Alienware 17 R3 won't boot after installing Corsair MP400 as an extra drive (Preparing Automatic Repair)

I have an Alienware 17 R3.  I recently installed a new 4TB SSD (SATA), so I have reinstalled Windows 10 and installed all OS updates.  I also bought two MP400 4TB M.2 SSD drives as extra storage.  However, when these extra M.2 drives are installed, my laptop will not boot. 

I get a message stating "Preparing Automatic Repair", then the laptop reboots itself after 5 seconds or so.  This cycle will repeat again and again...  I also updated the BIOS firmware on my laptop to v1.13.1, which is the latest available, but the problem persists.  I updated the SATA controller firmware as well to v16.8.3.1003.

While troubleshooting, I decided to connect both drives to an external M.2 drive bay (USB 3.1) and both drives work correctly.  I was able to format them and create an NTFS filesystem with no problems at all.

I'm thinking it's a firmware or software issue, but I'm not sure what else requires an update.  It's curious that the drives work fine when connected externally, but not using the internal M.2 sockets.