Asus 970 Pro M.2 Boot

[Michamus]

Hi everyone!

 

I'm at my wits end on getting the Samsung Evo 850 M.2 drive to be bootable on my wife's Asus 970 Pro Gaming/Aura board. First off, I removed the SATA plugs for the HDD and DVD-RW drives. I've tried going into the CSM and disabling it. I've  also tried swapping the UEFI settings to Legacy. None of it seems to make the UEFI Windows 10 Pro Boot Drive detect the M.2 drive. When the USB Boot Drive isn't in the USB slot, the bios simply informs me that the bios is not configured to utilize the current boot device and to go to the CSM to configure it. What am I missing?

[Morgan MLGman]

Off topic: A 970 board with a 9590? Although it's a new model and seems awesome, I smell toast...

[Michamus]

Just now, Morgan MLGman said:

Off topic: A 970 board with a 9590? Although it's a new model and seems awesome, I smell toast...

It's on the Asus list of compatible CPUs. It seems to have been running it just fine so far, just a little too hot for my current air cooler.

[Morgan MLGman]

Just now, Michamus said:

It's on the Asus list of compatible CPUs. It seems to have been running it just fine so far, just a little too hot for my current air cooler.

I'm talking more about VRMs than the cooler itself =)

6+2 power phase, while I'd say that a 9590 should have an 8+2 one

[Michamus]

7 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I'm talking more about VRMs than the cooler itself =)

6+2 power phase, while I'd say that a 9590 should have an 8+2 one

I guess I can be a case study. lol

[Morgan MLGman]

Just now, Michamus said:

I guess I can be a case study. lol

Not sure what that means to be fair, though I recommend you run a stress test on your wife's rig, and check whether your CPU throttles or not due to VRMs overheating/not being sufficient, just to be certain that everything's fine

[Sintezza]

2 hours ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I'm talking more about VRMs than the cooler itself =)

6+2 power phase, while I'd say that a 9590 should have an 8+2 one

should basicly be fine.

The Asus 970A Pro gaming/Aura is exaly a pretty  sollid motherboard.

Its a very rarely seen 7+1 powerphase digi vrm from IR / Chill

Mosfets used on this particular board are decent namely NTMFS4C09N and 2xNTMFS4C06N.

The inductors are not the highest quality that Asus has in stock.

But they are still sufficient.

 

Here is a topic about what crazyness this particular board can do.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1591829/fx-8370-and-pro-gaming-aura-asus-mb-overclocking

 

Still it has nothing to do with the boot issue ofc.

Sorry for OT.

[Michamus]

37 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

should basicly be fine.

The Asus 970A Pro gaming/Aura is exaly a pretty  sollid motherboard.

Its a very rarely seen 7+1 powerphase digi vrm from IR / Chill

Mosfets used on this particular board are decent namely NTMFS4C09N and 2xNTMFS4C06N.

The inductors are not the highest quality that Asus has in stock.

But they are still sufficient.

 

Here is a topic about what crazyness this particular board can do.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1591829/fx-8370-and-pro-gaming-aura-asus-mb-overclocking

 

Still it has nothing to do with the boot issue ofc.

Sorry for OT.

Thanks for all the info!

 

I'm thinking I should pull the M.2 SSD out and do a physical analysis of the slot and the M.2 SSD. If they look okay, I'll just pop it in my rig's M.2 slot and see if it detects it. If not, then I know it's a bad SSD. If it does, then I know there's something wrong with either the board setup or the socket.

 

I just wish her's had been as easy as mine.

[Michamus]

Update:

 

I took the M.2 SSD out of my wife's Asus 970 Pro board and put it in my Gigabyte board. The M.2 SSD was detected without issue.

 

I performed a physical inspection of the Asus M.2 port and the pins appear to be in good alignment. So, at this point it's either a faulty board, or some crazy settings to enable it.

 

I'm going to contact Asus support and troubleshoot it.

[Sintezza]

You could try to update the bios, if you not allready did that.

For the rest i found this video that might help.

 

 

[done12many2]

17 hours ago, Michamus said:

Update:

 

I took the M.2 SSD out of my wife's Asus 970 Pro board and put it in my Gigabyte board. The M.2 SSD was detected without issue.

 

I performed a physical inspection of the Asus M.2 port and the pins appear to be in good alignment. So, at this point it's either a faulty board, or some crazy settings to enable it.

 

I'm going to contact Asus support and troubleshoot it.

The reason it's not working is that the 850 Evo M.2 is a M.2 SATA SSD and not a M.2 PCIe SSD.  You wife's motherboard only supports M.2 PCIe SSD and apparently your Gigabyte supports both.  One of my boards, supports both M.2 SSD types, but my newer Asus X99 Deluxe board does not support M.2 SATA.

