New MSI motherboard Sata issues

[stewli15bf02e5]

Hi guys, new here (not new to MSI MB's .. I just built my grandson a mid range gaming PC. Everything went fine for the first 3 boots into Windows 10.
On the 4th boot, it went straight to the BIOS.. hoping it was a fluke I rebooted and it booted ok. 2 hours later it went to BIOS again. About 90% of the time it recognizes the SSD and boots, the other 10% it does not see the SSD and goes to BIOS (which does not show the drive when it does not boot, but does when it does boot) I am so wired from trouble shooting this thing, Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

What I have done so far:
Installed windows 10 on 2 SSD's and 1 HDD
multiiple sata cables
multiple Sata ports
multiple sata power connectors
disabled TPM in BIOS (not sure why but I am desperate)!
Download and installed new MSI BIOS, version shows E7B86AMS.P60
It has the standard windows SATA driver (had read of some issues with the AMD drivers) but it should work with both

One thing I should note is, I did not have a problem with the HDD, but I never really gave it a chance to fail, it was only in there about 20 minutes when I realised I had a second SSD in my computer, so I pulled and installed it.

Man I really don't want to pull this new motherboard out... HELP!!



The Rig
Motherboard - MSI B550 Gaming GEN3
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 4600G
Power Supply - Thermaltake Smart BM3 650W
SSD - KingSpec 1TB SATA III

 

[plutomate]

when it goes to BIOS, does it give any error message?

Just wanna make sure it's not bad CMOS battery or unstable ram or CPU.

 

[stewli15bf02e5]

No it goes right to ClickBIOS (where the drive does not show)... but most times it shows. just doesn't on the few times it won't boot.
I did do a ram test, and an HD/SSD test with with third party utilities, showed no problems at all.
I have not done anything with the CPU "yet" .. I did just re install the HD, just to see if it will do it also.
Thanks!

After I looked at your screen shot, I realized I have never had a windows system go to the BIOS when it could not see the drive, I have always seen it like your screen shot.. kinda weird.

( I should have taken the pic when it didn't boot lol)

 

[citay]

Power Supply - Thermaltake Smart BM3 650W
SSD - KingSpec 1TB SATA III

Low-end PSU and no-name SSD. Could be either one of those. I've had to deal with a failure similar to this once, where a defective PSU's outputs went below spec and a secondary HDD stopped working reliably, while the PC stayed on. The SSD gets its power right from the PSU, no voltage regulator on the board to take care of anything, so any problem with the PSU and it will directly affect it.

You should test with your own PSU, or a different PSU, it has to meet the following criteria: Known good, not too old (preferably still within its warranty period), and decent quality (at least Tier C on the PSU tier list).

With the Thermaltake SMART PSUs, they are usually quite bad, the only (!) tolerable model of that has been the Smart BM2 (of which i guess BM3 is the successor), the rest are either bad or extremely bad models. For example, the Smart 80+ RGB / 80+ White, those are classed as "Tier F • Replace immediately" on the PSU tier list. They have some design flaws inside, in that thread his low-end PSU croaked after just one year, new PSU solved everything. In general, i don't trust the SMART models. I wrote a Guide: How to find a good PSU. You could go much lower on the rated wattage for this PC, but higher on the quality instead, for example a "be quiet! Pure Power 11 400W" would be nice for this system (you may have to check for suitable models in your shops).

Other notes: Your RAM is still running on the safe first boot profile of DDR4-2666, you should enable A-XMP. Your monitor does horrible overscan (zooming in on the picture and cutting off the edges), this can happen with HDMI sources, you should turn it off in the monitor menu.

 

[stewli15bf02e5]

Low-end PSU and no-name SSD.

You should test with your own PSU, or a different PSU, it has to meet the following criteria: Known good, not too old (preferably still within its warranty period), and decent quality (at least Tier C on the PSU tier list).

Other notes: Your RAM is still running on the safe first boot profile of DDR4-2666, you should enable A-XMP. Your monitor does horrible overscan (zooming in on the picture and cutting off the edges), this can happen with HDMI sources, you should turn it off in the monitor menu.

Last thing first.. it is on a TV not monitor lol.. it is the only thing I had handy with an HDMI (besides the one I am using)

I am beginning to think Power Supply also, (I was trying to save money for a good GPU).. Did alot of research, but not so much on the PSU (geuss I should have).. come to think of it, I will take your advice and try an older 550w PSU I have from an old system (providing it has the right connectors)
Will absolutely read your guide
The ssd is ok, tried booting with my samsung also, and a WD HDD, same thing.

Will also check the ram settings as you suggested

The biggest problem is I need to isolate it, my eyes are not so great anymore so I am REALLY not looking forward to pulling out a brand new MB, If I could isolate it to the PSU I would be tickled pink

Thanks!!

 

[citay]

Yeah, overscan happens mostly on TVs, but due to the size and branding, i thought it might be a PC monitor, i've never heard of that brand anyway. For a TV, this is quite common, usually it can be turned off in its picture settings somewhere, where you can set the size to Auto, Original, Just Scan or the like.

I will take your advice and try an older 550w PSU I have from an old system (providing it has the right connectors)

The thing about old PSUs is, due to the use of electrolytic capacitors inside PSUs, which deteriorate over time, the PSU is the one component inside a PC that is guaranteed to degrade with age. Even if it's sitting somewhere for years, the capacitors will still slowly lose their filtering and buffering properties. So if it's too old, it's not that suitable anymore for a test. Hence my hint about the criteria that a different PSU has to fulfill.

The PSU is the foundation of the entire system, like i mentioned in that "design flaw" thread too. It's a make-or-break component, and overly cheap PSUs tend to have several downsides attached, as well as a countdown to problems that is ticking way faster than on a high-quality model. So the PSU has to have a certain minimum quality if you don't want to deal with the fallout later.

The SMART BM3, i'm not sure how bad it is exactly. Maybe it's even halfway acceptable. But nowadays, to avoid the worst problems, a good idea is look for a model with 80 PLUS Gold efficiency. Because reaching that level requires a certain standard of components and technology, they can't get away with some of the corner-cutting like on 80 PLUS White/Bronze units anymore. Of course, Gold efficiency alone doesn't tell the whole story of a PSU's properties, but this way you are weeding out all the really bad models quite reliably. There are some good Bronze units out there, but there are also a lot of bad ones. Anyway, i explain the best method in my PSU Guide, the efficiency is just one of the things to look for.

If a different PSU doesn't solve it, we'll have to look at other things, but that's one of the things that stood out to me, Thermaltake Smart is often a red flag.

 

[stewli15bf02e5]

Just dug out the older PSU, but CPU connectors are wrong, has a 4 pin, this MB has an 8 pin .. arghhh
Just your opinion, if this were you, would you think PSU is more likely than MB?

 

[citay]

Well, for sure the PSU is less of a hassle to check properly than the board is. So always test the PSU first in such cases. I haven't seen a professional review of the Smart BM3 by a reputable source yet, which automatically would make me avoid it, and the other Smart models don't exactly have a stellar track record to say the least. So the PSU is a hot candidate here. If you want to go sure, borrow one from a friend, recent enough and a better model than this.

 

[stewli15bf02e5]

Well, for sure the PSU is less of a hassle to check properly than the board is. So always test the PSU first in such cases. I haven't seen a professional review of the Smart BM3 by a reputable source yet, which automatically would make me avoid it, and the other Smart models don't exactly have a stellar track record to say the least. So the PSU is a hot candidate here. If you want to go sure, borrow one from a friend, recent enough and a better model than this.

Will do!.. you convinced me on the easier part
Thank you!