Trying to install a second NVME drive into my system.

[David_Kwan]

Hi guys, 

So I recently got a new 2tb crucial P3 nvme drive to use as a mass storage for my games.

However, after installing it and booting up my PC it just stays at the screen where it tells you "press del to enter BIOS... etc".

 

It looks like it's trying to boot into that new crucial drive. (I have no idea)

 

I have an existing nvme drive where my OS is installed (Samsung 970 EVO plus 250gb)

Another 2 Sata ssds. (I have checked and confirmed that after installing the second nvme that there are should be no issues with where my 2 ssds are connected)

 

Current spec:

R5 2600

Gigabyte RTX 2060

Gigabyte B450 Aorus pro Wifi (BIOS ver. F30)

 

Any ideas??

I just wanted to expand my storage, didn't think there would be an issue like this.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Check your boot order in the BIOS and reset your Samsung SSD to your priority boot drive, and remove the Crucial drive from the boot order if it is present.

[David_Kwan]

6 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Check your boot order in the BIOS and reset your Samsung SSD to your priority boot drive, and remove the Crucial drive from the boot order if it is present.

I have my 970 evo as priority. I can't really remove the crucial drive since I can't get into BIOS after booting up my pc with the crucial drive installed.

But once I remove the crucial drive and boot up my PC everything works.

[Crunchy Dragon]

7 minutes ago, David_Kwan said:

I have my 970 evo as priority. I can't really remove the crucial drive since I can't get into BIOS after booting up my pc with the crucial drive installed.

But once I remove the crucial drive and boot up my PC everything works.

I think the issue has to do with PCIe lanes, although I'm not sure why it wouldn't just default your GPU down to x8 so it can run both of your SSDs.

 

Are you not able to reach the BIOS at all, even after reaching the "press del to enter UEFI" screen?
What happens if you move your GPU to another PCIe slot?

[David_Kwan]

3 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Are you not able to reach the BIOS at all, even after reaching the "press del to enter UEFI" screen?

Pressing delete or any other button does nothing. 

3 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

What happens if you move your GPU to another PCIe slot?

I have not tried that yet. But I will first try disconnecting my 2 other ssds. I'll try moving my gpu to another pcie slot after that if it doesn't work.

[David_Kwan]

Ok, I have tried it while my 2 other ssds are disconnected, nothing.

Placed my gpu in the second pcie slot, nothing.

 

I'm not sure what to do now.

[Crunchy Dragon]

38 minutes ago, David_Kwan said:

Ok, I have tried it while my 2 other ssds are disconnected, nothing.

Placed my gpu in the second pcie slot, nothing.

 

I'm not sure what to do now.

What if you try booting without your boot drive? Will you be able to reach the BIOS then?

[Sawa Takahashi]

Did you buy this Crucial SSD from Amazon ?

There's been many batches of fakes and/or bad batch of these. The best thing to do is to return it while you're still within the return window (usually 30 days depending on where you live).

For all my low-end SSDs, I chose the WD blue SN570 and I never had an issue since. 

[David_Kwan]

4 hours ago, Sawa Takahashi said:

Did you buy this Crucial SSD from Amazon ?

There's been many batches of fakes and/or bad batch of these. The best thing to do is to return it while you're still within the return window (usually 30 days depending on where you live).

For all my low-end SSDs, I chose the WD blue SN570 and I never had an issue since. 

That doesn't sound too good. My sibling helped me buy it while he was in Taiwan so I hope that's not the case.

[David_Kwan]

5 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

What if you try booting without your boot drive? Will you be able to reach the BIOS then?

I will try this another day, I'm hoping it's not as @Sawa Takahashi has mentioned.

[SamClan]

never mind, I red that you checked the PCI lanes and ssd theory. 

 

 

[David_Kwan]

On 7/2/2023 at 1:44 PM, Crunchy Dragon said:

What if you try booting without your boot drive? Will you be able to reach the BIOS then?

Ok so I tried doing this but still same issue. I get to the screen where I can press del and all, but nothing happens when I press del or any other key prompt shown.

I've also tried swapping my os drive into the bottom nvme slot and having the crucial drive in the top one. Nothing.

 

But I did notice that the VGA light on my motherboard was lit up. Is this normal?

[Crunchy Dragon]

38 minutes ago, David_Kwan said:

Ok so I tried doing this but still same issue. I get to the screen where I can press del and all, but nothing happens when I press del or any other key prompt shown.

I've also tried swapping my os drive into the bottom nvme slot and having the crucial drive in the top one. Nothing.

