Adding a 2nd SSD stops a brand new laptop from booting

[Cyclops99346]

I have a brand new Gigabyte Aero 15S OLED NA laptop that is less than a week old. Using Gigabyte's website, I have already updated the drivers, bios firmware, windows 10 updates, etc... I was also able to successfully add a 2nd stick of 8GB DDR 4 RAM to the open RAM slot. Now I am attempting to add a WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD to the open "NVMe/SATA" slot on my motherboard. When I turn on the laptop, it does not boot past the  Gigabyte logo. It has the prompts for Bios, Recovery, and BBS Popup, but none of these options work when i press the corresponding key. I turn it off, remove the new 1TB drive, and it works without issue.

 

The motherboard has two m.2 slots. the main drive is populated in the slot labeled "NVMe". Thinking it was an issue with the slot, i switched the main boot drive (a 256 GB Intel SSD) into the open "NVMe/SATA" slot and turned it on. It booted without problem.

I then turned it back off and added tne new WD Blue drive to the now open "NVMe" slot, turned it on and received the same issue where it would boot only to the Gigabyte logo, give me the same prompts for bios, etc. and none of them work work, and it would not boot further.

 

I then thought maybe the new RAM i added was doing something. I then decided to remove the additional 8GB from the 2nd RAM slot. After this, it booted with the 2nd drive in it. I was able to get into the disk manager and format the drive. So, to see if this was a one off, i checked that the drive was available in file explorer and restarted the laptop... back to not getting past the Gigabyte logo.

 

I then tried switching back the drives (original SSD in the "NVMe" slot, WD Blue in the "NVMe/SATA" slot, again, wouldn't boot. I then put the 8GB RAM back into the 2nd RAM slot, took out the WD blue... booted without issues...

 

I'm at my wits end... I'm out of ideas on what I need to do to get this drive working. 

[homeap5]

So maybe first enter BIOS when you can, before you insert drive, then setup everything and then try? BIOS is not so complicated, so just look at every option and maybe you'll find one that changes NVMe/SATA slot into just SATA.

 

[Juanmacaam]

Compatibility issues? I'm not very sure if a drive can interfere with RAM impeding the system to boot.

[Shimejii]

Its more then likely  going into a boot order and causing the issue. Double check the boot order in bios

[Cyclops99346]

For the hell of it, I thought there was something I didn't try, the new WD Blue on it's own, without the other drive, and I encountered the exact same issue... it still won't boot past the Gigabyte logo.

[Cyclops99346]

I did check the bios before re-inserting the WD Blue one of the times and it did have the intel 256 GB SSD as the boot drive. I don't know how to prepare the bios to run a hard drive that is not inserted so I am not sure what homeap5 means by "So maybe first enter BIOS when you can, before you insert drive, then setup everything and then try"

 

The biggest problem is when I try to boot the laptop with the WD Blue inserted, I can't get into the Bios to diagnose anything.

[homeap5]

I mean - maybe is there any option to choose what type of drive you want to put in second slot. I don't know. I remember that some motherboards has options to choose if you want (for example) using last PCI-E slot or M.2. Or PCI-E slot vs e-Sata. Motherboards have their limits and it's worth to check BIOS options - not just boot order (it's pointless since you have no drive installed), but other options.

 

[Cyclops99346]

14 hours ago, homeap5 said:

I mean - maybe is there any option to choose what type of drive you want to put in second slot. I don't know. I remember that some motherboards has options to choose if you want (for example) using last PCI-E slot or M.2. Or PCI-E slot vs e-Sata. Motherboards have their limits and it's worth to check BIOS options - not just boot order (it's pointless since you have no drive installed), but other options.

 

I took the offending drive out, then got into the bios and removed the existing drive from the boot sequence. Restarted the computer and it immediately, without any other options or choices, it booted to the Bios.  So, i turned it off, reinserted the offending drive, and encountered the exact same issue. Even with no boot drive sequence, it wouldn't allow me to go to the bios setup.

[homeap5]

And boot sequence is the only option available in your BIOS? Because I was not talking about boot sequence.

[Cyclops99346]

19 hours ago, homeap5 said:

And boot sequence is the only option available in your BIOS? Because I was not talking about boot sequence.

Well, yes. Because the drive won't appear in the Bios if it is not plugged in, and not plugging in the WD Blue is the only way for me to get into the Bios. Therefore, I have nothing to select or view for any other options because the only drive it detects is the 256 GB drive that works. There are no other options available to me in the NVMe section of the bios.

 

Since I cannot get into the bios when the new drive is inserted, I can't get in there to see what Bios is doing with the drive. I then tried to trick the computer by removing the boot sequence, so it'd go straight to Bios no matter how many drives were plugged in; but it still freezes and doesn't allow me to do anything.

[Cyclops99346]

Just got a warranty exchange for the exact same drive and I get the exact same issue.

 

Is there a compatibility issue here that I may not be aware of?

[Aircooledtype1]

Did you ever figure this out? I'm having the same problem. Thanks!