Freezing at splash screen with 960 evo NVME SSD - solved

[KrMaH]

Hey folks!
Dont post much. But I've encountered a weird issue which I have tried to research or otherwise find a solution for, to no luck what so ever.

This weekend I helped a friend of mine building a desktop, with the following specs:
Asus ROG Strix Z390-F

Intel i7 9700k
Asus RTX2080 Strix

32 GB 3200MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4

Corsair RM750X PSU

Corsair H115i Platinum AIO

Samsung 860 evo 500gb M.2 SATA SSD

WD Red 6tb

Samsung 960 evo NVME SSD

Lian Li O11 dynamic

 

The issue is that whenever we (another/thrid friend of mine, who also know a fair bit about computers) and I tried to boot the computer with the NVME SSD installed the computer freezes at the splash screen, and wont even allow us to enter BIOS. We have consulted the manual to make sure we installed the M.2 NVME SSD and the M.2 SATA SSD in the right slots, as the motherboard has two M.2 slots. What I found out is that the slot labeled M.2_1 can work in both SATA and NVME mode and the slot labeled M.2_2 only works in NVME mode, so we naturally installed the SATA SSD in M.2_1 and the NVME SSD in M.2_2.
With only the SATA SSD installed (in the correct slot, M.2_1) there is no freeze at splash, windows installation went fine, and both the SATA SSD and HDD are recognized in both BIOS and in Windows 10.
I believe, though I cant say for certain, that we tried the NVME SSD in M.2_1 as well (considering it should work in both modes) without getting any positive results.

I've, as mentioned, consulted both the motherboards FAQ, manual and bios manual (as well as some extensive google research) to figure out if there is any setting which needs to be turned on in order to prevent the issue but to no luck.
Which has lead me to believe that one of two things is faulty. Either the NVME SSD or the M.2_2 slot is malfunctioning.
I would've tried the NVME SSD in another computer, but his old desktop has no M.2 slot.

Anyone have any idea or experiences which may be of use?

 

Edit:
-Added info on what CPU is being used

Thanks in advance!
KrMaH

[Generic Apple Hater]

Have you tried the NVME one in another system, It could be DOA and could be holding down the system.

[KrMaH]

Yeah, we took it back to the store and they tested it there. Same results, so my friend got a new one.