MSI MEG X670E GODLIKE - M.2 SSD Crucial T700 not working in PCIe 5.0 Mode

[rhonkar]

Hello,

I'm using the MSI MEG X670E GODLIKE with the following setup:

- AMD Ryzen 9 7950 X3D
- MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X 24G (switched to gaming mode), installed in PCI_E1. PCI_E2 is empty
- CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5 DRAM 6000 MT/s (EXPO Profile), installed in DIMMA2 and DIMMB2
- Creative Sound Blaster AE-9, installed in PCI_E3
- SSDs:
M2_1: Crucial T700 4TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD, SKU: CT4000T700SSD3
M2_2: Corsair MP600 PRO NH 4 TB, SKU: CSSD-F4000GBMP600PNH
M2_3: Corsair MP600 PRO NH 2 TB, SKU: CSSD-F2000GBMP600PNH
All three SSDs are cooled by the Shield Frozr from the motherboard
- PSU: Corsair AX1600i
- OS: Windows 11 Pro

- Latest BIOS: E7D68AMS.150
- No overclocking, exept AMD EXPO activated

Problem:

The system needs about 45 seconds until the POST Screen appears. The Crucial M2 SSD in M2_1 ist working pretty slow, reading ist about 800 MB/s (the two Corsair SSDs are much faster, about 5000 MB/s).

In "Settings\Advanced\PCIe/PCI Sub-system settings" the "M2_1 Gen Mode" ist set to "Auto". I tried to change this value to "Gen5", which led to graphical errors and freezes in the BIOS and finally I had no graphic output. After flashing the BIOS back to the same version everything worked again. After that I set "M2_1 Gen Mode" to "Gen4" and restarted the system. I directly got an error Message from Windows. I was able to enter the BIOS again, but when I changed "M2_1 Gen Mode" back to "Auto", the system freezed in the momend I tried to save this setting. By restarting the system the change was not saved (still set to "Gen4") and the only way to get it back to "Auto" was flashing the BIOS again.

There are no S.M.A.R.T. errors on the Crucial T700 and I assume that there ist a bug in the current BIOS version, so that it isn't able to work properly with the pretty new Crucial T700. I believe this is also the reason why the system needs so long to boot up.

Is this issue already known or are there any Ideas how it can be fixed? If you need more information from me, just ask.

 

[WakeX]

Well, that doesn't sound great! I got a T700 4TB also on the way for my Carbon - I'll be back if I get similar issues .
Last BIOS of the Carbon allegedly contained "patches for M.2 drive compatibility" but if that's the same branch and the Godlike-BIOS already got those too it might not have been for that specific model.

 

[Alan J T]

Well, that doesn't sound great! I got a T700 4TB also on the way for my Carbon - I'll be back if I get similar issues .
Last BIOS of the Carbon allegedly contained "patches for M.2 drive compatibility" but if that's the same branch and the Godlike-BIOS already got those too it might not have been for that specific model.

YA update here with the results no matter if good or bad
Maybe something simple like needing BIOS support or M.2 Firmware from Crucial

 

[Alan J T]

Hello,

I'm using the MSI MEG X670E GODLIKE with the following setup:

- AMD Ryzen 9 7950 X3D
- MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X 24G (switched to gaming mode), installed in PCI_E1. PCI_E2 is empty
- CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5 DRAM 6000 MT/s (EXPO Profile), installed in DIMMA2 and DIMMB2
- Creative Sound Blaster AE-9, installed in PCI_E3
- SSDs:
M2_1: Crucial T700 4TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD, SKU: CT4000T700SSD3
M2_2: Corsair MP600 PRO NH 4 TB, SKU: CSSD-F4000GBMP600PNH
M2_3: Corsair MP600 PRO NH 2 TB, SKU: CSSD-F2000GBMP600PNH
All three SSDs are cooled by the Shield Frozr from the motherboard
- PSU: Corsair AX1600i
- OS: Windows 11 Pro

- Latest BIOS: E7D68AMS.150
- No overclocking, exept AMD EXPO activated

Problem:

The system needs about 45 seconds until the POST Screen appears. The Crucial M2 SSD in M2_1 ist working pretty slow, reading ist about 800 MB/s (the two Corsair SSDs are much faster, about 5000 MB/s).

