NVME SSD (PM961) Only using 3.0x2

[FAQBytes]

Hello all,

 

As stated in the title, I'm having some difficulties getting my second NVME SSD to run at full bandwidth.

 

Description:

• When putting a second NVMe Drive (First is another PM961 1TB):
  • Samsung PM961 1TB (Model: MZFLW1T0HMLH-000MU NVMe 1.0/1.1) Only receives PCIe 3.0x2 Bandwidth
  • HP Liteon 256GB (Model: CX2-8B256-Q11 NVMe 1.2) Receives full 3.0x2 bandwidth. 

During both, GPU retains full PCIe 3.0x16 bandwidth.

 

Hardware:

8700k

Asus Strix z370i ITX

Samsung PM961 1TB (x2)

PNY GTX 980

 

Should be everything important that I can think of.

 

 

I'm at a complete loss as to what to do. Any help is much appreciated.

[Electronics Wizardy]

How do you know that its only pcie x2 bandwidth?

[FAQBytes]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How do you know that its only pcie x2 bandwidth?

The first thing that tipped me off was the speed, then using CrystalDiskInfo, it showed the following:

Where the left side is the current mode, and the right the max supported mode.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, FAQBytes said:

The first thing that tipped me off was the speed, then using CrystalDiskInfo, it showed the following:

Where the left side is the current mode, and the right the max supported mode.

does the connector look fine on the drive? Try the other m.2 slot

[FAQBytes]

14 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

does the connector look fine on the drive? Try the other m.2 slot

Just took it out and looked at it. The connector itself looks fine. Nothing on the PCB screams something is wrong either.

 

Switching is going to have to wait for a few days since I have a huge workload over the next few days.

[Enstage]

I'm not super knowledgable on the topic, but I recently added a Samsung 970 EVO 500GB to my computer (ASUS Maximus X Hero motherboard), I'm pretty sure there was something I had to explicitly change in the BIOS to get it to run at 4x? Check the motherboard manual too, ASUS has a lot of conditions surrounding the M.2 drives (like certain SATA ports getting disabled at certain speeds).

[FAQBytes]

Upon closer inspection of the drive, it appears that it was damaged before even being sent to me. The PCB is bent, which is usually fine, but the bigger problem was that there is a crack, likely resulting in broken traces. I am currently attempting to get ahold of the seller.