Question Cannot get system to recognize NVMe SSD (WD Blue SN550) - Been trying for days, replaced SSD Specs: H170 Pro Gaming Mobo, i7-7700k, Win10. PLS HELP!

[tburke89]

My system specs are as follows:
Asus H170 Pro Gaming Mobo
i7-7700K CPU
NVidia GTX 750
4x16GB DDR4-2666mhz (running @ 2133 right now)
Intel AX200 PCIe Expansion Card
128GB mSATA SSD
256GB mSATA SSD
500GB SATA HDD
(I know most of this is irrelevant just thought I'd include in the interest of thoroughness)

I ordered a WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD from Amazon last week and went to install the card on Wednesday. I was shocked to see the drive did not come with a screw, despite being an M2 drive... I did not have any spares laying around so I called WD and asked if it should have had a screw in the package. I was put on hold before being told it should have and I should exchange it at the place I purchased it. Instead I took apart an old PC and found a suitable screw and attempted to proceed with the installation.

After screwing in the drive and powering my system back on I immediately noticed that I could not the drive listed in the BIOS. I have a custom image of Windows made that also can not see it either.

I began tweaking BIOS settings per the instructions provided by ASUS; which only state that you need to make sure "Asus Hyper-Kit" is set to "Disabled" as well as changing the "M.2/SATA Express Detection Mode" from "Auto" to " Manual" --> "M.2".

I changed those settings, rebooted the system, but still could not see the drive. I read hundreds of posts online and spent most of the day trying to get this online, changing BIOS settings and rebooting over and over and over again to try to get my machine to recognize this drive. Finally, I concluded that the drive must be dead.

I called the Tech Support / Installation Help phone number that Amazon referred me to on my "Orders" page prior to opening a return request and spoke with the gentleman there for a while. He told me that I did all the steps correctly and if the drive was not working it must be dead, so Amazon sent out a new one that arrived this morning.

I opened up the new SN550 box and guess what the very first thing I noticed was? NO SCREW! It literally disgusts me that this company cares so little about their end users they do not care at all that they are selling drives that require extra hardware to install that they neither provide, nor sell, nor can they point their customers to somewhere that does. Where is one supposed to buy a single motherboard screw and why should they have to? ANYHOW the drive STILL IS NOT DETECTED! I am at my wits end with this. Does this mean that my entire motherboard is bad?? If so, the only component on the entire motherboard that has any problems whatsoever is this M.2 port.

Are my BIOS misconfigured?? I do not overclock. Everything is literally set to the Asus "Optimized Defaults" except for a few minor aesthetic changes and the aforementioned changed to the M.2/SATA Express settings....

It is getting close to a decade since I last professionally worked on computers but I used to run a repair shop and do stuff like this for a living. I admit that my know-how has become dated and much of the hardware and software I was proficient in is now obsolete but adding storage is literally the most elemental, basic, and low-level upgrade one could attempt and the fact that I have now spent about 20 hours of my times sweating, cursing, and hyper-focusing on this damn upgrade to have made 0.00% progress hurts my soul and heart on a level deeper than I could possibly convey ITT.

 

[Nemesia]

Hi tburke89.

Did you try unplugging the other drives to see if it's seen in the BIOS?

Look at your board manual. Some of the SATA port are disable when an M.2 is installed.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a custom image of Windows made that also can not see it either.

Where did this 'custom image' come from?

 

[USAFRet]

I opened up the new SN550 box and guess what the very first thing I noticed was? NO SCREW! It literally disgusts me that this company cares so little about their end users they do not care at all that they are selling drives that require extra hardware to install that they neither provide, nor sell, nor can they point their customers to somewhere that does.

Generally, that screw comes with the motherboard, not the drive.

 

[LordVile]

The screws come with the motherboard not the SSD… also have you initialised the drive?

 

[tburke89]

Generally, that screw comes with the motherboard, not the drive. Where did you get the ‘custom image’ from?

The screws come with the motherboard not the SSD… also have you initialised the drive?

If the screw for M.2 drives only comes with the motherboard, that is asinine. I bought this PC from someone else. I’ve installed M.2 network cards on laptops and they always came with the screw. This is my first NVMe drive (clearly). When I bought this PC pre owned it didn’t occur to me to demand the original bag of screws that came with the motherboard, else I would not be able to upgrade it, but if this industry has decided that’s a standard that makes sense and the customers accept it there’s no point in me sharing my opinion anyways. Except to say that’s literally the reason I called WD to ask, before being told explicitly that the drive is supposed to come with the screw. You’d think they could at least put a note on the box letting people know everything needed to install the drive is NOT included….

Where did I get the custom image?

I made it. I slipstreamed my Windows updates, some registry entries, and all of my drivers into a bootable Win10 Pro image. The NVMe drive is not listed when I boot into the image (via a USB drive) , when I boot into Windows and look in disk manager, or anywhere in the BIOS.

I just went through the full ASUS tutorial on what to do instead and I forgot to mention that Compatibility Support Mode (CSM) needs to be enabled, WHICH IT IS.

This drive is listed explicitly as one of the NVMe drives that is supposed to work with this motherboard.

I guess I’ll have to take pics of all my BIOS settings and upload them here. I had plans with my wife and kids to go to our local craft fair but I just told them to go without me I’m way too angry and consumed by this and I’m close to unironically throwing the whole tower out my window and going Office Space on it….

 

[tburke89]

I forgot to answer if the drive is initialized. No. If I understand what you mean… As of now I have not been able to detect either of the brand new M.2 drives I now have.

Also, I am aware that my motherboard shares a PCIe lane between the SATA express and M.2 ports so that only one can be enabled at a time and as such there are no devices plugged into either of the SATA Express ports…

I find it very difficult to believe that the motherboard is faulty or broken when it comes to NVMe drives, but everything else works well. About as unlikely as me getting two dead SN550 drives from Amazon back to back. I am aware that 99% of the time the issue lay on the user side of the keyboard but I am completely stumped here

 

[GoofyOne]

Earlier this year I found my existing NVMe 256GB SSD was not recognized by the brand new motherboard I purchased. After alot of mucking about (and swearing ... fortunately the motherboard had the sense to not talk back to me) , it began working fine after I performed a BIOS update.

I don't know if that is your issue, but just a possibility. Do you have the latest BIOS and chipset (firmware) drivers?


{GoofyOne's 2c worth ... which may or may not be actually worth 2c}