Question NVMe Samsung PM981a unusual behavior

boiboy263

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Feb 26, 2019
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Hello there,

I recently purchased a PM981a 256gb SSD. When I install Windows 10 on it, I cant run any heavy-gpu games because the SSD will reach 100% active time but 0kb/s w/r and then the whole system freeze out. Then I got another sata SSD and boot from that disk (still got PM981a installed), it doesnt freeze anymore but the PM981a disappear completely from Samsung magician, although it still visible in task manager, disk management, but when I install the PM981a in my laptop (has m.2 NVMe supported), it runs without any problem.

What I tried sofar:
  • Update the bios
  • Fresh install windows ( both 10 and 11)
  • Clean the connection
  • Disable all the SATA ports
  • Reset bios to default
And still no idea what is happening.
Hope this get's resolved soon.

My PC specs:
Asrock A320m-HDV r4.0
Ryzen 3 3100
Crucial ballistix 3000Mhz at XMP
SSD M.2 NVMe PM981a
MSI Rx570 Armor
Corsair CX550 PSU

Thanks for the help!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Where did you source the installers for your OS? What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard? How old is the PSU in your build? As for your SSD, while on the laptop, did you check to see, using Samsung's Magician app, if it's got any firmware updates pending?
 

Pextaxmx

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Jun 15, 2020
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if your PM981a is for either HP or Lenovo or Dell, check their download page and try newer firmware. If your part number has an H after "-" that's HP, D=Dell, L=Lenovo. If it ends without any letters like -00005, you are out of luck..
 

boiboy263

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Feb 26, 2019
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Sorry for my bad attitude.

I got the installer directly from microsoft'media creation tool, and the bios is at the latest version too. My PSU is around a year old and I dont think its the PSU'fault because I ran a few stress tests, even with my GPU overclocked and it turned out ok.

And PM981a is an OEM so I doubt that any firmware is pending too.
 

boiboy263

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Feb 26, 2019
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I've been thinking about this lately, and I came up with an idea, which is: maybe the hard drive is not the problem and the problem is the mobo doesnt have enough pcie lanes. Because it only freeze/shutdown when the gpu is under high load. According to my knowledge, gpu use x16 1.1 until the load comes and it switches to x16 3.0 (because my mobo only support pcie 3.0).
What do you guys think ? Could it be the answer ?
 
I've been thinking about this lately, and I came up with an idea, which is: maybe the hard drive is not the problem and the problem is the mobo doesnt have enough pcie lanes. Because it only freeze/shutdown when the gpu is under high load. According to my knowledge, gpu use x16 1.1 until the load comes and it switches to x16 3.0 (because my mobo only support pcie 3.0).
What do you guys think ? Could it be the answer ?
cpu has 20 pcie lanes reserved for gpu and m2 nvme, so they wont bother eachother
btw on your mainboard, which m2 slot youre using?
 

Pextaxmx

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Jun 15, 2020
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Hi kerberos, my mobo only have one m.2 slot, but I mean there's something wrong in the pcie lanes management on my mobo...
certainly possible. My old ASUS B250 board had M.2 slot that was corrupting files.
I was able to start Windows 10 installation, but in the middle of installation, I got "installation media corrupted" error message. The same installation media worked fine on another computer.