Windows 11 24H2 Update Causing BSODs For Some Western Digital SSD Owners

Earlier this month, Microsoft released the Windows 11 2024 Update (version 24H2), which brings several new features, including additional AI-powered capabilities, performance and security improvements, quality-of-life updates, Wi-Fi 7 support, and more.

However, the Windows 11 24H2 update is causing some PCs, especially those with a WD Black SN770 or WD Blue SN580 SSD installed, to crash with BSOD (“Critical Process Has Died”). According to Windows Latest, the issue is observed when the device is upgraded to Windows 11 24H2 via Windows Update.

As reported on the Western Digital (WD) Community Forums, multiple users are facing errors such as “stornvme” and “The driver detected a controller error on \Device\RaidPort1 or 2” and have reported seeing “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) after installing Windows 11 24H2.

“This happened to me on a brand new pre-built I bought and returned from CyberPowerPC. It had a 2TB WD Blue SN580 Series (PCIe Gen4) NVMe M.2 SSD and kept failing with BSOD (critical process has died),” one of the affected users noted in a Feedback Hub.

“I re-installed windows fresh and re-seated the SSD but it didn’t resolve the issue. I just returned it and now I’m planning to build my own PC.

“Host Memory Buffer” (HMB) is a feature that allows SSDs to utilize the host’s DRAM as a cache to offer better drive performance. While the previous patch, Windows 11 23H2, granted a limited amount of memory, i.e., 64MB of HMB, the Windows 11 24H2 update reserves up to 200MB of HMB. Since both the WD SN770 and the WD SN580 SSDs have the same 200MB of HMB. These DRAM-less SSDs benefit from HMB for caching, potentially causing the system to crash.

While Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the issue officially, it is already working on a solution with WD to prevent the affected SSDs from receiving the Windows 11 24H2 update, reports Windows Latest, citing their sources.

If you have downloaded the Windows 11 24H2 update and are facing BSOD, it is best to roll back to the previous version of Windows 11 23H2 that worked smoothly on your PC.

Alternatively, Western Digital forum users have also found a temporary registry-based workaround to limit HMB allocation to 64MB or disable it completely. However, it is essential to note that disabling HMB might impact SSD performance during heavy file transfers.

If you have not upgraded your PC to the latest Windows 11 24H2 version, it is advisable to wait a few more days, as Microsoft will likely roll out an official patch to fix this bug in the next update.