Notebook motherboard upgrade blue screens after nvme install

[davidm71]

Hi,

I recently purchased an xps 13 9350 motherboard to replace my 9343 motherboard so that I could upgrade ram and hard drive to nvme. First thing I did was install my old SATA hard drive and boot into windows. Then I installed an ADATA SX8200 Pro SSD and got a bios error that the drive was faulty. So I upgrade bios from 1.4.4 to the latest 1.10.1 bios release. Then I replaced the SATA hard drive with the ADATA sx8200 Pro SSD NVME disk and was able to install Windows ver 1809 fresh and boot into Windows. Then randomly started to get random stop error blue screens immediately. Wasn't sure what was going on so went back to the SATA disk and no blue screens. Completely stable as far as I can tell with the SATA WD Blue old hard drive. So swapped in the NVME drive and restored an image of the SATA drive and got nothing but spinning wheels with 'Windows repair' loop that didn't repair anything. So I installed latest Windows 1903 ver and immediately blue screen city all over again. Now back on the SATA ssd and it seems stable.

Not sure of what was the cause. Do I have a bad motherboard? Driver issue?

Thanks

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Sounds like it could well be the nvme drive is faulty, boot up using the ssd and install the nvme then run chkdisk to see if it finds anything, also download whatever tools the mfr has for the drive and even with them as well

 

[davidm71]

So you don't think its the hard drive controller?

Fwiw I installed the NVME drive via a pci-e card on a full sized motherboard just now to benchmark it and didn't get any blue screens. Granted the system was loaded from the original disk of that motherboard and not the ADATA drive. Its just weird the SATA drive is stable with the original install I had on my Dell Laptop.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Run tests on the actual drive itself to rule it out at least.

 

[er557]

nvme drives rarely fail on the get go, could be an incompatibility issue with the laptop board and it's new ram, the battery, or the chipset settings them selves, to not play well with windows/ the nvme.
You didnt mention whether the motherboard you swapped in had all the devices on board, like video card, bluetooth, wifi, etc.
If something is off there then it can manifest in an hdd working but nvme not/ or simply windows itself is poorly configured/drivers are wrong.

 

[aQi]

This could me multiple reasons but until you jump onto something make sure the ssd is 100% ok
I would not say if the motherboard is faulty unless i assess all my hardware to be in 100% working condition.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

nvme drives rarely fail on the get go, could be an incompatibility issue with the laptop board and it's new ram, the battery, or the chipset settings them selves, to not play well with windows/ the nvme.
You didnt mention whether the motherboard you swapped in had all the devices on board, like video card, bluetooth, wifi, etc.
If something is off there then it can manifest in an hdd working but nvme not/ or simply windows itself is poorly configured/drivers are wrong.

It's a new drive it could well just be one of those rare cases where its doa though as the poster above said at least you rule out the drive from the get go.

 

[Zareek]

It could be anything, too many variables. Start excluding things, just because you are only crashing with nvme drive doesn't necessarily mean it's the nvme drive especially since it worked in the regular PC. Can you boot the laptop from the SSD with the nvme drive installed as a second drive and test? Did you test the new RAM? I can't count the number of times I found bad memory causing a BSOD.

 

[aQi]

It could be anything, too many variables. Start excluding things, just because you are only crashing with nvme drive doesn't necessarily mean it's the nvme drive especially since it worked in the regular PC. Can you boot the laptop from the SSD with the nvme drive installed as a second drive and test? Did you test the new RAM? I can't count the number of times I found bad memory causing a BSOD.

But the same error isnt appearing on his normal hdd. If it were ram it should definitely appear on any storage.

 

[davidm71]

No I havent done an exhaustive test of the ram beyond the built in dell diagnostics which all passed. Dell has diagnostics built in that go longer though didnt have three hours to test ram. Anyhow the motherboard has only two m.2 slots. One short one for the wifi and one for the pcie m.2. I mean if I had bad ram it would happen when the Sata wd blue drive was installed i would think. Anyhow its a 9350 dell xps 13 motherboard. Later today will run some stress testing software. Think the i7-6560 cpu temps run too hot though. Average temps are around 60 degrees and peak around 90 degrees sometimes. But dont think that is the cause as it all works on my Original WD Blue install that i had since it was installed in the 9343 motherboard it originally was. Thanks.

