Question Installed an additional NVMe M.2, Computer WILL NOT boot into bios nor windows

[MrSix18]

So.. First off, this is a nightmare!! 😡

Tonight I installed an Additional M.2 drive, its a 970 pro 512gb NVMe PCIe Drive. When installed my computer WILL NOT boot into windows, the bios, or even turn anything in my case on except for my CPU cooler RGB and my Corsair RGB ram, everything else.. including everything even in the USB ports (keyboard even) would not work. The computer tried to kick on, but wouldn't post, shut itself down, and repeated that process until I had enough and about had a heart attack and stopped it.

I currently have 1. 860 Evo m.2 (sata) drive installed with my OS. I'm not wanting this 970 pro NVMe to be the boot drive, as of now at least. Once I get it to work ill worry about the data migration or clone. But for right now I have the 860 Evo m.2 installed with the OS and a few minor other applications and software, along with a 1TB 860 Evo 2.5" SSD, a 4TB Toshiba N300 HDD, and a 2TB Seagate barracuda pro for games and software. I checked my motherboard manufacturer to insure that BOTH M.2 Ports are PCIe enabled and yes they are. BUT there's two M.2 Slots on my mother board, the first slot being a 22110 (the big gum stick m.2) which I confirmed with gigabyte tech support that my 970 Pro NVMe will work in the bigger slot (since its only a 2280 Size) and they said it absolutely will and it will not disable any sata ports I'm currently using because its PCIe not Sata. and I also only have 1 RTX 2060 XC Ultra installed so I'm not using up all of the PCIe lanes either.

So as you can tell I sort of did my homework here, and then bought the drive, but unfortunately it still wouldn't boot into bios. I did not uninstall the already installed 860 Evo M.2 that currently has the OS, I just added the 970 pro NVMe as an additional drive to the open 22110 port.

so I'm left with what do I do now to make it work?

1. make a bootable USB stick with the current m.2 that's installed now (the 860 Evo)
2. uninstall the current M.2 that has the OS on it, and replace it with the new 970pro NVMe
3. try to boot off the USB stick in bios if it works.
4. Copy my OS to the new NVMe
5. do without the leftover 860 Evo m.2???

id like to keep both m.2 sticks if possible. but just don't understand why when I tried to install the 970 Pro in the bigger m.2 slot, with the 860 Evo and my OS already installed (and obviously working fine) in the smaller m.2 slot.....it wouldn't boot...

frustrated as Heck right now and could really use some insight as I cant find a definitive answer anywhere, thanks in advance for the help
just in case you didnt figure it out already lol im a newb at this, this is only my 4th PC build ever so im slowly but surely getting it, just not up to speed with the Booting/os/bios stuff lol -just got the overclocking to all 8 cores on my 9700k thats small fft prime95 stable-down a week or so ago lol so yeah I'm that new..

I posted a picture of a screenshot of my motherboard manual page if that will help explain some things, i currently have the 860 Evo installed in the "M2M" slot and the M2A slot is the open one i tried installing the 970 Pro NVMe drive into but again, computer wouldnt post and wouldnt even turn on.
thanks in advance for any replies!

https://imgur.com/a/5pKyqev

 

[SkyNetRising]

Do some troubleshooting:

disable all OC - cpu and ram (xmp off);​

disconnect all drives;​

install 970 pro (try both M.2 ports);​

and check if you can get into BIOS.
Then reconnect rest of the drives one by one, continue rebooting and checking, if you can get into BIOS.


P.S. Always start with full specs of your pc. Layout of your problem description is highly inefficient. One has to read through all of it, to get impression, what type of hardware is involved.

 

[karenjoly]

It always undermines the worth of a brand when tech support contradicts the manual. Like, how can anything work ? The first problem then is the mindless tech support , per this comment,

tech support [said] that my 970 Pro NVMe will work in the bigger slot (since its only a 2280 Size) and they said it absolutely will and it will not disable any sata ports I'm currently using because its PCIe not Sata.

Yet the diagram says that M2A PCIe drives disable SATA3 1.DUH ?

What is also interesting is that the M2M port works to operate the 860 M.2 SATA drive while disabling ( according to the manual) SATA3 4 and 5!. So for interetst sake, since this arrangement boots the computer, are any of the three other drives, connected to SATA 4 and 5 ?

As to the 970, have you flashed the latest bios ? Always the first thing with these no op drives.

Next I would go ahead with the attempt to install windows on the 970 . Disable the 860 and determine if the install will recognize the 970 as an install drive . If so, then install there. If not, then return the 970 under warranty. That is the least expensive option because the mboard is as big a potential derilect as the drive but a new drive is the lest costly remedy at this point.

