M3800 no boot device screen

Good Morning!

I have a [Precision] M3800 maxed out. 16gb Ram, 4712 processor, 2gb ddr5 v card, QHD display, and most importantly, 512gb mSata Samsung SSD. I’ve had the machine since new (June ‘14) and this isn’t a new problem- but a persisting issue. I’ve tried replacing the motherboard to no avail.

The computer randomly crashes itself (usually a blue screen that wants to record some stuff before restarting) and then tries to reboot. Upon reboot it gives the ole black screen, “No Boot Device- press F1 to retry etc etc” and bios won’t see the SSD. However, I do a hard reboot (hold power button) and it starts and goes perfectly. Typically this happens with something heavier, like rendering 4K 60fps video on Davinci Resolve. But this time- I’ve been trying to update my iPhone to iOS 12 and during the backup- new the end- it happens every time (tried 6 times now- all die around 80 on the backup progress bar).

Anyone have ideas? Thanks!

 

What are your temperatures like? Have you tried running memory/hard drive tests? What other troubleshooting steps have you done aside from replacing the motherboard?

 

If you've replaced the motherboard already, I'm a little bit worried about the SSD. Usually you don't have to worry abotu these, but having it not show up at boot time immediately after the failure makes me think that there might be something flaky about it. Check for a firmware update for the SSD (install Samsung Magician and it can handle this). Consider swapping it out and see if things improve.
(At least latest model Samsung mSATA drive is just $100 at this point. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07822P8JY)

If you're getting blue screens, they might yield hints. Download BlueScreenView, select the most recent dump, take a screen shot, and post it here.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

 

hmm.

So temps are typically in the 150s-160s but I’ll look again today.

If I remember correctly, I think my last blue screen last night was a Windows Stop. I’ll check and run today.

I, likewise, and a little hesitant about the drive- I’ll try magician but I think the drive is a tad old for it. Machine runs like a champ otherwise and CAD is effortless but then memory intensive things cause a mess like the backups.

 

Graphics card running at 46 C

 

Having trouble getting a screenshot up-

anyway- Samsung SSD SM841N mSata 512 SSD

Attribute name Real value Current Worst Threshold Raw Value Status
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 0 100 100 10 0000000000 Good
0C Device Power Cycle Count 5,481 94 94 0 0000001569 Good
AF Program Fail Count 0 100 100 10 0000000000 Good
B0 Erase Fail Count (Chip) 0 100 100 10 0000000000 Good
B1 Wear Leveling Count 295 91 91 5 0000000127 Good
B2 Used Reserved Block Count (Chip) 0 100 100 10 0000000000 Good
B3 Used Reserved Block Count (Total) 0 100 100 10 0000000000 Good
B4 Unused Reserved Block Count (Total) 18,304 100 100 10 0000004780 Good
B5 Program Fail Count (Total) 0 100 100 10 0000000000 Good
B6 Erase Fail Count (Total) 0 100 100 10 0000000000 Good
BB Uncorrectable Error Count 0 100 100 0 0000000000 Good
C3 ECC Rate 0 200 200 0 0000000000 Good
F1 Total LBAs Written 37,036,259,929 99 99 0 009F887A59 Good
F2 Total LBAs Read 44,200,612,316 99 99 0 004A8FD1DC Good

Sorry the formatting sucks there.

Ideas on tests-
bios diagnostics turns up nothing. Dell diagnostics is always useless. my defragglers and such haven't turned up anything. I was going to go into bios and check the drive hibernation cycle.

 

Also- I noticed the drive is running ADCP and it's oem says in diagnostics it was a ATA operation type drive. Could this cause issues?