Question Replaced motherboard, CPU, PSU, and STILL won't post.

[Iron Duke]

So this all ocurred after I bought a new SSD drive, the Intel 670p 1TB, and added it to the additional ssd slot.

The original computer was:
OS: Windows 10
CPU: Intel 7700k
PSU: 650W
ROG STRIX Z270F GAMING
Graphics Card: Nvidia
SSD1: Samsung 960 Evo M.2 NVMe
SSD2: Intel 670p M.2

When I inserted the Intel 670p into the upper SSD slot (as it was free), it all booted just fine but my HDD disappeared (not the SSD), and the Intel SSD wouldn’t show up though I could see it in my device manager. Found out it was because of SATA stuff, tried changing BIOS settings and that didn't work, so I swapped my SSD drive locations and that is when suddenly my computer wouldn't POST and it was just black screen (but I could verify it was powering on, even the keyboard would blink with power when I plugged it in, etc.).

I tried switching the SSDs back but nothing worked. I tried taking out every component one by one, until there was nothing but the CPU, PSU, and motherboard basically and still wouldn't turn on.

I tried everything I could think of. Took out the CMOS battery, tried resetting (not sure if I did it right, etc.) and nothing worked. Eventually I gave up and just bought a BRAND NEW CPU AND MOTHERBOARD, thinking that would solve the problem since I thought somehow the BIOS/motherboard got screwed up.

So I installed the new Asus Prime Z490-P with a new Intel 10700k,and plugged everything in (yes both the SSD drives but in the slots the manual said I think), and when I pressed the button to start, it didn't post.

THen I thought well, maybe the new motherboard has higher PSU requirements, so I used PC part picker and upgraded my 650w PSU to a 850w PSU.

Still, no POST. Tried taking everything out again except the bare minimum (motherboard, cpu, and PSU) and still it won't post.

What the hell is going on? I basically replaced every part and it won't post still. It seems like any computer that the SSD are plugged into becomes unable to POST. What causes that?

 

[SkyNetRising]

With changing PSU you have to be extra careful.
Are both your PSUs modular? Did you use old PSU cables with your new PSU?

Modular PSU cables are not interchangeable between different PSU models. Using wrong cables can damage/kill hardware connected.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Using M.2 drives often disable some sata ports on motherboard.
You just had to move your sata drives to a different sata port.

You can find details about, which sata ports get disabled, in motherboard user manual.

 

[HappyTrails]

Would maybe suggest try boot no drives attached and 1 stick ram see can get it to post. If works out ok then add back 1 at a time. Just went thru sort of same here when gpu died and started replacing things that made some kind of sense. Very frustrating when happens took me long time to sort out and really needed pc. Good luck with diagnosis

 

[Iron Duke]

Nothing is fixing it even with no drives attached and with no RAM or just one stick of RAM. Motherboard still won't post. Just black screen. Power comes on, fan spinning. I don't understand. I replaced everything except I used the same SSD (yes, I took it out but still won't post).

What can be done... why would installing a 2nd SSD cause the computer to be unable to post?

 

[ravin_29]

Did you try running everything outside of the cabinet? Did you try reseating RAM and moving RAM to another slots?

 

[HappyTrails]

Would you maybe have old gpu you could try just to see if can post? Or maybe just switch gpu to another slot.

 

[Firestone]

sorry about the necrothreading, but I had a very similar issue, I did a Google search and this was one of the only threads I found, so this seems like a good place to report about it.

Just like OP, I bought the Intel 670p SSD (2TB), and I tried to add it to the "additional" M.2_2 slot on my motherboard (Asus B550-I).

Actually I got two of the SSDs, and I put one in each M.2 slot; slot M.2_1 and M.2_2, the latter of which is on the rear of the board.

Just like OP, I found that the motherboard was having issues booting. However, there was indication that this was an electrical problem, because about ~30% of the time when I pressed the power button, the board would not start, it would click repeatedly, LED's and fans would attempt to start and immediately shut off. It did not do this every time, but frequently enough to make the system unusable.

Just like OP, I stripped the board down to nothing but CPU, RAM, and SSD. I tested both 670p SSD's, in both M.2 slots, along with no SSD installed. In every case, when any Intel 670p SSD was installed in the "additional" bottom M.2_2 slot on the board, the issue would return and the board would sporadically refuse to start. In fact, I found that if the board started clicking and trying to boot, if I simply pulled the Intel 670p out of the board while it was clicking, it would suddenly boot just fine.

I thought that maybe the bottom M.2 slot was bad. Unfortunately, I did not have any spare M.2 drives of different model to test with. But I did have a U.2 to M.2 adapter, and a U.2 SSD, which I plugged into the bottom slot on the motherboard. Note that this adapter requires a separate SATA power cable. When I attached this, there were no issues, the board booted just fine, every time. When I replaced the Intel 670p drives, the issues started again.

The crazy part is that this only applied to the M.2_2 slot; the Intel 670p 2TB drives worked without issue in the primary M.2_1 slot on the motherboard.

Another strange aspect of this, is that I had issues with these drives while trying to use them with my Nvidia Shield TV. I put one of the drives in an M.2 USB enclosure, and it had issues trying to get it to mount on my laptop and desktops to copy files. After I finally got them to load, I was able to copy files over to them. But when I attached the USB enclosure to my Shield, it also had issues detecting the drive. After finally getting the drive detected on there, tried playing movies from the drive, and after a few minutes the video stopped with "file not found" errors. The entire drive had vanished. Then, the entire Shield crashed and rebooted, but got stuck at the boot "Android" logo until I unplugged the USB enclosure and pulled the power plug & plugged it back in.


Pretty crazy. I have used a variety of different SSD's in a lot of different situations at this point, and never saw behavior like this. My only guess, based on limited experience and evidence, is that these drives must be trying to pull too much power from the attached devices and then crashing them. Maybe? Not sure.

 

[Misgar]

It's possible that one slot accepts M.2 NVMe drives but the other slot only works with M.2 SATA drives. These were more common several years ago. Nowadays they're mostly NVMe.

It can be difficult to tell the difference between M.2 NVMe and old-fashioned M.2 SATA drives unless you check the part number on the drive label.

Due to the limited number of PCIe lanes in some CPUs, fitting a second M.2 drive might disable two of the SATA ports.

If you have Windows on a bootable drive connected to either of these disabled SATA ports, the computer won't boot.

It's also possible your motherboard just doesn't "like" Intel 670p drives, i.e. they're incompatible.