Question NVMe SSD suddenly stopped being detected - but only at startup ?

[GrantR32]

Hi all, long time reader, first time poster. I have (I think) a somewhat unique situation and have searched far and wide without any solution. Some posts I found where people replaced the drive and it did not fix their issue, others where the issue was caused by a display port cable.

A bit of history, I purchased this PC almost 3 years ago during lockdowns and it has been fine since then until about 2 week ago. When starting the computer in the morning it would generally go straight to BIOS and occasionally get stuck on the ASUS splash screen. When it would go into BIOS my Kingston NVMe SSD was nowhere to be seen and therefore cannot be selected as the boot drive.

Usually after shutting the computer down 1-2 times either through BIOS or the start button it would boot into windows as normal and have no issues, sometimes if I get stuck in this loop long enough I have to switch off the PSU and then press the start button a few times, turn the PSU back on and it starts fine. I have never not been able to get in after a few attempts. I have a similar problem when putting the computer to sleep, upon waking up it would just get frozen on the windows login screen.

Once in windows it has no problems, I now generally leave the computer on all day 12+ hours and it never freezes or does anything else it shouldn't.

If I shutdown the computer and turn it back on after 1-2 minutes I do not see this issue, I have done this many times not without problems. I'm not sure exactly how long it needs to be shut down for this issue to come back, but after being shut down for 1 hour it will have the same issue as the morning.

I just wanted to see if anyone had any advice before I start buying new parts.

No hardware was changed before this started happening.

Some things I have tried already (might've missed a few things:
- Updated BIOS
- Reset CMOS
- Updated all drivers + nvme firmware
- Disabled windows fast boot
- Re-seat nvme + change slot
- Set nvme as gen 3 in bios instead of auto
- Run sfc /scannow and Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
- Unplug everything and start computer with only the monitor attached
- Checked all connectors as plugged in properly
- Unplugged all other drives

Specs:
ASUS PRIME B550M-A (WI-FI)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
RX 6600 XT
2x Gskill 8gb DDR4-3200
Coolermaster 550w PSU
Windows 10

Kingston KC2500 500GB (the one that's not showing up in the BIOS)
Crucial BX500 240gb
2x WD red plus 4tb

I'm open to any suggestions, thanks.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Coolermaster 550w PSU
Coolermaster is the brand of the PSU while 550W is the advertised wattage of the unit. What is the model of the unit? Is the PSU 3 years old at this point?

Updated BIOS
For the sake of relevance, can you state the BIOS version for your motherboard?

Just out of curiosity, have you taken the drive over to another platform and seen if the drive is consisntely showing up on in BIOS and OS GUI with the sort of tries/hours of usage you've mentioned above? If so, the issue is your board/board's BIOS.

 

[GrantR32]

At this stage I am unsure of the PSU model, the way my case is designed I can't see this info without removing the unit. I can do this if there is a strong suspicion it's causing the issue which is very well might be. Correct the unit is 3 years old.

My BIOS version is 3607, the previous version was 24xx from memory, from 2021.

Unfortunately I do not have another machine to try my nvme in.

 

[Bob.B]

Hi all, long time reader, first time poster. I have (I think) a somewhat unique situation and have searched far and wide without any solution. Some posts I found where people replaced the drive and it did not fix their issue, others where the issue was caused by a display port cable.

A bit of history, I purchased this PC almost 3 years ago during lockdowns and it has been fine since then until about 2 week ago. When starting the computer in the morning it would generally go straight to BIOS and occasionally get stuck on the ASUS splash screen. When it would go into BIOS my Kingston NVMe SSD was nowhere to be seen and therefore cannot be selected as the boot drive.

Usually after shutting the computer down 1-2 times either through BIOS or the start button it would boot into windows as normal and have no issues, sometimes if I get stuck in this loop long enough I have to switch off the PSU and then press the start button a few times, turn the PSU back on and it starts fine. I have never not been able to get in after a few attempts. I have a similar problem when putting the computer to sleep, upon waking up it would just get frozen on the windows login screen.

Once in windows it has no problems, I now generally leave the computer on all day 12+ hours and it never freezes or does anything else it shouldn't.

If I shutdown the computer and turn it back on after 1-2 minutes I do not see this issue, I have done this many times not without problems. I'm not sure exactly how long it needs to be shut down for this issue to come back, but after being shut down for 1 hour it will have the same issue as the morning.

I just wanted to see if anyone had any advice before I start buying new parts.

No hardware was changed before this started happening.

Some things I have tried already (might've missed a few things:
- Updated BIOS
- Reset CMOS
- Updated all drivers + nvme firmware
- Disabled windows fast boot
- Re-seat nvme + change slot
- Set nvme as gen 3 in bios instead of auto
- Run sfc /scannow and Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
- Unplug everything and start computer with only the monitor attached
- Checked all connectors as plugged in properly
- Unplugged all other drives

Specs:
ASUS PRIME B550M-A (WI-FI)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
RX 6600 XT
2x Gskill 8gb DDR4-3200
Coolermaster 550w PSU
Windows 10

Kingston KC2500 500GB (the one that's not showing up in the BIOS)
Crucial BX500 240gb
2x WD red plus 4tb

I'm open to any suggestions, thanks.

Cheap test.....replace the bios bat.