Any clue what could be happening here? At first I thought it was because I cloned using Acronis. So on the second drive I tried installing Windows fresh, and same issue.
Every hour or so, the computer will completely freeze up permanently. The only way to restart is by holding down the power button for a hard restart.
Firmware is up-to-date. My old Samsung drives work just fine which is what I’m back on now until this issue is resolved.
I contacted WD but they just told me to RMA after running drive diagnostics that found no problems.
I’m concerned that this is just an incompatibility problem and so I’m expecting the replacement drives to have the same problem.
WD says even if that occurs, no refunds. So I’d really like to find a potential solution if anyone else has had similar issues.
The only potential thing I can think of is my computer is from 2021 and has PCIe 3.0 not 4.0 like this drive is capable of. But I know the 4.0 drives are supposed to be backward compatible, so in theory the only issue should be that the drive runs at the lower 3.0 speeds.
It’s possible that the WD Black NVMe is causing your motherboard to misbehave. Likely some sort of compatibility issue between the drive’s controller and the disk controller on the motherboard. If the WD Black was installed in another system or in an external enclosure connected to the affected computer, it would probably operate normally.
Make sure that the NVMe that you’re installing isn’t exceeding the maximum capacity that your motherboard officially supports, and that your drivers are up-to-date. If the crashes continue, I’d suggest that you purchase another brand and see if the crashes go away. Even though PCIe 4.0 can downgrade to 3.0, it’s probably best to purchase a PCIe 3.0 NVMe to ensure proper compatibility.
Unfortunately the new drives still do not work, and I’ve updated all firmware possible related to my motherboard/controller/etc. I also have the latest BIOS for my computer.
The drives simply aren’t compatible with my computer, which seems crazy to me. I’ve been using computers since I was 8 when I built them with my dad. I’m 39 now. This is the first time in 31 years I’ve ever purchased a drive that is simply incompatible with my PC. At worst, I’ve had drives run slower than expected until a firmware update fixed the issue. But these drives constantly crash, making them effectively non-functional.
