Question Distorted blue screens on new Windows 11 install ?

[themish]

Hi all, I just installed Windows 11 today, and it seemed to be going fine, but I’m starting to get a serious amount of distorted blue screens.

I installed a 2TB WD Blue SN5000 M.2 SSD, so thats a new component in the system. I thought it was overheating, but temps seem to be in normal range.

Heres the gist of what happened. I installed Windows 11 from USB and things went fine. As I was downloading programs and logging into stuff, I opened Firefox, the system hung up, and after 30 sec or so, just restarted.

I started to look in Event Viewer to make sense of something, and I found an error that Secure Boot was not enabled. System Information also showed Secure Boot not being enabled, nor the BIOS being in UEFI mode. I previously thought it was on Windows 10, the PC Health Check said Secure Boot was enabled and I could install Win 11, so thats why I went through with it.

Anyways, I went to BIOS and changed it UEFI mode and enabled Secure Boot. There were a few restarts involved, and a few times, I saw this distorted blue screen, which didn’t stick around long, and restarted a few seconds after displaying.

So I was able to get back to Windows, and kept doing things as normal, but then out of my own curiosity, just did a restart to see if it would behave normally, but I kept getting one distorted blue screen after another. Sometimes it would happen at the lock screen, other times I would be able to log in, but then it would happen a few moments after displaying the desktop.

Being at a loss, I shut down the system the next time I could get to the lock screen, and turned it back on about 10 minutes later, and I was able to log in fine and type this out.

I’m really at a loss at whats happening here, any help is very appreciated.

Specs
MBD: MSI B350M Bazooka
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: RX 6700 10GB
RAM: 16 GB DDR4
PSU: EVGA 650w G2

Storage
2TB M.2 NVMe SSD (new drive)
2TB HDD
4TB HDD

 

[johnbl]

you might update the firmware in the western digital blue sn500 to the current version (7/28/2021)
i did not see a fix list for the firmware.

https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/31759/~/download,-install,-test-drive-and-update-firmware-using-western-digital#subject3

 

[triplex1]

The nvme is a Western Digital Blue SN5000, it is a gen 4, and my motherboard is Gen 3. I'll look into the bios setting for the m.2 port now.

if your m2 disk is gen 4 not working with your mb , if your mb has slot m2 gen4 working with disk m2 gen3 and gen4

 

[triplex1]

find an economical motherboard with 550 chipset and put everything to get and the S.A.M

 

[themish]

Hi all, so heres a bit of an update. I did get things working, but some might think I sent the lame route. I dont have confidence in the nvme drive. I dont know if it was the actual drive, my m.2 slot on the motherboard (first time being used) or a compatibility issue with my hardware, but those bsod loops just freaked me out too much.

Granted, on the 2nd install of Windows, I only got one distorted bsod, then one time the Inaccessible Boot Device bsod, and from there I shut down to run my errends. When I came back, I could boot up, read the comments here, and downloaded the windows iso and rufus. The iso took a long time to download, and the pc was left on over night with no issues. And I didnt turn off the pc until I knew I was completely done with it, I just didnt want to take any chances restarting it. The bsod's seemed to really happen on startup. It seemed like when my pc was off for some time, I could start up fine, but if I then restarted, I would get into that loop. I susptected temps since it seemed to let me go to desktop after being off for 10 or 15 mintutes, but HWinfo or CrystalDisk never reported unusual.

So I ended up just getting a 2tb sata III drive and removing the nvme. I installed windows 11 using the media made by rufus, and things have been humming along since.

I'm not sure what made the difference, if it was indeed a faulty componant related to the nvme drive, m.2 slot, updating the bios, or something different with the rufus image, but things are working now. Like I said, thats the most trouble I've had with windows in years, it really made me start to list the windows only applications I use and consider if I could do linux for desktop and keep a windows only on my laptop.

But I really do appreaciate all the advice and help troublshooting, thanks all.

 

[themish]

The INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE BSOD suggests that the hardware failure we're looking for (due to the CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED BSOD) is that NVMe drive - or the M.2 port on the motherboard.

Out of curiosity, were you able to see the files that I posted from the SysnativeBSODCollectionApp?

 

[triplex1]

i said before ''if your m2 disk is gen 4 not working with your mb , if your mb has slot m2 gen4 working with disk m2 gen3 and gen4''
this was your problem mb with gen3 and m2 with gen4 ...............not working
You can install linux if you want but you can buy one m2 with gen3 and install win11 without problem.
i have win11 and linux in my 1st pc with Western Digital Black SN850 SSD 1TB (gen4) + Adata XPG SX8200 Pro SSD 256GB (gen3)

 

[ubuysa]

Out of curiosity, were you able to see the files that I posted from the SysnativeBSODCollectionApp?

Nope, there was no link to it.

I too think that the issue was an NVMe generation incompatibility with your motherboard.

 

[triplex1]

you can also get something like that (your motherboard has 2 sockets), for sure its speed will be lower than the one given by the manufacturer, but the job is done.
* Downwards compatible with PCIe 3.0/2.0.
In any case, I would go for a change of motherboard