Samsung SSD 990 PRO Crashing while playing a game forcing me to restart PC just for it to work again

[Spike25512]

My Samsung SSD 990 PRO 4TB is Crashing while playing a game forcing me to restart my PC just for it to work again. I have tried everything to fix this and just can't figure out what the problem is any info would be helpful as this is really annoying

[JJ-7890]

Same here, random BSODs (both during games and just web browsing), stop code WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR, then reboots to a black screen that reads “Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key”, after a manual reboot the system works fine again.

I found several people online describing the same issue and saying that switching to Full Performance Mode in Samsung Magician fixed it. However if you turn it on you get a warning about voiding the warranty and potential data loss... I'd rather not void the warranty to get a product to just work (not trying to boost performance beyond standard), so I wonder if there's some official solution, since it seems to be a semi-common issue.

Alternatively some people also said turning VMD off worked, although this might require a full Windows reinstall. (and seems to be an intel only thing, maybe? not sure)

https://www.reddit.com/r/ZephyrusM16/comments/180v6g9/bsod_with_samsung_990_pro/

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/q3956k/samsung_magicians_performance_optimization_do_i...

[MEEPERS24]

Any solution to this, not really sure if its the drive itself or a driver. My 990 pro 2tb crashes while playing Indiana Jones, when i try to launch any steam games, it just doesn't, until i restart pc. 

[Ric76]

Just started having this issue with my 2tb 980pro after a year of no issues. My other 2 nvme ssd's work fine. I want to say it's a faulty drive but every test I run on the drive reports no errors. Did you guys find a fix, or was it a faulty drive?

[MEEPERS24]

Check 3.3V rail on hwinfo, If its dropping below 3.135, then it could be ur psu or mobo. thats what caused mine to do this. Turned out to me that my extension cable to the mobo 24 pin went bad. Replaced it and it was fine, so just check your 3vcc (or whatever its called for u on the hwinfo) rail on hwinfo,

[Ric76]

Thanks for the reply. Ye, that's something I've checked and the 3vcc 3.3v is within spec according to the motherboard sensors (not always accurate). I have also tried the drive in an NVMe to PCIe adapter and it has the exact same issue, even running through the PCIe slot. You would also expect my other NVMe drives to exhibit the same issues. I've been troubleshooting it for 2 weeks now and the issue only appears with this drive, so I'm leaning towards a faulty drive controller tbh. I'll send it back under warranty and see what they can find. Thanks again for the helpful reply.

[MEEPERS24]

thats what happened with mine, My 3.3 was dropping to 3.0 under games that are hard to run. Which caused my m.2 to crash. It was only happening in my bottom pcie m.2 slot. I moved it up top and it was fine, Im guessing this was maybe by chance. Im not so sure. Ur case can be different tho, but I would suggest to monitor ur 3.3v and if its dramitcally dropping when it crashes then thats most likely the issue. If not then im not so sure what it could be, U can try a rma the drive and hopefully that fixes the issue. 

[Ric76]

The PCIe slot doesn't draw power from the 3.3v rail though, as far as I understand, so it shouldn't be an issue when it's running in the NVMe to PCIe adapter. I'll keep troubleshooting.

[MEEPERS24]

"M.2 SSDs, especially those using the PCIe interface (like NVMe SSDs), are designed to operate on a 3.3V power supply. On a motherboard, the 3.3V rail primarily powers the CPU, RAM, and some logic circuits, including the Super I/O, audio codec, and M.2 devices like SSDs. It also powers PCIe slots." 

[Ric76]

Interesting, is that quoted from somewhere? I'll focus in on that and try a different psu. Thanks again.