x870e boards - M.2_1 bug data collection

1160b02f1

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As many are (painfully) aware, there is a bug on x870e boards where the M.2_1 slot will run in PCIe1x4 mode (read speed of about 900MB/s) instead of PCIe4x4 or PCIe5x4 (read speed of 14000MB/s on some drives). SOMETIMES it runs at the proper speeds, but after a reboot or waking up from sleep, etc., it will (very) frequently revert back to PCIe1x4 mode, ignoring the BIOS setting.

I am hoping folks with x870e boards can provide some data to determine if this is a hardware issue, a BIOS bug, etc. It does not seem to matter what x870e board you have - I have the issue on two different Godlike boards and there are a lot of people with the Tomahawks with the issue too. A few folks even said they have one of these boards and DON'T have the issue (gasp!) so, lets try to figure out what is different on the boards of those who don't have the problem!

I tried it on two x870e Godlike boards, one manufactured October 2024 and the other manufactured December 2024. I tried it with the newest BIOS (1/22/25) and also tried the 10/30/24, and 10/5/24 BIOS (the 9/24/24 BIOS was unstable and would not boot). I tried every setting change imaginable in the BIOS, none of it matters. The BIOS files do not go back any further than that for the Godlike. I am also using a Ryzen 9800x3d and my drive is a 4TB Crucial T705. I have several USB devices plugged in, some are picked up as hubs (some folks suggested it might be related to USB devices).

Can others please also chime in on what board you are using, your CPU, BIOS version and BIOS date, your SSD, if you have any USB HUBs connected, manufacture date, anything else you think that might be useful to find the root cause, and if you have the issue or not? Lets figure this out!
  1. --Make sure your drive is in the M.2_1 slot and then Run Crystal DiskInfo to see if it is in PCIe1x4 or PCIe4x4 / PCIe5x4. Windows will still boot pretty fast in PCIe1x4 mode so if you don't check, you might have this problem without realizing it.. surprise! You could also benchmark the drive to see if it runs at advertised speed.
  2. --Check in Crystal Disk or benchmark it, reboot, and check again. It *sometimes* works correctly so you need to reboot and check again 3ish or more times to verify if you do or do not have the problem.
  3. --To find your manufacture date, look at your board's serial number. After the B is 4 digits, the first two are the year and second two are the month. For example B2410 means it was manufactured in October 2024.
Thank you to everyone who can provide data! All data is useful. Even (maybe even more-so?) those who have working boards, so we can figure out what is different about yours!
 
So I have the x870e Godlike.. I have a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB in my M.2_1, I also have two other SSD in the M.2_3 and M.2_4 slots... Those are firecuda 4TB drives... I have 9950X3D in here also.. I have an OS on two of the drives.. Well the other day, I had a boot error message and couldn't load windows on one of the drives... I went through the normal repairs in command line that normally fixes this issue any other time. That didn't work.. I went as far as wiping one of those drives... Right now, I have two OS again... well the Bios when booting, only see's one of them... when I select the one that it does recognize, it boots to the other one... Theres some serious [***CENSORED***] wrong with these boards...

(forgot to add this) Also the M.2_1 is running at PCIe 4.0 x4, the M.2_3 is PCIe 4.0 x4, the M.2_4 is PCIe 4.0 x2

I read in another forum.. Some dude with simialy issue; he raises his core voltage from 1.050 to 1.15v. I'm going to turn off my PBO and drop my memory speed. I could be right at the threshold for pulling too much from my supply... I'll update in a couple hours... I haven't tried the new firmware yet...

If you still have this issue or not, please update me... I'd like to have some other ideas on how to handle this if I can't resolve it myself...

Thanks...
 
So I have the x870e Godlike.. I have a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB in my M.2_1, I also have two other SSD in the M.2_3 and M.2_4 slots... Those are firecuda 4TB drives... I have 9950X3D in here also.. I have an OS on two of the drives.. Well the other day, I had a boot error message and couldn't load windows on one of the drives... I went through the normal repairs in command line that normally fixes this issue any other time. That didn't work.. I went as far as wiping one of those drives... Right now, I have two OS again... well the Bios when booting, only see's one of them... when I select the one that it does recognize, it boots to the other one... Theres some serious [***CENSORED***] wrong with these boards...

(forgot to add this) Also the M.2_1 is running at PCIe 4.0 x4, the M.2_3 is PCIe 4.0 x4, the M.2_4 is PCIe 4.0 x2

I read in another forum.. Some dude with simialy issue; he raises his core voltage from 1.050 to 1.15v. I'm going to turn off my PBO and drop my memory speed. I could be right at the threshold for pulling too much from my supply... I'll update in a couple hours... I haven't tried the new firmware yet...

If you still have this issue or not, please update me... I'd like to have some other ideas on how to handle this if I can't resolve it myself...

Thanks...
See here: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/pcie-bug-with-m2_1-slot-on-x870e-tomahawk.409663/
and here:
Please also create a support ticket to MSI and raise a stink about it with them. It is mind boggling to me this has been a problem for so long and MSI is not taking it seriously. We need this to get more attention.

Post responses you get in one of those two links if they say anything helpful. Most of MSI support is useless so when someone occasionally gets someone who provides anything of actual value in a response we want to share it with the community, because MSI sure as hell is not not doing it themselves. In my support tickets they are not even reading anything I type. They just provide generic useless responses after ignoring everything I tell them. Sometimes other people have better luck if you get a better support agent. And we still need to keep creating tickets anyway to get them to pay attention to this.

ALSO - they will probably offer to let you RMA your board. read the other links I posted... an RMA and replacement board will NOT fix this. The agent is just trying to get you to go away so he/she can close the support ticket. Don't let them do that.

And please add in if you find anything that helps.

(p.s. welcome to the club, I do not recommend buying any MSI products in the future)
 
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