[SOLVED] NVMe m2 not showing up with PCIe adapter

[StyloProx]

This has been a real challenge for me..

So I got a new Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500gb for my brother's pc this Christmas. Turned out the motherboard only supported a SATA m2 and not an NVMe in the m2 slot, so I bought an Asus Hyper m2 x 16 v2 PCIe adapter. It is still not showing up, nor in the BIOS or any other hard drive manager.

(Note: There is something called "M.2 Genie" in bios, but can't find a way to activate it, might be a solution?)

Tried the following:

Reset CMOS
Latest BIOS update
Checked pc for memory problems
Looked through all the settings in BIOS - Nothing
Downloaded Samsung hard drive manager - Samsung Magician
Probably other stuff which I might not remember..

The specs are:

i5 6600k
MSI b150 gaming m3
16gb ram
GTX 980
2tb HDD - In SATA slot 5
100gb SSD - in SATA slot 6

Fingers crossed!!

 

[kerberos_20]

hi, your mainboard doesnt support nvme booting, so theres no way ull be able to see that drive in bios (unless you mod ur bios)
so, u can use that drive just for data (no windows there)

windows 8.1 or never natively supports nvme under pci-e so it should detect it
see your device manager if u have some unknown device or if u even have nvme device visible there
it should be under storage controllers

 

[Mr.Spock]

interesting that the bios added NVMe support so I'd check to see the adapter is properly seated.
even the Z97 boards by MSI had NVMe boot so I'm surprised it isn't detected - believe some of the B150s supported Optane also so it's weird this one doesn't have NVMe on the M.2.

edit: this one supports Optane so I think you just need to seat it properly in the m.2 and it should detect!

 

[StyloProx]

Hey Kerberos and Spock!

I don't intend to boot windows on it, just for some additional space for games and such.
However, I'm not able to find the drive anywhere, not even under device manager. I just see the usual "Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller" under "Storage Controllers". Doesn't even show up in the cmd with the list disk command.
Plugged and unplugged it twice, no luck either..

 

[Mr.Spock]

yeah it should show somewhere in bios if connected properly - maybe check Advanced mode options again? I remember MSI hid some of the AHCI/RAID options on the early bioses - had to fix boot order via F11 to get NVMe to work properly at one time.

Hey Kerberos and Spock!

I don't intend to boot windows on it, just for some additional space for games and such.
However, I'm not able to find the drive anywhere, not even under device manager. I just see the usual "Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller" under "Storage Controllers". Doesn't even show up in the cmd with the list disk command.
Plugged and unplugged it twice, no luck either..

 

[kerberos_20]

interesting that the bios added NVMe support so I'd check to see the adapter is properly seated.
......

thats for pci-e nvme drives which have bios opt-rom (bios driver for storage controller for those devices)
as far as m.2 nvme goes...no support there as board has just M.2 M key slot

bios will not detect it (missing storage driver alongside with gui settings)

in windows 8.1+ it will get detected as such (storage controller)
storage controller is buil on device and is connected through pci-e
if windows doesnt picks it up, either adapter is not working or drive is not working, tho u can try another pci-e slot

 

[Mr.Spock]

you should scan the supported devices list before barking.... Optane and gen3 are supported.

thats for pci-e nvme drives which have bios opt-rom
as far as m.2 nvme goes...no support there as board has just M.2 M key slot

still, with adapter it will run as a pci-e device
in windows 8.1+ it will get detected as such
if not, either adapter is not working or drive is not working

 

[StyloProx]

I will return home to my place tomorrow. I have a msi x570 Meg unify, so I'll be able to check the adapter with the nvme and the nvme natively in one of the sockets. However suggestions are warmly welcome until then!

 

[SkyNetRising]

Install nvme driver.
You can download it from samsung.

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

 

[kerberos_20]

you should scan the supported devices list before barking.... Optane and gen3 are supported.

sure, i did read it and all of those supported drives are PCI-E
optane:

another random gen 3 from that list

but thats as far as bios support goes, once u get to windows, windws will load its own stuffs and wont care what bios did

 

[StyloProx]

Finally got it after several hours!..

After SkyNetRising posted about the driver, I downloaded it once again and started it, nothing happened as usual. However, then I remembered when I installed Samsung Magician, it wouldn't install until I moved the .exe to the desktop.
I then moved the driver to the desktop and launched it and wupti, it worked! Restarted and I could make the partition in disk management. Everything is up and running!

Certainly the weirdest thing I've ever experienced..

Thanks for the help and suggestions Kerberos, Spock and SkyNetRysing - Happy new year to all of you