Question: M.2 drive disappears, then reappears

[CornStrategy]

I built an x570 system five months ago with a pair of M.2 drives, one for Windows 10 and work-related software, the other for games.

Last night while in the middle of a game, I was dumped to the desktop. Task Manager showed both Steam and the game's launcher active, but I couldn't shut them down (granted, I had no mouse pointer and was trying to do it through the keyboard, so maybe I didn't do things properly). I rebooted the system through Task Manager.

When Windows started up again, I noticed that all Steam icons were blank. It turns out Windows wasn't detecting the M.2 games drive. I figured I had a dead drive.

I shut down the system, waited a couple minutes, restarted the system and went to BIOS. Both M.2 drives were detected. My system and CPU temperatures were good. From there I started Windows. Steam was working again. Everything was back to normal.

What happened? I'm trying to think of things it might've been.

[the86d]

Crucial, or Micron or cheaper?
I see no mention of brand/model...

Maybe?:

https://www.google.com/search?q=crucial+micron+5000+hour+bug

Are they getting HAWT?

BS LED SSDs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnST5rA64Oc

To fix the Crucial/Micron 5000 hour bug (or reset/clear it actually), one has to power off everything, unplug power, hit the power button to de-juice the caps to start with fresh power, then power back up...

Running an On-board RAID array, or even Windows RAID striping?

Current on Board BIOS/firmware(/EUFI)?

[CornStrategy]

Western Digital Black SN750 1TB.
Gigabyte Aorus Master. Using the heat sinks that came with the board for the NVMe SSDs.
No RAID.

[csshih]

disappearing m2 ssd on an amd build? sounds exactly like this:

https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-yanks-a-dodgy-amd-driver-that-is-bricking-some-windows-10-pcs/

[CornStrategy]

Thanks for the article and video. I only have RGB lighting on my intake fans and case logos. Still, I suspected heat or improper seating of the M.2 stick. I just didn’t know why it’d take 5 months to show up.

[csshih]

RGB? the article was about a bad driver released by amd

[CornStrategy]

RGB? the article was about a bad driver released by amd

Yes, the article was about that. The video from the86d was on the effects of RGB lighting on SSD temperature. I don't think either explains my situation, but all info is appreciated. As I said, I'm trying to list possible causes.

[high_revs]

Maybe install a hardware monitor? See how the drive's performance is. It is odd but stranger things can happen (like my is my router dying thread).

Was there a mobo driver update before it went down? And using heavy drive utilization before it went down?

just thinking out aloud.

[.sam.]

Hit the windows key and type: Reliability Monitor. See if there is any events logged.

The other one to look at is: Event Viewer. Go to Windows Logs > System. See if anything is out of the ordinary/errors.

It's working now, so back-up your data. Then download the Western Digital Dashboard, maybe it can detect something.

It can be anything that is connect in your computer. So, since it's working, I would just move on until it happens frequently.

[Preston-CLB]

There's a nice little called Speccy from Piriform. It displays a large number of system attributes, including; temperatures, drive status/health, mobo specs, etc. The free version is excellent.

This little program, along with Event Viewer should help identify possible cause for the drive issue.

Hope you get it sorted out.
-P

[CornStrategy]

I didn't know about Speccy, Reliability Monitor, or the Event Viewer. I also didn't know you could monitor M.2 temps. I've just been using Gigabyte's SVI for monitoring temperatures and fan RPM. Thanks for the info.

I installed the Western Digital tool. The Event Viewer is a little over my head right now. And the Reliability Monitor shows a few issues this past week, but nothing before that. Maybe a Windows Update caused a problem. I'll keep watching it.

[MrBlazito]

In the event viewer open the Windows Logs folder on the left side. Then click on System and scroll down to the date and time the issue happened. You should see some sort of critical event logged.

[UnitedWeStand]

Try install the WD Dashboard to check for firmware update.

https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=279&lang=en