x570 Aorus Ultra odd multiple-SSD behavior

GotNoRice

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Jul 11, 2001
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I have a very strange problem related to the NVMe SSDs installed onto my motherboard (x570 Aorus Ultra).

I have all 3 M.2 slots populated:
#1 Samsung 960 Pro 512GB (4x PCIe 3.0 bandwidth from the CPU) - OS/Apps and some games.
#2 Samsung 980 Pro 500GB (4x PCIe 4.0 bandwidth from Chipset) - Dedicated Games drive.
#3 Samsung PM991 256GB (2x PCIe 3.0 bandwidth from Chipset) - Misc files

I have all of my PCIe slots populated also.
First 16x slot: Geforce RTX 2080 (Main GPU)
Second 16x slot: Radeon 4850 (Old GPU just used for my 5th and 6th monitor, since the 2080 only supports 4 monitors on it's own)
PCIe 1x slot: Creative X-Fi Titanium Soundcard
PCIe 4x slot: Intel Dual-Port Gigabit adapter (I340-T2)

Everything was working, but all of a sudden my computer started to hang for ~30 seconds at the POST screen each time before continuing to boot. I noticed that my #3 SSD (PM991) was no longer being detected. I assumed that this meant that the SSD had died. I didn't remove the SSD right away because I'm lazy and also holding out a slim hope that it might start working again.

This morning I booted up my computer and noticed that it didn't hang at the POST screen like it had been. Sure enough, when I got into windows the PM991 was being detected again. I didn't waste any time, and used the opportunity to copy all data off of that SSD, which was nice.

But what was odd is that while the #3 SSD (PM991) was being detected again, all of a sudden my #2 SSD (980 Pro) wasn't being detected anymore. After I copied the files off the PM991, I rebooted again and went into the BIOS. There it showed all 3 SSDs being detected. I powered down the system, powered it on again, and went back into the BIOS. Now it was back to only showing the #1 and #2 SSDs (960 Pro and 980 Pro). The #3 SSD (PM991) was gone again. At least I was able to get the files off it.

But this makes me wonder:
While I was sure at first that the PM991 had died, I've never actually had a NVMe SSD die and then come back like that. This makes me wonder if there is actually anything wrong with that SSD? While the PM991 was working again, I checked with CDI and it showed 98% life remaining so it's not a heavily used drive or anything like that.
It was VERY strange that the one time the PM991 started working again, all of a sudden the 980 Pro was not being detected anymore. That can't just be a coincidence. Could this mean that this is all a PCIe or motherboard issue rather than an SSD issue?

I know some boards have certain slots and/or features that are disabled when PCIe lanes are used for other purposes. The only thing I can find in the motherboard manual about that is that the 5th and 6th SATA ports are disabled when the 3rd M.2 slot is used. I don't currently have anything plugged into the 5th and 6th SATA ports.

Is there anything else I might be missing that would explain why my #2 and #3 NVMe SSDs don't seem to want to work at the same time anymore?
 
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