PC won’t POST with NVME SSD after removing RAID 0 disks

Briko · December 18, 2019

TL;DR

PC with single NVME SSD and fresh install of Win 10 will not POST when I hit the power button, but it will boot all the way into Windows just fine if I unplug PSU, hold down power button for ~30 seconds to drain voltages till the motherboard LEDs switch off, plug in PSU, then hit power button.

So technically, it will POST with the NVME SSD, but only if the power has previously been disconnected.

Details

Motherboard is Asus ROG Maximus VIII Hero. It has Q-LEDs and a Q-Code number display. During the POST issue, the orange Q-LED for “boot device error” does not flash. The Q-Code number display reads “00” which is “Not Used” according to the manual. The Q-Code “01” for “Power on” does not appear. Case fans spin up, but nothing else happens until the power button is held down to shut everything down again.

After draining the power and hitting the power button, the PC will power on for a half-second, immediately power off for a second, then it powers on again and will POST and boot into Windows successfully. Everything works fine once it’s on. I can even restart the PC from the start menu successfully. However, shutting down the PC brings back the POST issues.

How I got here

I upgraded from 1TB RAID 0 volume (2 x 500 GB SATA SSDs) to a 1TB NVME M.2 SSD. I had no issues with my system before the upgrade. I have business programs on my system that I can’t reinstall (don’t have access to CS licenses anymore and Adobe won’t provide installers for older CS versions). I cloned my partitions from the RAID 0 volume to the NVME disk.

Created a Macrium Reflect 7 Bootable USB drive.
Installed the NVME M.2 SSD.
Booted into the Macrium USB drive.
Cloned all partitions from the RAID 0 volume (including boot, recovery, and hidden system partitions) to the NVME SSD.
Rebooted into startup disk select menu, disabled the RAID 0 volume and selected the new NVME SSD.
Verified Windows loaded successfully using NVME SSD. Logged in. Ran SSD benchmark.
Restarted system, verified everything still working.
Shutdown system, unplugged SATA cables to RAID 0 SSDs, unplugged Macrium USB drive.
On next startup, displayed blue recovery screen stating could not load Windows.

I figured the Windows boot config data was messed up, so did the following:

Booted into Macrium USB
Ran the “Fix Boot Problems” wizard.
It found the EFI partition, removed the old BCD, and created new BCD for the Windows instillation on NVME SSD.
Restarted PC and successfully booted into Windows.

Everything worked fine until I shut the system down. That is when the POST issue began.

Troubleshooting:

I tried removing different peripheral devices.
I had another NVME SSD sitting around, so I swapped the fresh one in and did a clean install of Win 10. It still won't POST. I’m assuming the problem isn’t related to me cloning the RAID volume to the other SSD since a clean install of Windows using a different NVME SSD didn't work.
I removed the NVME SSD, plugged the RAID disks back in and rebuilt the RAID 0 volume. Everything started working again. Will POST successfully every time. So the mobo just doesn’t want to POST when the NVME SSD is installed.
I’ve tried changing BIOS settings for Fast Boot, CMS, and Secure Boot OS Type, but can’t find a combination that helps. I don’t know what else to try.
I don’t think the NVME drive should be interfering with any other components. The M.2 socket operates in either PCIE or SATA mode, and the motherboard manual only lists the following restrictions on the socket: “When the M.2 (Socket 3) is operating in SATA mode, SATA ports 1 and 2 (SATA6G_12) will be disabled.”

I don’t know what else to try. I considered flashing the BIOS, but I'm already on the latest build. I'll be eternally grateful to anyone that can offer advice.

Full PC Specs

CPU

Intel Core i7-6700K
Motherboard

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO Z170
RAM

G.SKILL 32GB (2 x 16GB) Ripjaws V Series DDR4 3200MHz
GPU

ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 8GB
Expansion Cards

Gigabyte Bluetooth/Wireless Expansion Card

ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 Expansion Card
Storage

Current use: 1TB RAID 0 Volume (2 x Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III)

Changing to: Silicon Power 1TB NVMe PCIe M.2
Case

NZXT S340 Elite ATX Mid Tower
PSU

CORSAIR RMx Series 850W 80 PLUS GOLD
Display(s)

27" Thunderbolt Display
Cooling

NZXT Kraken X61 280mm All-In-One Liquid
Operating System

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

KingTdiGGiTTy · December 18, 2019

Your expansion cards could be interfering with the PCIe bandwidth of your NVME drive. I had had a problem with a dual GPU setup on an x470 board. I was able to install windows on the drive and see the drive in bios, but I wasn't able to boot into windows. the problem was resolved by using a different m.2 slot. But, with the add behavior you are seeing could be a result of PCIe lane distribution. I don't know if that helps much but, eh, worth a shot.