Issues Upgrading a Razer Blade Stealth's SSD

Earl Dadanur · October 29, 2019

So, during the summer (2019) I purchased a 2016 Razer Blade Stealth for college. Mostly because it was $600 and in my opinion had better specs than most of what I could find for a similar price. The only issue was the 128 GB SSD. I just figured that I would buy a new SSD when I needed the space. Well that time came and I did research and got a WD Blue NVME drive found here. Now to my knowledge a PCIe Gen3x2 drive should work in a slot that had a PCIe Gen3x4 drive in it. So I figured it should work. I also bought an enclosure because I didn't want to reinstall Windows. I was just going to clone the old one over. Yet the Stealth can't seem to recongize the new drive. It doesn't come up as a boot option when cloned and when I try to install a fresh Windows the installer can't find it. So I was wondering if anyone could tell me if they have an idea to get it to work.

I have some notes on what I have tried.

Both the new drive I bought and the drive from the Stealth work in the enclosure.
I have done every firmware update I could find for the Stealth. (No Effect)
Tried cloning the old drive. (No Effect)
Tried installing a fresh Windows to it. (No Effect)
I have contacted Razer's Support. (No Effect)
- The guy I talked to couldn't find a reason it wouldn't work.
- Thought it may just be age.
I have contacted WD's support. (No Effect)
- After 3 transfers I was told I needed a firmware update and they would send the link to my email.
- Email contained nothing more than their compatibility page on their site. No link.
Restarted the computer several times with/without the new SSD installed.(No Effect)
Tried booting the Stealth from the SSD with the enclosure.
- Worked half way. It would act like Windows was booting and then restart the Stealth.
- Did this with the old SSD installed and without. With it installed it simply booted to that drive the next go. Without the old drive installed it entered a loop.
Uninstalled and reinstalled the SSD numerous times. (No Effect)
Scolled it like a child for good measure. (No Effect Duh)

Either way I can still use the drive sense I have the enclosure but the Stealth is the only computer I have with a M.2 Slot. So I figured I'd through my issue in here to see if someone had an idea. Someone who can tell me what might of changed for the age of the Stealth to affect this. Or to find someone who has had the same issue. Sense most of the forum post I have found for the WD Blue M.2 drives has been for their older model.

Either way I'm happy to learn.

Earl Dadanur · November 21, 2020

Just a bit of an update for anyone who happens to find this. Not completely sure but I think I figured out what caused the problem. It seems that while the SSD I had purchased says that it is NVME it is not entirely correct. While I still don't have another computer that supports NVMe to test this it's the best that I can gather. I recently purchased a KIngston A200 and installed it into the same laptop. And it does work. So my best guess is that the WD Blue NVME is not actually NVMe. But then again I can't prove this. I can just say what I have observed.