HP Z4 G5 M.2 WHEA_UNRECOVERABLE_ERROR BSOD

[TomHolm]

Hi,
We have recently bought a few HP Z4 G5 workstations with [Personal Information Removed]

But we have experienced a new error that we never had before, and we had HP Z4 G4 workstations before.
We are using M.2 2280 WD Blue SN570 1TB (WDS100T3B0C) as our secondary harddrive, but when we try to initialize and format the harddrive in Windows 10 diskmanagement it does not work.
We are getting a Bluescreen with the error message "WHEA_UNRECOVERABLE_ERROR".

We have tried different BIOS settings regarding SATA Controller/RAID, and disabling things that could be a factor. But nothing seems to resolve the issue.
Maybe anyone has experienced an issue like this before?

[Z440Roger]

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@TomHolm wrote:

We have recently bought a few HP Z4 G5 workstations with HP setup number: 523U4EA#UUW

...but when we try to initialize and format the harddrive in Windows 10 diskmanagement it does not work.
We are getting a Bluescreen with the error message "WHEA_UNRECOVERABLE_ERROR".

We have tried different BIOS settings regarding SATA Controller/RAID, and disabling things that could be a factor.

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I assume that you mean WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR, correct?

I have the 523U4EA as well and that came preinstalled with Windows 11. How did you install Windows 10, where did you get it? Did you install any drivers such as the Chipset driver? (If no, install it.)

Q1: Can you initialize the M.2 disk in another machine? If yes, does it work as expected?

Q2: On the G4 Z5, have you tried to go in to the BIOS and set it to default to rule if you did any wrong settings?

Q3: Does it happen on all G5´s you have? (If yes, thats really odd)

Z4 G5, Win 10, Drivers: HP Z4 G5 Workstation Desktop PC Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Support

The error message points to a hardware error, so try in another machine with another new M.2 disk.

[TomHolm]

Hi @Z440Roger,

We are in the means of upgrading to Windows 11 soon, but we are still using Windows 10 in our deployments. 
I tried installing all the chipset drivers and storage drivers from HP Z4 G5 Drivers page, with no success.

Q1: I tried 2 different new Z4 G5 machines and just started them up with the Windows 11 OS that were pre-installed.
Same issue on both, when i try to initalize or format them, the workstation bluescreens with "WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR".

Q2: I have tried both factory defaults on all 3 machines. No difference. 
Also have the latest BIOS update (01.02.01).

Q3: Yes, happens on all 3 i've tried so far...

I have also tried one of the new M.2 WD BLUE SN570 that did not work and insterted it in a older HP Z4 G4 workstation that had M.2 2280 support.
It worked without any problems, both initialize and formatting the harddrive.
When i then attempted to take that M.2 drive that was formatted to a new HP Z4 G5, the drive was in RAW format. And the same issue happened when i tried to format it again.

The specs on that machine is:
HP Setup number:3MB69EA 
Processor: Intel Xeon W-2125 CPU

So i guess there could be some compatibility issue here?

[Z440Roger]

This is very odd. I have the Z4 G4 as well and have initialized M.2 disks in it that i later, when i got the G5, moved over to the G5 with no issues at all. I have not yet initialized a new M.2 in the G5.

I would have done two things before calling HP tech support. One of them is going to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced Options and then install any HP and Intel updates that is there. I don´t know if they are located at the same place in Win 10 since i use Win 11. Restart the computer and try to initialize the M.2 disk again. The second one is to simply buy a new M.2 disk of another brand than WD just to rule out that you got a bad batch. 

Yes, there could be a bad batch of G5´s as well but a M.2 stick is IMHO easier to manage than unpacking all machines one by one and test.

Last question, when you initialize the disk i assume that you use Disk Management in Windows.

[TomHolm]

Hi again,
Yes it is very odd indeed. The strange thing is that even if i initialize the m.2 disk in a Z4 G4 and format it and then transfer it over to the new Z4 G5, it is in RAW format. And when i try to format it again, it either just restarts or dump a bluescreen.
And the strange thing is that i can't see the drive after the restart, not even several restarts.
Only if i go into BIOS and then discard/save changes and boot it up again. Then i can see the drive in Disk Management again, but in RAW format still.

I had a spare Samsung PM981a ( MZVLB512HBJQ) 512GB M.2 disk from a ZBook Firefly and inserted in one of my new Z4 G5 workstations. It showed up without any problems and i could initialize it and format it like it should in Disk Management.

So i guess the new HP Z4 G5 does not like WD Blue SN570 M.2 drives?

[Z440Roger]

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@TomHolm wrote:

I had a spare Samsung PM981a ( MZVLB512HBJQ) 512GB M.2 disk from a ZBook Firefly and inserted in one of my new Z4 G5 workstations. It showed up without any problems and i could initialize it and format it like it should in Disk Management.

So i guess the new HP Z4 G5 does not like WD Blue SN570 M.2 drives?

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That sounds great! 🙂

So it seems to be an issue with some kind of incompability. I have never heard of anything like this, iow that Computer X does not simply work with M.2 disk Y. Guess i learned something new here.

I hope it works out for you now! 🙂

[DGroves]

I doubt it's a hardware issue

download stock ISO win 10 image from the Microsoft site (do not use a existing ISO dl a new one)

use a different USB key to create the win 10 installer

if this key will see the ssd and manually create/delete new partitions when prompted where to install win 10 your issue is a software issue, remove any existing partitions and then simply click next to allow the win 10 installer to auto create any required partitions, then do the Windows updates,

[Z440Roger]

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@DGroves wrote:

I doubt it's a hardware issue

download stock ISO win 10 image from the Microsoft site (do not use a existing ISO dl a new one)

use a different USB key to create the win 10 installer

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He unpacked two machines and did the standard HP-install when one first start the computer, in this case the preinstalled Windows 11 got installed. Same error on those machines as well. So a bad Win 10 install media can be ruled out.

[DGroves]

and you failed to understand my post.............................using the HP supplied MODIFIED windows image is most definitely not the same as using a stock MS Windows image go back and REREAD what i posted

[TomHolm]

That was not a friendly tone... but i tried your suggestion, and the same issue occurs with a STOCK Windows 10 image.
And when we are using our Win 10 deployment in our organization, we are building it from a stock image.

So no, your suggestion did not work. As we assumed.