 

Unfortunately the 850 Evo M.2 is only manufactured in the M.2 SATA variant.

 

Hope this helped and good luck!

 

 

[Michamus]

12 hours ago, done12many2 said:

The reason it's not working is that the 850 Evo M.2 is a M.2 SATA SSD and not a M.2 PCIe SSD.  You wife's motherboard only supports M.2 PCIe SSD and apparently your Gigabyte supports both.  One of my boards, supports both M.2 SSD types, but my newer Asus X99 Deluxe board does not support M.2 SATA.

 

Unfortunately the 850 Evo M.2 is only manufactured in the M.2 SATA variant.

 

Hope this helped and good luck!

 

[Snipped]

I have contacted Asus and they said the board is compatible with the M.2 850 Evo, which is a 2280 M.2 SSD. Also, the setup passed PCPartpicker's compatibility test.

 

The Asus tech suggested I update the bios (which I did) and change the PCIEx8_4 and M.2 Configuration from Auto to M.2 in the Onboard Devices Configuration. I can't seem to find this setting, so I've sent an e-mail verifying that 2.10.1208 is the latest bios version. I'll let you guys know what else needs to be done or if that resolves it.

[done12many2]

47 minutes ago, Michamus said:

I have contacted Asus and they said the board is compatible with the M.2 850 Evo, which is a 2280 M.2 SSD. Also, the setup passed PCPartpicker's compatibility test.

 

The Asus tech suggested I update the bios (which I did) and change the PCIEx8_4 and M.2 Configuration from Auto to M.2 in the Onboard Devices Configuration. I can't seem to find this setting, so I've sent an e-mail verifying that 2.10.1208 is the latest bios version. I'll let you guys know what else needs to be done or if that resolves it.

Asus CS reps are known for talking out of their asses and just say yes to a lot of stuff.  I wish I could tell you that if they said so,  then you're okay, but I'd be lying to you. 

 

Like I said earlier, I'm fairly confident that your wife's board supports M.2 PCIe, but not M.2 SATA, which is what the 850 Evo M.2 is.

 

Unfortunately, you can't just flash a BIOS update to turn on a feature that was never there.  The manual says it only supports M.2 PCIe and the website currently still shows M.2 PCIe.  While they could both be wrong, I'd definitely believe that info before I believe an Asus customer service rep.

 

This isn't an entirely bad thing.  M.2 PCIe is better than M.2 SATA, it just doesn't work out for your current situation. 

 

I wish you the best and sorry if I was right.  You'd just be yet another customer overly impressed with Asus CS.

 

The first attachment is Asus' website showing M.2 support for the board in question.  The second attachment is Samsung's website for the 850 Evo M.2. 

 

You were also right that it is definitely a 2280 M.2 SSD, but it's a 2280 M.2 SATA SSD, not a 2280 M.2 PCIe SSD.  They are pretty much identical, but the way they communicate with the motherboard/chipset is different.  Additionally the 850 Evo M.2 is a B + M Key, where as most PCIe SSDs are M Key only.  Technically, the B + M Key is physically compatible with more devices than just an M Key, but it must be the right SSD type. 

[done12many2]

Here's Asus' QVL for the 970 Pro Gaming/Aura.  Scroll down to paragraph 2.3 M.2 SSD.  You'll note that that under "Type" they list PCIe and further provide a list of tested and compatible M.2 PCIe SSDs.

970_PRO_GAMING_AURA_Device_QVL_Test_Report (1).pdf

[Michamus]

1 hour ago, done12many2 said:

You'd just be yet another customer overly impressed with Asus CS.

Interesting you mention that, since my board specs say the same thing for the M.2 slot, only PCIE x2/x1. Also, the only reason I went with the Asus board is because the only other option for M.2 was ASRock. Also, I wouldn't consider myself overly impressed, seeing as the advice I was given was to update the bios and change a setting that doesn't exist. I personally prefer Gigabyte, seeing as they always perform the way you want, right out of the box and can take anything you dish at them.

 

If this ends up being the case though (which it's looking like it is), I'll just RMA the 850 EVO M.2 and get the PCIe one. I just wish there were more boards that supported the 9590.

[Michamus]

Update:

 

Just got off the phone with a tech and apparently the board only supports the M.2 drive as a storage device and is not bootable. Also, there currently isn't a driver for Windows 10 that allows utilization of the M.2 port.

[Sintezza]

On 14-4-2016 at 3:36 PM, done12many2 said:

The reason it's not working is that the 850 Evo M.2 is a M.2 SATA SSD and not a M.2 PCIe SSD.  You wife's motherboard only supports M.2 PCIe SSD and apparently your Gigabyte supports both.  One of my boards, supports both M.2 SSD types, but my newer Asus X99 Deluxe board does not support M.2 SATA.