In "Settings\Advanced\PCIe/PCI Sub-system settings" the "M2_1 Gen Mode" ist set to "Auto". I tried to change this value to "Gen5", which led to graphical errors and freezes in the BIOS and finally I had no graphic output. After flashing the BIOS back to the same version everything worked again. After that I set "M2_1 Gen Mode" to "Gen4" and restarted the system. I directly got an error Message from Windows. I was able to enter the BIOS again, but when I changed "M2_1 Gen Mode" back to "Auto", the system freezed in the momend I tried to save this setting. By restarting the system the change was not saved (still set to "Gen4") and the only way to get it back to "Auto" was flashing the BIOS again.

There are no S.M.A.R.T. errors on the Crucial T700 and I assume that there ist a bug in the current BIOS version, so that it isn't able to work properly with the pretty new Crucial T700. I believe this is also the reason why the system needs so long to boot up.

Is this issue already known or are there any ideas on how it can be fixed? If you need more information from me, just ask.

Can you check with Crucial for Firmware updates and post a pic of your Ram sticker please and Will see if it can get looked at
It may have been tested with MSI M.2 PCIE 5 drive so likely does work but nothing is listed for Gen-5 in the Compatibility list

May not be quick if MSI has to get a hold of PCIE-5 M.2 first that is not one of their own.

Can you try with your GPU in PCIE_2 just for testing
Dont see any conflicts between PCIE and M.2

Edit

Can you also try the Crucial M,2 PCIE 5 in one of the empty M.2 slots and see what happens

 

[WakeX]

Can you check with Crucial for Firmware updates and post a pic of your Ram sticker please and Will see if it can get looked at
It may have been tested with MSI M.2 PCIE 5 drive so likely does work but nothing is listed for Gen-5 in the Compatibility list

May not be quick if MSI has to get a hold of PCIE-5 M.2 first that is not one of their own.

Last time I checked the support page of the T700 a few days ago, it said there are no firmware updates.
Yep, still the same - "No firmware updates at this time."

Only their OEM-version of Acronis True Image got updated lately to support this model, I'm not even sure if their program for firmware updates "Crucial Storage Executive" supports this series yet since it only says "Supported drives: P1, P2, P5, MX series, BX series.".

 

[lysyn12155d02d4]

Crucial T700 NVMe SSD Support

Discover all-inclusive support for the Crucial T700 NVMe SSD, including warranty coverage, effortless installation guides, seamless data transfer instructions, and essential NVMe SSD driver assistance.

www.crucial.com

MSI MPG X670E CARBON WIFI T700 works ok.

 

[lysyn12155d02d4]

Install MicronNVMeDrivers from windows instead?

 

[Alan J T]

@rhonka160102e9

Hi MSI have tested the Drive on God board and the T700 was a pass in testing
No Overheatin or throttling was found even with out heatsink fitted

Can you try in M.2 in PCIE4.0 slot and test speed with Crystal Disk Mark
And post results

Looks like New BETA has been released please try it although I am not sure it will help with the M.2 Playing up


AMI BIOS7D68v163 (Beta version)
2023-06-309.35 MB
Download

• Description:
  - Fix system stability when the EXPO function is enabled. - Fix BT device on/off issue.

 

[boosting1bar]

I have a very similar setup with godlike, 7950x3d, crucial t700 and it will only write at 900 MB/s max with EXPO turned on. If I disable EXPO it will, at times, write at ~11750MB/s but it's very inconsistent. At times it will write that fast and then I can open CrystalDiskMark again in 20 minutes without rebooting or anything and it's back at 900ish. Currently on the 06/30 beta firmware and that didn't have any effect on the problem for me. Also, I've noticed that if I have EXPO off HWinfo shows the drive as a gen5 and my other 2 NVMe drives as gen4 (which is accurate).

Also of note, I've got another gen5 NVMe (the inland one from Microcenter) and it demonstrates the same behavior so it is definitely a board issue and not a drive issue.

 

[Alan J T]

I have a very similar setup with godlike, 7950x3d, crucial t700 and it will only write at 900 MB/s max with EXPO turned on. If I disable EXPO it will, at times, write at ~11750MB/s but it's very inconsistent. At times it will write that fast and then I can open CrystalDiskMark again in 20 minutes without rebooting or anything and it's back at 900ish. Currently on the 06/30 beta firmware and that didn't have any effect on the problem for me. Also, I've noticed that if I have EXPO off HWinfo shows the drive as a gen5 and my other 2 NVMe drives as gen4 (which is accurate).

