Western Digitalfinally solved theBSOD problemwith its HMB-equipped SSD lineup. The affected users have been urged to update their SSD firmware immediately, straight from the horse’s mouth.
Many reports sprung up on the Western Digital community forums about continuous BSODs on updating to the latestWindows 1124H2 update. The culprit was a misconfigured HMB (Host Memory Buffer) allocation, which was fixable through a minor registry edit. However, since onlyWDand SanDisk NVMes were the affectees, it appears that there was an underlying problem in the firmware on some models, which are as follows:
If your SSD is on the aforementioned list, then the resolution is that you must update your firmware, which may result in a complete data loss. The process is simple and can be done in just a few minutes. We should also inform users that systems with affected models might be unable to update to the latest version of Windows 11 until the SSD firmware is updated.
How to Update the Firmware on Affected Western Digital / SanDisk SSDs
It is pertinent to mention that the registry fix is still applicable. However, that appears to be a stopgap solution rather than a permanent fix. Admittedly, a large disclaimer stating the risk of losing your data is a jagged pill to swallow. However, this is not a first occurrence, asSamsungusers were required to download a new firmware ASAP just last year, or their SSDs were on a certain track to failure, literally.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
