NVME M.2 not being detected at all

[Warfather]

I have just bought an M.2 NVME to upgrade my system off Amazon but nothing I can do seems to get it to detect. Before I RMA it, I just wanted to check I aren't being stupid and forgot to do something. This is my first M.2 drive and its a strong possibility I messed up.

 

So basically my motherboard is an MSI B450M Pro VDH MAX, I have checked the manual and it doesn't really give any information aside from how to install it, which I have already done. The M.2 in question is an ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB. The only information I have found relating to it at all on MSI's support is that the SX8200 (non pro) is supported, the pro version isn't listed at all currently.

 

Here's what I have tried so far:

I reseated the drive.

I checked to see if windows 10 or windows 10 installer is seeing it, neither do.

I changed the BIOS settings from CSM to UEFI and checked all the above again.

I changed one of the options on PCI settings from Auto to 4x4x4x4x because it mentioned something about NVME on that option then tried all the above again.

I set optimised defaults just in case and tried that.

Updated BIOS to the latest version on the MSI page to 7A38vB4 and checked all the above again.

 

None of these options are getting any results at all in either windows 10, windows installer or bios. Is it likely just a dead drive or have I missed something?

With the quarantine situation in the UK right now its going to be a real pain in the butt getting a replacement from Amazon.

[Jimkirk363]

When u say that the drive isnt being detected do u mean in windows?

 

Is it being detected under the list of drives in Bios?

[Grabhanem]

Do you have any SATA drives in the system? On some boards installing an NVMe drive disables some of the SATA ports and vice versa.

[Warfather]

7 hours ago, jimkirk363 said:

When u say that the drive isnt being detected do u mean in windows?

 

Is it being detected under the list of drives in Bios?

 

Neither. In BIOS it actually specifically says M.2 slot = Empty. In Windows 10, its not showing up in Windows installer or Windows partition manager.

7 hours ago, Grabhanem said:

Do you have any SATA drives in the system? On some boards installing an NVMe drive disables some of the SATA ports and vice versa.

I have two SATA drives installed, one SSD and one standard HDD. Both of those are still visible in BIOS and Windows 10. The motherboard comes with 4 SATA ports and these two drives are plugged into 1 and 2. I will try disconnecting the SATA cables just in case now.

 

EDIT: Unplugging SATA cables made no difference in both BIOS and Windows installer. I also just tried changing settings from AHCI to RAID just to see if it would matter and it didn't. Also I have got a replacement coming Friday off Amazon, apparently they give you 30 days to return the original which I didn't know but I would still prefer to see if theres anything I have messed up.

 

EDIT 2: I saw another possible solution online from someone with the same drive who successfully got Windows 10 to see the drive using Samsung NVME drivers, I tried this too and no result. ADATA do not have any updated firmware for this device. I am currently trying another solution which worked for one guy where he installed his system in UEFI on another drive and then enabled Secure Boot and suddenly his BIOS detected it, he then installed Windows 10 to the drive and disabled secure boot and it remained working. This didn't work either, no change. I'm starting to think the drive is just dead but I will find out if thats the case tomorrow since I have a replacement coming.

[Warfather]

MSI responded and asked me to clear CMOS and reset BIOS to defaults, it made no difference.

[Kanna]

19 hours ago, Warfather said:

I have just bought an M.2 NVME to upgrade my system off Amazon but nothing I can do seems to get it to detect. Before I RMA it, I just wanted to check I aren't being stupid and forgot to do something. This is my first M.2 drive and its a strong possibility I messed up.

 

So basically my motherboard is an MSI B450M Pro VDH MAX, I have checked the manual and it doesn't really give any information aside from how to install it, which I have already done. The M.2 in question is an ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB. The only information I have found relating to it at all on MSI's support is that the SX8200 (non pro) is supported, the pro version isn't listed at all currently.

 

Here's what I have tried so far:

I reseated the drive.

I checked to see if windows 10 or windows 10 installer is seeing it, neither do.

I changed the BIOS settings from CSM to UEFI and checked all the above again.

I changed one of the options on PCI settings from Auto to 4x4x4x4x because it mentioned something about NVME on that option then tried all the above again.

I set optimised defaults just in case and tried that.

Updated BIOS to the latest version on the MSI page to 7A38vB4 and checked all the above again.

 

None of these options are getting any results at all in either windows 10, windows installer or bios. Is it likely just a dead drive or have I missed something?

With the quarantine situation in the UK right now its going to be a real pain in the butt getting a replacement from Amazon.

What's the motherboard in your pc it maybe is that the motherboard only supports SATA m.2 interface which will make the drive unusable 

[BigMcGuire]

I set up a PC last week with a MSI B450M motherboard. It would not recognize my 1TB NVME Samsung 970 Evo Plus no matter what I did. The BIOS didn't recognize it and my Windows install boot disk didn't see it either. I had a USB C Thunderbolt external enclosure from Amazon and my Mac had no problem seeing the 1TB NVME drive.

 

Come to find out, the mobo only supported up to 512GB NVME drives when I got a list from their website. I already returned the mobo so I'm not certain which edition it was, just that it never pays to get a cheap mobo. I replaced it with an ASUS ROG Strix B450-F board and I am running 2 1TB NVME 970 EVO Pluses on it.

 

But your problems are near identical to mine - I tried EVERYTHING to get it to work and I couldn't. My board had one of those M2 Plus slots and a normal NVME slot further down - neither worked. 

 

Yeah, had to wait in a Best Buy line for awhile to get the mobo. If you want the previous mobo edition I had, I can dig it up, just let me know.

 

[Warfather]

4 hours ago, Kanna said:

What's the motherboard in your pc it maybe is that the motherboard only supports SATA m.2 interface which will make the drive unusable 

MSI B450M Pro VDH MAX

 

Definitely an NVME board, I checked that first lol.

 

46 minutes ago, BigMcGuire said:

I set up a PC last week with a MSI B450M motherboard. It would not recognize my 1TB NVME Samsung 970 Evo Plus no matter what I did. The BIOS didn't recognize it and my Windows install boot disk didn't see it either. I had a USB C Thunderbolt external enclosure from Amazon and my Mac had no problem seeing the 1TB NVME drive.

 

Come to find out, the mobo only supported up to 512GB NVME drives when I got a list from their website. I already returned the mobo so I'm not certain which edition it was, just that it never pays to get a cheap mobo. I replaced it with an ASUS ROG Strix B450-F board and I am running 2 1TB NVME 970 EVO Pluses on it.

 

But your problems are near identical to mine - I tried EVERYTHING to get it to work and I couldn't. My board had one of those M2 Plus slots and a normal NVME slot further down - neither worked. 

 

Yeah, had to wait in a Best Buy line for awhile to get the mobo. If you want the previous mobo edition I had, I can dig it up, just let me know.

 

My stick is only 500GB but unfortunately I don't have an enclosure to test the drive. Whilst the board isn't great, its been doing fine up to this point lol. The system itself is literally a month old off cyberpower.

[BigMcGuire]

3 minutes ago, Warfather said:

MSI B450M Pro VDH MAX

 

Definitely an NVME board, I checked that first lol.

 

My stick is only 500GB but unfortunately I don't have an enclosure to test the drive. Whilst the board isn't great, its been doing fine up to this point lol. The system itself is literally a month old off cyberpower.

Interesting. I had one of these laying around https://www.amazon.com/SSK-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-External/dp/B07MNFH1PX/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=external+nvme&qid=1585252503&sr=8-3 so ... that kinda prompted me to give up on the MOBO because I knew the drive was good. It could have been the mobo just unable to read NVME drives? I spent too much time looking over the BIOS, trying to install drivers, etc.

 

Interesting . I know when I was going through this I was super frustrated. This was just last week for me. So I waited in line at Best Buy to get this ASUS motherboard and I've been enjoying my desktop since then. $126 for the ROG mobo at Best Buy. Instantly recognized the SSD, I was up and running with Windows less than 6 mins later.

[Kanna]

9 minutes ago, Warfather said:

MSI B450M Pro VDH MAX

 

Definitely an NVME board, I checked that first lol.

 

My stick is only 500GB but unfortunately I don't have an enclosure to test the drive. Whilst the board isn't great, its been doing fine up to this point lol. The system itself is literally a month old off cyberpower.

Well as I see it is NVMe compatible its maybe that its dead or its not compatible with gen 4 if the SSD you're using is gen 4 that say

[Warfather]

2 hours ago, Kanna said:

Well as I see it is NVMe compatible its maybe that its dead or its not compatible with gen 4 if the SSD you're using is gen 4 that say

The board is gen 3 and I just checked the stick is also gen 3.

 

Either way, I get a replacement stick from Amazon tomorrow so I will know then if its the drive or something else. MSI support have pretty much given up and left my ticket open after telling me to clear my CMOS. I've even gone to the extreme reinstalling Windows 10 in UEFI on my SSD to see if I could force Samsung drivers in Windows since people had some success with that but Windows isn't even seeing the drive at all in device manager so I think its likely either dead port or dead drive at this point.