Samsung 960 EVO working everywhere but Samsung Magician

[nickvspam]

Hey everyone

Here is my hardware

Samsung 960 EVO M.2 500gb NVMe
Asus ROG Strix Z270E
Corsair LPX 32GB DRAM 3000MHz C15 Memory Kit for DDR4 Systems
EVGA GTX 1080

Browsing quickly it seems there a few threads out there but haven't found the same particular problem as mine.

After some trouble, I finally was able to have Windows 10 recognize my Hard Drive and it now boots and seems to run fine. The Samsung Evo is recognized in my BIOS , device manager, and disk management.

If I open Samsung magician all my other hard drives are recognized by the software but not my EVO. If I try to update the drivers from the samsung website, it tells me "Samsung NVM Express Device is not connected"

I have plugged the SSD directly into my motherboard in my M2 slot, the one to the bottom right of the motherboard. I tried to update my motherboard but it says I have the latest BIOS. At this point I feel like it's a firmware or another driver issue but not sure how to solve it. I spent over 90 mins on Samsung which was a gigantic waste of time. (They asked me if I could try a different USB cable ...)

I have tried to unplug the other hard drives and just leave this one but that didn't change anything. They are plugged into the the Sata Ports 3 and 4 since 5 & 6 are disabled for X4 speeds and there's an issue with Port 1 depends on where you plug it in. I haven't tried the other M2 slot simply because from what I've read online, people were having problem with that one with my same board and the slot I'm using was working for them.

When I originally built the machine, Windows 10 installer wouldn't find my EVO at all to try and install and I had to manually load the drivers for the intel rapid storage technology to get it to show up and install Windows 10 properly, so I don't know if that's creating a conflict now.

The only thing I can think of , is that I purchased this on Amazon and support told me they don't recognize / honor the warranty since they deem it "non official" and I read in a previous thread that Samsung Magician won't work unless it's official drives, even though it was a new purchase and it looks very legit.


Any help , ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Did you install the Samsung NVMe driver?

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/960evo.html

 

[nickvspam]

Did you install the Samsung NVMe driver?

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/960evo.html

Hey Johnny, as I mentioned I’m unable to install those drivers, it tells me “Samsung NVM Express Device is not connected"

The only thing I haven’t done is to uninstall the drivers I have now and then try that but not sure why it would matter. I’m also wondering if the intel rapid storage technology drivers I loaded to be able to install windows 10 on the drive could cause problems.

As far as I can tell the drive is working properly, but I can’t use the Samsung software or drivers.

 

[Palorim12]

I had the same issue in a Dell Alienware 15 R2 i had bought. Issue was that most systems come with RAID mode in the BIOS enabled/. Check your BIOS settings and make sure RAID mode is disabled and you are in AHCI.

 

[nickvspam]

I had the same issue in a Dell Alienware 15 R2 i had bought. Issue was that most systems come with RAID mode in the BIOS enabled/. Check your BIOS settings and make sure RAID mode is disabled and you are in AHCI.

Hey Palorim, thanks for taking the time.

I went ahead and changed my M2_1 PCIE Storage Raid Support from enable to disabled and then restarted and then my machine could not boot anymore. I went back into BIOS and changed my Sata Mode selection from Intel RST to AHCI (which also removed the option of the M2_1 PCIE Storage Raid) and I still could not boot. I found this in the Advanced PCH Storage Configuration.

Should I be looking elsewhere? Thanks again!

 

[Calvin7]

When Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector, your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver.

Since you are not doing a conventional UEFI Windows 10 installation, the NVMe drive is not using its firmware during the installation of Windows. This is how the drive works and that part of the windows installation is lacking in what you are doing.

 

[nickvspam]

When Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector, your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver.

Since you are not doing a conventional UEFI Windows 10 installation, the NVMe drive is not using its firmware during the installation of Windows. This is how the drive works and that part of the windows installation is lacking in what you are doing.

How would you go about changing what I did during the installation process? Sorry, I''m not sure I fully understand. I will try and look up some of the acronyms that you mention.

When I tried to install Windows 10 from USB bootable, the drive was nowhere to be found and I couldn't install on it. The only way I got it to be recognized , is by getting the Intel RST drivers and then putting that on a USB and then loading the drivers. Windows then found my drive and created a few partitions and now boots to Windows.

 

[Palorim12]

I had the same issue in a Dell Alienware 15 R2 i had bought. Issue was that most systems come with RAID mode in the BIOS enabled/. Check your BIOS settings and make sure RAID mode is disabled and you are in AHCI.

Hey Palorim, thanks for taking the time.

I went ahead and changed my M2_1 PCIE Storage Raid Support from enable to disabled and then restarted and then my machine could not boot anymore. I went back into BIOS and changed my Sata Mode selection from Intel RST to AHCI (which also removed the option of the M2_1 PCIE Storage Raid) and I still could not boot. I found this in the Advanced PCH Storage Configuration.

Should I be looking elsewhere? Thanks again!

To switch from raid to ahci, if you are in Windows 10, follow this: https://triplescomputers.com/blog/uncategorized/solution-switch-windows-10-from-raidide-to-ahci-operation/

 

[Kan5478]

I have the exact same issue.
960 EVO on a Asus Prime Z270-P, Win 10 x64.

My first attempt was installed on the 960 EVO "normally" with MBR legacy mode. It booted fine, I could install Samsung NVMe drivers and it was detected by Magician.

Then I read it should be done as UEFI for faster boot times, so I formatted and installed as GPT.
It required to load IRST driver during Win 10 installation, which was fine and it booted correctly, but once inside Magician didn't detect it and Samsung NVMe drivers either.

Under Device Manager, I see the 960 EVO listed and obviously it's detected by the BIOS, cause I'm in Windows now.

 

[Palorim12]

I have the exact same issue.
960 EVO on a Asus Prime Z270-P, Win 10 x64.

My first attempt was installed on the 960 EVO "normally" with MBR legacy mode. It booted fine, I could install Samsung NVMe drivers and it was detected by Magician.

Then I read it should be done as UEFI for faster boot times, so I formatted and installed as GPT.
It required to load IRST driver during Win 10 installation, which was fine and it booted correctly, but once inside Magician didn't detect it and Samsung NVMe drivers either.

Under Device Manager, I see the 960 EVO listed and obviously it's detected by the BIOS, cause I'm in Windows now.

Did you make sure you are in AHCI mode?

 

[Kan5478]

I have the exact same issue.
960 EVO on a Asus Prime Z270-P, Win 10 x64.

My first attempt was installed on the 960 EVO "normally" with MBR legacy mode. It booted fine, I could install Samsung NVMe drivers and it was detected by Magician.

Then I read it should be done as UEFI for faster boot times, so I formatted and installed as GPT.
It required to load IRST driver during Win 10 installation, which was fine and it booted correctly, but once inside Magician didn't detect it and Samsung NVMe drivers either.

Under Device Manager, I see the 960 EVO listed and obviously it's detected by the BIOS, cause I'm in Windows now.

Did you make sure you are in AHCI mode?

I thought AHCI was for SATA only? And since we are running it as PCIe, I should let IRST take over?