The ASUS Z690 motherboard struggles with Gen 4 NVMe storage devices.
The ASUS Z690 motherboard struggles with Gen 4 NVMe storage devices.
I initially suspected the WD SN750 drives, but after testing them alone, they performed perfectly. I eventually removed the Samsung drive and used only the two WD SN750 SSDs for nearly two months without problems. Later, I moved the 980 Pro into a child’s system as a boot drive, which functioned normally. A BIOS update for my motherboard came early December, and I tried again with a Gen4 drive. It worked briefly before failing again. After installing a WD SN850x Gen4, the issues reappeared. Even when switching back to the original 980 Pro, the crashes continued.
By late December, I discovered that my Z690 motherboard seemed incompatible with PCIe Gen4 drives. I now have two WD SN750 Gen3 drives, and it runs without issues. Meanwhile, the Samsung 990 Pro performed better initially but eventually crashed with a severe BSOD. I spent weeks troubleshooting—reinstalling, testing, and trying various configurations—but found no consistent pattern. Eventually, I concluded that my motherboard no longer supports Gen4 PCIe devices.
Currently, I have two WD SN750 Gen3 drives, which work well. The Samsung 990 Pro also functioned without problems until it failed. I’m still unsure if a Gen4 drive would cause these issues, as I haven’t had time to fully test it yet. I’ve looked into similar reports on forums and Reddit, but some sources seem inactive. Chipset drivers, power settings, BIOS tweaks, and even testing with different SSDs didn’t resolve the problem. It’s frustrating because my system worked smoothly with a Gen4 drive for nine months before the update caused it to fail. I’m leaning toward sticking with Gen3 drives now, though I wish I had more clarity on what was happening.
BubbaNitro
05-16-2021, 08:49 AM #1Hello everyone, I’m checking if anyone has encountered this situation. My setup includes an Asus TUF Z690 D4 Plus motherboard with a 12700K processor, 64GB DDR4 RAM, and an RTX 3070 graphics card. I currently have two 1TB Western Digital SN750 Gen3 NVMe SSDs. Previously, I used a Samsung 980 Pro Gen4 as my system drive for about nine months. In October, I considered upgrading to a 13th Gen Intel CPU and received a BIOS update in September 2022 that supported it. Right after the update, I started experiencing random BSODs, especially during gameplay or when multiple processes were active. The error messages pointed to system files like "critical_process_died" or "system_service_exception." These crashes would briefly flash and then restart, without saving any logs.
I initially suspected the WD SN750 drives, but after testing them alone, they performed perfectly. I eventually removed the Samsung drive and used only the two WD SN750 SSDs for nearly two months without problems. Later, I moved the 980 Pro into a child’s system as a boot drive, which functioned normally. A BIOS update for my motherboard came early December, and I tried again with a Gen4 drive. It worked briefly before failing again. After installing a WD SN850x Gen4, the issues reappeared. Even when switching back to the original 980 Pro, the crashes continued.
By late December, I discovered that my Z690 motherboard seemed incompatible with PCIe Gen4 drives. I now have two WD SN750 Gen3 drives, and it runs without issues. Meanwhile, the Samsung 990 Pro performed better initially but eventually crashed with a severe BSOD. I spent weeks troubleshooting—reinstalling, testing, and trying various configurations—but found no consistent pattern. Eventually, I concluded that my motherboard no longer supports Gen4 PCIe devices.
Currently, I have two WD SN750 Gen3 drives, which work well. The Samsung 990 Pro also functioned without problems until it failed. I’m still unsure if a Gen4 drive would cause these issues, as I haven’t had time to fully test it yet. I’ve looked into similar reports on forums and Reddit, but some sources seem inactive. Chipset drivers, power settings, BIOS tweaks, and even testing with different SSDs didn’t resolve the problem. It’s frustrating because my system worked smoothly with a Gen4 drive for nine months before the update caused it to fail. I’m leaning toward sticking with Gen3 drives now, though I wish I had more clarity on what was happening.
TeamTwisted
05-16-2021, 11:09 AM #2Would you like me to go back to the earlier BIOS release? Occasionally, newer versions can cause issues with specific setups, especially around RAM OC, where stability was previously maintained before an update. Reverting often fixes these problems.
