[SOLVED] Asus Dark Hero VIII Extreme NVME Issues

[Scotto811]

Hey everyone, I've got a weird issue I suspect is NOT related to HW, but Asus support wants me to send my MOBO in for repair. I'm going to do my best here and I know there are some obvious things like "You should have wiped and reinstalled windows" but I don't / didn't want to so I'm trying to work around it. Your thoughts and insight are very much appreciated.

I had a mediocre MSI MOBO, and decided I wanted to go "next level" and grab this VIII Extreme when I launched late last year.

When I was doing the swap I did not reinstall windows, and I just nuked drivers in safe mode and went from there.
Basic system specs: AMD 5900X - 64GB RAM (4x16)
I have 4 drives total;
1- Samsung 980 PRO NVME (W10 boot drive)
2- Samsung 970 PRO NVME

1. Samsung 870 EVO - SATA
2. Samsung 860 EVO - SATA

Drive 1 was installed under the OLED in NVME position 1
Drive 2 was installed in position 2, directly under the GPU
For purposes of conversation, drives 3 & 4 were installed in SATA ports, and ASUS confirmed they do not share bandwidth so these drives should NOT impact the operation of NVME, I won't discuss them again unless asked.

When I fired up the system, everything was working but Drive #2 was not showing up. I did some basic troubleshooting but could not find anything in bios or windows. I tried a couple different settings but ultimately decided to move Drive #2 to the vertical NVME position next to the RAM & CPU slots. WHAMMO! Drive appears, I'm happy and I just move on with my happy lil life.

I was able to secure the new ASUS ROG 3080TI LC model this week, so when I went to install it I was having clearance issues with the vertical NVME holder. I moved drive #2 to position 3 (below GPU and to the far right, different from the first attempt)

Boot up, Drive #2 missing again. Called ASUS, they want me to SEND MY MOBO IN FOR REPAIR, that's never going to happen. Asking for any other troubleshooting or advice in what I can change or look at to see if this is SW / settings related.

Thanks again!
Scotto-

 

[DSzymborski]

I guess the question is: what are you willing to do? Diagnosing a PC frequently involves having to do stuff you don't want to do. You're basically in the position of a person who just had a heart attack and now is asking the doctor "give me a solution that isn't surgery or diet."

 

[Scotto811]

I guess the question is: what are you willing to do? Diagnosing a PC frequently involves having to do stuff you don't want to do. You're basically in the position of a person who just had a heart attack and now is asking the doctor "give me a solution that isn't surgery or diet."

This isn't my first rodeo and modding & configuring PCs certainly isn't something I'm new at. While replacing the mobo is my last choice, if it's necessary it is what it is.

My issue here is they rushed to the "replace the part" scenario without any troubleshooting. So to clarify, I'm looking for any suggestions from the group here to see if anything else can be done. I'm not overly familiar with NVME settings as my professional position is more Linux and networking based.

On top of that, sending in a Mobo for repair isn't an option for me. A swap out is something I could potentially deal with but having my PC down for weeks because of their screw up is just plain insanity to me. On top of the fact that this is not a budget mobo, this is their top tier so I would expect that level of support.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

to enable "extra" M.2 support on my ASUS board,
in the BIOS you have to access:

Advanced > Onboard Devices Configuration > Advanced\Onboard Devices Configuration > CPU PCIe Configuration Mode

and select which combination of slots you want available.

 

[USAFRet]

When I was doing the swap I did not reinstall windows, and I just nuked drivers in safe mode and went from there.

Well, if it is not working, that is/was the problem.

Moving a drive+OS between systems often fails.

There is no magic to make it unfail.


Can you show us a screencap of your Disk Management window?

 

[Scotto811]

to enable "extra" M.2 support on my ASUS board,
in the BIOS you have to access:

Advanced > Onboard Devices Configuration > Advanced\Onboard Devices Configuration > CPU PCIe Configuration Mode

and select which combination of slots you want available.

That did it!! I knew there was something I was missing and it was just too strange that BOTH NVME drive slots were not working. You're the freakin' best!!!!!!

 

[Scotto811]

Well, if it is not working, that is/was the problem.

Moving a drive+OS between systems often fails.

There is no magic to make it unfail.


Can you show us a screencap of your Disk Management window?

Again, to my point why would it work fine in another slot then? Anyways, this is fixed in settings as marked above. OS installs are NOT necessary when changing a mobo. Everyone still stuck in this needs to try it and see. Most advanced windows users will actually just tell you to let windows sort it. It usually reboots 3/4 times to situate everything and comes up working fine. I went the extra step to remove all old drives in safe mode which is likely overkill but I still wanted to clean it up.

 

[USAFRet]

Again, to my point why would it work fine in another slot then? Anyways, this is fixed in settings as marked above. OS installs are NOT necessary when changing a mobo. Everyone still stuck in this needs to try it and see. Most advanced windows users will actually just tell you to let windows sort it. It usually reboots 3/4 times to situate everything and comes up working fine. I went the extra step to remove all old drives in safe mode which is likely overkill but I still wanted to clean it up.

sigh....

3 possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months

I've personally seen all 3.

Anyone who states it always works is delusional.

Good on you that it apparently worked in your system.

I'm out.

 

[DSzymborski]

Most advanced windows users will actually just tell you to let windows sort it.

No, not really. Maybe some absolutely lazy ones. The universal best practice is still a full wipe-and-reinstall for any build that's going to be used regularly (you obviously don't do it if you're doing things, like say, working a test bench). And it's an absolute no-brainer when you're actually running into a problem.