[Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

burningendofthewick · 2026-07-30 19:19:28

i have an Inspiron 15 3511, with the LTS kernel.

what happens: seemingly randomly, the nvme controller will die (

nvme nvme0: controller is down; will reset: CSTS=0xffffff, PCI_STATUS=0x10

), and it will hit a bunch of Input/Output errors because the drive literally disconnects.

firmware is up to date. BIOS and everything. initially i suspected that this would be a power saving/suspend problem, because that is very common with [s2idle].

i don't think this is an nvme firmware bug. this happened with my last nvme too, and i had to change it in fear of eventual data loss. this is (albeit a cheaper, and obscure) a new nvme, and within a handful of months, this problem has started here too.

PS: initially i had the Zen kernel, so i switched to LTS. i also have these boot options:

nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=0 pcie_aspm=off intel_idle.max_cstate=1 pcie_port_pm=off

it resolves after a hard reset, but appears again.

seth · 2026-07-30 19:24:51

The options show up in "cat /proc/cmdline" ?
Do you dual boot (windows)?

burningendofthewick · 2026-07-30 19:27:45

no i don't dual boot. there's an hdd too, but it's empty. i use the entirety of this nvme for arch. this laptop did come pre-installed with windows.

cmdline:

initrd=\intel-ucode.img initrd=\initramfs-linux-lts.img root=<..> zswap.enabled=0 rw rootfstype=ext4 quiet nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=0 pcie_aspm=off intel_idle.max_cstate=1 pcie_port_pm=off no_console_suspend pstore ignore_loglevel sysrq_always_enabled=1

seth · 2026-07-30 19:40:27

'key - do you have a complete journal for a boot where the nvme dropped out (to see whether there's some suspicious context/build up)?

happened with my last nvme too … new nvme, and within a handful of months, this problem has started here too

Does it help to re-seat the nvme?
Is it secured w/ a screw?

burningendofthewick · 2026-07-30 20:04:23

that "controller is down" message is the first thing that popped up. i just keep:

dmesg -wH

running and that's the first thing i see. the problem is when this happens there's also a bunch of "failed to rotate" journal messages. at the same time, windows will start disappearing, and i can't switch to a TTY either DESPITE the no_console_suspend; i just see a blinking cursor.

so, journal can't be flushed anyway, since i see -19 error code too (ENODEV), meaning the nvme quite literally disconnects.

i have tried removing and re-inserting the nvme. yes, it is secured with a screw.

seth · 2026-07-30 20:14:45

Make sure the screw isn't too tight - the nvme might heat up, expand, get under tension and leverage itself away from the contacts (assuming there isn't a more prominent pattern like "whenever the system wakes up/i unplug the charger/…")

Since you're losing the root device everything that's not in cache will be lost, but you could maybe "sudo journalctl -f > /mnt/sda1/journal.txt"

burningendofthewick · 2026-07-30 20:20:21

there isn't a prominent pattern... it is completely random. it may happen when it's plugged in or not.
i'll try writing to sda actually. hoping the kernel isn't dead when this happens...

i'm also trying to avoid approaching a dell store for this because they don't really seem helpful with non-windows customers, and they might just tell me to get a new motherboard or bill me the big bucks

seth · 2026-07-30 20:37:03

Can you get the nvme to disappear when booting some life distro?

burningendofthewick · 2026-08-01 20:08:11

i will try that. i also tried writing the journal to the hdd, and even there, there is seemingly no indication to the failure. it happened randomly WHILE using it in an active state. it worked fine for a day and here we are.

could this be a bug?

seth · 2026-08-01 20:26:25

If the errors happen very fast and unless you maybe sync-mount vfat, the permanent storage will not be written until the FS gets sync'd or umounted - what doesn't happen because you're losing the root FS.

could this be a bug?

this happened with my last nvme too, and i had to change it in fear of eventual data loss. this is (albeit a cheaper, and obscure) a new nvme, and within a handful of months, this problem has started here too

So there was a bug when you had the old disk, then it disappeared for a while after replacing the disk, then it was re-introduced?

initially i had the Zen kernel, so i switched to LTS

And it affects multiple kernels…

"could" - sure. Likely?

Did you re-install or migrate the old installation?
Assuming the former, did you recently re-add some tool (power management related or else) that you used to have but initially skipped w/ the re-installation?

burningendofthewick · 2026-08-01 20:32:04

So there was a bug when you had the old disk, then it disappeared for a while after replacing the disk, then it was re-introduced?

yes. on the old disk the bug appeared randomly too. then the fails happened too frequently to ignore, and i switched to a new one

Did you re-install or migrate the old installation?
Assuming the former, did you recently re-add some tool (power management related or else) that you used to have but initially skipped w/ the re-installation?

i deliberately did a fresh install with i3wm to avoid putting on tools that could cause this, but to properly point this out is very hard.

as far as power-management related tools go, i used the gnome power-profiles-daemon thing, and on the fresh installed switched to tuned. but i have always used the balanced profile on both

Last edited by burningendofthewick (2026-08-01 20:33:57)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-07-30 19:19:28

[Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#2 2026-07-30 19:24:51

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#3 2026-07-30 19:27:45

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#4 2026-07-30 19:40:27

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#5 2026-07-30 20:04:23

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#6 2026-07-30 20:14:45

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#7 2026-07-30 20:20:21

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#8 2026-07-30 20:37:03

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#9 2026-08-01 20:08:11

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#10 2026-08-01 20:26:25

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

#11 2026-08-01 20:32:04

Re: [Inspiron 15, LTS] NVME randomly disappears

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