The SSD failed, and you're unsure what the remaining material looks like.
The SSD failed, and you're unsure what the remaining material looks like.
I experienced a BSOD labeled "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED," restarted the system, and it booted into the BIOS. After inspection, my main SSD (Samsung 990 PRO) wasn't present. I disassembled the machine to investigate and noticed residue on the SSD. It seems likely the thermal pad on the heatsink caused a short. Checking another SSD revealed similar issues, so I plan to remove those pads. Have anyone encountered this situation before? The thermal pad or heatsink came with the motherboard from an MSI Z790 Tomahawk model.
I attempted that change and flipped the NVMe slots, and everything is functioning properly now. Uncertain about the outcome, the photo clearly shows the drives inside the slot.
Dust, the sticker and liquid from the thermal pad – everything seems fine. The real issue is likely elsewhere: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-damage-has-b...mware-fix/
The drive was already updated when I looked up Samsung Magician earlier. I plan to return the product for repair as I don’t want to risk losing data if something goes wrong. I’ll clean the pads, remove them, and check the temperatures without them to see how they perform. That seems like a solid approach. There’s an old discussion about oils leaking from thermal pads here, and it mentions MSI, which is my motherboard and the heatsink that came with it.
There's a big difference between leaving residue where it touched the component (all pads will do that as they are wet) and leeching it extensively due to heat wicking. If anything, if a pad doesn't leave residue then its probably already too dry. I've swapped SSDs on several motherboards from different manufacturers, there has always been residue, it doesn't mean the pad is bad, although I do hate how that pad has a hole cut out of it but then its not usually the NAND you are trying to cool, its the controller.
It might not have been the issue at first, but after several restarts and cleaning, disassembling, and inspecting, the problem became apparent.
Bad connections occur for various reasons, not always indicating a problem. This is why suggestions like re-seating the CPU are common. I've also noticed many videos showing people handling gold connectors on RAM and M.2 cards, which can lead to issues over time due to oils or corrosion. Sometimes just cleaning things out helps.