Mobo doesn't see M2 drive

Snapshot · 26 Aug 2018 at 14:41

I'm building a completely new PC and the mobo doesn't see the M2 drive in either of its on-board slots The mobo is an Asus ROG Strix H370-I Gaming and it's up and running with an i5-8600T and 2 x 8GB of Corsair Vengeance 2400 LDX. The M2 is a Samsung PM981 256GB which I believe is the OEM version of the 960 Evo. (I'm sure I ordered a 960 Evo but that's not what's on the order.) I've tried the M2 in both top and bottom slots of the mobo but it just isn't seen as being there at all. The M2 gets warm when the mobo is running so it's obviously drawing power.

Unfortunately I don't have another M2 to test the mobo or suitable mobo to test the M2 as this is my first-up-to-date build for a few years. Oh, I have updated the mobo BIOS.

So is there something I don't know about M2 SSDs that I need to do to get it recognised or have I got a duff one?

Delta3D · 26 Aug 2018 at 15:02

Can you see a setting for "M.2 and SATA Express Mode Configuration" in your BIOS?

If it's there try setting it to M.2

Snapshot · 26 Aug 2018 at 16:40

Thanks for the suggestion but that's not an available option. There are loads of PCH options I don't understand but nothing that looks useful under PCH Storage. I switched it from OPTANE/RAID to AHCI but it still reports M.2_1 as empty.

Delta3D · 26 Aug 2018 at 17:41

Snapshot said:
Thanks for the suggestion but that's not an available option. There are loads of PCH options I don't understand but nothing that looks useful under PCH Storage. I switched it from OPTANE/RAID to AHCI but it still reports M.2_1 as empty.

Can you see an option for CSM (Compatibility Support Module) anywhere? Try settings this to disabled if you can

HoneyBadger · 26 Aug 2018 at 20:39

Do you have other drives connected? If so, try removing them. Some motherboards disable slots when SATA drives are connected.

Snapshot · 29 Aug 2018 at 14:59

I had to pack everything away for a bit as Mrs S demanded the dining room table back.

I'll check for a CSM option when I can get back to the table. I'm sourcing another, different M.2 drive to pin things down and it should arrive on Friday.
I didn't have another other drives attached initially but tried an external SSD just to check that it was recognised.

Snapshot · 3 Sep 2018 at 20:39

Access to another mobo and M.2 drive proved that my drive was indeed DOA and it will be on its way back to my supplier tomorrow.

Snapshot · 23 Sep 2018 at 07:37

Just to complete the story, the drive wasn't DOA. It turns out that NVMe drives aren't seen by the BIOS, possibly until they have a partition with a boot sector written to them, but W10 has a built-in NVMe driver so can install and run from one. In my case, even after installing W10, it's not seen by the BIOS but is in the Windows Boot Manager list! There's a very useful article at http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3506030/nvme-drive-bootable.html which got me going and, as Delta 3D suggested, disabling CSM is the start of the process. If anyone knows better, I'd love to hear about it.