Question PC Won't Post After Putting in M.2 drive, tried unplugging/CMOS reset, nothing works so far :(

[henrythomas13]

SPECS:
i7 7700k w/ corsair h100i GTX
Asus Z270E Strix Motherboard
16GB DDR4 Geil Ram
GTX 780
NZXT H440 case

Last night I put in a M.2 drive into my build and when I attempted to power it back up again, I couldn't even get it to post. No signal on my monitor, tried everything from plugging in HDMI directly into Mobo, to removing GPU entirely, to no avail. I have tried going around and making sure all of my cable connections are secure as sometimes when moving parts around, they come unstuck.

However, all the LEDS on my rig turn on, all fans work normally, my cooler seems to work with no issue, and the motherboard power indicator light is on with no issues. I tried doing a physical CMOS reset by taking out the mobo battery briefly, but no luck there either.

The M.2 drive I plugged in to my motherboard was used, and I am thinking that perhaps my computer wanted to use it as the boot drive (my OS is on another SSD) and took my boot drive order out of whack. My only other thought is perhaps I static fried my mobo (or some component on it), but that seems really unlikely, especially as it looks like all of my components are functioning normally.

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions or has had any similar experiences with their own machines.

thanks!

 

[rocktalkrock]

Some SATA ports are disabled when an M.2 socket is used. Try switching your boot SSD to a different SATA port.

* The M.2_1 socket shares SATA_1 port when use M.2 SATA mode device.
** The M.2_2 socket shares SATA_56 ports when use M.2 PCIE mode device in X4 mode.

 

[henrythomas13]

Yes I thought of that, but the problem is that it won't even post so I can't reconfigure the BIOS at all. Like the screen is just blank. I took out the M.2 immediately, and tried booting with all of my normal drives connected and then again with them disconnected but still nothing.

On a mechanical level, everything seems to be working.. all LEDs are normal, fans, etc etc, no errors on motherboard. My only other thought is to literally unplug every connection and re-plug them all in one by one, and hoping there was just something invisible that I missed.

 

[Cubase12]

Yes I thought of that, but the problem is that it won't even post so I can't reconfigure the BIOS at all. Like the screen is just blank. I took out the M.2 immediately, and tried booting with all of my normal drives connected and then again with them disconnected but still nothing.

On a mechanical level, everything seems to be working.. all LEDs are normal, fans, etc etc, no errors on motherboard. My only other thought is to literally unplug every connection and re-plug them all in one by one, and hoping there was just something invisible that I missed.

Hi,
I have the exact same problem here. Did you get it resolved?

I had windows boot on an M.2 closest to the CPU, then added a 2nd M.2 and it will not post anymore, even if I remove the 2nd M.2

 

[rocktalkrock]

Can you boot into the BIOS with no drives connected?
You can also try reseating the ram sticks.

 

[Cubase12]

Can you boot into the BIOS with no drives connected?
You can also try reseating the ram sticks.

I guess that is the next thing to try out.
Thanks for the tip.