ilovecats2299
05-24-2021, 01:02 AM #5@CommanderAlex I'll think about it. Do you by chance have any experience dealing with them? In my experience, it's more productive to talk to other users on the forums or reddit, than trying to work with a manufacturer, but I might be wrong. I spent so much time on this, I'm not sure if I want to continue, or just stick with Gen3 drives and be happy. I have a theory, but I feel like I might be showing my ignorance if I go too deep into it. Can it be a PCIe lanes issue on the chipset? The specs state that Z690 has 28 PCIe 4 lanes, and again, I might be showing my lack of understanding here, but the GPU is on the 16 lane slot, so 12 lanes technically remain open. M.2 slots use 4 lanes each, so in theory, I should have no issues with at least 3 M.2 drives? It's probably not even related to the number of lanes, I'm just throwing it out there. I tried using the Gen4 drive in the M.2 / 1 slot, which is going directly to the CPU, and it wasn't recognized at all. Just tell me to shut up about it if I'm out of my element here. There is a post, on Asus forums, that looks like it might be the exact issue, or very close, in any case, might have some clues in it, but I can't get to their forums for several days now, not sure if it's me, or they're truly down for maintenance for that long. I work as a community Manager on some company's forums myself, and I can't imagine being offline for more than maybe 4 hours, it'll be an emergency. https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.ph...king/page9 I hope it's ok to post a link here, maybe someone can try opening it to let me know if it works? Searching around, I see similar (but not exactly the same) issues reported with Gigabyte and MSI boards, with Z690, so it's probably the chipset thing, and some manufacturers may just be better than others at working around it. A part of me thinks that maybe I should just get a newer Z790 board, but then if I go buy new hardware, I feel like I might as well part my system out and build a whole new one, and to be honest, I don't really want to make this kind of investment, again, since I just build a new computer less than a year ago
I've reached out to ASUS regarding my TUF gaming 6900XT black screen. Had a conversation once and followed their suggestion, but it didn't resolve the problem and the issue persisted on another machine. I then filed an RMA and received a replacement unit that functions perfectly now. I've seen discussions online about RMA complications, especially when minor scratches on the rear I/O backplate are claimed as damage, which ASUS has previously rejected. Various cards and components they covered have been denied RMA support under those circumstances. Moving on, let's talk about your CPU specs: i7-12700K with 24 PCIe lanes—20 for M.2 NVMe slots and 4 directly to the chipset, plus 16 PCIe Gen 5 and 4 PCIe Gen 4 lanes. The Z690 chipset offers 28 I/O, Ethernet, USB ports, etc. I've outlined this in a diagram showing how the chipset manages its lanes and connects to the CPU. According to the motherboard manual, M.2_1 is linked to the CPU lanes, meaning the CPU should be assigned the right number of lanes. However, some lanes are Gen 5 while your graphics card is Gen 4, which seems confusing. I'm still trying to understand how the chipset allocates lanes for both GPU and the M.2 slot.
nicklanjelo
05-26-2021, 02:49 AM #7Thank you for the clarification. I understand most recommend placing your system drive in the M.2_1 slot, but its position feels less ideal. It sits right between the CPU and a very hot GPU, which means putting an SSD there can raise temperatures by around 20 degrees compared to other slots. Although some think direct CPU connection boosts performance, under heavy use the SSD may overheat and slow down. Seeing it hit 80+ makes me uneasy, even though newer Gen4 drives can handle higher temps. I might consider trying the Samsung 990 Pro in M.2_1 again. The previous attempt didn’t recognize it, so I should check that as well. During BIOS adjustments for PCIe versions, the M.2_1 wasn’t listed at all—I might need to reset the CMOS if the issue persists, which could suggest a problem with the motherboard.
DocMcRavioli
05-26-2021, 01:07 PM #8Midway update here. The M.2_1 slot detected the Samsung 990 Pro Gen4 drive, though it remains empty with only unallocated space. File copying (test folder setup) encountered errors so far. Currently, two Gen3 WD 750 drives are installed in slots 3 and 4. The system is positioned on slot 4. I plan to clone the system disk to the Samsung drive for testing purposes—normally I'd do a clean install, but this is just for now. I'll keep you updated on the outcome.
SkyAceDivine
05-26-2021, 07:05 PM #9I was worried about installing an SSD in that slot on my motherboard, especially since I built a similar setup in 2019 using an MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC. I've kept an eye on temperatures and they stay within normal ranges. It seems safe as long as you avoid heavy read/write tasks and manage heat well, because excess heat is the main factor raising SSD temps. I'm not sure exactly how much it impacts performance, but after updating the BIOS, I remember XMP was disabled. I think I should reset the CMOS and then flash the drive. Does the system display this in CrystalDiskInfo? It should list the drive details and health status. Keep in mind that S.M.A.R.T. data isn't always reliable for predicting failures.
The XMP remains active, but it began behaving poorly after a BIOS update. I created a clone of the system onto the Gen4 drive in the M.2_1 slot. Once it starts up, the same crash appears again with the "crytical_process_died" message. It logs into Windows briefly, freezes for about ten seconds, then triggers the BSOD because it can no longer access system files. I removed the Gen4 drive, switched to Gen3, and everything functions properly now. I might attempt a fresh Windows installation on the Gen4 drive, but it seems unlikely to resolve this particular problem. The useful part is that the M.2_1 slot still appears operational despite the issue.