NUC11 (NUC11PAHi5/RNUC11PAHi50000) & Seagate FireCuda 520 500GB (PCIe Gen4) - Blue Screen issues

[karakaan]

Anyone having storage issues with PCIe Gen4 x4 NVME cards?? 

I can build my brand new NUC11 with the above FireCuda but after initial install of Windows the machine seems alright for a short time then will randomly reboot or get a BSOD (WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR). 

When I substitute it for a Gen3 NVME card the NUC is stable as a rock... I've run Seagate SeaTools on the FireCuda which is also brand new BTW with short, long and advanced tests and it passes all tests with no errors as well as working in a NVME caddy plugged into USB port as external drive without any issues. 

Would this possibly be a compatibility issue with this NUC and the FireCuda's and a future BIOS update needs to be waited for??

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello @karakaan

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

In order to check this behavior further, could you please provide the following information?

1- Is the issue happening since the very first day that you have this setup? (Intel NUC + Seagate* FireCuda drive?)

2- When you installed the operating system (OS), did you perform a fresh clean installation? Did you wipe the drive before the installation?

3- We understand that you ran some tests on the drive using the tools provided by the manufacturer. Did you also check if the drive is running the latest firmware available from Seagate*?

4- Please provide the exact/full part number of the Seagate* FireCuda drive.

5- Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) to gather more details about the system.

• Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer
• Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".
• To save your scan, click Next and click Save.
• Once you have saved the file (.txt file), please attach it to your reply.
• To upload and attach a file, use the "Drag and drop here or browse files to attach" option below the response textbox.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[karakaan]

Hi AndrewG_Intel,

Many thanks for the response, below are answers to your queries : 

1. Yes the issue has been happening from very first initial install of Win10, both products are brand spanking new out of the box

2. Yes a fresh install of the OS was done from original MSDN ISO media. Yes the drive was wiped beforehand as well as partitions deleted using the Win10 installer so this was a pure clean vanilla install of Windows. 

3. Yes with the time available before a lock up/reboot or BSOD I was able to verify using Seagate SSD GUI software that the drive had the latest Firmware (see attached pictures)

4. Exact part number of the drive is : Seagate Firecuda 520 500GB - PN: 2TN303-570

5. See attached output from Intel SSU application (nuc11.txt) 

Some further info :

- If Win10 is booted into 'Safe Mode' the NUC is stable with said drive however assumption there is primary drivers and services are not started which probably combined with described hardware does not kick in random lockup/reboot and or BSOD. 

- Unfortunately I do not have another PCIe 4.0 system to test the drive in to see if the same issue occurs, however I do have a Dell 7390 laptop which I can test in albeit not a true test as that laptop is PCIe 3.0 so the drive would be limited to that bus speed when in operation. But I will test in this config anyway to see/check if any similar issues occur...

- As mentioned before I have put a Gen 3.0 NVME drive into the NUC and everything is stable and working as expected therefore I don't believe there is a hardware issue with the NUC itself nor the FireCuda though the combination of the two may be causing the issue whether that be hardware, software or firmware related. 

Regards. 

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello karakaan

Thank you for your response and for all the details provided. Please allow us to look into this and we will be posting back as soon as more details are available.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[karakaan]

Hi AndrewG_Intel,

No problem again many thanks for looking into the issue...

Just a testing update from my end, I've done a clean build/install of Win10 on the FireCuda in my Dell 7390 laptop and the drive and laptop are working perfectly with no aforementioned problems, this shows that the FireCuda is not faulty though I don't believe the NUC is faulty either as a Gen3 NVME drive works fine with no issues as well. This would suggest that the combination of the new NUC11's and FireCuda drives have a compatibility issue somewhere along the line which hopefully your investigation will reveal...

Regards,

Alex. 

[lEdge]

I only see a few complete freeze moments and a couple of reboots with the NUC6i7KYK. That's the history. It's the memory speed compatibility as far as I understand. I'm rolling a stone over that building problem. On the software side issues can perform errors as well. Disable the virtual memory. That's a suggestion. And you will get that from time to time with windows 10 because of the task view. You can disable that too in the settings or task panel properties. If not a bother you can also clear the recent explorer items in the file explorer properties(top left ... button).

[Ronny_G_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hi karakaan

Can you please test the latest BIOS version 0040 that was recently released? Here is the URL: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/30510

This BIOS version should address this issue, if you still have problems after updating the system BIOS please let me know.

Regards,

Ronny G

[karakaan]

Hi Ronny_G_Intel, 

That did the trick many many thanks I was hoping it wasn't a hardware fault...  

Just out of curiosity what was the issue as I couldn't see any info in the 0040 Bios release notes relating to NVME or FireCuda drives? 

Regards, 

Alex.

[Ronny_G_Intel]

Hi karakaan,

That's great news! Thanks for letting me know the results and thanks for the kudos as well.

The fix in BIOS that addresses this issue is: "Updated NTFS DXE driver when parsing NTFS file system partition" as documented in the BIOS release notes, honestly, this is not very descriptive to me but this is what was called out as "the fix" by the Product Team.

Regards,

Ronny G

[karakaan]

Hi Ronny, 

no worries, yeah that was the only thing that stood out to me in the notes but that's cool as long as it works... Happy Days!

Again many thanks to you, Andrew and the product team I wasn't looking FWD to RMA'ing a brand new NUC and or NVME drive  

Cheers, 

Alex. 

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello karakaan

You are very welcome, we are glad to know this fix works. Also, since the thread has been marked as "Solved" we will proceed to close this inquiry now. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. It has been a pleasure to assist you.

Sincerely,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician