M.2 SSD not showing up

[alexfsr]

Hi all,

 

A recently converted to the PCMR friend of mine upgraded his PC a couple of weeks ago.

He has a Maximus VII Hero motherboard from Asus, and he bought an M.2 SSD from Adata to upgrade it, sinsce his only storage was a slow HDD. But he hit a rock. The mobo doesn't recongnize the SSD. He is still relatively PC illiterate, so i helped him, or at least tried to.

I enabled the M.2 slot from the BIOS, disabling one of the PCI-E slots and updated the bios to the latest version. No sign of the ssd neither in the bios, nor in the OS (Win 7). I thought the ssd was DOA and told him to send it back for RMA. They tested it and said its working. I have no idea what's up with it. Anyone any ideas? I think it has to be some sort of a specific mobo setting but i don't know. I don't personally own an M.2 ssd nad never had to deal with one before.

 

Help is much appreciated

[Prastupok]

-snip-

 

Have you initialized it? Some SSDs don't show up in BIOS until you do, and NO drive does in windows until that.

[CalebTheEternal]

Have you tried the SSD in a different port on the motherboard? 

 

Have you initialized it? Some SSDs don't show up in BIOS until you do, and NO drive does in windows until that.

 

And also do this, and when it shows up format it as well.

[alexfsr]

It doesn't even show up in the UEFI, there is no way there will be any sign of it in the OS.

[Prastupok]

I'm not talking about the SSD itself... you may have to initialize the M.2 slot itself. It could be disabled through software.

[CalebTheEternal]

It doesn't even show up in the UEFI, there is no way there will be any sign of it in the OS.

Does it have power to it or did you JUSt put the sata cable? Also remember to quote people who you want to see the reply

[Prastupok]

Try plugging it into a different port on the motherboard, does it have power to it or did you JUSt put the sata cable? Also remember to quote people who you want to see the reply

 

There most likely isn't another port. M.2 SSD ports are rare. You get one usually. There is no power or sata cable. It runs on PCIe or SATA direct

[CalebTheEternal]

There most likely isn't another port. M.2 SSD ports are rare. You get one usually. There is no power or sata cable. It runs on PCIe or SATA direct

Oh... Woops. Don't know what I'm saying then. So it runs in a PCIe port? 

[Prastupok]

Oh... Woops. Don't know what I'm saying then. So it runs in a PCIe port? 

 

No. It runs in an M.2 port. But some of them come with a PCIe card adapter.

[CalebTheEternal]

No. It runs in an M.2 port. But some of them come with a PCIe card adapter.

Oh ok... Well... Not sure.. Sorry for my dumbness  

[alexfsr]

Prastupok, on 14 Apr 2015 - 12:52 AM, said:

There most likely isn't another port. M.2 SSD ports are rare. You get one usually. There is no power or sata cable. It runs on PCIe or SATA direct

It's enabled in the UEFI - u have to disable one PCI-E x4 slot to enable the M.2 one, which i did.

The ssd doesn't show up in the storage info in the bios, and the windows installer doesn't see it either (which is normal i guess, if the bios doesn't).

[Prastupok]

It's enabled in the UEFI - u have to disable one PCI-E x4 slot to enable the M.2 one, which i did.

The ssd doesn't show up in the storage info in the bios, and the windows installer doesn't see it either (which is normal i guess, if the bios doesn't).

 

What brand of SSD is it?

[alexfsr]

Prastupok, on 14 Apr 2015 - 12:58 AM, said:

What brand of SSD is it?

Adata SP900 M.2 2242 256GB

The service said it's working fine with their test rig.

[Circs]

Adata SP900 M.2 2242 256GB

The service said it's working fine with their test rig.

 

That is a SATA M.2 SSD. http://www.adata.com/en/ssd/specification/291

 

You'll have to configure your board to work with a SATA M.2 drive rather than a PCIe drive as it appears you have done. If your board does not support SATA M.2 drives you will be unable to use the two together.

[xeromynd]

Pretty sure that Asus board supports PCIe M.2 drives only, meaning that M.2 drive he has wont work

[alexfsr]

Pretty sure that Asus board supports PCIe M.2 drives only, meaning that M.2 drive he has wont work

 

That is a SATA M.2 SSD. http://www.adata.com/en/ssd/specification/291

 

You'll have to configure your board to work with a SATA M.2 drive rather than a PCIe drive as it appears you have done. If your board does not support SATA M.2 drives you will be unable to use the two together.

The storage settings allow you to witch between:

1. PCIe x4 slot (powers one PCIe x4 slot)

2. M.2 mode (the currently selected one)

3. SATA mode (enabling 2 more SATA ports)

Isn't this one a SATA M.2 drive?

And if it isn't, the latest bios update for all Asus Z97 boards added support for NVMe, which i believe is the protocol for allowing M.2 drives using PCIe to work with the mobo?

[Circs]

The storage settings allow you to witch between:

1. PCIe x4 slot (powers one PCIe x4 slot)

2. M.2 mode (the currently selected one)

3. SATA mode (enabling 2 more SATA ports)

Isn't this one a SATA M.2 drive?

And if it isn't, the latest bios update for all Asus Z97 boards added support for NVMe, which i believe is the protocol for allowing M.2 drives using PCIe to work with the mobo?

 

It sounds like your motherboard doesn't support SATA over the M.2 connector. You should contact your motherboard's support hotline to verify, but it's looking like these two parts won't work together.

[xeromynd]

The storage settings allow you to witch between:

1. PCIe x4 slot (powers one PCIe x4 slot)

2. M.2 mode (the currently selected one)

3. SATA mode (enabling 2 more SATA ports)

Isn't this one a SATA M.2 drive?

And if it isn't, the latest bios update for all Asus Z97 boards added support for NVMe, which i believe is the protocol for allowing M.2 drives using PCIe to work with the mobo?

 

From the manual:

 

No Sata M.2 4 u m8

[ThomasD]

Pretty sure that Asus board supports PCIe M.2 drives only, meaning that M.2 drive he has wont work

Bingo.

 

ASUS Hero is PCIe only.

[alexfsr]

Circs, on 15 Apr 2015 - 9:20 PM, said:

It sounds like your motherboard doesn't support SATA over the M.2 connector. You should contact your motherboard's support hotline to verify, but it's looking like these two parts won't work together.

 

 

 

From the manual:

 

No Sata M.2 4 u m8

 

 

Bingo.

 

ASUS Hero is PCIe only.

 

Yep. I figured it out. Unfortunately, it's too late for him to return it. I will try to arange him to sell it to another friend of mine who's mobo does support M.2 SATA (i checked ) and he will try to get the Plextor M6 from somewhere (i haven't seen anyone selling it in my country).

[Circs]

Yep. I figured it out. Unfortunately, it's too late for him to return it. I will try to arange him to sell it to another friend of mine who's mobo does support M.2 SATA (i checked ) and he will try to get the Plextor M6 from somewhere (i haven't seen anyone selling it in my country).

 

Kingston has a PCIe M.2 drive that's probably worth a look too. I'm personally waiting for AnandTech to get their hands on it for the write consistency tests as I place more emphasis on not having any weak areas than being exceptional in only a few.

[Handy-dandy]

Hello everyone, Im new to this site, I two am having the same problem, I have a Gigabyte GA-Z270MX-Gaming 5 MB, and i got a Scandisk X400 256gb M.2 ssd, i installed the updated Bios, and i tried to find my M.2, But it does not recognize it's presents, it is an M.2 on board plug in. I also got an ADATA ssd 256 m.2 and it worked fine. but that ssd was for my son's system. How can i get my Scan Disk to be found by the motherboard it's self? if i triy to install windows it still does not find it, if i try EasyUS Partition it doesn't find it aswell. How can i test the SSD M.2 if it works or not with out another pc? I do not have a PCIE adapter and the power is direct to the m.2 plug.  sometimes when things should be plug and play they are not and it makes it hard for those who are not programmers, I can build a PC with no problems, but i am not a programmer. 

 

New problem, now im burning up my RAM which i followed the proper instructions in picking the right RAM for my system, and now i have one that failed. without spending another $400 on a NEW SET OF 4 ram how can i fix the one that seems to have failed?

[agent_x007]

[Handy-dandy]

On 6/24/2017 at 2:49 PM, agent_x007 said:

 

 

 

Thanks for that info, But im not doing RAID, as i am not set up to do RAID from M.2 single ssd.  all other HDD are not set to RAID as well. settings in BIOS are at AHCI or legacy

[agent_x007]

10 hours ago, Handy-dandy said:

Thanks for that info, But im not doing RAID, as i am not set up to do RAID from M.2 single ssd.  all other HDD are not set to RAID as well. settings in BIOS are at AHCI or legacy

Well, I don't how how you missed that, but top table IS for AHCI mode.
Here's the interesting bit : 

You can't use M.2 SATA SSD (B-Key or B+M), and SATA3_0 port at the same time.
So, do you have a second hard drive, connected to SATA3_0 port ?