Intel 750 SSD Failure on System Resume

[DF2]

Hi there, I recently purchased an Intel 750 SSD (2.5 inch drive, model number SSDPE2MW400G4R5) and am having some major issues with getting it to run smoothly. I originally had it as a boot drive for Windows 10 on a newly purchased Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 Motherboard. Everything with the installation went smoothly. The drive was connected to the motherboard via the M.2 to U.2 Add-in-Card. My experience was fine until attempting to resume from the sleep or hibernation state on my computer. Except for a few random instances, the SSD failed to resume the system from sleep and would eventually give up and restart the system altogether. Specifically, my monitors would show nothing and have no display signal, further my mouse and keyboard would quickly disconnect (after waking the computer) and stay disconnected. However, The computer fans would turn on along with all interior lights and stay running. After auto-restarting, I would then be greeted with a blue screen of death with the error message "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE". After the next restart (due to the BSOD), the system would then boot fine, usually taking me to the state where i had originally left the computer when it was slept. Attempting the hibernation state would cause the same error (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE) to appear which would then cause a restart which (after automatic windows repair at the splash screen), would load where i left off at before hibernating the computer. The ensuing hours were then dedicated to trying to find the root cause of the problem. I'll briefly summarize the actions (that I can remember) taken below:

• Downloaded Intel SSD Toolbox and ensured all drivers were up to date.
• Uninstalled and reinstalled intel ssd drivers along with various others such as nvidia display drivers.
• Changed Power State options to high performance, and changed the hard drive turn off option to "never"
• Downloaded the latest (non-beta) BIOS version for Motherboard. Specific version ID was changed from F2 to F3 (Full hardware info will be provided below)
• Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic Test, which came back with no errors on the RAM.
• Ran Full Diagnostic Test on SSD through Intel SSD Toolbox, which came back with no errors.
• Re-checked for any loose connections within computer case.
• Uninstalled various non-core programs, and closed non-critical processes before attempting to sleep. Most likely coincidental and non-repeatable, I actually did get the system to resume a few times from the sleep state doing this method. However, after restarting and closing out the same programs and processes, I could not replicate the result. A couple hours of attempts and I gave up on this path.
• Uninstalled windows 10 altogether and reinstalled Windows 8 cleanly. The issue still persisted in the hibernation and sleep state on windows 8 as well.

At this point, I was out of ideas and decided that the best path forward was to put windows 10 on my SAMSUNG 840 EVO 500 GB to further isolate, confirm, and better diagnose the Intel 750 SSD and the drivers as the underlying issue. As a result, I disconnected all other hard drives/SSD's along with the Intel 750 SSD and installed Windows 10 on the Samsung SSD, I once again attempted the sleep and hibernation states multiple times and over several restarts after installing various programs and drivers. I did not have any issue occur once. The system resumed in roughly 7-10 seconds every time, without a problem.

I now connected all my other storage devices to my PC to once again test for problems. First of all, the Intel 750 SSD was detected and accessible under my devices and drives. I then proceeded to test the sleep state once again without issue on multiple instances. However, the total time to resume from the sleep state increased to roughly 20-30 seconds. Further, the Intel 750 SSD was now no longer detected by windows. Checking Event Viewer lists two relevant entries occurring during system resume.

1. Error at 12:54:59 AM at Source "stornvme" (event id 11): The driver detected a controller error on \Device\RaidPort2.
2. Warning at 12:55:04 AM at Source "disk" (event id 157): Disk 4 has been surprise removed.

At this point, I entered into Device Manager and disabled, and then re-enabled the "standard NVM Express Controller". This immediately caused windows to detect the ssd once again and fixed my issue (until the next sleep state is attempted). If anyone could provide any guidance to me on this issue it would be much appreciated. I do know that users have had similar issues with other M.2 SSD's not resuming from sleep state. One solution I've also read about is to disable link power management? However, I don't want to attempt anything else until I perhaps hear from someone with more experience on solving an issue like this. Thanks so much for reading this far, I'll provide a summary of my specs below, but please let me know anything else needed to help aid you all in solving this!

