s540 Adding 512GB m.2 2242 SSD to Lenovo Ideapad s540-14API

[Sergeant]

I plugged a new KingSpec NT-512 m.2 512GB SSD drive in the available empty slot but the BIOS does not see it. Is there any adjustment to be made for this add on?

[514_AppleGuy]

9 minutes ago, Sergeant said:

I plugged a new KingSpec NT-512 m.2 512GB SSD drive in the available empty slot but the BIOS does not see it. Is there any adjustment to be made for this add on?

You shouldn't have to, M.2 drives should usually be detected automatically. Either the expansion slot is hardware-disabled, or there might be a BIOS setting that needs to be changed... but I doubt it. Also, KingSpec... it's literally the lowest possible tier of hardware. I wouldn't be surprised if it came DOA.

[Sergeant]

45 minutes ago, 514_AppleGuy said:

You shouldn't have to, M.2 drives should usually be detected automatically. Either the expansion slot is hardware-disabled, or there might be a BIOS setting that needs to be changed... but I doubt it. Also, KingSpec... it's literally the lowest possible tier of hardware. I wouldn't be surprised if it came DOA.

Thank you for the heads-up! I will check back with the store on Monday for a replacement

[Sergeant]

On 1/24/2021 at 10:35 AM, 514_AppleGuy said:

You shouldn't have to, M.2 drives should usually be detected automatically. Either the expansion slot is hardware-disabled, or there might be a BIOS setting that needs to be changed... but I doubt it. Also, KingSpec... it's literally the lowest possible tier of hardware. I wouldn't be surprised if it came DOA.

Today I went back to the store. The manager is a cool guy and was very helpful indeed! He checked Lenovo's specs database online and told me that in the 2242 slot of this laptop you can only put NVMe SSDs. He kindly exchanged the SATA III that I purchased, for the same model but NVMe version and all went fine when I installed it. I set it for MBR partition and NTFS format. Now it's working like a charm: sustained 600 MB/s writing files!

There is absolutely no need to fumble around with any setting in the laptop's BIOS. The SSD will be recognized right away, SO DON'T MESS WITH IT. Just be extra careful when configuring the partition: On my laptop the 2242 showed up as Disk 1 and the existing SAMSUNG disk was displayed as Number 2 on Minitool. On Diskpart the 2242 SSD appeared as Disk 0 and the existing Samsung as DISK 1. ****If you do not know what you are doing you may wipe out your system disk, do ask for help before touching anything in your partitions!!!!*****   There are many tutorials online that explain this.