Surface 8 Pro - new SSD - compatibility with PCIe 4

My install experience (without the following fix) is that after the installer copied the Windows files and rebooted, the machine will reboot unexpectedly shortly after (or during) the OOBE setup wizard.

I came up with a way to install Windows using the normal installer and avoid reboots during the installation process, this is done by modifying registry settings to apply the necessary changes before windows has finished the installation. Here's how:

1. After Windows installer finishes copying files and initiating a reboot (the stage just before OOBE experience) do not let it boot from the hard drive to finish the installation. Instead of continuing the installation normally, boot again from the installation medium (long press volume up and power button to reach UEFI settings and change boot priority to installation USB)
2. Once the setup window appears again, press Shift+F10 to enter command prompt.
3. On command prompt use DISKPART to mount the partition where the Windows is to be installed (note the partition is already populated with Windows files and was created during the first stage of the install). For me, the partition is on disk0 partition3. In this example I'll mount the disk as drive letter T: using the following command sequence:
   1. select disk 0
   2. select part 3
   3. assign letter=T
   4. exit
4. Now load the registry hive from the offline Windows install using reg load HKLM\OFFLINE T:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM
5. using the command prompt window, launch regedit **** to modify registry settings to set AHCI Link Power Management - HIPM/DIPM to Active by default as follows:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\OFFLINE\ControlSet001\Control\Power\PowerSettings\0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442\0b2d69d7-a2a1-449c-9680-f91c70521c60] 

"Attributes"=dword:00000002 

[HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\OFFLINE\ControlSet001\Control\Power\PowerSettings\0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442\0b2d69d7-a2a1-449c-9680-f91c70521c60\DefaultPowerSchemeValues\381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e] 

"ACSettingIndex"=dword:00000000 

"DCSettingIndex"=dword:00000000 

[HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\OFFLINE\ControlSet001\Control\Power\User\PowerSchemes\381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e\0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442\0b2d69d7-a2a1-449c-9680-f91c70521c60] 

"DCSettingIndex"=dword:00000000 

"ACSettingIndex"=dword:00000000

6. In my experience, setting PCI Express Link State Power Management to Off is also required: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\OFFLINE\ControlSet001\Control\Power\PowerSettings\501a4d13-42af-4429-9fd1-a8218c268e20\ee12f906-d277-404b-b6da-e5fa1a576df5\DefaultPowerSchemeValues\381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e] "ACSettingIndex"=dword:00000000 "DCSettingIndex"=dword:00000000 "ProvAcSettingIndex"=dword:00000000 "ProvDcSettingIndex"=dword:00000000
7. close the registry editor window and unload the offline hive using the command reg unload HKLM\OFFLINE
8. Reboot and continue the installation from the hard disk as usual.

Since I am lazy, I scripted this process, so I will not have to type much manually. The patch is made of 4 files. The way I run it is after the first stage of the Windows installation, I'll boot again from the USB drive to the setup window, then launch command prompt, cd to the directory of the patch and run the batch file. Feel free to take a look at neta540/sn740_sp8_win11_install_patch (github.com) for details. I hope this helps some of you folks!

Finally, I found how to solve the problem with the trick posted by Getter Robot in the 31th december 2022:

1. Enable "Link State Power Management" option in Power Options.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/100629-remove-link-state-power-management-power-options-windows-10-a.html

2. Choose "Off" for "Link State Power Management".
3. Reboot.

And now everythings are ok with the WD SN740 1Tb.

This is what finally did it for me. WD SN770M 1Tb SSD. Windows 11. Edit Power Plan > Advanced Settings > PCI Express > Link State Power Management > Off for both battery and plugged in. Thank you!

Fine !

There's something strange with the power delivery of the nvme port on this SP8.

Because we are lots of users with same hardware and sometimes works fine, sometimes doesn't work.

The only similar thing is that Microsoft doesn't care of us 🤯

with your great effort, my sp8+SN740 now works stable and super fast.

( but I still spent like couple days to figure out what those setting mean to be.... haha)

Thanks for your technical details and for creating such an useful script.

I have few doubts if you allow me:

• Which are the side effects of the changes done to energy settings?
• in your case, the SN740 drive was 1TB or 2TB?
• Have you received input from people following your instructions? Has it always worked, any limitation/problem?

Thanks for your time and feedback.

Kind regards.

PS: Now my problem is finding where to buy (from Spain) a legit 2TB SSD... but that's another story.