M.2 Upgrade to Omen PC

[Deadrewski]

Hey guys! My dad recently bought an HP Omen 880-160SE gaming desktop, and we tried plugging in a WD Blue 500 GB M.2 SSD. It's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526611509&sr=8-1&keywords=M.2+SSD+WD+500. We started up the computer with pre-built hardware, configured Windows and then created a backup to boot from. Only problem is, we can't even get the bios to boot with the M.2 plugged in. No screen, no graphics, nothing. 

Is this SSD card incompatible with the HP Omen we purchased? If so, we need to know soon so we can return the drive and purchase a compatible one. We talked with WD; their "customer support" couldn't tell that an M.2 was an "internal drive" and said that if changing the boot sequence didn't fix it, it's a Microsoft problem.  HP tech support didn't understand what an M.2 drive was, and we talked to them both before and after purchasing the desktop, and they've been equally unhelpful both times. Does anyone know a good resource for this? Or can answer this themselves?

[Qwright10]

I'm guessing you have a SATA Hard Drive or SSD, correct? I had some incompatibility issue where the M.2 drive and SATA hard drive couldn't both be active because they share PCI-E bandwidth or something.

[Deadrewski]

Quote

I'm guessing you have a SATA Hard Drive or SSD, correct? I had some incompatibility issue where the M.2 drive and SATA hard drive couldn't both be active because they share PCI-E bandwidth or something.

Oh, that's weird. Thanks! I will have to look into that. 

[RollTime]

The WD Blue is a SATA SSD and not NVMe. Do you have another hard drive plugged in?

 

Can anyone confirm that the Omen supports NVMe? That shouldn't really be an issue.

 

Go to the bios and send us a picture.

[RollTime]

Just now, Deadrewski said:

Oh, that's weird. Thanks! I will have to look into that. 

You have to quote @Qwright10 for him to notice :). Just FYI.

[Deadrewski]

3 minutes ago, RollTime said:

The WD Blue is a SATA SSD and not NVMe. Do you have another hard drive plugged in?

 

Can anyone confirm that the Omen supports NVMe? That shouldn't really be an issue.

 

Go to the bios and send us a picture.

Right, is the fact that it's an SSD an issue? I'm sorry, the m.2 technology confuses me a little. I've been in low budget PC stuff for so long, I've forgotten to keep up with this.

[Qwright10]

Just now, Deadrewski said:

Right, is the fact that it's an SSD an issue? I'm sorry, the m.2 technology confuses me a little. I've been in low budget PC stuff for so long, I've forgotten to keep up with this.

Th drive being an SSD doesn't make a difference, it's just the interface (?) (like SATA or PCIe). M.2 is just the form factor, an M.2 drive uses PCIe lanes for a more direct connection to the CPU. Anyways, your M.2/PCIe drive/SSD is about the size of a stick of gum.

[Deadrewski]

Just now, Qwright10 said:

Th drive being an SSD doesn't make a difference, it's just the interface (?) (like SATA or PCIe). M.2 is just the form factor, an M.2 drive uses PCIe lanes for a more direct connection to the CPU. Anyways, your M.2/PCIe drive/SSD is about the size of a stick of gum.

Correct, I'm quite familiar with that from having removed and reinstalling the drive continuously for both HP and WD tech "support." They both failed to resolve the issue, but they did ask us to remove the drive and try changing the boot order and a few other things. Which is why I wondered about compatibility issues, but when I asked about it, both tech teams changed the subject and refused to answer.

[Qwright10]

Just now, Deadrewski said:

Correct, I'm quite familiar with that from having removed and reinstalling the drive continuously for both HP and WD tech "support." They both failed to resolve the issue, but they did ask us to remove the drive and try changing the boot order and a few other things. Which is why I wondered about compatibility issues, but when I asked about it, both tech teams changed the subject and refused to answer.

What exactly did they change the subjec to? @Deadrewski

[Deadrewski]

6 minutes ago, Qwright10 said:

What exactly did they change the subjec to? @Deadrewski

@Qwright10 The WD asked to put me on hold to consult her resources, then gave me a bit of an ultimatum: "change the boot sequence. If that doesn't fix it, it's Microsoft's problem." The HP person went back to the sequence of troubleshooting that they were suggesting before as if I'd said nothing at all, as if they were ignoring me. 

[RollTime]

43 minutes ago, Qwright10 said:

Th drive being an SSD doesn't make a difference, it's just the interface (?) (like SATA or PCIe). M.2 is just the form factor, an M.2 drive uses PCIe lanes for a more direct connection to the CPU. Anyways, your M.2/PCIe drive/SSD is about the size of a stick of gum.

Actually it's SATA.

[RollTime]

32 minutes ago, Deadrewski said:

@Qwright10 The WD asked to put me on hold to consult her resources, then gave me a bit of an ultimatum: "change the boot sequence. If that doesn't fix it, it's Microsoft's problem." The HP person went back to the sequence of troubleshooting that they were suggesting before as if I'd said nothing at all, as if they were ignoring me. 

Can we see your bios and have some info about what other drives are in your system?

[Deadrewski]

11 minutes ago, RollTime said:

Can we see your bios and have some info about what other drives are in your system?

I would, but it's my dad's computer, and he's done fiddling with it for the night. I will be happy to share once we try to tackle it more tomorrow. 

Thanks so much for all the help so far!

[Deadrewski]

He's already shipping it back. HP tech says it's a bad motherboard. Thanks for the help @RollTime and @Qwright10! I'm not sure HP tech is correct, but my dad is paying the extra $300 for the one that comes with an SSD m.2 already installed. I was just hoping to help save him some money, but it cost too much time instead. 

[RollTime]

1 hour ago, Deadrewski said:

He's already shipping it back. HP tech says it's a bad motherboard. Thanks for the help @RollTime and @Qwright10! I'm not sure HP tech is correct, but my dad is paying the extra $300 for the one that comes with an SSD m.2 already installed. I was just hoping to help save him some money, but it cost too much time instead. 

OK, if that solves your problem.