Question m.2 on Q87M

[jjgurley]

I updated my bios which claims to support NVME, and when I install a PCIe M.2 SSD, Bios doesn't show it. If I boot to windows from my SATA SSD, the M.2 disk is available to use. I cloned my SATA SSD to the M.2 SSD with Minitool from Partition Magic.

Any thoughts?

 

[rgd1101]

which Q87M exactly?

 

[kanewolf]

Support for and boot from are significantly different capabilities. Was this a manufacturer provided BIOS or a modded BIOS from a random individual?

Windows 7 or Windows 10 ?

 

[jjgurley]

It's the Q87M-E, and it's the official BIOS. The release notes show support for NVME added in 2015, but are otherwise vague. Win10

 

[TJ Hooker]

It's the Q87M-E, and it's the official BIOS. The release notes show support for NVME added in 2015, but are otherwise vague. Win10

I don't see NVMe mentioned in any of the BIOS notes.
https://www.asus.com/Commercial-Motherboard/Q87ME/HelpDesk_BIOS/

 

[jjgurley]

Here's a post on overclock3d.net:

18-05-15
Today Asus have announced updates for a lot of their motherboards, this update is mainly for the new Intel NVME drives that have been released lately. The update should enable your motherboard to make the most out of these drives, especially with the new M.2 to SAS connectors that are used (in the 2½ inch drives), and have streamlined the PCI-E code within to take full advantage of the drives features for both the PCI-E and 2½ inch drives.

Below is a rather long list of motherboards that the new BIOS updates are being released for, but don't expect to immediately be able to download this update, as they will need time to get them out.

Q87M-E 1502

 

[jjgurley]

Here's a forum post on overclock3d.net:

18-05-15, 11:47 AM
Today Asus have announced updates for a lot of their motherboards, this update is mainly for the new Intel NVME drives that have been released lately. The update should enable your motherboard to make the most out of these drives, especially with the new M.2 to SAS connectors that are used (in the 2½ inch drives), and have streamlined the PCI-E code within to take full advantage of the drives features for both the PCI-E and 2½ inch drives.

Below is a rather long list of motherboards that the new BIOS updates are being released for, but don't expect to immediately be able to download this update, as they will need time to get them out.

Q87M-E 1502

Maybe it only applies to M.2 SATA?

 

[TJ Hooker]

NVMe only applies to PCIe, not SATA drives.

I just noticed that your motherboard doesn't seem to have an M.2 slot. How are you connecting the M.2 drive? Which exact M.2 drive do you have?

 

[jjgurley]

Samsung PM981 MZ-VLB2560 256GB SSD plugged into the PCIe slot using a NVMe M.2 NGFF SSD to PCI-E PCI express 3.0 16x x4 adapter.

The SSD is functional under Windows10, but just not seen by BIOS.

I used MiniTool to clone my system disk. I really don't want to do a clean install, but I don't think it would matter. BIOS sees all the other drives in my system, although they're all SATA attached.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Well, I think it's worth trying a clean install to see if that's the issue.

 

[kanewolf]

Well, I think it's worth trying a clean install to see if that's the issue.

If you did clone your old drive, then you still have it as "backup".

 

[TJ Hooker]

Yeah, I was assuming that you still have the original drive with all your stuff, such that you could just clone it again if the clean install doesn't end up being the answer.

 

[jjgurley]

I'm downloading a bootable install media now. It will take most of the day at my crappy data rate. I don't expect it to work as is, but I'm hoping I can use the trick of booting to Clover on a USB stick.

 

[jjgurley]

The clean install fails at the reboot during installation. It complains it can find any files in C:\Windows

I'll work on a little more, mostly by figuring out why Clover is erratic. I was hoping for a mid-life performance boost but I might have to think about another m/b (and CPU and memory).

 

[Carl Jr]

Will need the bios modified to add a Nvme module before it will boot from one. I have already did this and tested it as I'm currently using the board with a Nvme boot drive added in the x16 slot. Note that with the current Gen 4 drives you will still only get Gen 3 speeds because only modern boards support the Gen 4 platform. So no use to splurge for a Gen 4 drive unless you plan to buy new hardware in the near future.

Here is a download link to my modded bios: v3801 which was the most recent.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/tkdw27pczxlb2u2/Q87M-E-ASUS-3801+NvMe+Boot+Modded.7z/file

 

[USAFRet]

Will need the bios modified to add a Nvme module before it will boot from one. I have already did this and tested it as I'm currently using the board with a Nvme boot drive added in the x16 slot. Note that with the current Gen 4 drives you will still only get Gen 3 speeds because only modern boards support the Gen 4 platform. So no use to splurge for a Gen 4 drive unless you plan to buy new hardware in the near future.

Here is a download link to my modded bios: v3801 which was the most recent.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/tkdw27pczxlb2u2/Q87M-E-ASUS-3801+NvMe+Boot+Modded.7z/file

2 years later, I hope he's still not messing with this.

Please don't dredge up ancient threads.