Startup disk failure or motherboard? Help needed

[skittishdeer690]

My computer has decided to not enter into Windows on Sat and it went straight into the Bios. When I look at the boot options, the M2 drive was missing. I have been advised to move the M2 drive from the M2A slot into the M2M slot, and it worked. But today, the computer crashed whiled I was using it and it now refuses to return to windows.

When it happened, first, it popped up with the Blue Screen and a Stop Code error (Critical process died). Then it goes into bios when I restart, and I immediately noticed that the boot options are completely gone. It used to have boot options and priorities and it's now missing. So both the M2M and M2A drive are not working for me. I can't work out if it's the Drive itself that has failed or if it's the motherboard.

Any help from the wonderful members here is much appreciated

Attached screenshots

Specs for my computer

Case	InWIN 101 MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-8700 (3.2GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)	16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive	2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive	500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply	CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling	PCS FrostFlow 100 V2 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste	STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card	ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking	WIRELESS 802.11 Gigabyte GC-WB1733D-I AC 1734Mbps + BT5 PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options	MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire	2 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI-E Card (2 x 6 pin)
Operating System	Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

 

[ubuysa]

The quickest way to tell whether it's the PC itself that's the problem is to boot something else. Booting the Windows installation media will let you see whether the PC is working and you can try the Startup Repair tool in there to see whether that helps. You can also use the command prompt in there to see whether you can see your M.2 drive.

 

[skittishdeer690]

Thanks. I managed to speak to someone from PC specialist and they believe that the M2 Drive has failed. They'll send me a new one so I'll just need to install a fresh copy of windows, hopefully this works!

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks. I managed to speak to someone from PC specialist and they believe that the M2 Drive has failed. They'll send me a new one so I'll just need to install a fresh copy of windows, hopefully this works!

Well that's an even better way of testing the system! [emoji3]

Let us know how you get on.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[skittishdeer690]

Yes, PC specialist does have a good customer service.

I'm expecting the disk this Friday and will report back. Thanks for your help!

 

[skittishdeer690]

Hey, just to report back that after swapping for the new m2 drive the computer works again!

 

[ubuysa]

Good news! Thanks for letting us know.

 

[de4life]

It sounds like you just got unlucky with your drive. Judging by your specs you won't have had it that long and you'd expect the drive to last longer than you've had it, but by the law of averages there will be a few duds here and there. Hopefully your issue is now fixed!