Problems during OS installation on M.2 NVMe drives for MSI B550m Mortar WiFi
Problems during OS installation on M.2 NVMe drives for MSI B550m Mortar WiFi
Hello everyone, today I got a new Kioxia SSD (2TB) and attempted a fresh Windows installation. By the way, on another smaller (256GB), I already had a functional Windows setup. When I tried to install Windows, everything proceeded smoothly until the final stage. Eventually, I encountered BSODs repeatedly. I spent more than five hours trying to figure out the issue, reinstalling, cleaning the drive, etc. My BIOS was from around 2023 and I upgraded it to version 7C94v1L1, but the problem continued. I switched to installing Windows via a straight ISO instead of using the media creator, but that also didn’t help. Eventually, I gave up and tried Linux (Garuda, Arch-based gaming distro), which worked but only booted into a black screen.
I’ve tried several things:
- Verified the drive with chkdsk and Kioxia’s tool – health was perfect.
- Replaced CMOS battery to ensure no changes were locked in.
- Reseated RAM.
- Tested both NVMe slots – nothing worked.
The strange part is that the smaller SSD seems stable, while a similar larger one (which I replaced) became unstable with the same BSOD (CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED). I removed the bigger SSD, installed my OS on the smaller one, and it functioned properly.
Possible reasons:
- The smaller SSD is a lower-end Kingston model using PCI Gen 3, which might not support Gen 4 officially.
- The crashes suggest something unusual about the drive or firmware.
- I couldn’t access logs or dumps due to unstable booting.
My specs include: Ryzen 5 5600X, 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600, 800W Thermaltake Madrid PSU, GTX 980ti Windforce (Gigabyte), 256GB Kingston SSD, Kioxa Exercia Pro SSD 2TB, MSI B550m Mortar WiFi Mobo.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!
In the BIOS, do you have an option to reduce the speed of the PCIe slots from gen 4 to gen 3 ? You'd lose a bit of speed but it should not be perceptible to the naked eye. If that does not help, you can always check the CPU for bent pins and reseat it, test the RAM, etc. I'm almost certain that the PCIe speed is the culprit because 2GB is a pretty standard size and your drive is testing ok (and Kioxia is a reputable manufacturer). Good luck and have a nice day too
Hey there! Thanks for your feedback and ideas! ^^ I’m pretty confident I adjusted the PCIe speed before as a troubleshooting step, but I’ll attempt it again tomorrow and let you know for sure. I’ll also take everything apart and reassemble it to be thorough. The fact that it’s working fine on another drive gives me strong confidence—this suggests there’s likely no hardware problem, just a compatibility quirk. Also, the previous messy installation makes me suspect something unusual is going on.