M.2 ssd is never showing up on Asus laptop!!!

[Arunb]

I’ve recently bought a asus laptop second hand and no matter what I do I can’t get the ssd to show up anywhere, (I can’t install windows because it not showing up). I’ve followed a bunch of tutorials online trying to install intel drivers through the windows USB and nothing is working. There’s also very few settings in bios for the drive option and nothing I do seems to work. I’ve gone and bought a new drive but it’s also not showing up so it’s something with software any help would be a godsend right now!!

[Phobosy]

Has it been partitioned?

[Arunb]

2 minutes ago, Phobosy said:

Has it been partitioned?

I’m not sure about the original one but the new ssd I just installed hasn’t (it’s brand new)

[Oshino Shinobu]

What model laptop is it? Did you buy an SSD for it or is it one that come with it?

[Phobosy]

hmm make sure to set the USB with windows on as boot priority

[Arunb]

8 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

What model laptop is it? Did you buy an SSD for it or is it one that come with it?

The model is asus strix g531gt it came with an ssd (not showing up) so I bought another one but it’s also not showing up

[Arunb]

6 minutes ago, Phobosy said:

hmm make sure to set the USB with windows on as boot priority

It starts up the windows installer and all but when I go to choose a drive there’s nothing there, and I tried all the drivers but nothing works 

[Phobosy]

2 minutes ago, Arunb said:

The model is asus strix g531gt it came with an ssd (not showing up) so I bought another one but it’s also not showing up

 

1 minute ago, Arunb said:

It starts up the windows installer and all but when I go to choose a drive there’s nothing there, and I tried all the drivers but nothing works 

is it the only drive in the computer?

[Arunb]

1 minute ago, Phobosy said:

 

is it the only drive in the computer?

Yes it’s the only one

[Phobosy]

1 minute ago, Arunb said:

Yes it’s the only one

try these if you haven't already https://windowsreport.com/cant-install-windows-10-ssd/

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, Arunb said:

The model is asus strix g531gt it came with an ssd (not showing up) so I bought another one but it’s also not showing up

If neither shows up, sounds like the board, connector, controller or something else is broken. 

 

Doesn't look like there's any other M.2 connector on that board from what I can find and it does support NVMe (first thought was it only supported SATA M.2 drives). 

 

Only thing I could suggest trying is resetting BIOS to default and see if it picks it up. If not, I'd say you're out of luck and your best bet is to try to return it. 

[Arunb]

4 minutes ago, Phobosy said:

try these if you haven't already https://windowsreport.com/cant-install-windows-10-ssd/

Unfortunately I’ve tried that already

[Arunb]

5 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

If neither shows up, sounds like the board, connector, controller or something else is broken. 

 

Doesn't look like there's any other M.2 connector on that board from what I can find and it does support NVMe (first thought was it only supported SATA M.2 drives). 

 

Only thing I could suggest trying is resetting BIOS to default and see if it picks it up. If not, I'd say you're out of luck and your best bet is to try to return it. 

So it’s a hardware issue? Would there be any way to check or is it just busted then rip this has been a project for a bit now do it would be a shame to end here 

[Phobosy]

1 minute ago, Arunb said:

Unfortunately I’ve tried that already

Hmm honestly just sounds like a faulty board if neither SSDs showed up sounds like a dodgy board or connector also did you buy the new SSD cause the original wasn't working?

[Arunb]

2 minutes ago, Phobosy said:

Hmm honestly just sounds like a faulty board if neither SSDs showed up sounds like a dodgy board or connector also did you buy the new SSD cause the original wasn't working?

Ohh rip, I bought a new ssd because the original was an intel an I read that they can be a hassle to show up so I bought a wd blue because they’ve been very reliable in the past for me 

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, Arunb said:

So it’s a hardware issue? Would there be any way to check or is it just busted then rip this has been a project for a bit now do it would be a shame to end here 

It sounds like it. All configurations of that laptop seem to come with NVMe drives as standard so it's not a matter of incompatibility. 

 

SATA configuration is irrelevant as the drive uses NVMe rather than SATA the communication protocol, though you could look for any options that disable the M.2 slot, either in the storage or PCI configuration in the BIOS. That's why I'd recommend resetting the BIOS to make sure there's no settings enabled/disabled that would do that. 

 

In terms of checking if it's a hardware issue, you can check the M.2 connector for any bent/missing pins, but any further than that would take specialised tools and knowledge. I doubt the drive itself is the problem, seeing as two have the same issue, so I'd put it with the board. As it's second hand, it could be broken from the start and they didn't tell you (or they said it was broken but didn't explain how?)

[Phobosy]

1 minute ago, Arunb said:

Ohh rip, I bought a new ssd because the original was an intel an I read that they can be a hassle to show up so I bought a wd blue because they’ve been very reliable in the past for me 

Yh man it sucks I just don't know what else it could be tbh I wish I could help more

[Arunb]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It sounds like it. All configurations of that laptop seem to come with NVMe drives as standard so it's not a matter of incompatibility. 

 

SATA configuration is irrelevant as the drive uses NVMe rather than SATA the communication protocol, though you could look for any options that disable the M.2 slot, either in the storage or PCI configuration in the BIOS. That's why I'd recommend resetting the BIOS to make sure there's no settings enabled/disabled that would do that. 

 

In terms of checking if it's a hardware issue, you can check the M.2 connector for any bent/missing pins, but any further than that would take specialised tools and knowledge. I doubt the drive itself is the problem, seeing as two have the same issue, so I'd put it with the board. As it's second hand, it could be broken from the start and they didn't tell you (or they said it was broken but didn't explain how?)

Ok I’ve tried resetting the bios but no luck, I can see there’s a slot for a regular ssd (sata) but id need to order a connector. I bought the laptop bios locked so I reinstalled a new bios on the bios chip using a ch341a. Do you know if I ordered a conector for the sata ssd if it would work?

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, Arunb said:

Ok I’ve tried resetting the bios but no luck, I can see there’s a slot for a regular ssd (sata) but id need to order a connector. I bought the laptop bios locked so I reinstalled a new bios on the bios chip using a ch341a. Do you know if I ordered a conector for the sata ssd if it would work?

If it has a SATA connector, it should work (not with the WD Blue SSD you have), assuming that nothing is broken that affects the SATA connector. That said, I'm not seeing a SATA connector on the board I can find images of.

[Arunb]

6 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

If it has a SATA connector, it should work (not with the WD Blue SSD you have), assuming that nothing is broken that affects the SATA connector. That said, I'm not seeing a SATA connector on the board I can find images of.

Ok cool I’ll do a bit of research and see if I can do that instead because I’ll attach an image of what the sata area looks like