M.2 SSD not recognised by MSI B150i

TastyWheat · July 20, 2016

I'm putting together a PC to process drone imagery, and I've hit a problem where a Samsung EVO 850 M.2 SSD isn't being recognised by a MSI B150i motherboard. This is the first system I've built with an M.2 drive, so I'm hoping it might be something obvious.

System Specs:

MB: MSI B150i LGA1151 with Intel B150 chipset

CPU: Intel i7 6700

Ram: 2 x 16GB Corsair CMK32GX4M2A2400C14R DDR4 Vengeance LPX

GPU: Gainward GTX 1070 Phoenix 8GB

Power: SilverStone ST54F-G 650W

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO M.2 500GB

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

I've updated the BIOS to the latest version (E7995IMS.140, build date 16th May 2016). No other SATA devices are connected. First attempts were made with the BIOS in UEFI mode. I'm using a UEFI enabled USB drive to install Windows.

What I've tried:

Re-seating the M.2 drive.

Under the BIOS Windows config (Settings\Advanced\Windows OS Configuration) I've tried every combination of 'Windows 8.1/10 WHQL Support' (Enabled/Disabled), 'Windows 7 Installation' (Enabled/Disabled), 'MSI Fast Boot' (Disabled), 'Fast Boot' (Enabled/Disabled), 'Secure Boot Support' (Enabled/Disabled), 'Secure Boot Mode' (Standard/Custom), and setting/clearing Secure Boot keys. I've adjusted the boot mode select (via Settings\Boot) to both 'UEFI', and 'Legacy + UEFI'.

The only PCI-E options available in the BIOS (via Settings\Advanced\PCI Subsystem Settings) are 'PEG0' (Auto, Gen1, Gen2, Gen3) and PCI Latency Timer (32 PCI Bus Clocks ... 248 PCI Bus Clocks). Not that it should matter, but I've tried manually setting the PCI-E speed to Gen1, Gen2, and Gen3 with low, mid, and high latency settings.

I've thoroughly searched through every menu option in the BIOS, and can't find any mention of M.2 drives, or relevant settings. As far as I'm aware, MSI have no supporting documentation for their BIOS that may shed some light on the situation. The drive is not recognised in the BIOS, the boot menu, or via the Windows 10 setup menu. I've searched through Google, and found others with the same problem, but no potential solutions.

What am I missing? Is it possible the 850 EVO drive isn't compatible with the Intel B150 chipset? Is there anything else that would be worthwhile trying? I've attached some photos to show BIOS options and settings, as well as the boot menu and Windows Install menu.

Thx And Bye · July 20, 2016

You have done no research on M.2 in any possible way.

M.2 Supports normal SATA interface and the PCIe interface.

Your mainboard only supports PCIe on the M.2 M.2/M-Key (PCIe 3.0 x4, 2280/2260/2242) and you have bought a SATA M.2 SSD M.2/B-M-Key (SATA 6Gb/s), so there is no way they can work together.

You either have to get a normal 2.5" SATA Samsung EVO or a M.2 SSD that supports PCIe. The Samsung 950 Pro for example.