Some Western Digital SSDs, which use the NVMe Host Memory Buffer (HMB) function instead of their own DRAM cache, crashed with the latest Windows update (24H2). The manufacturer has now released firmware updates that should fix the problem.

Firmware updates against BSOD

The release notes for the firmware update state:

Addresses an issue with the HMB (Host Memory Buffer) for certain models of Western Digital and SanDisk SSDs, where the drive may cause a BSOD on Windows 11 24H2.

This addresses the problem that led to blue screen errors after the update to Windows 11 24H2. The manufacturer confirms that the cause is a problem with the allocation of a small part of the RAM as a host memory buffer. NVMe SSDs without DRAM use this to store part of the mapping table.

Problems with 200 MB host memory buffer

Users had drawn attention to the error in the Western Digital forum. There it was reported that SSDs such as the WD_Black SN770 actually request 200 MB as HMB. Under Windows 11 23H2, the operating system only provided 64 MB, which happened without any problems. Since Windows 11 24H2, however, providing the full 200 MB has led to the aforementioned crashes. A workaround that no longer allocated any RAM as HMB had temporarily provided a solution, but also resulted in a loss of performance.

The problem is now said to have been resolved with the firmware versions listed below. Apparently only models with 2 TB storage capacity are affected.

The following models are affected. Users can find more details here.

• WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD 2TB
• WD_BLACK SN770M NVMe SSD 2TB
• WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD 2TB
• WD Blue SN5000 NVMe SSD 2TB
• SanDisk Extreme M.2 NVMe SSD 2TB

Western Digital strongly recommends installing the updates. The manufacturer also points out that Microsoft could now prevent affected systems without the new firmware from updating to Windows 11 24H2.

Software update available for Windows

The Western Digital Dashboard tool is required to install the new firmware, but it is only available for Windows and not for Linux or macOS. Since the error affects Windows systems, this is not a problem at least at this point.