Blank Blue Screen on new SSD

[apn101]

Hi all,

I purchased an Octane II (? Its an octane series - not sure about the number, but the chassis is a clevo P775DM1-G) laptop about 4 years ago, and recently decided to upgrade the SSD for the OS to a newer one with a fresh install of windows 10.

The original M2 drive is a 256GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe.
The replacement M2 drive is an ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB.

So I made a bootable USB of windows 10, replaced the drive and installed windows 10 on the new drive with the USB.

Everything seems to work fine except for one thing - when restarting the laptop, after the pcspecialist logo it goes to a blank blue screen, no error message. After about 30 seconds it shuts down, or if I press escape it restarts into the BIOS and after exiting starts as normal. No issues when shutting down and starting up again as normal, only on restart. I've done all the various diagnostics I'm aware of - startup repair, system file check, etc, and I'm not sure what else to do. Is there maybe some compatibility issue with the newer M2 drive and the slot I've installed it in? Granted it's not a major issue but I'd still like to find out what's causing it.

Any tips would be much appreciated.

 

[ubuysa]

Run a chkdsk /f on that new SSD. I suspect the blue screen is coming from the Windows Boot Manager so it sounds to me like an SSD issue...

 

[apn101]

No dice I’m afraid, I’ve also tried moving it to the other m2 slot with no result.

Tried running it through easeus partition master, and now it’s stuck at 100% complete.

EDIT: My old drive also works fine without issue.

 

[apn101]

Don't see why any reason why the drive shouldn't work...the new drive is Type 2280 same as the old one

I’m equally baffled, as far as I can tell the 2 drives use the same standards - nvme and pcie 3.0x4.
I’m remaking the windows 10 installation usb and trying a reinstall. If that doesn’t work, I’ll Continue to use my old drive for the os and install the new one as an extra drive, unless someone comes along with a potential fix.

 

[ubuysa]

I rather suspect the new drive might be faulty.

 

[apn101]

I rather suspect the new drive might be faulty.

In that case, I might return it to amazon and get a replacement.

Cheers guys.

 

[apn101]

An update - returned the ssd and got a replacement, and I’m now having the same issue with the new drive. I would think getting two faulty drives in a row is extremely unlikely, so the problem must be with the laptop. Could it be a driver issue? Is it worth trying to flash the bios?

EDIT: After doing more digging, it seems like the issue might be with the version of the windows installation ive been using. After trying to rebuild the BCD, rebooting the laptop shows that no OS is found when using the bootrec /scanos command. Apparently, there are some known issues with the bootmanager in windows versions past 1709. I’ll try to install an earlier version and see what I get.

 

[mrlip]

Is there a reason you did a fresh install of Windows? If your Windows was in an ok state on the old drive, try cloning the old drive to the new drive and resize the partition and see if the issue is still there?

 

[ubuysa]

An update - returned the ssd and got a replacement, and I’m now having the same issue with the new drive. I would think getting two faulty drives in a row is extremely unlikely, so the problem must be with the laptop. Could it be a driver issue? Is it worth trying to flash the bios?

EDIT: After doing more digging, it seems like the issue might be with the version of the windows installation ive been using. After trying to rebuild the BCD, rebooting the laptop shows that no OS is found when using the bootrec /scanos command. Apparently, there are some known issues with the bootmanager in windows versions past 1709. I’ll try to install an earlier version and see what I get.

It's unlikely to have been a faulty drive then.

Do you still have the original SSD (the one that came with the laptop)? If so, put that drive back and see whether everything works normally.

That will confirm whether it's a laptop issue that's arisen suddenly or an incompatibility with that new SSD model.

 

[ubuysa]

Is there a reason you did a fresh install of Windows? If your Windows was in an ok state on the old drive, try cloning the old drive to the new drive and resize the partition and see if the issue is still there?

IMO this is not good advice. Drive cloning raises its own issues on occasions, it's always wise to do a clean install.

 

[mrlip]

IMO this is not good advice. Drive cloning raises its own issues on occasions, it's always wise to do a clean install.

I’ve cloned several drives and never had an issue. If it’s NVMe to NVMe there shouldn’t be a problem. If it was sata to NVMe, that can be tricker as specific drivers will be baked in and the bootmgr would need redoing to expect nvme not sata.

Question for the OP - when installing windows on your new drive, was it the only drive connected?

 

[ubuysa]

I’ve cloned several drives and never had an issue. If it’s NVMe to NVMe there shouldn’t be a problem. If it was sata to NVMe, that can be tricker as specific drivers will be baked in and the bootmgr would need redoing to expect nvme not sata.

Which is fine and good, but clean installing Windows on a new drive is always the best way to a stable system.

 

[mrlip]

Which is fine and good, but clean installing Windows on a new drive is always the best way to a stable system.

Sure is but the OP has tried that and is having issues. Would be interesting to see if the problem is still there if cloning the drive to the Adata

I don’t know much about Adata drives, do they use their own nvme driver like Samsung? Or just the MS one?

 

[apn101]

Hey guys, the plot thickens...

I’ve now tried a number of different windows distributions, and version 1703 works fine, however, it refuses to update to a later version. A clean install of a later version ends up with the same restarting problem, but instead of a blank blue screen I get a black screen with the error code 0xc0000454.

Apparently this is a known issue with these later versions, and the potential fixes include disabling secure boot or clearing the nvram.

edit: Pressing enter on the above black screen gives error 0xc0000102 and when trying to boot in safe mode 0xc000000f. Again something to do with the boot configuration data apparently.

 

[apn101]

Sure is but the OP has tried that and is having issues. Would be interesting to see if the problem is still there if cloning the drive to the Adata

I don’t know much about Adata drives, do they use their own nvme driver like Samsung? Or just the MS one?

I believe just the MS one, can’t find anything online.

 

[mrlip]

Hey guys, the plot thickens...

I’ve now tried a number of different windows distributions, and version 1703 works fine, however, it refuses to update to a later version. A clean install of a later version ends up with the same restarting problem, but instead of a blank blue screen I get a black screen with the error code 0xc0000454.

Apparently this is a known issue with these later versions, and the potential fixes include disabling secure boot or clearing the nvram.

edit: Pressing enter on the above black screen gives error 0xc0000102 and when trying to boot in safe mode 0xc000000f. Again something to do with the boot configuration data apparently.

have you got fast startup enabled? Try disabling it

 

[ubuysa]

Wait. You're in severe danger of running down a rabbit hole. You need to know whether these issues are the result of the new SSD you're trying to use or something more fundamental about your PC.

Can you please post the full spec of your PC from the order?

It is really important that you replace the original SSD that was working. If it works with that SSD then it's some sort of compatibility issue with the new SSD. But if it doesn't work with that old SSD you need to investigate further before trying again with the new SSD.

When troubleshooting you need to start from a point that you know to be good and work up. What you don't want to do is to be rattling around in the dark....