Also of note, I've got another gen5 NVMe (the inland one from Microcenter) and it demonstrates the same behavior so it is definitely a board issue and not a drive issue.

OK will pass on that info
Any Chance you can test the M.2 in a separate PC
Did you test the M.2 in an M.2 PCIE 4.0 slot or just in the 5.0

And Please list your Build details
>>Posting Guide<<

 

[boosting1bar]

OK will pass on that info
Any Chance you can test the M.2 in a separate PC

And Please list your Build details
>>Posting Guide<<

Yes I actually checked all 4 NVMe drives in another PC I have on hand. Both gen5 drives are recognized and run at proper speed (~11500ish) and both gen4 drives are recognized and run properly. I actually did a clean windows install on my MSI machine a bit ago just to make sure it wasn't something left over from previous but the same behavior persists from my above post. Thanks for looking into it!

Board: x670e Godlike
BIOS: 7D68v163(Beta version)
VGA: Asus Strix 4090 OC
PSU: Silverstone Hela 1300
CPU: 7950x3d
MEM: Trident Z5 NEO F5-6000J3038F16GX2-TZ5N (x2 for total of 4 sticks)
HDD/SSD: M2_1 Crucial T700 1TB, M2_2& M2_3 SK Hynix Platinum 2B x2 (SHPP41-2000GM)
COOLER: Custom loop
OC: EXPO profile
OS: Windows 11 64bit Professional version 22H2

 

[plutomate]

Did you check the SSD controller temperature? The way you describe sound just like thermal throttle to me.

Crucial T700 Gen 5 SSD Throttles Down to HDD Performance Levels Without a Cooler

Crucial T700, the company's flagship M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD, runs hot—like every other drive based on the Phison E26-series controller (such as the Corsair MP700). ComputerBase.de discovered what the drive does without some sort of cooling. The E26 controller has a Tjmax value of around 86°C, and...

www.techpowerup.com

Can you check temperature in HWINFO? What's your maximum and current temperature when you start to have poor SSD performance.

 

[Alan J T]

Yes I actually checked all 4 NVMe drives in another PC I have on hand. Both gen5 drives are recognized and run at proper speed (~11500ish) and both gen4 drives are recognized and run properly. I actually did a clean windows install on my MSI machine a bit ago just to make sure it wasn't something left over from previous but the same behavior persists from my above post. Thanks for looking into it!

Board: x670e Godlike
BIOS: 7D68v163(Beta version)
VGA: Asus Strix 4090 OC
PSU: Silverstone Hela 1300
CPU: 7950x3d
MEM: Trident Z5 NEO FS-6000J3038F16GX2-TZ5N (x2 for total of 4 sticks)
HDD/SSD: M2_1 Crucial T700 1TB, M2_2& M2_3 SK Hynix Platinum 2B x2 (SHPP41-2000GM)
COOLER: Custom loop
OC: EXPO profile
OS: Windows 11 64bit Professional version 22H2

For a test remove two sticks of ram and see how it goes with EXPO

And yes I am well aware that I am not doing as I advise since I am using 4x16GB from two separate Kits of 2
Sometimes it works other times it does not

and double-check the model number of Ram as I can not find it I think it should be F5, not FS

 

[rhonkar]

Thank you for all your feedback. Sorry for answering late but I've been quite a bit busy in the last days.

While still using BIOS 7D68v15, the system ran stable by disabling EXPO. I now updated to BIOS 7D68v163 (Beta version) and with it, the system runs stable with activated EXPO (6.000 MHz).

But there ist still a problem with the speed of the crucial Crucial T700 in M2_1. "M2_1 Gen Mode" ist still set to "Auto", and sometimes the reading and writing rates (AS SSD - Seq Write) are about 800 MB/s and after a reboot it's about 10.000 MB/s. Which means the speed changes randomly after restarting the system. Seems like the Crucial T700 Gen5 SSD sometimes is identified correctly and sometimes it is not.

Another fact: If the T700 ist running with only 800 MB/s in windows, the BIOS needed about 45 sec to boot up before. If the BIOS is booting up faster, the T700 runs in correct speed.

At the moment there is no firmware update aviable for the Crucial T700.

Here some images of both installed RAM Modules and the speed tests of the T700. As you can see, the Transfer Mode in CrystalDiskInfo ist shown as "PCIe 1.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4" in both cases.