Operating System

Windows 10 Home 64-bit

CPU

Intel Core i3/i5/i7 6xxx @ 3.50GHz 23 °C

Skylake 14nm Technology

RAM

16.0GB

Motherboard

Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z170X-GamingG1 (U3E1) 28 °C

Graphics

XB270HU (2560x1440@144Hz)

VG248 (1920x1080@144Hz)

VG248 (1920x1080@144Hz)

TOSHIBA-TV (1920x1080@60Hz)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (EVGA)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (EVGA)

ForceWare version: 353.62

SLI Enabled

Storage

223GB SanDisk SDSSDHII240G (SSD)

931GB TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 (SATA)

223GB KINGSTON SV300S37A240G (SSD)

931GB TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 (SATA)

372GB NVMe INTEL SSDPE2MW40 (Unknown)

465GB Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB (SSD)

931GB TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 (SATA)

Optical Drives

HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW UH12NS30

Audio

Sound Blaster ZxRi

[jbenavides]

I checked the log from the SSD, and it looks mostly OK, the drive does not have any SMART errors and it appears to be healthy.

The most important finding is that it shows the drive is working in PCI Gen 1, when it should be Gen 3. This may not be related to the issues resuming from sleep, but is definitely something to look at:

Current PCIe Link Speed 0x1

I was checking the http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-z170x-gaming-g1_e.pdf GA-Z170X-Gaming G1* User Manual, and we would recommend you to check with the motherboard vendor to check if they have any additional recommendations to configure the board and prevent this type of issues. Here are some aspects you might want to review with the http://www.intel.com/support/oems.htm Computer Manufacturer Support.

- Which M.2 slot are you using to connect the SSD? Page 36 of the Manual indicates that the M2C_32G M.2 connector is preferred, since the M2B_32G M.2 connector will limit the SSD to x2 speed depending on the configuration.

- Please review the BIOS - M.I.T - Miscellaneous Settings, in page 64 of the guide, it indicates that it is possible to limit the PCIe operation mode.

- Check the information shown in the BIOS - Peripherals - NVME configuration. Let us know if you find anything abnormal, and if possible, provide the information shown in this tab.

[DF2]

Hi Jonathan, I am using the M2C_32G M.2 Connector on the motherboard and have nothing connected to the SATA 4 and 5 Ports since they do not work with the M.2 slot occupied. The Max link speed set in the BIOS - M.I.T - Miscellaneous Settings is set to the default "AUTO" setting and has not been changed by myself ever.

Interestingly, my motherboard is no longer displaying information under the BIOS - Peripherals - NVME configuration. This is strange as I know it has displayed this information before for me. I tried restarting my computer and it still didn't display anything under this section. However, The Intel SSD is still being picked up by my computer under my SAMSUNG boot drive and is still an accessible and working boot drive by itself.

Another strange thing is that after seeing your post about the Current PCIe Link Speed being 0x1, I exported the SSD results once again and found that it was now 0x3. After sleeping the computer, having the drive not being detected and disabling and re-enabling the driver for the SSD the result now showed that the current PCIe Link Speed as being 0x1 once again. I have posted the two SSD logs relating to this below.

Any idea at all as to what could be causing this and if its related to my issue at all? Thanks so much for looking into this for me!

Further, I have opened a separate thread in regards to this issue on the Gigabyte forums (link is http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=16340.0 Intel 750 SSD Crash with Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 Motherboard) . I have also opened a ticket with Gigabyte support but as of yet have heard no response.

[jbenavides]

Hello Pc_tuner,

The PCIe downshift after sleep may be related to the main issue and we will perform additional research about this. We will provide further updates as soon as we have them.

Please let us know if you receive any news from Gigabyte as well.

[DF2]

Okay, will do. Thanks for looking into this further.

[jbenavides]

Hello,

The information we have suggests that this is due to the design of the motherboard, or BIOS settings. We strongly advise you to check with Gigabyte if the Intel® SSD 750 was validated for your motherboard, and what are the recommendations from their side.

It will be better to wait for the response and recommendations from the motherboard manufacturer. At this point, we can only provide some general recommendations:

- Try booting the system from the Intel® SSD 750 using a light-weight configuration. Leave only the CPU, single memory module, remove additional hard drives, embedded display adapter or single video card, keyboard and mouse connected. PCIe devices, such as video cards, may impact the link speed of PCIe drives. Using a single memory module will help you discard conflicts in the motherboard. Albeit SATA SSD's and other peripherals should not have an influence on the functionality, it will be useful to keep a basic setup, to help you exclude a potential root cause.

- Check you BIOS settings related to PCIe, like Setting up Gen 3 speeds, also, it may have an option for POST delay that will give more time for the SSD to initialize. You might also explore power-related settings (disable power saving features, etc).