Disappearing SSD Causing BSODs and BIOS confusion

boatoar

Commendable
May 8, 2016
2
0
1,520
Hello all,

First time poster, long time lurker.

Where to start. I recently put together a new build with a friend's assistance. I've had it for roughly 5 weeks, and started seeing issues after day 2, but they were intermittent enough to ignore until this week.
This is what was purchased:
GIGABYTE Z170-HD3P
INTEL CORE I5-6400
Crucial 8GB DDR4-2133 x 2
ADATA SP900 M.2 2280 256GB
EVGA 500W 80 PLUS CERTIFIED ACTIVE PFC 12V 34A POWER SUPPLY

I'm running Windows Ultimate SP1 on this currently.

There are reasons I'm using Windows 7, and can get into them if need be.

I have my desktop plugged into my TV via HDMI and do most of my tv watching through boxee's software (no longer supported, but works). Anyway, when switching tv inputs to the computer from my xbox, I'd notice that it'd have restarted 'at random' because certain applications/windows I remember having opened were closed amongst other clues. It wasn't until this week that I started noticing BSODs, and then this ended up becoming a BIOS issue where the M.2 SSD would no longer be detectable. If I was to reboot my system right now it's 50/50 that the ADATA drive would boot. Once I got into the bios,
and see that it's missing, and reboot 3-4 times it'll normally come back and here I am.

So far , the BSODs shot errors that suggested maybe RAM issues, or so I had read, and I have done multiple memtests with zero errors. I've been told it continues perpetually, but mine ended after 11 hours twice saying it was finished after the 'hammer test'.
My friend also tested the ssd's "SMART" attributes with SSD LifePro (100% healthy) and ran Ubuntu through a flash drive, and tested its read/write ability and no faults came from that, either.

I did turn on the SSD controller's "hotstart" (i may be using the wrong term for my bios, but it's something similar) functionality and this caused the system to stay on without restarting until just after midnight local tonight. Last night it was rebooting every 15 minutes, so this was a vast improvement. The system rarely restarts while the computer is in use ( before yesterday) , and I had just finished a movie. 10 minutes later (and after midnight if this is timing related) I found myself in the bios with no ssd available to boot off of. I rebooted twice more and it returned.

Last night we updated the bios firmware to F5 (current), and verified we had all the drivers and utility packs current as well.

The only thing I haven't done is install any windows updates and am curious if this could play a role or if it's likely the Mboard at this point or the PSU.

We also moved the location of the sata plug ins for the internal drives I have installed (they never disappear from the bios) just in case.

It seems the ssd becomes invisible to windows which then freaks out and bsods, and then I play around with the bios until it restarts again and we have ourselves a vicious cycle.

I did download bsod viewer and event viewer if that info is useful to anyone:

Event viewer says the critical failure is a 'kernel-power event id 41' error
Blue Screen Viewer always lists ntoskrnl.exe as part of the issue (top listed file).


Thank you for reading, and my apologies for the length of the post.










 
Solution


Thanks for the reply. I isolated my problems to be with the m.2 SSD. It stocked being recognized in bios whatsoever. It'd restart (now I know it's because the ssd became undetectable which makes sense with this error having to do with the executable being missing) Going to RMA that, and re-installed windows to a old hard drive I had. Will clone to another ssd after I get the replacement (and decide whether to trust ADATA again, or upgrade to a Samsung model).

Cheers.

ChaoticWolf

Honorable
For the ntoskrnl.exe error, that's usually when that file is missing or corrupted. youll have to fix it somehow.

you could also try replacing the psu, or the motherboard. im no expert when it comes to really weird stuff like this, but you can try
 

boatoar

Commendable
May 8, 2016
2
0
1,520


Thanks for the reply. I isolated my problems to be with the m.2 SSD. It stocked being recognized in bios whatsoever. It'd restart (now I know it's because the ssd became undetectable which makes sense with this error having to do with the executable being missing) Going to RMA that, and re-installed windows to a old hard drive I had. Will clone to another ssd after I get the replacement (and decide whether to trust ADATA again, or upgrade to a Samsung model).

Cheers.

 
Solution