M.2 NVMes disappearing and not working at random

I have an Asrock B650M-HDV/M.2 and I've just gotten another NVMe since the mobo has 2 M.2 slots, so I wanted to expand the storage a bit. The board has a topmost Gen5 slot with a heatsink, and a Gen4 slot under the GPU that's just using one screw to hold the drive.

The issue is that the new drive, which is a Gen4 LEXAR 1TB NM790, isn't working at all in the lower slot, and the old drive, WD Blue SN550, works in both, but frequently disconnects when used in the lower Gen4 slot. These are Gen3 and 4 drives so they should both be working in both slots, so I'm not sure why Lexar only works in the upper one or while SN550 disappears when used in the lower slot. Lexar is currently much hotter than the WD drive at 52c idle in the heatsink slot for some reason (not sure if Gen4 generally runs much hotter), while the WD is at 35c in a non-heatsink slot, and lane sharing isn't a thing for this mobo so both drives should work even though I have 4 SATA drives connected as well. I've noticed that SN550 disappears usually after putting the PC to sleep, but it can also happen during normal usage sometimes.

Also, the SN550 was having this same issue (randomly disappearing) for a short period of time when I was using my old B450 Tomahawk Max mobo, but then it stopped and it wasn't happening for year until I switched mobos. It also never happened with this B650M-HDV/M.2 mobo while it was the only M.2 drive seated in the upper heatsink slot, so it seems there are 2 different issues I don't understand:

1. Why is WD SN550 disappearing randomly when seated in the regular M.2 slot with a single screw (both old mobo and current one)?
2. Why is Lexar NM790 not working at all when seated in the non-heatsink slot?

I also don't know if Lexar is supposed to be this much warmer even though it has a heatsink but that's a minor unrelated issue. I make sure that the screw is tight enough for the drive not to move around at all but I try not to make it too tight.

But they're even officially supported:

Check out S.M.A.R.T.
Update the firmware via proprietary utilities.
Update the BIOS for your motherboard
There should be an item in the BIOS for cleaning the device.
Install the latest version of AMD chipset driver.

abactuon said:

But they're even officially supported:

ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2

Supports AMD Socket AM5 Ryzen™ 9000, 8000 and 7000 Series Processors; 8+2+1 Power Phase, Dr.MOS; 2 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7200+ (OC); 2 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi; Integrated AMD RDNA™ 2 Graphics<span style=color:red;>*</span>; Graphics Output Options...

www.asrock.com

Check out S.M.A.R.T.
Update the firmware via proprietary utilities.
Update the BIOS for your motherboard
There should be an item in the BIOS for cleaning the device.
Install the latest version of AMD chipset driver.

Click to expand...

Sorry could you please explain the S.M.A.R.T thing and the BIOS device cleaning you mentioned? Is the cleaning supposed to wipe the drive or do something else with it?

I'm not familiar with either but as for the other stuff, BIOS is updated to the latest November version, and WD Blue tool says there are no updates for that drive.

I wasn't able to find any update tools for Lexar NM790, so I don't know if there are any updates or if there are any manufacturer agnostic tools that can update any SSD.

for WD

Maybe it's better to contact ASRock tech support.

Thanks! Both HWinfo and Diskinfo look ok from what I understand, here are the screenshots for both drives below.

I've actually checked out the Lexar download page while looking for firmware previously and I did find their SSD Dash tool, but I have no idea where to get the firmware update itself because this utility only lets you select a downloaded file.

Only a few specific SSDs are listed on the website, but clicking on any of them gets you to the product list page where all of them are, which then takes you to the main page of that particular drive. I can't see any download links or sections on the NM790's page, but I've seen a post on Linustechtips claiming that downloads aren't available in some regions

Also forgot to add that AMD chipset drivers are also updated. Is there anything else I can check hardware or software-wise?

For the Intel 700-series, there is a clause in the BIOS:

M.2_1 - Max Link Speed
Configures the PCI Express protocol of the M2_1 connector for compatibility with various installed M.2 devices.
various installed M.2 devices.
[Auto] This setting will be configured automatically by the BIOS.
[Gen1] Enables PCIe Gen1 support only.
[Gen2] Enables PCIe Gen2 support only.
[Gen3] Enables PCIe Gen3 support only.
[Gen4] Enables PCIe Gen4 support only.
[Gen5] Enables PCIe Gen5 support only

The default should be "Auto"

Maybe there is something like that for your motherboard.
You can try to set it specifically to Gen3 or Gen4 depending on the drive.

I don't understand why you need a cool program with 16-digit codes.
Just install Dash from WD and Lexar and test the S.M.A.R.T.
If there are no errors, the device is probably working fine.
Then you can uninstall them.