System freezes during normal startup and when accessing the Windows installer via USB. Does not terminate in Safe Mode.
System freezes during normal startup and when accessing the Windows installer via USB. Does not terminate in Safe Mode.
The problem began today after launching DDU in safe mode to update the latest AMD GPU driver. After adjusting settings in msconfig, my computer would freeze briefly—either a few seconds or up to a couple of minutes—before requiring a hard reset. These issues occur during normal startup and when using the Windows installation via USB. They don’t happen in Safe Mode. I’ve tried several fixes: clearing CMOS, resetting BIOS, removing the HDDs, and even attempting a fresh Windows install (but the setup screen freezes for just a moment on the first screen, making it impossible to proceed). The NVME health status is normal, and diagnostics showed no errors. Additionally, I’ve observed an odd behavior: whenever I try to shut down or restart, the PC remains stuck on the black "Rebooting" screen for several minutes. It should power off instantly on my NVME M.2 (as usual), but it lingers for about two minutes sometimes and may freeze there too. The HDD red light keeps blinking during these reboots or shutdown attempts, consistently at the same interval. I have no clue what’s causing this strange behavior.
Open Device Management and allow Windows to handle driver updates automatically. It might reinstall the previous driver, which is fine at this stage. After that, perform a cold reboot and check if the issues persist, since it seems the new driver installation could be the cause. If the old driver was replaced, update it afterward.
Through extensive online research, I found a way to prevent freezing during Windows setup by turning off CPU → Global C-State Control in BIOS. However, selecting the NVME as the installation drive failed, resulting in an error 0x800801B1. I had to install Windows on the old 500GB HDD instead. Everything proceeded smoothly. After setup, I attempted to format and assign a driver letter to the NVME M.2 via Disk Management. The process stopped abruptly, triggering a restart and preventing the drive from appearing in Disk Management or BIOS. Now the NVME M.2 is missing from both interfaces. My system operates normally despite this.
Before this, I moved a 120GB folder to the NVME (OS drive), leaving only 10GB free. Then I entered safe mode and ran the DDU GPU driver removal procedure as previously advised. My analysis suggests that my 500GB SSD Adata Swordfish, M.2 2280 (purchased 2.5 years ago), with 70% health and no warnings during Safe Mode checks, might be the root cause of this issue. It seems the NVME was likely failing silently before it gave up completely.