[SOLVED] Computer is not recognizing NVME SSD

[Cityfans135]

I just installed a Samsung 980 NVME SSD into my MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard which I purchased new in 2016. I am aware that this board will bottleneck the speed, I'll upgrade the CPU/MOBO next year, I just wanted to get a fast drive to use once I upgrade.

Anyways, neither BIOS nor Windows see the SSD. In BIOS it just says "Not Present". According the the motherboard specifications, it supports M.2 PCIe 10Gb/s. Could it be trying to use SATA instead? (Also SATA 5 and 6 are empty, not that it matters for PCIe)
I've seen several other Tom's Hardware and Reddit threads where people have gotten it to work, but no matter what I try it just doesn't show up anywhere. I've also tried using Samsung's NVME driver but it wont install because it doesn't see the SSD either.

What do you think the issue is here?

Thanks

EDIT: I forgot a few details, I'm on Windows 10 and It's not a boot drive. I just want it as more storage.

 

[SkyNetRising]

What windows version?
Windows 7 for example doesn't support NVME natively. Specific hotfixes and NVME drivers need to be installed to add NVME support.

Also Sata controller has to be set to AHCI.

 

[USAFRet]

Have you updated to the most recent non-beta BIOS?

Are you wanting to use this as the OS drive?

 

[USAFRet]

And buying a drive now, for use in a future system, is rarely a cost saving measure.

Drives rarely go up in price over time.

 

[Cityfans135]

What windows version?
Windows 7 for example doesn't support NVME natively. Specific hotfixes and NVME drivers need to be installed to add NVME support.

Should have clarified, I'm on Windows 10 and It's not a boot drive, just for game storage.

 

[USAFRet]

Which BIOS version?

v1.9 specifically speaks to NVMe drive compatibility.
https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z97-GAMING-5

 

[Cityfans135]

Have you updated to the most recent non-beta BIOS?

Are you wanting to use this as the OS drive?

I have Bios version 1.12, which I believe is listed as version 1.C on the website (August 2015). Also I'm not wanting to use it as a boot drive, just game storage. Chipset drivers are up to date as well.

 

[Cityfans135]

Which BIOS version?

v1.9 specifically speaks to NVMe drive compatibility.
https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z97-GAMING-5

See my other reply about bios versions.
I'm going to test it on my brother's B450 board just to make sure it's not a "dead on arrival" ssd. But yeah, everything seems like it should work so it's very strange...
Thanks for the help, I'll update with my findings later!