First try to get backups of anything you don’t want to lose. If the drive is OK but the filesystem is corrupt you may not be able to save files. In that case I would try to capture a disk image (e.g., using Gnome disks) before attempting repairs.
Some SSD vendors provide diagnostic tools as either standalone bootable tools or requiring Windows. Failing that, try the drive health in Gnome Disks or the smartmontools command line tool: sudo smartctl -x /dev/nvme0n1.
Given that this is a previously used system, the SSD may well be failing, but the random nature of the freezes makes me more concerned that you have a power supply problem. Laptops rely on DC to DC conversion to get the low voltages needed by the system. The conversion introduces “noise” that is removed using filters made of capacitors and inductors. Failure of one of these is often associated with random crashes, and is hard to detect without test equipment.
Im still not completely sold on a hardware failure though…
again, i ran Linux Mint first which eventually developed these problems. popOS! i ran for months without issues, but i didnt like it so i gave fedora a try (both KDE Plasma and Workstation) but here the issue eventually evolved again after a couple of days…
perhaps its a weird power management thing? We could be blaming the SSD for ghosting the OS if something else starved it of power to begin with.
Perhaps ill try turning off APST and ASPM
Dont care too much if battery life is even worse since i usually have the charger and an outlet nearby anyways