 

Unfortunately the 850 Evo M.2 is only manufactured in the M.2 SATA variant.

 

Hope this helped and good luck!

 

 

 

Yes you are exaly correct.

it realy depends on the motherboard which kind of m.2 drives it supports.

Sata and pci-e protcols are not inter-compatible.

And therefor you need to double check your motherboards specification, which drivers the m.2 slot supports.

[awesomeness10120]

13 hours ago, Michamus said:

Update:

 

Just got off the phone with a tech and apparently the board only supports the M.2 drive as a storage device and is not bootable. Also, there currently isn't a driver for Windows 10 that allows utilization of the M.2 port.

The 970 Pro Gaming Board supports only PCIE drives and not SATA drives. It simply will never work:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/970-PRO-GAMING-AURA/specifications/

The specs never mention SATA support.

[Michamus]

9 hours ago, awesomeness10120 said:

The 970 Pro Gaming Board supports only PCIE drives and not SATA drives. It simply will never work:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/970-PRO-GAMING-AURA/specifications/

The specs never mention SATA support.

This simply isn't true. There's quite a few good resource you can check-out that go over the various compatibility factors of M.2 sockets. A M/B key SATA drive is compatible with a M-key and B-key slot, even if it is a SATA M.2. The key is what determines the compatibility. All the Asus specs are saying is "You can get the full capability from a M key PCI-E x4 slot on our boards!" Which is cool, considering the vast majority of boards are x2 (like mine).

 

https://www.ramcity.com.au/blog/m.2-ngff-ssd-compatibility-list/189

Quote

An M.2 SSD socket can only have one type of key, but an M.2 SSD drive can have keyways cut for multiple keys if it supports those socket types. Key ID B (pins 12-19) gives PCIe SSDs up to two lanes (PCIe x2) of connectivity and key ID M (pins 59-66) provides PCIe SSDs with up to four lanes (PCIe x4) of connectivity and correspondingly higher performance. Note also that both B and M keys can accommodate SATA devices. 

 

[Michamus]

9 hours ago, awesomeness10120 said:

The 970 Pro Gaming Board supports only PCIE drives and not SATA drives. It simply will never work:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/970-PRO-GAMING-AURA/specifications/

The specs never mention SATA support.

Yeah, it sucks. I'll just have to get her a PCI-E M.2.

[done12many2]

52 minutes ago, Michamus said:

This simply isn't true. There's quite a few good resource you can check-out that go over the various compatibility factors of M.2 sockets. A M/B key SATA drive is compatible with a M-key and B-key slot, even if it is a SATA M.2. The key is what determines the compatibility. All the Asus specs are saying is "You can get the full capability from a M key PCI-E x4 slot on our boards!" Which is cool, considering the vast majority of boards are x2 (like mine).

 

https://www.ramcity.com.au/blog/m.2-ngff-ssd-compatibility-list/189

 

 

The highlighted portion of the article from the link you provided is the most important portion with regards to compatibility in your case.  Your wife will get more out of M.2 PCIe anyways so no real loss there. 

 

 

[Michamus]

22 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

 

The highlighted portion of the article from the link you provided is the most important portion with regards to compatibility in your case.  Your wife will get more out of M.2 PCIe anyways so no real loss there. 

 

 

Yeah, I read that part too and felt like an idiot because I had already posted my dumb-ass comment. Removed it and put in the part I did. You're right about her getting a lot more performance out of the M.2 PCI-E though.

[done12many2]

The point is self explanatory to anyone who reads through this thread.  Good luck.

 

[Michamus]

Just now, done12many2 said:

The point is self explanatory to anyone who reads through this thread.  Good luck.

 

You're confusing.

[BlueTemplar]

On 4/17/2016 at 4:28 AM, Michamus said:

Update:

 

Just got off the phone with a tech and apparently the board only supports the M.2 drive as a storage device and is not bootable. Also, there currently isn't a driver for Windows 10 that allows utilization of the M.2 port.

Hello. Here's my (recent) experience, some might find it helpful.

 

I was somewhat worried when I read in 970's manual that 

Quote

M.2 only supports data storage (page 1-25 of the manual)

Especially when I've seen posts in other forums telling that they couldn't boot with their M.2's (on this one and other motherboards)!

 

But after updating my BIOS to the latest version (of around december 2016) I could install and boot Windows 10 on my M.2 PCIe Samsung 960 EVO without any problems.

(Though I didn't try to install/boot before updating the BIOS.)

(Also, I'm fairly certain there was a compatibility/enabling M.2 setting in the BIOS before updating it, now I can't seem to find it anymore, maybe because it's working well enough now?)