Windows 10 April Update Blocked On Small Number of Intel SSDs Due To Issues

We just learned that Microsoft is blocking some Intel SSDs from installing the April 2018 Update after discovering an incompatibility issue that causes performance and stability issues. In short, the problem was explained by Microsoft as: “When attempting to upgrade to Window 10 April 2018 Update select devices with certain Intel SSDs may enter a UEFI screen reboot or crash repeatedly.” Microsoft says that this issue has no workaround and that those that have attempted to update Windows 10 to the Windows 10 April 2018 Update should revert back to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version 1709. You can roll back to Windows 10 version 1709 by hitting F8 during the boot process and restoring the previous version of the operating system. Microsoft and Intel are likely working together on a fix. Once that fix has been found and made available, Microsoft will likely unblock the April 2018 update for those users.

Unfortunately, the announcement by Microsoft fails to list what specific Intel SSD models are having issues with the OS update. We contacted Intel and discovered that the Intel SSD 600p Series of client drives that was first introduced to the market in 2016 is the most popular drive that is having issues. This was Intel’s first PCIe NVMe SSD drive to use TLC NAND Flash and was also one of the most affordable NVMe drives at the time. The Intel SSD 600p SSD uses the SMI SM2260 controller with custom Intel firmware, so hopefully Intel can release a firmware update to ‘fix’ the known issues on their first entry-level NVMe SSD or something along those lines. The Intel SSD PRO 6000p Series is also having issues, but isn’t as widely used in the enthusiast or DIY PC community.

We’ve installed the Microsoft Windows 10 April 2018 Update on systems with the Intel Optane 900P series, Intel 730 series and Intel 750 series drives and found that none were impacted.