External M.2 NVME leads to disconnects, crashes

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jermudgeon1 Author

Level 1

8 points

External M.2 NVME leads to disconnects, crashes

I render 4K video. Recently I bought an external T3 enclosure for use with FCPX and Big Sur:

Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 Certified M.2 NVMe SSD Tool-Free Solid Aluminum Enclosure (EC-T3NS)

and M.2 NVME drive:

ADATA Swordfish 2TB 3D NAND PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Read/Write up to 1800/1200MB/s Internal SSD (ASWORDFISH-2T-C)

Under "normal" use, reading and writing to the drive appears to have no issues. In fact, I was able to install Mac OS (Big Sur) and use it successfully as a boot drive.

After a time, however, I noticed hangs and crashes — with error messages indicating PCI disconnect errors, where essentially the system would lose contact with the drive. This was noticeably prominent when rendering video in FCPX.

I was able to replicate this behavior by a) booting off a different drive and b) launching FCPX and rendering a project stored on the drive. After a minute or two, the drive vanishes from the Desktop.

I also replicated this behavior on a second iMac with the same drive.

Bench testing, booting, and operating normally off the drive does not appear to cause trouble. Does anyone else have experience with this model of enclosure, drive, or the stability of M.2 T3 drives in general? I need to isolate it down to a specific component — is it the enclosure, or is it the drive, or some other factor? A Big Sur bug, perhaps?

Thanks for any help.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Feb 23, 2021 5:45 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ctrip

Level 1

12 points

Apr 2, 2021 2:34 PM in response to jermudgeon1

I had the exact same issue and I thought it was the drive, the cable, the software etc. None of these.

It's much more simple: go to settings in macos, battery, and disable "put hard disks to sleep when possible" for the power adapter (and also for battery if you render with the AC unplugged). Your mac was putting the ssd to sleep while rendering, thus the temporary disconnects.

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Answer 2

Jeff Donald

Level 7

25,599 points

Feb 23, 2021 9:04 PM in response to jermudgeon1

In my past experience troubleshooting similar TB3 issues, the cable has always been the culprit. I would get a high quality cable from OWC and see if that solves the issue. If issue not resolved, OWC has a fair return policy.

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Answer 3

Jeff Donald

Level 7

25,599 points

Feb 24, 2021 10:51 AM in response to jermudgeon1

If you’re sure the cable is good, the next thing to do is stress test the drive. Running a large stresstest like 5GB or larger for an hour or so would simulate an intensive editing session.

My next suspects in order would be the Adata ram and then the enclosure. For maximum reliability have had the best luck with Samsung NvMe then the WD units. We use the RAM in a 4 unit OWC RAID enclosure for maximum speed.

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Answer 4

tbirdvet

Level 6

14,489 points

Feb 24, 2021 4:50 PM in response to jermudgeon1

Unless you have a software issue with FCPX for some reason not sure what the issue is. I use WD Blue and Black NVME drives in Trebleet TB enclosures and no issues but I do not use FCPX. I do see many users have various issues with TB enclosures and certain NVME drives with the Mac so the system appears very sensitive to different hardware.

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Answer 5

jermudgeon1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 24, 2021 10:16 AM in response to Jeff Donald

Thanks Jeff. I have tested with known-good cables. And it doesn't explain why any other type of reading and writing to the drive does not produce this behavior.

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Answer 6

tbirdvet

Level 6

14,489 points

Apr 2, 2021 4:12 PM in response to ctrip

No impact

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External M.2 NVME leads to disconnects, crashes

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