[SOLVED] PCIe NVMe SSD only detected after full power cutoff

[tjeuten]

Hi,

I'm facing a rather strange problem.

I have a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Ultra Mobo (flashed to latest firmware F11), and have been running a Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus M.2 PCIe NVMe 1 TB in one of the M.2 slots without any problem, apart from the fact that the SSD got quite hot. It is my Windows 10 boot drive.

So last week I decided to buy a Aquacomputer KryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter for M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD, M-Key with Passive Heatsink to help cool it down.

So I received it, mounted the drive in it, and then mounted it on the PCIex4 slot of my Mobo.

Now since I have this installed I have the following issue: the BIOS will NOT recognize the drive on a normal reboot after a normal Windows shutdown. It does detect it after a Windows "restart".

The only way to be able to have it being detected again after a full Windows shutdown is to actually switch off completely the PSU (so basically complete cutoff the power), wait like 30 seconds until all phantom power is gone, and then switch the PSU back on. After doing that, it gets detected correcly again in the BIOS and I can boot on it and everything works fine, until obviously I shut down the computer again.

I've tried playing with different settings in the BIOS (AHCI, Intel RST, ASPM etc...) but nothing helps, so I'm at loss now.

Does anybody have any clue ? Is there a BIOS setting I haven't maybe touched yet that could resolve this ? I don't think it's a hardware issue because everything is working correctly after a complete "power cutoff". The PSU is a Corsair HX850 80PLUS Platinum.

Many thanks for providing me with any clues.

 

[The_Prophecy]

That's odd, because the page to download your BIOS says the latest version is F10b: https://www.gigabyte.com/ca/Motherboard/Z390-AORUS-ULTRA-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios

Where did you get that F11 version?

In any case, the other thing you should check out is whether the 970 EVO Plus has the latest firmware installed as well. I have one of these drives myself, and the latest according to the Samsung Magician software is 2B2QEXM7. If you don't have Magician installed, grab a copy and let it check for and install any firmware updates available.

 

[tjeuten]

That's odd, because the page to download your BIOS says the latest version is F10b: https://www.gigabyte.com/ca/Motherboard/Z390-AORUS-ULTRA-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios

Where did you get that F11 version?

In any case, the other thing you should check out is whether the 970 EVO Plus has the latest firmware installed as well. I have one of these drives myself, and the latest according to the Samsung Magician software is 2B2QEXM7. If you don't have Magician installed, grab a copy and let it check for and install any firmware updates available.

Hi,

Thanks for replying.

sorry you are right, I was in a hurry writing the message and didn't crosscheck the version. It is also F10b on my side... dunno why my mind came up with F11...

I have Samsung Magician and my firmware is also the latest 2B2QEXM7 (yes I crosschecked ! )

 

[tjeuten]

Ok I seem to have found a solution. If I move it from the PCIeX4 to the PCIeX8 slot, it gets recognized directly on booting after a Windows shutdown (without complete power cutoff).

Is this a sign of a faulty PCIeX4 slot or is this by design ? The only thing I can find in the MoBo manual is that the PCIeX4 slot shares bandwidth with the M2P connector, but I have nothing installed in the M2P slot...

 

[Maxxify]

The x4 PCIe slot is over the chipset while the "x8" uses CPU lanes.