My computer was really running out of storage, so I thought about adding a drive. Luckily, the computer had a spare M.2 slot and a SATA slot, so I decisively bought a 1TB ZhiTai TiPlus5000 using JD.com's credit service.
I installed it directly into the computer as soon as it arrived, and then encountered this model's inherent issue—getting stuck on the boot logo.
Actually, this problem first appeared when I upgraded to Windows11, but at that time, I solved it by swapping the original hard drive to a different slot (which is also the most common answer online). But as expected, that wasn't a permanent fix.
Helplessly, I tried all sorts of tinkering, checked the BIOS, and everything. The hard drives were all being detected. How annoying.
Six hours later (I was getting desperate), I found someone suggesting it might be an Intel issue. Sure enough, it was.
Intel introduced some VMD technology at some point. This computer didn't have it enabled from the factory (I think so, because I hadn't really touched the BIOS settings, and it was off when I found the setting), which caused a bunch of problems. I didn't see any online posts mentioning this.
Moreover, enabling the VMD setting required reinstalling the OS, which was a good excuse to clean up the computer.
If you don't reinstall the OS...
Hello, Blue Screen. Repairing the bootloader won't fix it.
Now I don't know whether to blame the second-tier manufacturer or Intel for being annoying.
By the way, here's the current hard drive situation in my computer. That mechanical drive is about to die.
The one that came with the computer
The mechanical drive about to explode
The newly installed ZhiTai
In summary, the computer quality from this assembler brand, MACHENIKE, is pretty good. It's just that tinkering with it can be a headache.