Sometimes my M.2 drives are not recognized and I get a Bios boot loop. Only fixed with a power cycle.

[Bryan-10EC]

I've googled this issue and the only results are for them not showing up period, not just not showing up sometimes.

Mobo: Gigabyte b550 ud ac

CPU: R5 5600x

Ram: 16 GB DDR4

GPU: Zotac RTX 3600 ti lhr.

Storage: Kingston NV1 2TB M.2 and a Sabrent Rocket 2TB M.2.

 

All I have are M.2 drives... and sometimes the PC just won't see them- either of them (I have it in duel boot right now- so it always asks which one to boot from on start up.. when it sees them)

I originally had the same issue without resolution when I just had the Sabrent, and that's why I added the Kingston.

But then later the Sabrent just started working again.

So every time it does this my heart stops because previously a power cycle did not fix.

Any ideas? I am stumped.

And yes, I did the update to the latest MOBO BIOS.

I've considered adding a SATA SSD.. just to see if it recognizes that one when the other two ghost out.

But this only happens every once in a while.. though it usually does it a few times when it happens once.

[kokosnh]

I remember one guy had similar problems one time, it was bus OC on his system. Try to lower the bus MHz, or just don’t OC it.

[Bryan-10EC]

MOBO is currently on default settings.

[kokosnh]

defraud doesn't mean stable (or without OC)... To see the SSDs, you have to power cycle by the PSU? 

[Bryan-10EC]

I've had to do reset and also had to power cycle the psu.

Maybe I should make a live usb to use next time it happens so I can poke around to see what's going on.

[Bryan-10EC]

Update. I'm not sure what made the original Sabrent SSD glitch out which is why I added another 2tb nvme m.2 drive, but I may have found a reason for the weird behavior with both SSDs in.

The EFI partition was still on the Sabrent drive and not on the same drive as my windows install. (because I guess the Sabrent was still installed when I installed my Kingston 2TB, and it somehow still read the partition when I installed Windows again on the new SSD even though it wouldn't boot from the Sabrent?? confused, I am)

I just fixed all that with this: https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/52837-moving-recreating-efi-partition.html

Fingers crossed- this helps resolve the issue.

But it's something to check if somebody has similar issues.

But then again, I have no idea if that would even cause an issue like what I was having.

Anybody here know if having the EFI part on another drive than the main OS would cause an issue?

I noticed it because I wanted to wipe the Sabrent and use it as a 2nd drive for just my games. Damn games are big today.

It had started working again so I was dual booting to access something I had on the old OS drive...

[RevGAM]

On 7/30/2023 at 5:23 PM, kokosnh said:

defraud doesn't mean stable (or without OC)... To see the SSDs, you have to power cycle by the PSU? 

I think what this person means is that your mobo may default to overclocking automatically unless you make sure it's turned off in BIOS and/or your mobo software. 

 

I don't think that the system will switch between different installs of Windows, although I suppose it might check another device if files are corrupted...

[kokosnh]

Yes, uefi partition on other drive, should not case a problem, useless if you are not booting for it.Or maybe some weird Windows fast boot problem, or mobo fast boot problem. 

If the ssd with Windows don’t have the efi partition, is should be ignore in boot order ( and if force to boot from it, it would fail and boot loop ).

This issue could be related to a boot order in UEFi, but it should not change, unless your mobo battery is dead, and it’s resetting everything every time you power it off. 
but maybe it similar (fast boot), and resetting it, forces it to do a POST, and find that efi partition on later drive in boot order. 

if you already fixed / created the efi partition on the OS drive, then it shouldn't matter anymore. do update if it fixed it. 
 

do note, that if one old efi partition already exist in PC on some drive, windows will not create it on the OS drive. it will use the old one. 
thet's also why it's recomanded to instal windows only with one drive in PC (the all variable are gone).