Question M.2 not recognized by B450 Aorus Pro Wifi?

Jan 4, 2021
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Hi guys, I'm starting to think I'm crazy here. I have a new build that runs fine when have a 2.5" SATA drive in it. But, when I completely remove that drive (so: no SATA installed at all) and try my nVME M.2 drive (WD SSN550), the motherboard won't recognize it. I've tried M.2 slot A and B, both support NVME, but the mobo won't see it. I flashed to the latest BIOS and that didn't fix it.

I've also tried yanking a SATA M.2 from my laptop to try it in slot A (which supports SATA M.2, whereas slot B does not!) and it also is sadly not recognized. When I put this SATA M.2 back into the laptop, all is well with the laptop.

Could it be bad M.2 slots or something? I feel like PCIe lanes must be fine because the GPU is working.

I can't find anything useful after hours of googling. In BIOS I have tried fastboot on which specifically lets me enable NVME support, but in the "peripherals" tab the NVME section says "no device found". Fastboot off also doesn't help.

Thank you!
 
Jan 4, 2021
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Yes indeed :) I was really hoping I could cleverly convert that 8pin into a 6pin because the pinouts matched, but the GPU was smarter than I was, and wouldn't fire up. Runs fine with new PSU.
 
Jan 4, 2021
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I wanted to add that I took the nVME drive out and tried it in another computer and it works fine. So two M.2 drives tested good, not recognized by the mobo. I've tried every permutation of secure boot on or off, UEFI usb stick for Win10, fastboot on or off, etc. I can't find a setting that gets the stupid mobo to see any M.2 drive.

Also I swapped out my GTX970 for a cheapie PCIe GPU and it's the same result.
 
Jan 4, 2021
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before you change the psu. did you use that on the motherboard?
I had the old PSU fully installed, yes. It powered up as long as I didn't use my 970. With the new PSU, it fires up even when the 970 is in. Are you concerned that the old PSU damaged the PCIe circuits somehow? I would doubt this if so, after all the 970 is fine.