[Windows] Expansion Card Disconnecting

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I have configured my new Framework 16, AI300 in the following way:

  • GRUB Bootloader located on an internal M.2 drive
  • Linux installed to a 250GB Expansion Card
  • Windows 11 installed to a second 250GB Expansion card (Done following one of the guides on this forum)

Everything appears to be configured correctly for this setup, I can boot into Linux or Windows as required, however, several minutes after booting into windows I receive a stop code with an “Inaccessible Boot Device” error and the laptop reboots. The laptop then doesn’t recognize the card until it is un/re-plugged.

When booted into Linux I have left the laptop running for 24 hrs and not experienced a similar symptom.

My thought is that Windows is aggressively throttling power to the USB for the expansion card it is installed to, however I have tried the following steps to no effect:

  • Unticked “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” on every USB entry in Device Manager
  • Set Drive policy to “Better Performance” for the Expansion Drives
  • Disabled PCI Express Link State Power Management
  • Attempted to disable USB selective suspend through PowerShell, as there are no USB options under Power Management
  • Updated the laptop firmware

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

2

This is a known problem for Framework laptops, the 13, 16, and presumably the 12 as well. Any USB device attached to the Framework whether it be a USB-C device like an expansion card, or a USB-A device, will disconnect if many files are accessed and read at one time. I consistently experienced this problem when I attempted to launch a portible copy of NVDA, the screen reader I use, which tried to access thousands of files in order to run it and the add-ons I have installed.

I think this issue occurs on Linux as well, but I’m uncertain. I do know that Linux can generally manage file systems a bit better with IO in some cases, and depending on your setup, Linux may not try and access a lot of files at once via reading or writing. Windows will likely encounter this issue more often.

As for why the expansion card running Windows needs to be disconnected and then reconnected to work properly after it disconnects, I’m uncertain about that one. If it wasn’t for this issue, I would run Windows on an expansion card as well, as it would be nice to have my operating system on removeable media rather than built-in storage.