged, use Microsoft’s own repair options for your Windows version. Restart after any framework change before testing the program again.
Caution: download framework installers and repair tools only from Microsoft. Third-party “DLL fixer” and driver-updater bundles are a classic malware vector and will never be the right answer to a benchmark that will not start. If a site bundles AS SSD Benchmark with extra installers or demands you disable security software to run it, walk away from that copy entirely.
Check 3: permissions and security-software blocks
Try launching once with Run as administrator. Some operations the program performs at startup and during testing — above all, opening the physical device — can be denied in a standard session, and a program that is denied early may simply close. If it starts as administrator, you have learned the block is permission-related; you can keep using that launch method for benchmarking rather than weakening system-wide settings.
Security software is the other common silent blocker for small portable utilities. Check your antivirus history or quarantine log for the exe before assuming anything, and restore/allow only a copy you have verified against the official hash (next check). Do not disable your antivirus wholesale to “see if it helps,” and do not add broad folder exclusions for a download directory. The precise, reversible allow for one verified file is the professional move; anything broader trades a benchmark for a real risk.
Check 4: re-download from the official file and verify the hash
If the copy’s history is uncertain, stop patching it and replace it. Our download page links to the official file served by alex-is.de and publishes the verification data: the ZIP is 266,905 bytes, with SHA-256 56b80a3dde4537a77f9f7fb6bf45372b9b3d0a75e030d5373e5661913d7ef057 and MD5 6ce42c4feddac8262ad67f37bd0c0dd1 — values obtained by downloading the official file directly and hashing it on 2026-10-22. Compare your download’s hash with a built-in tool (for example, the Get-FileHash command in PowerShell) before you run anything. A mismatch means the file is incomplete or not the official package: delete it and download again rather than troubleshooting a suspect binary.
Once a verified, fully extracted copy is in place, most startup failures are already gone, because most were never the program’s fault. If a verified copy still will not start on this PC, try it on another Windows PC if one is available: a copy that runs elsewhere proves the program is fine and focuses attention on this system’s framework, permissions or security stack. For Windows 11 machines specifically, see also our Windows 11 guide and the first-run walkthrough in how to use AS SSD Benchmark.
What not to do, and when to stop
Do not install “compatibility packs,” random runtime bundles or patched executables offered in forum replies; do not run the program permanently with security software disabled; and do not edit the registry to chase a launch failure unless a documented, reversible step for your exact Windows version calls for it — registry edits made on a guess have a way of outliving the problem they were meant to solve. Every check in this guide is reversible, and that is deliberate.
If you reach the end with a verified final-version copy, framework enabled, administrator launch tried, no security block logged and a second PC running the same files happily, the remaining variable is this Windows installation itself. At that point, system-level repair is a bigger job than a benchmark justifies on its own — note the findings, keep the verified copy for the next machine or the next clean install, and benchmark there. A tool that takes two minutes to run should never cost you an afternoon of system surgery.