PC occasionally fails to start from the M.2 drive slot.
PC occasionally fails to start from the M.2 drive slot.
Hello everyone, I recently assembled a new PC two weeks ago. Initially, I purchased all the required components: a motherboard (MSI Pro B660M-A with WiFi DDR4), an i5 12500 CPU, TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB DDR4 16GB RAM, a 240TB SATA SSD, and an MSI MPG A750GF power supply. Everything functioned properly at first. After a week, I upgraded it with two NVMe SSDs—one 500GB and another 1TB (ADATA Legend 750)—for the system and gaming purposes. I installed them and they appeared in the BIOS. Then I installed Windows 10 on the first drive (500GB M.2_1 slot connected to the CPU). The system booted without issues.
The next day, when I tried to turn it on, the PC froze at the MSI logo. I forced a shutdown by pressing the power button for three seconds, then restarted it. After that, the system powered up normally. I repeated this process several times, but each time it would fail to boot (stuck on MSI logo). I attempted to switch drives: placed the 1TB SSD in the M.2_1 slot from the CPU and the 500GB in the M.2_2 slot from the chipset, then reinstalled Windows 10. The same issue persisted—only a few successful boots out of ten attempts.
I suspect the problem might lie elsewhere. After some troubleshooting, I disabled Fast Boot, downloaded a fresh Windows 10 ISO, reset the BIOS to default settings, and removed one NVMe drive from M.2_1 while keeping the other in M.2_2. Despite these changes, the PC still wouldn’t boot properly. Now, after booting from the second drive (M.2_2), it started working consistently.
Could my M.2_1 slot be defective? If so, why does it sometimes work and sometimes not? When it functions, the SSD performance is excellent—read and write speeds were strong according to CrystaldiskMark. Have others encountered this issue before?
P.S.: I disabled Fast Boot, updated the ISO, adjusted BIOS settings, and removed one drive from M.2_1 to see if that resolved the problem.
I don't have access to your system's BIOS settings. Please check your motherboard manual or BIOS interface for the correct boot order.
Even with default BIOS configurations, the issue persists. The two drives are consistently recognized in BIOS and the boot sequence appears accurate, yet Windows occasionally fails to start. After a system restart, the Event Viewer reveals a fatal hardware error.
I usually skip the BIOS update since I damaged a motherboard back in 2012. At least I can run the PC without the M.2_1 slot. Someone mentioned MSI has issues with ADATA firmware, so I’ll try another brand—like SAMSUNG 980 250GO NVME. SSD prices here are much lower than for motherboards because of import taxes.
The fix was just turning off the fast startup in Windows settings, which is normal.
The main way to ensure safety with that setup is using a USB-based BIOS flash system. Each brand has its own unique name and functions slightly differently, but they all essentially do the same: you can update the BIOS without needing a functional CPU. M-flash and flashback are examples of this. I think it’s pretty solid for AMD systems, though you might be using one on an Intel platform as well.