Intermittent solid HD light at boot, unable to load windows

[TwistedMetalGear]

I have a Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD. Only two months old.

I've been having an intermittent problem at boot. Happens approximately once out of every 5 boots.

I will get to the Windows logo after POST, or simply a black screen, and then it will sit there for like 10 minutes with a solid HD light. If I wait long enough, I'm brought to a blue Recovery screen with the message:

"The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.

File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Error code: 0xc000000f"

The blue screen doesn't always display the same message. I also witnessed another one:

"A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed.

Error code: 0xc000000f"

With enough retries, I am able to boot up just fine. So what gives? Does this indicate a failing SSD? I just bought the damn thing.

Also of interest is that I recall my previous SSD (Sandisk) doing something similar. But that one's 2.5 years old and also started failing the SMART tests at POST. The Samsung does NOT fail the SMART tests.

Do I just have terrible luck with SSDs or what? Can it be a motherboard issue? Firmware issue? Or just a defective SSD?