Question Crucial T500 M.2 (PC) Disconnects Randomly

[Andrew_C1]

So just about 2 months ago at the beginning of January I invested in getting the Crucial T500 2TB Gen4 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD so I would have faster loading times and wouldn't have to constantly be low on storage. Initially, I had an issue with it not registering the drive at all, but finally realized that because I had a 10th gen processor, the upper slot I installed it in is automatically disabled, so I was able to resolve that eventually.

Three times now, however, when I've left my computer on for an hour, and one time for maybe 6 hours, unattended (no heavy processes running just firefox tabs and discord), my PC would turn itself off, and upon turning it back on, all my drives except this M.2 would show, so I couldn't access any of my Steam games or anything installed on that drive.

The first time this happened, I tried turning my PC on and off a few times to no avail, so I had to completely unplug everything on my PC and re-seat the m.2, which worked and I was able to access it again, but then it happened again a few weeks ago, and now again today. Luckily these last two times I was able to just turn my PC off and back on and it showed my m.2 again, but I am worried as I don't have the energy to take apart my PC again at this point.

Does anyone know what the problem could be, or is it just a defective m.2? I would love any suggestions that don't involve taking apart my PC and getting a replacement part, I am broke and stressed enough as it is.

Thanks.

These are my internal specs if it helps:
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-PLUS WIFI
CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S
GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3070 SUPRIM X
RAM: G.Skill 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000
Storage: 1x Crucial T500 2TB Gen4 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD 7400MB/s 1x Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" SSD + 1x WD Blue 2 TB 3.5" 5400 HDD (4500 gb total)
PSU: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold ATX

 

[Lutfij]

Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-PLUS WIFI
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

PSU: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold ATX
How old is the PSU in your build?

 

[Ralston18]

Look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Either one or both tools may be capturing some error code, warning, or even an informational event related to the m.2 shutting down.

Also look in the applicable motherboard's User Guide/Manual to ensure that the m.2 is correctly installed and configured for the motherboard. - especially with respect to all the installed storage devices.

Relability History/Monitor is end user friendly and the timeline format may reveal patterns.

Event Viewer requires more time and effort to navigate and understand.

To help with Event Viewer:

How To - How to use Windows 10 Event Viewer | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

 

[Andrew_C1]

Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-PLUS WIFI
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

PSU: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold ATX
How old is the PSU in your build?

CMD says I'm on BIOS 1801. I know when it first disconnected I was on the phone with support trying to resolve the issue and they had me update my BIOS before we figured out the issue with the disabled slot (ASUS told me to update BIOS, I know majority say never to do that).
PSU would be about 4 now I'd say.

 

[Andrew_C1]

Look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Either one or both tools may be capturing some error code, warning, or even an informational event related to the m.2 shutting down.

Also look in the applicable motherboard's User Guide/Manual to ensure that the m.2 is correctly installed and configured for the motherboard. - especially with respect to all the installed storage devices.

Relability History/Monitor is end user friendly and the timeline format may reveal patterns.

Event Viewer requires more time and effort to navigate and understand.

To help with Event Viewer:

How To - How to use Windows 10 Event Viewer | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

Thanks for the suggestion! I had never heard of reliability History before. I checked it and besides yesterday, (one of my games crashed for an unrelated reason and it shows that so I know it is tracking stuff at least), the only thing today is around the same time of the m.2 disconnecting, it says Windows had a Cumulative Update which would explain it shutting off, (not sure why it's set to do that automatically when my PC is sleeping but that's something I'm guessing I can change), but do you think that could explain it disconnecting my m.2? Surely that happening just before can't be just a coincidence, I would think.

 

[Ralston18]

Likely you will need to take a closer look at all that transpired.

End user's can control Windows Updates to some extent. E.g., not allowing automatic updates.

Yet, Microsoft can override that setting as Microsoft deems necessary. Maybe did so and made some changes that clashed with existing settings.

Could be related to just some "perfect storm" of circumstances.

Sleep modes, power savers, screen savers, WOL, automated backups and updates by other apps.... etc..

Click on the applicable entries in Reliability History and view the technical details - may be a clue there.

And you can look around in Event Viewer. Not all that intuitive at first - "Cancel"/ "Go back" being your friends if you believe that something may be being changed.

Also check your system's current power plan settings.

Key is to investigate. Google as necessary to look up things that you do not expect or understand.

No rush to start making changes, running 3rd party "fix-it" utilities, and so forth.

And, as always, ensure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations away from the host PC in question.

Be sure to verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

 

[Andrew_C1]

Likely you will need to take a closer look at all that transpired.

End user's can control Windows Updates to some extent. E.g., not allowing automatic updates.

Yet, Microsoft can override that setting as Microsoft deems necessary. Maybe did so and made some changes that clashed with existing settings.

