Gigabyte B450 and M.2 PCIe SSD Freezing and crashing

[gariepyf]

I installed a new m.2 PCIe SSD (SAmsung 960 EVO) in my system and I am getting the system freezing and rebooting often. Every 2 to 15 minutes. I Changed the SSD for an Intel 660P and get the same problem. .

Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro Wi-fi F2 bios
CPU: Ryzen 2600
RAM: Crucial 2x8GB 2400
GPU: Geforce960

The system runs perfectly stable with a Sata3 SSD (Crucial M4)
When I installed the Samsung 960 EVO, I installed windows and the drivers and got the system working but the system would freeze and crash every 2 to 15 minutes. Sometimes while browsing, sometimes while idle. Pretty random.
RAM check was OK, Changed the RAM, same problem.

I changed the M.2 drive to Slot B, same problems. When I put back the Sata M4 Crucial drive, the system runs perfect.

I tested the M.2 drive in another computer with gigabyte moherboard with Ryzen and got exactly the same problem so I tought it was obviously a bad drive.
I changed the drive for an Intel 660P and reinstalled windows and got exactly the same problems again. I think I have a bad setting somewhere in the BIOS or in the settings because the rest of the hardware seems fine. I changed the RAM, changed the M.2 drive. CPU looks good with the Sata drive, I thought it could be the motherboard but why would I have the same problems in another Giogabyte motherboard (AB350M-DS3H)?

Any ideas?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2A_SOCKET)
1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 PCIe 3.0 x2 SSD support)(M2B_SOCKET)
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10
* Refer to "1-7 Internal Connectors," for the installation notices for the M.2 and SATA connectors.

 

[gariepyf]

1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2A_SOCKET)
1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 PCIe 3.0 x2 SSD support)(M2B_SOCKET)
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10
* Refer to "1-7 Internal Connectors," for the installation notices for the M.2 and SATA connectors.

Yes, I did follow the instructions for M.2 mounting. I tested with only the m.2 drive, no SATA device connected and got the same crashes.

 

[Calvin7]

Crucial 2x8GB 2400

Part number or link to memory? Changed the RAM - part number or link?

What if any changes have you made to default BIOS settings?

 

[gariepyf]

Crucial 2x8GB 2400
Part number or link to memory? Changed the RAM - part number or link?
What if any changes have you made to default BIOS settings?

RAM is Crucial DDR4 CMK16GX4M2A2400C16R, the other one was a GSkill DDR4 8GB, don't have the model. I think both are supported.

The BIOS is pretty much running the default optimized settings, I tried to disable many bios settings (cool and quiet,
I feel like it's a bios or drivers issue but really not clear what.

I installed windows10-64 from a DVD with the CSM enabled. Should I reinstall from a UEFI USB with CSM disabled to do a full UEFI installation? Does it matter?
Sata controller set to AHCI (default)

 

[Calvin7]

The NVMe M.2 drive should be the only storage drive connected.

NVMe SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver

Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

Insert a USB memory stick with a bootable UEFI USB drive with Windows 10 Setup* on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also. A Windows DVD won’t work unless you’ve created your own UEFI Bootable DVD.

Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode.

Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

*How to create a bootable UEFI USB drive with Windows 10 Setup
https://winaero.com/blog/how-to-create-a-bootable-uefi-usb-drive-with-windows-10-setup/

The Windows 10 ISO link is broken in the above. You can obtain the ISO file here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Ryzen 5 2600
Supported memory: DDR4-2933

 

[gariepyf]

The NVMe M.2 drive should be the only storage drive connected.

NVMe SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver

Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

Insert a USB memory stick with a bootable UEFI USB drive with Windows 10 Setup* on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also. A Windows DVD won’t work unless you’ve created your own UEFI Bootable DVD.

Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode.

Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

*How to create a bootable UEFI USB drive with Windows 10 Setup
https://winaero.com/blog/how-to-create-a-bootable-uefi-usb-drive-with-windows-10-setup/

The Windows 10 ISO link is broken in the above. You can obtain the ISO file here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Ryzen 5 2600
Supported memory: DDR4-2933

Yes it worked!! Thanks
For the record, I followed the procedure, disabled the CSM and used a Windows 10 UEFI usb key to install.
I had to reformat the PCIe SSD to GPT format to be albe to install windows (Shift+F10 to access the commadn prompt in the installer)
I was able to use my old W7 Key to activate Windows!

I'm installing software since 2 hours without any problems, Previously, it would have crashed 3-4 times already.
I could feel right away that the PC was way faster than before. Very snappy.
No problems at this point, everything looking good.

Thanks again.