Question Using an external PCIe SATA card on a laptop ?

[LucaCraft89]

[Moderator edit to break up solid paragraph of text and links.]

Need help using external PCIE cards on a laptop

Hi, i am trying to build a NAS using an HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G3 Laptop.
it has 2 x M.2 slots, one's an M key slot and another one marked WWAN B key slot, these slots share 4 lanes of PCIe,

Because i can use nvme ssd in both slots, but I want to use 2 at a time they all fall back to x2 each,

i wanted to use an external SATA controller that i already had, this one [SA3112J adattatore PCIE 2/6/12/16/20 porta PCI-Express da X1 a SATA 3.0 scheda di espansione 6Gbps ad alta velocità Add On Card con PCI-e X4 X8 X16 -

AliExpress](https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005003504822556.html?

spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.20.288070eeyg7qBB&algo_pvid=4e5c58c2-27e1-4e44-8feb-8fc913b51eab&algo_exp_id=4e5c58c2-27e1-4e44-8feb-8fc913b51eab-19&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22327%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21EUR%219.69%219.69%21%21%2179.23%2179.23%21%40210390b817547549365665309e94ce%2112000032982430772%21sea%21IT%214666961068%21X%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=mWdfgWNoYp54&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A)

(i have a ASMEDIA version tho), so i bought this nvme to pcie x4 adapter [NGFF M.2 a pci-e 4X SATA Power Riser compatibile con scheda adattatore interfaccia X1 X4 X8 X16 pci-e -

AliExpress](https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005007416478099.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.5.71bavG6NvG6No7&algo_pvid=e0a352f9-b2f5-40b9-824a-24bc6b115d87&algo_exp_id=e0a352f9-b2f5-40b9-824a-24bc6b115d87-4&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22245%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21EUR%218.92%213.21%21%21%2172.91%2126.25%21%40211b653717547551572496481eed81%2112000040661097774%21sea%21IT%214666961068%21X%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=S1y4i32aiOqg&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A),

i tried with a live usb of truenas and this with the x1 sata card atached, i power both the sata drives and the riser card with an external ATX PSU, that works perfectly (tested on multiple mobos and even with multimiter) but nothing,

i tried enabling legacy boot in the bios and also switching the external controller from AHCI boot to NO boot using the integrated switch but still nothing, not with \`lspci\` or \`lsblk\`, nothing, but if i plug the ssd in the other slot it goes at x2, not x4 meaning that the pcie device is there.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

I feel like you're running into a compatibility issue. If you look through people who have worked with riser adapters/cards/external GPU modules, there's always the risk that the devices might not work and you're in need of a modified BIOS.

Instead of going through all the rings of fire and making your laptop something that's immobile, why not invest in a cheap system off the internet, like Ebay or maybe find a system local to you and then make that into a NAS?

My 2 cents on the matter.

 

[LucaCraft89]

thanks for the reply, the laptop is literally just the mobo so no issues there, would like to make it work with what i have as a project

i also thought that it may be a BIOS issue and already tried filleting with all the settings in there, but nothing, my guess that in post the devices are not getting initialized properly due to the fact that with it being a laptop the post is silent

this is a vPro capable CPU, that has an option for "Verbose boot" but it does not change anything, also i thought that if i am able to get it working and access it i may get access to more settings, but it seems like that is not quite the case

any ideas how to make this work?