 

But I did notice that the VGA light on my motherboard was lit up. Is this normal?

That shouldn't be normal, no. Does your PC boot fine without the Crucial drive installed?

Will the VGA light stay on without the Crucial drive installed?

Are you able to boot into BIOS with just the Crucial drive, without your boot drive?

Can you reach the BIOS with no drives installed?

[David_Kwan]

51 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Does your PC boot fine without the Crucial drive installed?

Yes, if the new crucial drive isn't installed everything runs as normal.

52 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Will the VGA light stay on without the Crucial drive installed?

No, since everything works fine without it.

53 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Are you able to boot into BIOS with just the Crucial drive, without your boot drive?

No, I think as long as that crucial drive is installed I won't be able to get into bios.

54 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Can you reach the BIOS with no drives installed?

I have not tried this yet, will test this out during the weekend.

 

 

[David_Kwan]

I can't seem to get that crucial drive working. But there is something my Motherboard manual mentions, I've got a snippet below:

 

 

Does it saying: "the M2B socket only supports PCIe SSDs" have anything to do with what might be causing the issues I'm facing?

[Whatisthis]

2 hours ago, David_Kwan said:

I can't seem to get that crucial drive working. But there is something my Motherboard manual mentions, I've got a snippet below:

 

 

Does it saying: "the M2B socket only supports PCIe SSDs" have anything to do with what might be causing the issues I'm facing?

 No, that’s a pcie drive so it is supported.

 

By chance, do you have csm enabled in bios?

[David_Kwan]

20 hours ago, Whatisthis said:

 No, that’s a pcie drive so it is supported.

 

By chance, do you have csm enabled in bios?

CSM support is enabled.

[Whatisthis]

10 minutes ago, David_Kwan said:

CSM support is enabled.

That’s most likely your problem. You need UEFI bios instead of legacy. It’s a bit of a pain to switch over. You will need to get your current boot drive switched from mbr to gpt first (if it’s not gpt yet). Then turn off csm. Then it should work.

use an elevated command prompt and run diskpart then run listdisk to check the status of your disks. If they are all gpt then you are set. 
 

there is a windows tool mbr2gpt that will change the disk boot record for you. It can cause a disk to get screwed so back up data before doing it. if your is disk is mbr, back up data and then use the tool to convert to gpt.

 

You should have CSM disabled and storage on uefi mode.

[David_Kwan]

1 hour ago, Whatisthis said:

That’s most likely your problem. You need UEFI bios instead of legacy. It’s a bit of a pain to switch over. You will need to get your current boot drive switched from mbr to gpt first (if it’s not gpt yet). Then turn off csm. Then it should work.

use an elevated command prompt and run diskpart then run listdisk to check the status of your disks. If they are all gpt then you are set. 
 

there is a windows tool mbr2gpt that will change the disk boot record for you. It can cause a disk to get screwed so back up data before doing it. if your is disk is mbr, back up data and then use the tool to convert to gpt.

 

You should have CSM disabled and storage on uefi mode.

I'm guessing all I need to do now is change csm to disabled? All my drives are GPT.

[Whatisthis]

12 minutes ago, David_Kwan said:

I'm guessing all I need to do now is change csm to disabled? All my drives are GPT.

Yes

[David_Kwan]

3 minutes ago, Whatisthis said:

Yes

Oh and storage boot option control to UEFI?

[David_Kwan]

Oh wait, disabling CSM removes the options to change storage boot option. I'll quickly test this out and see if I can install that crucial drive.

[David_Kwan]

Sadly that did not fix the issue... Vga light is on and I'm frozen on this screen again.

[Whatisthis]

18 minutes ago, David_Kwan said:

Sadly that did not fix the issue... Vga light is on and I'm frozen on this screen again.

Ugh. And again it doesn’t want to go to bios or give you a boot option I presume.

 

if that’s the case you either have a faulty drive or faulty mobo. 

Did it boot without the drive in uefi mode?

[David_Kwan]

7 minutes ago, Whatisthis said:

Ugh. And again it doesn’t want to go to bios or give you a boot option I presume.

Yes unfortunately...

 

8 minutes ago, Whatisthis said:

Did it boot without the drive in uefi mode?

Without the Crucial drive? Yes, it runs perfectly fine without it.

Should I return the settings back though?

 

8 minutes ago, Whatisthis said:

if that’s the case you either have a faulty drive or faulty mobo. 

I was hoping that wasn't the case... My brother in law got it from Taiwan, he will be heading back next month but probably won't come back in a while. Might just ask him to return it.