M.2 not showing in BIOS

[amacilravie]

I'm building my first PC today, and my m.2 nvme ssd isn't showing up. When I first booted, it did pop up under storage devices, but not as a bootable device. After trying to change some settings and restarting, it stopped showing up entirely. I even plugged in a standard 1tb hdd and it won't show up either. I reset the bios to default settings, reseated the cmos battery, reseated the m.2 (I realized during this process I had not taken off the heat sink sticker ). I'm using an asus z690-p, intel 13500kf, 32gb ddr5, samsung 980 4.0x4 nvme. Any suggestions?

 

[ItzUknown]

9 minutes ago, amacilravie said:

I'm building my first PC today, and my m.2 nvme ssd isn't showing up. When I first booted, it did pop up under storage devices, but not as a bootable device. After trying to change some settings and restarting, it stopped showing up entirely. I even plugged in a standard 1tb hdd and it won't show up either. I reset the bios to default settings, reseated the cmos battery, reseated the m.2 (I realized during this process I had not taken off the heat sink sticker ). I'm using an asus z690-p, intel 13500kf, 32gb ddr5, samsung 980 4.0x4 nvme. Any suggestions?

 

Something similar happened to me once. I solved it by plugging the m.2 on a different slot (even if it isn't technically the fastest one) and unplugged my hardrive. After that I went into the bios and there was the m.2. Now honestly I didn't plug in the hardrive again (I decided not to use it) but I got the m.2 to show up. Also even if you cleared the cmos you have to make sure that you did it the right way: Unplug everything from the back of your pc

1. Unplug everything from the back of your pc
2. Take the battery out
3. Let it sit like that for 5-10 minutes (I usually let it for 10 minutes just to be sure)
4. Put the battery back and plug eveything back into the pc

P.S. when troubleshouting I tend to plug in whatever I will need (not devices like speakers, webcams etc etc)

 

 

[KhakiHat]

Is there an OS install on either of the storage medias?

[amacilravie]

8 minutes ago, KhakiHat said:

Is there an OS install on either of the storage medias?

There is not. I just have a windows 11 usb, but its not letting me install without a storage device

[KhakiHat]

45 minutes ago, amacilravie said:

There is not. I just have a windows 11 usb, but its not letting me install without a storage device

I would try to reset your BIOS back to default settings, you can typically do that either through the BIOS itself, or simply by removing the CMOS battery(if you have any intention removing any of the hardware, ensure that the machine is completely off and unplugged from a power source) and post without it present. After a post without the CMOS battery, turn the machine back off. Make sure everything is unplugged, then re-insert the CMOS battery. At this point, through either method, the BIOS should be back at it's original, default settings.

 

On random occasions I will sometimes not be able to use my M.2 for seemingly random reasons(usually due to a BIOS settings change). In your case, it could be that the M.2 is incorrectly installed. Firstly, with the PC unplugged, check to see if the M.2 is properly installed. Assuming it is at this point, refer to your motherboard manual to see which M.2 slot a M.2 drive should be installed in. When building my PC for example, the top slot caused the M.2 to not show in BIOS even though it would seem like the correct slot for installation. After moving it to the second slot(after reviewing the motherboard manual to reveal that was the correct slot for installation) the M.2 was then detectable by the BIOS.

 

This could be a simple place to start before messing with your BIOS settings.

[amacilravie]

1 hour ago, KhakiHat said:

I would try to reset your BIOS back to default settings, you can typically do that either through the BIOS itself, or simply by removing the CMOS battery(if you have any intention removing any of the hardware, ensure that the machine is completely off and unplugged from a power source) and post without it present. After a post without the CMOS battery, turn the machine back off. Make sure everything is unplugged, then re-insert the CMOS battery. At this point, through either method, the BIOS should be back at it's original, default settings.

 

On random occasions I will sometimes not be able to use my M.2 for seemingly random reasons(usually due to a BIOS settings change). In your case, it could be that the M.2 is incorrectly installed. Firstly, with the PC unplugged, check to see if the M.2 is properly installed. Assuming it is at this point, refer to your motherboard manual to see which M.2 slot a M.2 drive should be installed in. When building my PC for example, the top slot caused the M.2 to not show in BIOS even though it would seem like the correct slot for installation. After moving it to the second slot(after reviewing the motherboard manual to reveal that was the correct slot for installation) the M.2 was then detectable by the BIOS.

 

This could be a simple place to start before messing with your BIOS settings.

I eventully updated my bios to the newest version, and drive showed up...this time under RAID. I'm doing another CMOS reset to see if it does anything. I also re installed the HDD and it also appeared under RAID