Also the "Current Link Speed" of the Graphics Interface in CPU-Z is shown with only 2.5 GT/s. Is that correct or should it be much faster?

 

[boosting1bar]

Thank you for all your feedback. Sorry for answering late but I've been quite a bit busy in the last days.

While still using BIOS 7D68v15, the system ran stable by disabling EXPO. I now updated to BIOS 7D68v163 (Beta version) and with it, the system runs stable with activated EXPO (6.000 MHz).

But there ist still a problem with the speed of the crucial Crucial T700 in M2_1. "M2_1 Gen Mode" ist still set to "Auto", and sometimes the reading and writing rates (AS SSD - Seq Write) are about 800 MB/s and after a reboot it's about 10.000 MB/s. Which means the speed changes randomly after restarting the system. Seems like the Crucial T700 Gen5 SSD sometimes is identified correctly and sometimes it is not.

Another fact: If the T700 ist running with only 800 MB/s in windows, the BIOS needed about 45 sec to boot up before. If the BIOS is booting up faster, the T700 runs in correct speed.

Yep, this behavior is all exactly consistent with what I'm seeing as well. It seems random as to when it'll run properly and when not.

 

[Alan J T]

Thank you for all your feedback. Sorry for answering late but I've been quite a bit busy in the last days.

While still using BIOS 7D68v15, the system ran stable by disabling EXPO. I now updated to BIOS 7D68v163 (Beta version) and with it, the system runs stable with activated EXPO (6.000 MHz).

But there ist still a problem with the speed of the crucial Crucial T700 in M2_1. "M2_1 Gen Mode" ist still set to "Auto", and sometimes the reading and writing rates (AS SSD - Seq Write) are about 800 MB/s and after a reboot it's about 10.000 MB/s. Which means the speed changes randomly after restarting the system. Seems like the Crucial T700 Gen5 SSD sometimes is identified correctly and sometimes it is not.

Another fact: If the T700 ist running with only 800 MB/s in windows, the BIOS needed about 45 sec to boot up before. If the BIOS is booting up faster, the T700 runs in correct speed.

At the moment there is no firmware update aviable for the Crucial T700.

Here some images of both installed RAM Modules and the speed tests of the T700. As you can see, the Transfer Mode in CrystalDiskInfo ist shown as "PCIe 1.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4" in both cases.

Also the "Current Link Speed" of the Graphics Interface in CPU-Z is shown with only 2.5 GT/s. Is that correct or should it be much faster?

View attachment 174726

View attachment 174727

View attachment 174733

View attachment 174734

Yep, this behavior is all exactly consistent with what I'm seeing as well. It seems random as to when it'll run properly and when not.

Thanks for the extra Info it all helps as to PCIE speeds
This chart should help

 

[boosting1bar]

For a test remove two sticks of ram and see how it goes with EXPO

And yes I am well aware that I am not doing as I advise since I am using 4x16GB from two separate Kits of 2
Sometimes it works other times it does not
View attachment 174696
and double-check the model number of Ram as I can not find it I think it should be F5, not FS
View attachment 174695

Yes corrected it's F5 not FS. And same behavior with two matching sticks (tried both sets), sometimes it will read 11000, most of the time 900. With regards to the mention of throttling, it's not that because it will always be after a reboot when I run it. I usually let it set 4-5 minutes to cool just to rule that out. For completeness sake I just ran again with HWinfo open and the max drive temp was only 39C (started at 36C) and it read at 908MB/s

 

[plutomate]

What about crystaldiskmark result? I see Alan is using that for benchmark.

 

[Alan J T]

Can you have a look and see if this M.2_1 can be set from Auto to Gen 5
mine only shows Auto Gen4 Gen3 Gen2 and Gen1 as I don't have a Gen 5 M.2 The Price of them scares my Credit card

As Plutomate pointed out it will be easier if you use Crystal Disk
MSI Seem to prefer Crystal Diskmark for their testing

The following in the Screenshot test results makes it a bit easier to sort out and do a report to our Contact

Thes were run side by side and do not match
Seems the AS SSD Benchmark may need to be updated by developer as it is not reporting accurately.

 

[WakeX]

Sounds an awful lot like the same issue with x16 slots where 4.0 GPUs get stuck at 1.1-mode and need (several) reboots - just here it is the x4 5.0 M.2-slot/-SSD getting stuck in a lower mode, which is concerning.