Fact is, these drives, when they work OOTB, are as easily installed as can be. Most install problems result from bad drives, and they get brought here, but there's usually FA we can do.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yet the diagram says that M2A PCIe drives disable SATA3 1.DUH ?

Only for sata M.2 installed in M2A, SATA3_1 is disabled. 970 Pro is NVME (PCIE), so it doesn't disable anything.

 

[MrSix18]

Ok sorry guys im getting better here lol new to all the forum stuff, but anyway my computer specs are in the signature also so I thought that was sufficient but apparently I was wrong so my apologies

first off its a i7 9700k, aorus z390 pro wifi mobo flashed to the latest F9 Bios, corsair vengeance rgb pro ram @3,000mhz, EVGA rtx 2060 xc, corsair h100i cooler with noctua 3,000 rpm server fans, 1 860 Evo M.2 (sata) installed in the M2M "smaller" port (the diagram is in the original post), 4 TB Toshiba N300 NAS HDD, 2 TB Barracuda Pro, and a 860 Evo 2.5" SSD


It says in the diagram that when installed in the M2A Slot, that being a PCIe drive it doesnt disable any sata ports. however since my current 860 Evo M.2 Sata drive with my OS is currently installed in the M2M Slot it disables the 4-5 sata ports, which are currently empty because of that.

I think another forum found the answer, apparently even though gigabyte said an 2280 size 970 pro 512 NVMe drive WOULD WORK FINE in the Bigger 22110 M2A Port, the guys on the other forum said the bigger M2A Slot is a different connector than the M2M slot meaning the 970 Pro wont work in the bigger 22110 M2A. Does this hold any weight with you guys?? Not saying their wrong just trying to get a second opinion because im completely lost

Question 1
If i make a bootable USB drive, can i pull out ALL drives, HDD's and M.2 860 evo with OS included, and install the NVMe drive in the 2280 slot where the 860 Evo with my OS was Un-installed from, could i then download windows onto it and make it my new boot drive and then reinstall the sata drives but leave the 860 evo out and i guess Sell it? that way i can at least have the 970 pro working, with an OS on it but ive never tried installing windows, as the drives and all that OS stuff scares me so ive always had someone else do it. but basically asking if that bootable USB drive i have made, will work to get my computer to boot so i can initalize the 970 Pro assign it a drive letter and install windows on it??


Thanks for all the help guys and sorry for the mistakes, im still learning

 

[karenjoly]

That is the next step, good idea. But be prepared that the 970 does not work in the other slot either.(It remains very odd that one drive will disable the system like this one appears to do)

If it does respond, then initialize etc and install windows as described.
Disengaging all drives but the 970 is very impt.here as is obtaining the latest install files from MS.
Here are the directions that will install the OS .

Create an up to date USB install media by following the steps outlined here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10
Then disconnect or disable all hdd /ssd drives but the one where you will install windows.

Insert the USB media tool, with the windows install files, into the board. Next, startup and go to the board setup and ensure the mboard is configured to use UEFI boot settings .Ensure that the SATA mode is set to AHCI.

On the motherboard boot device menu, select the command that identifies both the firmware mode and the device. For example, select UEFI: USB Drive or Windows Boot Manager: USB and list that device in the first boot slot on the board.

Reboot. Install begins.

When choosing an installation type, select Custom. On new disks, the drive will show a single area of unallocated space. If there are partitions, select each one and then "delete".

Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows detects that the PC was booted into UEFI mode, partitions the drive using the GPT and begins the installation.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Thanks for all the help guys and sorry for the mistakes, im still learning

Did you try, what was suggested earlier? If your new drive prevents you from accessing BIOS, then you have to find, what is causing this.

Do some troubleshooting:

disable all OC - cpu and ram (xmp off);​

disconnect all drives;​

install 970 pro (try both M.2 ports);​

and check if you can get into BIOS.
Then reconnect rest of the drives one by one, continue rebooting and checking, if you can get into BIOS.

 

[MrSix18]

@ Karenhjoly THANK YOU! for the instructions, as soon as im off work I will try exactly that, just a little weary of the new boot drive thing and installing windows as ive never done it before and it scares me thinking I could screw a lot of crap up when I need my PC for my work lol but I think I can do it with what i researched and your instructions.. feeling pretty confident so thanks for that

@SkyNetRising I will try to disconnect them all and only install that NVMe drive and see if I can get to the bios or if it still doesn't post whatsoever..

ill be off work tonight and will post back with results.