Samsung 970 Pro not Detected on X99 STRIX

Sep 25, 2018
3
0
10
I recently purchased a 970 Pro to plug into my current setup:

CPU - i7 6850k
Motherboard - ASUS X99 STRIX
2x GTX 1080
3x HDDs and 2x SSDs connected via SATA

However, I cannot get it to detect on either my BIOS or on Samsung Magician. I went through the X99 STRIX User manual and don't seem to find the NVMe submenu under advanced either for some reason. I'd bought a 970 Evo earlier and it hadn't worked so I returned and refunded it thinking it was DOA. However, what are the odds that another 970 Pro is DOA as well?

What am I missing here? I contacted ASUS support and they shared the QVL (which seems more than 2 years outdated, it last mentions the 950 Pro as being supported) and said that it's not one of the supported devices.

What I've tried:

- Resetting BIOS (removed CMOS battery and used the jumper method)
- Downgrading BIOS to older versions and upgrading back to the latest
- Disconnected all SATA devices, Resetting BIOS after that
- Reseating the 970 Pro
 
NVMe SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until 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.
 
Sep 25, 2018
3
0
10


Thanks Calvin, I have tried the following:

- Disabling the CSM Module
- Set EFI mode to Other OS
- Cleared Secure Boot keys from BIOS
- Verified nothing is plugged into SATA Port 1

Samsung Magician still doesn't detect the drive. Neither does it show up in Disk Management. If I try to install the NVMe drivers from Samsung, it says that it doesn't detect a drive. Even tried making a bootable Win 10 USB and it still doesn't show up on the drives list.

What would be the correct process of setting it up?
 
1- The M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.

2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable iso of Windows 10 on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also. A Windows DVD won’t work unless you’ve created your own UEFI Bootable DVD.

6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

7 - Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode. (see #3 above)

10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install.
 
Sep 25, 2018
3
0
10


I have done till 6. At 7, Windows installer doesn't detect any drives to install to. That's what I have been trying to troubleshoot.
 


I would return the board.The spec for that board says

1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (Support PCIE SSD only)

so it is designed to support the two NVMe drives you have tried, regardless of the qualified drives list. Secondly, UEFI is apparently not working since the M2 submenu fails to appear, perhaps because the NVMe connection fails.