Question Does improperly installing a M.2 SSD cause problems?

Dec 22, 2019
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So coming from building my own PC, I didn't read the instructions properly and just screwed the M.2 SSD at a 30 degree angle touching the motherboard. It took a while, but I corrected the mistake by unscrewing the M.2 and putting in the base screw first then screwing in the designated M.2 screw to secure the SSD.
My question is with the SSD touching the motherboard and at a 30 degree angle, would this have caused problems for my PC? I was already having problems with the PC restarting unexpectedly after a period of time, so I was wondering if the problem could have resulted from not having the base screw installed when installing the M.2.
 

Mrgr74

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So coming from building my own PC, I didn't read the instructions properly and just screwed the M.2 SSD at a 30 degree angle touching the motherboard. It took a while, but I corrected the mistake by unscrewing the M.2 and putting in the base screw first then screwing in the designated M.2 screw to secure the SSD.
My question is with the SSD touching the motherboard and at a 30 degree angle, would this have caused problems for my PC? I was already having problems with the PC restarting unexpectedly after a period of time, so I was wondering if the problem could have resulted from not having the base screw installed when installing the M.2.

Hi @Siriuszbusiness

Possible yes, but without seeing for ourselves, it's hard to give an exactly correct answer. Obviously anytime something isn't installed correctly it can cause issues. The part of the M.2 that was touching the mobo, was it metal on metal? Potential shorting issue is why I ask. After reinstalling the m.2, hows it start now? Still having issues?

Are you able to replicate the boot issues? Possibly a stick of RAM is causing you issues, or your PSU is failing? Are you overclocking? Try resetting your Cmos? Same starting issues after? Was this your 1st build or your 50th? (by this I mean whats your lvl of experience) Obviously all drivers are up to date?

A little more info please on general hardware you have. Whats the Bios ver. of your mobo? (Install CPU-Z to find out if you do not know how to check via boot)

Let us know and we'll see what we can do to help. :)
 
Dec 22, 2019
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Few details about the specs:
Motherboard is a msi z930 gaming pro carbon
Cpu is a i9 9900k 8core
Gpu is a evga Nvidia rtx 2070
2 sticks of 16 gb ram corsair vengeance
Corsair cx 750 bronze psu
I also have a kraken x62 aio water cooling fan installed.

This is my first build, i'm not sure if the M.2 was touching metal on metal as I didn't check. The bios was updated via the Dragon center as this is a MSI board.
The issues only occur after a few hours of usage, sometimes not at all but it occurred again yesterday night, before I had another look at the instruction manual for the motherboard to see if everything had been installed correctly.
I checked the ram, no errors. PSU shouldn't be failing because I ran it through OCCT (benchmarked the power supply?)
The only time I had been able to replicate the computer shutting down and restarting is when I used the Intel extreme tuning utility benchmark. However using this benchmark seems to destabilize the CPU causing a unexpected shut down and restart. All other benchmarks that have run the CPU at 100% has not had the same issue.
I did not reset Cmos, though everything should be relatively new I wouldn't know why I would need to reset it.
Lastly, seems like after looking over it and unplugging and replugging a few cords (along with properly installing the M.2), the fans have gone on overdrive. No issues with restarts yet, but i'll keep you updated.