Samsung 970 Evo M.2 NVMe SSD not showing up in BIOS

[marcusklee93]

Hello everyone,

I built my own computer for the first time and I am trying to install the OS but my SSD (Samsung 970 Evo M.2 NVMe 1TB SSD Samsung MZ-V7E1T0BW) is not showing up in the BIOS (or during Linux install). I'm guessing it isn't an OS issue since it doesn't appear in the BIOS.

My motherboard is the Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 7 Pro (rev 1.0). CSM Support is enabled. SATA Mode is set to AHCI. I updated the BIOS (from F2 to F3e). I tried using all 3 M.2 slots. I can see my USB device which has Linux on it but I can't see the SSD.

The 970 EVO isn't listed as supported by the motherboard but the 960 EVO is so I assumed it should be ok. When I emailed Gigabytes technical support they also said they expect it should work.

Are there any other options that I might need to change that I have missed? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!

 

[volkgren]

Do you have another M.2 port? I had the same issue the first time I installed my M.2 SSD. Switched ports and it works. I'm just hoping it was a fluke and the other one will work when I need it. Otherwise I'll be troubleshooting like you.

 

[marcusklee93]

Do you have another M.2 port? I had the same issue the first time I installed my M.2 SSD. Switched ports and it works. I'm just hoping it was a fluke and the other one will work when I need it. Otherwise I'll be troubleshooting like you.

Hi volkgren. Thanks for responding so quickly. I have three M.2 slots and I have tried using all three of them but none of them help. I am hoping I just missed something small but I am not sure what else to try.

 

[volkgren]

Did you check disk management (in Windows) to initialize and format it?

 

[ElectrO_90]

Disconnect the SATA SSD and try that.

 

[Karadjgne]

All 3x (2x 8cm and 1x 10cm) slots support pcie x4 3.0 (NVMe) so it won't make a difference which one you choose. That board should have come with media including the chipset drivers. You may need to have that installed to get the NVMe support. If not, there should be chipset drivers where you got the bios from. After the drivers are installed, unplug all the storage except for the NVMe and reboot. Bios should then see the NVMe drive as it'll be looking for something to boot from.

CSM is a compatability module mainly for Win7 32bit compatability. Win8+ uses UEFI. Turn the CSM off unless you have legacy hardware that absolutely needs it on as it could be overriding the UEFI boot up and interfering with the NVMe recognition.

 

[marcusklee93]

All 3x (2x 8cm and 1x 10cm) slots support pcie x4 3.0 (NVMe) so it won't make a difference which one you choose. That board should have come with media including the chipset drivers. You may need to have that installed to get the NVMe support. If not, there should be chipset drivers where you got the bios from. After the drivers are installed, unplug all the storage except for the NVMe and reboot. Bios should then see the NVMe drive as it'll be looking for something to boot from.

CSM is a compatability module mainly for Win7 32bit compatability. Win8+ uses UEFI. Turn the CSM off unless you have legacy hardware that absolutely needs it on as it could be overriding the UEFI boot up and interfering with the NVMe recognition.

Thanks for responding. It's good to know that's what CSM is for. That was enabled by default and when I contacted Gigabyte they said to have CSM enabled and SATA mode set to AHCI. Both were already by default.

I tried with it disabled and the SSD is still not detected.

In terms of the drivers, which ones should I be looking at? On the website there is Chipset drivers and there are also SATA RAID/AHCI drivers (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X299-AORUS-Gaming-7-Pro-rev-10#support-dl-driver-sataraidahci).

The Chipset drivers are:
- Intel INF Installation
- Microsoft Hot fix
- Intel Management Engine Interface

The SATA RAID/AHCI drivers are:
- Intel SATA Preinstall driver (For AHCI/RAID Mode)
- Intel Rapid Storage
- Intel Optane Memory

Is it the SATA Preinstall driver that I need to install? Is there any harm in trying to install many/all drivers?

Thanks for your help!

 

[marcusklee93]

Did you check disk management (in Windows) to initialize and format it?

My computer isn't running with any operating system right now since everything is fresh out of the box. I am not sure if I can find a compatible computer to check disk management with. Is there another way to do this? Thanks.

 

[marcusklee93]

Disconnect the SATA SSD and try that.

Thanks for responding. If I understand correctly, I don't have any SATA SSD. I only have this one PCIe SSD which I've connected through an M.2 slot. I am new to setting up my own computer from scratch though so I might not be understanding the terminology. Thanks!

 

[Karadjgne]

Chipset drivers, everything. With no OS loaded, you've not got any drivers as such loaded, as the mobo isn't built with any storage devices. Since the only storage device is external via USB, stick them there, so at boot it'll read them. May have to boot several times before recognition..

 

[volkgren]

Did you check disk management (in Windows) to initialize and format it?

My computer isn't running with any operating system right now since everything is fresh out of the box. I am not sure if I can find a compatible computer to check disk management with. Is there another way to do this? Thanks.

You would be able to initialize it when you go to install Windows, but apparently you are having trouble with your motherboard recognizing the drive.

 

[marcusklee93]

Chipset drivers, everything. With no OS loaded, you've not got any drivers as such loaded, as the mobo isn't built with any storage devices. Since the only storage device is external via USB, stick them there, so at boot it'll read them. May have to boot several times before recognition..

Thanks for the tips. I tried downloading the drivers and unzipping them onto a USB. The USB is recognized but I'm not sure how to install drivers from it. It goes straight to BIOS and selecting the USB drive still just returns me to BIOS after a few seconds. For the BIOS update I used Q-Flash but that only gives the option to update the BIOS so it doesn't seem like I can use that (it does not recognize the driver files anyway). What should I be doing to install the drivers? Thanks for helping.

 

[volkgren]

Drivers are for an Operating System, so without an OS you don't need drivers. Did you reset bios to default?

 

[marcusklee93]

Drivers are for an Operating System, so without an OS you don't need drivers. Did you reset bios to default?

Yes I tried to reset the BIOS to defaults. Is there some sort of M.2 NVMe setting? I dont see one but I hear some other people talking about them. Is there a way I can see if it is an issue with the SSD or an issue with my settings or a compatibility issue (or something else)?

 

[ElectrO_90]

Since nothing seems to work, I would contact manufacturer and ask them, or ask the people you purchased it from as it could just be faulty.