 

[er557]

If it were a desktop you would bredboard each component on a test bench, isolating what's faulty, on a laptop it is more difficult and may require a lab. But if you have spare parts you could try them and exchange with the desktop, i.e the nvme, the laptop ram inside a ddrL --> ddr ram desktop adapters, the cpu itslef. Also do check the cooling and power management of that laptop, it seems quite high temps.

 

[davidm71]

Best thing i can do is test what ever is removable on another system and run stress testing apps like prime95 and memory testing software. I pulled a spare nvme drive out of another system and will test and see if its a compatibility issue. I also have a spare sata m.2 i can try to install windows fresh to and see if its a Windows driver bug. Thanks

 

[NdMk2o1o]

did you even test the drive itself using chkdisk and tools from adata? https://www.adata.com/us/ss/software-6/

 

[er557]

that toolbox does not even start for me in win 1903, useless

 

[NdMk2o1o]

that toolbox does not even start for me in win 1903, useless

Starts for me just fine on 1903 and I don't even have an adata drive

 

[davidm71]

No have not run chkdsk because not having sector errors just stop error blue screens. Havent tried the Adata tools as well. But I installed the drive in another system for now. Will run those adata tests when I get home. Thanks.

 

[Zareek]

No I havent done an exhaustive test of the ram beyond the built in dell diagnostics which all passed. Dell has diagnostics built in that go longer though didnt have three hours to test ram. Anyhow the motherboard has only two m.2 slots. One short one for the wifi and one for the pcie m.2. I mean if I had bad ram it would happen when the Sata wd blue drive was installed i would think. Anyhow its a 9350 dell xps 13 motherboard. Later today will run some stress testing software. Think the i7-6560 cpu temps run too hot though. Average temps are around 60 degrees and peak around 90 degrees sometimes. But dont think that is the cause as it all works on my Original WD Blue install that i had since it was installed in the 9343 motherboard it originally was. Thanks.

Yeah the built-in Dell diagnostics are garbage. Better than nothing but I'm not sure they even test beyond the first 4GB of RAM. Admittedly, I haven't really worked on any Dell machines in years maybe they upped their game. It seems like you have a handle on things but personally, I would run Memtest86 or Memtest86+ overnight on it to exclude that.

 

[newtekie1]

I'd bet on the NVMe drive overheating and causing the problems because of overheating. The SX8200 comes with a DIY heatsink for a reason, the thing gets hot. Cramming it in a sealed laptop with no airflow at all is only asking for trouble.

In this type of situation, you're better off looking for a drive that doesn't push the performance to the limit at the expense of getting to 80°C+ with a heatsink installed like the SX8200 Pro does.

 

[davidm71]

Thats my feeling too. I had an old Plextor M8EPye AIC drive I took apart today and put the Adata drive in there instead.
Getting good scores. No throttling. LED lights don't work though. Anyhow I would use the plextor drive if not for the fact the reviews say its a power hog.

Guess I need another Nvme drive.

Oh this help request mirrored my issue: https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Problems-upgrading-to-WD-Black-SSD-on-XPS-15-9570/td-p/6178545

Thanks

 

[newtekie1]

I'd look at one of the x2 drives. They don't push the controller as hard. Yeah, sequential speeds will be lower, but real-world use as a system drive won't really be affected.

 

[davidm71]

Well the interface is capped at 1500 mb/s read write because of power saving features of the interface. Think that the SM961 is compatible. May go with that one. I have two I was using recently for raid. Both 256gb in size. Could use that or just order the 512gb version for $99. Thanks.

 

[Zareek]

I typically only use Samsung SSDs myself but with these drive prices, combined with near Smasung performance other brands are looking mighty tempting.

 

[davidm71]

Just ordered a Samsung SM961 512gb drive $99 at Amazon. Think its on the compatibility list for my notebook. Anyhow so far no BSODs with the SATA drive.