Constant Crashing Problems iRST 17, 970 Evo Plus RAID 1

I am currently using a AORUS I Z390 Pro WiFi motherboard and 2 Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB in RAID 1. I have replaced every single component, and I have tried Windows 1804, 1809, 1903. I am currently using BIOS 7a. The iRST firmware is 17.5.0.4136. I made sure to install Windows with the correct driver injected during installation. I also made sure to install the correct version of the iRST software that runs within Windows.

Currently the RAID appears to be stable for a day or two and then it loses a disk and attempts to rebuilt which causes bluescreens. The bluescreen is "a critical process has failed". I have been able to get a memory dump as the only drives are in RAID and not writable during a BSOD. I am not sure what else I can do but assume there is a firmware, or software problems that is unavoidable. Any assistance would be welcome.

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As I read other posts it may be helpful to know I installed 17.5.2.1024 driver downloaded directly from Intel. I verified this inside of the device manager.

No drivers need injected to install windows10 with NVME, nor do any need installed later, so this may be the issue. However, yes, if you have RAID array then I guess you would need to use a RAID Driver

Are you sure your memory is 100% tested stable, long test overnight with Memtest86+ and see. And, if you are overclocking, disable that and run stock for a while too and see if that helps

Some solid advice from Lost_N_BIOS, another thing you might want to check is the SMART status of each drive.

Although unlikely it is possible that one or more drives are faulty/failing.

I have thoroughly tested RAM with Memtestx86 and yes both drives have passed their SMART. Also no overclocking or even XMP at the moment.

I work for a company and we have purchased about a dozen of these and each and every one of them have the same problem. To be more specific I injected the Intel RST drivers. At no point have I attempted to install an NVMe driver.

The components aren’t the issue. I am hoping I have overlooked something that will allow me to use RAID 1.

@blarg214 :
Although I do not really understand why anyone wants to get a RAID1 (MIRROR) array consisting of NVMe SSDs and to use it as bootable system drive, I propose to do the following:
1. Replace the Intel RAID BIOS modules by the newer/better v17.5.4.4296 ones.
2. Uninstall the currently installed Intel RST Software from within the Control Panel.
3. Install the newer/better Intel RST NVMe RAID driver v17.5.3.1026 WHQL.
If this shouldn’t solve the problem, you may try the latest Intel RST v17.2 series RAID drivers/BIOS modules.

@Fernando
We are doing RAID 1 for quick recovery of Engineering machines and RAID 1 is a faster recovery then backup reinstall Windows. (I am aware that RAID 1 is not backup =) ). It’s a niche case but very useful for us.

Is there a way to update the RST firmware without flashing the Motherboard BIOS? I currently have the latest BIOS version available and that only supports up to 17.2. - (Edit: Never mind I figured this out.)

I still have a crashing problem with full 17.7 drivers 17.7 firmware and 17.2 drivers and 17.2 firmware.

I get the feeling this will likely just take time for Intel to release another driver version.

No, there isn’t such option.
Unless the BIOS manufacturer offers a BIOS update with the latest v17.5 series Intel RAID modules, you will have to update them yourself (e.g. by using the UBU tool) and to flash the modded BIOS by using an appropriate method.

@Fernando

Thank you for your time. Have a good rest of your day.

Are the drives on a single card, or two cards? If two, have you tried different slots? this may be something you need to give specifics to motherboard manufacturer and have them test some scenario with at least similar configuration and then maybe they can find the problem