[SOLVED] Laptop Blue Screen after BIOS Update - - - Windows 11 doesn't see SSD ?

[mavrick88]

Hello!

I just setup a new MSI Thin 15 B12VE Laptop (This) and everything worked great out of the box. It came with a 512GB NVME in it and the first thing I did was remove it and put in a 2TB NVME. I did a fresh install of Windows 11 Pro which worked perfectly. It went through all the Windows updates and installed all those fine. I installed latest Nvidia drivers and I was ready to go! I saw there was a BIOS update from the version I was on (504) to a newer version that came out in December 2024 (509). I have done plenty of BIOS updates and never had problems. So I figured why not, lets upgrade to 509 (E16R8IMS.509).

It upgraded the BIOS with no problems and restarted. Right away I got the Windows 11 Blue screen "Inaccessible Boot Device" which is no biggy, I've seen this before on other PCs. I thought it probably reset the BIOS to Legacy support or something. That was not the case. I installed Windows 11 on UEFI so I figured that was it. Well, I went back into options and it defaulted to Chinese BIOS. I was able to get it back to English and did another restart. I see in the BIOS my NVME 2TB SSD, but I still get the blue screen when I try to boot to it. When I try to do a boot from the Windows 11 USB, it works. But the 2TB NVME is not listed anymore. So I'm assuming that's why it's blue screening. I see no options for Legacy vs UEFI settings. It's still just set to UEFI, which is what I would want. I can't reinstall Windows 11, as the NVME 2TB SSD doesn't show up anymore. I only see the USB stick listed that I'm booting from to install W11.

I'm lost. The 2TB NVME still shows up in BIOS, so I know the computer is reading it, but there is something that will not allow Windows 11 to "see" it as an available drive. Even SHIFT F10 Diskpart doesn't "see it" but it shows up in the new 509 BIOS as an available drive. I just can't boot to it or install Windows 11 to it again. I tried to downgrade to 504, which I was able to do and I was having the same problem because I'm sure something reset. I went back to 509 and I'm now stuck. I can go back to 504 but that's not the problem. W11 USB install doesn't "see" the 2TB NVME SSD anymore. Help!

 

[Lutfij]

What is the make and model of the 2TB drive you swapped over? Have you tried swapping the older SSD in and seeing if that alleviates the issue?

 

[mavrick88]

Ok, so I might have figured out my own issue. The weird thing is, updating to 509 added an option I noticed that the 504 didn't have before the update. Intel Rapid Storage Technology now shows up under the BIOS Update option. It wasn't there before. Even when I downgraded back to 504, it was still there. So I went back to 509 again.

When Windows 11 USB boots, you don't see the NVME anymore. So, I thought well, now that Intel Rapid Storage Technology shows up, I bet I need the driver! I went (here) and downloaded the driver. I unpacked the zip to the W11 USB drive.

I went back to the W11 install. Only the USB drive showed up for drives listed. I hit Load Driver at the top. I had to narrow down to the exact folder inside that driver folder I extracted and it found the driver I needed. There were 2 listed. I picked the 1st one. Right after I did that, poof there it was. The 2TB NVME and all it's partitions that W11 first install created. I deleted all of the Partitions and only saw the 1.8TB unallocated drive. It's currently installing W11 again. I will post if that did the trick and if I don't get the blue screen anymore. I personally wasn't concerned about data loss since it was already a fresh install. I'm not sure what someone else would do to fix it if they wanted to recover that data.

I'll post again if it worked ok or not. Thanks!!

 

[SkyNetRising]

I went back to 509 and I'm now stuck. I can go back to 504 but that's not the problem. W11 USB install doesn't "see" the 2TB NVME SSD anymore. Help!

Turn off secure boot.
Make sure sata controller is set to AHCI (disable Intel RST).
Load nvme drivers during install.

You can get nvme drivers from gigabyte windows usb tool.
NVME driver is generic. It is not Gigabyte specific. It works in windows 11 (not only windows 7).

https://www.gigabyte.com/Support/Utility?kw=windows&p=1

 

[mavrick88]

Yes, so somehow upgrading to 509 (even after downgrading to 504) caused Intel Rapid Storage Technology to turn "on" and that made the 2TB NVME SSD Drive "disappear." For some reason I didn't have any options to change to go back to ACHI mode instead of Intel Rapid Storage Technology. I guess going to 509 just got rid of that as an option. My only "fix" was to just accept it and get the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver from MSI that I linked above (probably as said above any would have worked) and that allowed me to install W11 again (I didn't care about data loss). Now everything installed fine and is working fine. I'm back at a W11 desktop again, doing Windows updates.

Point: Don't update BIOS unless you really have to. Things can change and you can be stuck from there. Thanks for the help and suggestions people mentioned. I really appreciate it! I had to really think through this one! Stupid Intel Rapid Storage Technology lol.