Could be related to just some "perfect storm" of circumstances.

Sleep modes, power savers, screen savers, WOL, automated backups and updates by other apps.... etc..

Click on the applicable entries in Reliability History and view the technical details - may be a clue there.

And you can look around in Event Viewer. Not all that intuitive at first - "Cancel"/ "Go back" being your friends if you believe that something may be being changed.

Also check your system's current power plan settings.

Key is to investigate. Google as necessary to look up things that you do not expect or understand.

No rush to start making changes, running 3rd party "fix-it" utilities, and so forth.

And, as always, ensure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations away from the host PC in question.

Be sure to verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

Thanks! Will do that.

 

[Andrew_C1]

Likely you will need to take a closer look at all that transpired.

End user's can control Windows Updates to some extent. E.g., not allowing automatic updates.

Yet, Microsoft can override that setting as Microsoft deems necessary. Maybe did so and made some changes that clashed with existing settings.

Could be related to just some "perfect storm" of circumstances.

Sleep modes, power savers, screen savers, WOL, automated backups and updates by other apps.... etc..

Click on the applicable entries in Reliability History and view the technical details - may be a clue there.

And you can look around in Event Viewer. Not all that intuitive at first - "Cancel"/ "Go back" being your friends if you believe that something may be being changed.

Also check your system's current power plan settings.

Key is to investigate. Google as necessary to look up things that you do not expect or understand.

No rush to start making changes, running 3rd party "fix-it" utilities, and so forth.

And, as always, ensure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations away from the host PC in question.

Be sure to verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

I just checked my power settings and it's set to "turn off hard disk" after 20 minutes, is that possibly part of the issue? I know my main driver for my computer is my SSD, not my m.2, so not sure if it even affects the m.2, should I tweak this at all?

 

[Ralston18]

Suggest taking a different look - the proverbial "big picture".

Open Disk Management and expand the window so all can be clearly seen and read.

Take a screenshot and post the screenshot here via imgur (www.imgur.com > New post).

Until there is some specific reason and/or proven need for a tweak - do nothing for the time being.

Objective being to determine what else can be discovered.

Also: I unchecked Best Answer. Thank you but that is a bit premature right now.

 

[Andrew_C1]

Suggest taking a different look - the proverbial "big picture".

Open Disk Management and expand the window so all can be clearly seen and read.

Take a screenshot and post the screenshot here via imgur (www.imgur.com > New post).

Until there is some specific reason and/or proven need for a tweak - do nothing for the time being.

Objective being to determine what else can be discovered.

Also: I unchecked Best Answer. Thank you but that is a bit premature right now.

I think this is what you meant?

https://imgur.com/iYbJg9h

View: https://imgur.com/iYbJg9h

My F drive is just a USB I have connected rn.

 

[Ralston18]

Not seeing anything immediately amiss there....

Next: look at the power related settings.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/most-useful-commands-for-powercfg-command-line

You can easily find other similar links.

Start with a "list" then explore via the other options to just learn more without making any immediate changes.

= = = =

Also look in Task Manager > Start up for any unknown or unexpected apps being launched at startup.

Another place to look is Task Scheduler: some app or utility may be being triggered after X amount of time or some other set of conditions. Any rules in place?

 

[beyondlogic]

So just about 2 months ago at the beginning of January I invested in getting the Crucial T500 2TB Gen4 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD so I would have faster loading times and wouldn't have to constantly be low on storage. Initially, I had an issue with it not registering the drive at all, but finally realized that because I had a 10th gen processor, the upper slot I installed it in is automatically disabled, so I was able to resolve that eventually.

Three times now, however, when I've left my computer on for an hour, and one time for maybe 6 hours, unattended (no heavy processes running just firefox tabs and discord), my PC would turn itself off, and upon turning it back on, all my drives except this M.2 would show, so I couldn't access any of my Steam games or anything installed on that drive.

The first time this happened, I tried turning my PC on and off a few times to no avail, so I had to completely unplug everything on my PC and re-seat the m.2, which worked and I was able to access it again, but then it happened again a few weeks ago, and now again today. Luckily these last two times I was able to just turn my PC off and back on and it showed my m.2 again, but I am worried as I don't have the energy to take apart my PC again at this point.

Does anyone know what the problem could be, or is it just a defective m.2? I would love any suggestions that don't involve taking apart my PC and getting a replacement part, I am broke and stressed enough as it is.

Thanks.

These are my internal specs if it helps:
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-PLUS WIFI
CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S
GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3070 SUPRIM X
RAM: G.Skill 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000
Storage: 1x Crucial T500 2TB Gen4 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD 7400MB/s 1x Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" SSD + 1x WD Blue 2 TB 3.5" 5400 HDD (4500 gb total)
PSU: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold ATX

does the nvme have a heatsink they can cook themselves to death