Problem running Windows and Linux SSDs in dula-boot system

Has anyone experienced anything like this and can advise? I hope I've explained the problem clearly. I'm building a budget PC just to experiment with (hardware list below). The motherboard has 2 x PCIe M.2 SSD slots which I want to populate as follows:-

Samsung V-Nand 950 Pro (PCIe) with Windows 11 Pro 22H2 Primary Boot Device
Samsung V-Nand 860 EVO (SATA) with Linux Fedora 38 Secondary Boot Device

With either SSD installed on its own (in either slot), everything works fine but when both SSDs are installed and I boot Windows, the monitor blacks out for a few seconds and then come back on. It usually stabilises after doing this 6 or 7 times but sometimes, even after the desktop is fully loaded, it will black out when I launch a browser (Firefox, Edge). There's no issue with Linux with or without the Windows SSD installed.

On the chance that the Windows SSD might be faulty, I swapped it with another identical one on my main desktop PC but this made no difference. I'm wondering if this could be something to do with mixing SATA and PCIe SSDs?

Thanks for reading.
Trevor

MSI MAG B660M Mortar Max Wi-Fi DDR4
16GB RAM
Intel Core i3-12100 CPU
Dell 2K monitor using the on-board HDMI interface (Intel UHD Graphics 730).

This is not an answer to your specific question, but since I haven't seen it answered yet, here's a thought:

If you were to migrate your Linux install to a 2.5" SATA SSD instead of a PCIe, perhaps you could use a SATA power switch to disconnect the Linux SSD for Windows, and the Windows drive would never see it. Since the Linux install isn't bothered by Windows, you should be able to run them both successfully by switching the Linux SSD's power on or off as desired. My previous desktop PC build had three SATA SSD boot drives, each with a different OS; any of the three could be selected when the PC was shut down, and run without interfering with the other OSs.

www.ccleaner.com/knowledge/how-to-dual-boot-operating-systems

Did you do both installs with both drives in the computer? I believe you need a single boot manager that is aware there are two OS installs.

This is not an answer to your specific question, but since I haven't seen it answered yet, here's a thought:

If you were to migrate your Linux install to a 2.5" SATA SSD instead of a PCIe, perhaps you could use a SATA power switch to disconnect the Linux SSD for Windows, and the Windows drive would never see it. Since the Linux install isn't bothered by Windows, you should be able to run them both successfully by switching the Linux SSD's power on or off as desired. My previous desktop PC build had three SATA SSD boot drives, each with a different OS; any of the three could be selected when the PC was shut down, and run without interfering with the other OSs.
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Thanks, Austinian for the helpful reply.
I did have both OS running on two external SATA SSD's without any issues (perhaps I should have mentioned that). This was why I wondered if the issue had to do with mixing PCI and SATA channels. My aim was to keep the build as small as possible by making use of the onboard M.2 slots.

Thanks you for the reply, fredk

Yes, both SSD's installed. I installed Windows first, then Linux. The Windows Boot Manager and Linux both showed up when I pressed the BIOS boot selection key (F11 in my case) if that's what you mean.

The next thing I want to try is installing Linux on a separate partition on C: drive to see how that behaves. Doing this with Ubuntu is a piece of cake but Fedora (my preferred version) is a little less friendly but it's all a good learning experience.

Honestly, this smells like a hardware issue. Windows and Linux do not disturb each other at all while they're running. No need to disconnect the other hard drive, either.

Perhaps there's an issue with you computer's power supply or mother board?

That occurred to me too but I hope not. It's a brand new board and CPU although the SSDs are quite old. I'll keep trying to isolate the exact conditions under which it happens.
Thanks

I'm using Win 11 but will make sure to check that.
Thanks

Brand new means "untested". I'd be less suspicious if the hardware had been running flawlessly for years already. (Although I've seen that happen, too)

That is the way most dual boot systems work. Windows first then Linux as Linux installers seem to cope with this and install a boot manager. IIRC Linux first then Windows overwrites the BM with the Windows one.

I have a dual boot Ubuntu/Win10 system, the OS on different partitions on the same drive. You do have to be careful with dual boot systems because Windows really does want to own the system and disrupt Linux. Mine uses the grub bootloader and Windows enjoys killing that.

There's a "hack", if you will, to improve the bootloader issue, if you have two separate hard drives:

1. Install Windows on the first hard drive
2. Switch the BIOS to boot from the second hard drive
3. Install Linux on the second hard drive, and put the boot loader on the second drive

Now your computer has two hard drives, each with their own bootloader! By default, you boot from the second drive, where grub which will auto-detect the Windows drive and offer you to boot from that in addition to the linux drive. Alternatively, you can use the BIOS boot-selector to boot from the Windows drive. The Windows bootloader, however, is entirely pristine, and Windows is free to do whatever it wants to its own bootloader. Windows updates won't kill your grub. And, secondarily, you can take out either hard drive without compromising the operating system installed thereon.

The short answer: this is the optimal solution (the power switch).

I use 3 operating systems, respectively Linux and 2 more Windows operating systems (each on separate SSD/HDD, separated with a power switch). Linux has no problems with Windows 7, for example, but starting with Windows 10, Windows tries to take control as a priority OS regardless of which operating system is set to open at boot, which creates unexpected problems.

Thanks , bastibe (and everyone else who responded on this)

You might have been right about the power supply. I was using a 450W Silverstone ST45SF-G (I like the SFX form factor) which had worked perfectly on a couple of earlier builds. Either it's faulty in some way or 450w is simply insufficient power (though I'd have thought it was enough for just the board, CPU, 2 x SSDs and RAM with no other addons). I'd welcome your thoughts on that, however. There's always the possibility that I'm still missing something.

Anyway, I substituted it with a spare Cooler Master 650W PSU and the problem seems to have disappeared. It makes no difference which OS or which SSD is installed in which slot or the boot order etc. There's no more display blanking during boot or when apps are launched.

Once again, many thanks to you and everyone else for the advice.

Great job figuring this out! I've actually seen similar behavior with faulty power supplies. These issues are super hard to diagnose, often very unspecific. It may actually be that the power supply is not defective per se, but merely has some incompatibility with your mainboard.

In fact, mainboard manufacturers usually publish lists of tested compatible hardware (search for a "QVL list"), especially memory and CPUs. It pays to only use these particular parts, even though it makes system building much more tedious, and even though other parts usually won't give you any trouble.

Thanks, but I can't claim any credit for "figuring it out". Just substituting one component after another until the problem goes away is about my limit. Rather like "spray and pray" as we sometimes say in photography. I assumed the PSU was OK and might not have thought to check it if you hadn't mentioned it so again, thanks for that. Admittedly, I've usually assumed component compatibility could be more or less taken for granted and never once thought to check QVL lists. I will do so in future. It's the way with incorrect assumptions - they have a habit of coming back to bite you in the arse!. As Sherlock Holmes said to Watson, "Never assume anything, my good fellow!"

I assumed this PSU was OK since it had worked with other motherboards with no issues and even after all this it could still be something else. Cables for example. I like to make my own custom cables and have the wiring and pinout diagrams for every PSU I own plus supplies of crimps, coloured wire and sockets. It's just possible that there's a problem with the one I made for this PSU so I'm now trying the ones that came in the box. These are too short for my liking which is why I made a custom one. Maybe there's a high resistance connection somewhere. Anyway, I'm testing the PSU and box cables now. If the issue doesn't show up, I'll try my custom ones again.

Excuse the ramble. One of the curses of old age!