[SOLVED] 970 EVO plus NVME M.2 not detected in BIOS

[Toms_lee]

Hello, there!
I stumbled upon some weird problem when installing my new m.2 NVME drive and thought that someone could help me here..
Before I continue, here are my pc specs:
MB - MSI B350M gaming plus (with 1 m.2 slot)
CPU - Ryzen 7 1700
GPU - MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB
RAM - 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 (8gbx2)
SSD - Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB
HDD - Western Digital 1TB
And recently I installed fresh 970EVO plus m.2 NVME drive to replace my main SSD drive. For some reason new NVME drive is not showing up either in BIOS or disk management. I've read multiple threads about this problem and already have tried these options:

1. Tried taking out and putting back my NVME drive.
2. Checked if I have ACHI mode on in BIOS settings.
3. Checked if my BIOS has latest version (it has).
4. Tried downgrading BIOS.
5. Tried disconnecting other SATA drives to see if NVME drive magically shows up in Windows installation setup. (No success)
6. Checked if my new drive is broken on other PC (which has B450M gaming plus motherboard) and it seemed to work perfectly fine on other pc.
7. Lastly I tried to install Samsung express NVME drivers, but upon installation process I received error message: Device is not connected.

As you can see I've tried a lot of things and NVME drive is still not visible... Currently I'm running out of options, the only thing I can think of is messing around with other BIOS settings, but I'm not very well familiar what they all are responsible for.
I wanted to mention as well that there is no visible damage on motherboard and m.2 slot and everything besides NVME seems to work perfectly fine.
Thank you in advance and sorry for my English 😀

 

[geofelt]

First Install the samsung nvme driver.

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

If your intent is to clone the old drive to the new, try running the samsung ssd migration app.
It should find the 970.

 

[Toms_lee]

First Install the samsung nvme driver.

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

If your intent is to clone the old drive to the new, try running the samsung ssd migration app.
It should find the 970.

Thank you for reply, but as I mentioned above, I've already tried downloading samsung nvme driver. It just ends up displaying error message: "Device is not connected" so it won't let me download the driver. Samsung Data Migration tool cannot detect drive either, so unfortunately this will not help in this situation.

 

[geofelt]

A couple last things to check before returning the ssd as defective.

Are you certain that you have inserted the 970 properly into the m.2 slot and screwed it down to secure the connection? Try reinserting.

Read your motherboard manual carefully.
pcie m.2 devices need extra bandwidth. Where you installed your other ssd devices may have had an impact.
Some ports may get disabled.

 

[Pextaxmx]

just speculative thoughts - Samsung makes their own controller and if motherboard firmware needs to program specifically for each popular controller, I think Samsung controller likely won't get higher priority over controller specific brands like phison, marvell etc.. thus we see more questions like this.

 

[Toms_lee]

A couple last things to check before returning the ssd as defective.

Are you certain that you have inserted the 970 properly into the m.2 slot and screwed it down to secure the connection? Try reinserting.

Read your motherboard manual carefully.
pcie m.2 devices need extra bandwidth. Where you installed your other ssd devices may have had an impact.
Some ports may get disabled.

Drive is inserted properly. As you said that other ssd devices may have had an impact - I tried removing all drives, including old SSD and HDD, just leaving the new NVME by itself and nothing changed so I don't think that switching SATA ports would do the trick anyways... One thing that is preventing me from returning this NVME drive to seller is that it worked on other PC, I just plugged it in and it instantly appeared in BIOS and disk management.

 

[geofelt]

I missed the part where it worked on another pc. Sorry about that.
You obviously know how to install the drive properly and did not insert it upside down.
The drive, itself seems to be good.

Your processor is a gen 1 unit, and ryzen is sensitive to the processors installed. Possibly, there is something to that.
It looks like the motherboard can also support sata m.2 drives.
Is there a setting in the bios that sets the m.2 slot to pcie vs. sata?

Do you have another m.2 ssd to try in the slot?
Perhaps the slot has been defective all along?

It might be worth contacting msi and samsung support with this issue.

 

[Toms_lee]

I missed the part where it worked on another pc. Sorry about that.
You obviously know how to install the drive properly and did not insert it upside down.
The drive, itself seems to be good.

Your processor is a gen 1 unit, and ryzen is sensitive to the processors installed. Possibly, there is something to that.
It looks like the motherboard can also support sata m.2 drives.
Is there a setting in the bios that sets the m.2 slot to pcie vs. m.2?

Do you have another m.2 ssd to try in the slot?
Perhaps the slot has been defective all along?

It might be worth contacting msi and samsung support with this issue.

Unfortunately I don't have second M.2 NVME drive (this is my first ever). I've been thinking what you said about ryzen processors. The thing is - my pc has 1st gen Ryzen and other pc (on which drive worked) has 2nd gen Ryzen, maybe that could really be the case either it's issue with my current motherboard. Will try switching processors/motherboards and see if it makes any difference. Thank you for idea!

 

[geofelt]

Unfortunately I don't have second M.2 NVME drive (this is my first ever). I've been thinking what you said about ryzen processors. The thing is - my pc has 1st gen Ryzen and other pc (on which drive worked) has 2nd gen Ryzen, maybe that could really be the case either it's issue with my current motherboard. Will try switching processors/motherboards and see if it makes any difference. Thank you for idea!

Good you have the ability to try.
Unfortunately, about the only way to diagnose pc hardware issues is by inspired guessing and switching with known good parts.

Are the motherboard chipset drivers up to date?

 

[novus111]

I had the exact same issue with my 980 Pro. I ended up formatting the drive and then followed these steps, found in a forum, exactly:
The background here is NVME SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver.

Guide for installing Windows 10:

1- The M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.

2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable ISO of Windows 10 on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also.

6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

7 - Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode. (see #3 above)

10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

I would also recommend installing the Samsung NVME driver at this point to replace the Windows one. (optional)

Hope that works for you.

 

[Toms_lee]

I had the exact same issue with my 980 Pro. I ended up formatting the drive and then followed these steps, found in a forum, exactly:
The background here is NVME SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver.

Guide for installing Windows 10:

1- The M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.

2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable ISO of Windows 10 on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also.

6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

7 - Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode. (see #3 above)

10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

I would also recommend installing the Samsung NVME driver at this point to replace the Windows one. (optional)

Hope that works for you.

Thank you for reply. But unfortunately this doesn't work for me either.
So I've tried to replace my MSI B350m gaming pro mb with MSI B450M Gaming Plus using the same Ryzen 7 1700 CPU and all SATA drives were connected. M.2 was showing up in BIOS and windows. Not sure what is the problem with B350M mb, but I guess I'm out of options, nothing - even changing BIOS settings, flashing and taking out CMOS- didn't help me at all... B350M official website says that it supports the type of M.2 I tried to install, but in reality it is not working. Hard to say about slot itself - M.2 fits fine and nothing seems to be broken. I guess I will have to buy new motherboard then (warranty time is over).

 

[Toms_lee]

For an update: ended up buying new Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite v2 motherboard and everything seems to work fine now. Conclusion for this thread - most probably B350M gaming pro MB was defective.