Certain Western Digital SSDs have been crashing Windows 11 24H2, the new system update for Windows. To fix this issue, the company is now rolling out a patch and encouraging people to update their SSD firmware.
The memory allocation system in some storage drives is causing the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) error on the 24H2 version of Windows 11. More specifically, the Host Memory Buffer (HMB) allocation is throwing the error. HMB allows these drives to use the system’s RAM for faster speeds. However, some miscommunication between the updated Windows and the SSD firmware in how this RAM is allocated is triggering BSOD errors.
The affected models include four 2TB Western Digital NVMe drives and one 2TB SanDisk Extreme NVMe SSD (Western Digital owns SanDisk):
- SanDisk Extreme M.2 NVMe SSD 2TB
- WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD 2TB
- WD_BLACK SN770M NVMe SSD 2TB
- WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD 2TB
- WD Blue SN5000 NVMe SSD 2TB
Until now, the only workaround has been disabling HMB within Windows. This patch should fix it entirely without further tinkering required. To install the patch, you’ll need the Western Digital Dashboard tool (available via offline and online installers). Once you’ve installed and launched the tool, you should see a “Firmware Update Available” button on the dashboard. Then it’s just a matter of clicking “Update Firmware” and waiting for the computer to restart.
Before you proceed with the update, be sure to back up everything important on the drive. If something goes wrong during the update, you might lose your data.
Even if your computer isn’t throwing blue screen errors, or if you’re not on the new Windows 11 24H2, Western Digital is suggesting you update the drive firmware. “Microsoft may prevent systems with affected models from upgrading to Windows 11 24H2 until the firmware is updated,” the SanDisk support page warns.
Source: SanDisk Support
