Aorus Z390 & M.2 NVMe SSDs

[Signal2Noise]

Greetings fellow illustrious Canuckers!

I am hoping some folk here are still in the dark ages when it comes to using the subject Gigabyte mobo (Master version, BIOS f/w F11) or perhaps still remembers some of its nuances after moving on and up in custom PC builds.

I want to add a 2nd NVMe PCIe SSD and planned to throw it into the M2A slot. I do have Win 11 OS loaded onto a Samsung 970 Pro NVMe PCIe SSD in the M2P slot as primary boot drive and has been solid since the initial build 4 years ago. Both M2A and M2P slots are fine when it comes to the sharing, or rather remaining separate, of lanes on the SATA3 ports. I have 4 SATA devices (2X SSD, 1x HDD, 1X ODD) connected, ports 0/3/4/5.

For the second NVMe I first bought a 1 TB Samsung 980 Pro. Intention with it is to use it for specific games (namely Starfield) that require SSD installation. The BIOS (and Win11) does not recognize the SSD when connected. I hunted the googleverse looking for troubleshooting info to no avail. Figuring it might be the SSD itself, I procured a 1 TB WD_Black SN770 today (figured older model would be compatible) and threw that in to the M2M bay. It too is not recognized. So I figure there’s some settings I am missing somewhere in BIOS for it to be detected.

Next steps will be unplugging ALL SATA devices which I think is a tad extreme since ports/lane bandwidth shouldn’t be affected per manual (M2M slot is the most impacted and don’t plan to use). Another suggestion I came across was to remove and replace CMOS battery which I have not tried yet.

Really looking for a solution or some sort of guidance of what can be checked in troubleshooting here.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to suggestions.

Cheers!

 

[moocow]

Have you seen this?

[SOLVED] - M.2 NVMe SSD doesn't work in M2P slot on Z390 AORUS Master?

I've built a new PC with the following hardware so far: Mobo: Z390 AORUS Master SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD 512GB M.2 NVMe RAM: 32GB DDR4 BIOS: ver F11c (Dec 2019) According to the Samsung website the M2 drive is supposed to be PCIe. I tried installing the drive in the M2P slot but the BIOS...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Signal2Noise]

Have you seen this?

Yes, it was one of the first discussions I landed on when searching for solutions. It’s strange because this implies the M2A slot recognized the NVMe, but in my case it doesn’t which is the initial problem.

Appreciate the quick reply.

I am also going to try reformatting the new M.2 SSDs while connected to another system with an adapter then try again on the Aorus mobo. A task for tomorrow since it’s late now and I’m moderately consuming alcohol.

 

[moocow]

Just re-read your original post, you can't plug in drives to SATA 4 and 5 if you want to use M2M. But still, logically, you should be able to use M2A and M2P without unplugging any drives if both M2 drives are NVME and not SATA protocol.

 

[Signal2Noise]

^
Correct. I am not planning to use M2M. Currently M2P is used for boot and I am trying to get M2A to see the new SSD. As is all explained in original post.

 

[djbrad]

I would suggest to try the new nvmes in M2P, it would confirm if it's a sata / nvme sharing problem.

If the bios list them, then...

 

[Shadowarez]

have you tried those pcie M.2 Adapter cards hada hell of a time on older platforms but ones that have enough pcie lanes (LGA 2011-2066) dont seem to have as many issues.

PCIE to M.2 Adapters

 

[sswilson]

Just to test, have you tried removing your existing primary drive from M2P and seeing if a windows install USB can see the new drive on M2A? How about moving the primary drive over to M2A in order to see if it can boot from the port?

 

[Signal2Noise]

have you tried those pcie M.2 Adapter cards hada hell of a time on older platforms but ones that have enough pcie lanes (LGA 2011-2066) dont seem to have as many issues.

PCIE to M.2 Adapters

I was considering getting one. I may if all other steps fail me.

Just to test, have you tried removing your existing primary drive from M2P and seeing if a windows install USB can see the new drive on M2A? How about moving the primary drive over to M2A in order to see if it can boot from the port?

I thought about doing this after mulling things over in the wee hours of the morning. I plan to try this today when I can get around to it.

 

[Signal2Noise]

Here's an update....

The TL;DR: I got close but no cigar.

I removed the OS Boot NVMe from M2P and put in one of the new ones in it's place: no detection.

I left the new one where it was and put the Boot into M2A: no detection.

I unplugged all SATA cables: no detection.

I removed both NVMe and put the OS Boot back in M2P: detected. (phew!)

I put one of the NVMe into the USB/NVMe adapter and went into Win11. Disk Management detected the NVME! So I formatted the SSD, shut down, put the NVME into M2A: detected!

I went back to Win11 and did same for the other new NVMe, and for kicks put it in to M2M: detected!

All three NVMe showed in BIOS. I then reconnected SATA cables and all three still detected. Woot!

I made a decision to still not use M2M and removed that NVMe, leaving one in M2A. I finalized all connections and went back into Win11 and the new NVMe drive was not detected. Aaaarrrgh!

So after many more back and forths I could not get it detected again. I ended up removing the CMOS battery and when placed back after several minutes: M2A detected!

Again, reconnected everything, go into Win11 after the 119th reboot and...not detected.

I gave up at this point. I'm looking at getting a PCIe/NVMe adapter as suggested by @Shadowarez and see how it goes although less elegant as I would like.

I'm thinking it's a BIOS firmware thing since it detects then loses recognition after reboots.

A task for another rainy weekend is maybe transfer OS from the current Boot NVMe to one of the new ones, doubling storage capacity at least, and see if it will be reliable in the M2P slot.

Obviously I'm still open to other ideas.