[SOLVED] Peculiar M.2 SSD detection behavior

[kevroman]

So I bought this Chinese budget laptop recently (Jumper EZbook 3 pro) which I've grown quite fond of. Only downside to the device is its default storage space (64GB minus OS). The later versions of the EZbook allow you to install a 2242 form factor M.2 drive. Seeing as those are quite rare in the country I live in, I ordered one on Aliexpress (KingSpec m.2 SSD 256GB). Install went smoothly but here's where it gets interesting. In order for the drive to get detected in Windows I need to enter the bios everytime before booting, no alterations are required. Just entering bios and exiting (with or without reset) allows the drive to be detected. Otherwise the drive is not shown in explorer or disk manager. I've unlocked the bios and tried manipulating several settings relating to SATA and SSD, secure boot, boot delay, cold boot, etc. To no avail. The only way for the drive to be detected is to enter and exit bios, the data stored on the drive remains intact by the way.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of behavior and/or can push me in the right direction of what might be causing it? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[karenjoly]

I would rule out the drive itself since it works when the bios enumerates it.

So there are two possible causes of the trouble I can guess .

One, is the bios itself. Can you run an updated bios ?

Two, think Chinese budget laptop. The M2 connection is a very sophisticated feature and I would not be surprised that the mainboard has trouble dealing with the drive.