Helios 300 BIOS freeze with second SSD in AHCI mode PH315-52

berin

Hello, I have a Predator Helios 300 PH315-52, which came with a 256GB SSD and a 2TB HDD. I'm dual booting windows and linux (manjaro) on the SSD, and to do that, I had to disable secure boot and change SATA Mode to AHCI in BIOS settings, and every thing works fine.

However, quickly 256GB became to little for both OS, and I decided to buy a second SSD. I bought a 512GB m2 NVMe SSD (XPG SX8100), and want to install Linux on the new SSD, and keep windows on the original SSD.

My plan was just to do a fresh linux install on the new SSD, and keep my original dual boot on the other SSD for the time being (therefore having 3 OS installed).

However, when I connect the new SSD to the motherboard, the computer will no longer boot. And the main problem, it freezes on the predator logo and I can't event enter the BIOS menu anymore (so it doesn't seem to be a boot order problem, as I can't even access the BIOS).

If I remove the new SSD, all works fine again. So I thought I might have a bad SSD, but if I reset BIOS settings to default (therefore re enabling secure boot and RST premium with Optane), then I can successfully connect and use the new SSD in Windows 10. With the BIOS settings back to default and the new SSD connected, I can access and change BIOS menu normally, Windows boots automatically and the new SSD is recognized and usable as storage.

The problem only occurs when I disable secure boot and change SATA Mode to AHCI, and both are settings I need to properly install Linux.

I have already updated the BIOS to version 1.12, I have tried to switch the original SSD to the empty slot, and put the new one on its place, and no difference. I have also tried disconnecting the original SSD and using only the new one to acces the BIOS and still didn't work.

Any solutions?

berin

Apparently the BIOS doesn't actually freeze. If I wait long enough it eventually boots, but takes over 30 minutes on the predator logo