Hey guys! First time writer here that could really need some help.
I wanted to upgrade my pc a little bit by installing a 1TB M.2 SSD (WD BLUE SN570 WDS100T3B0C). The reason to do so is to simply expand my space, so my Windows 10 system is installed on another SSD (480 GB, no M.2!), while I have another HDD installed (1TB, also just for more space).
After doing so my pc won’t boot nor let me enter the BIOS. I can see the BIOS screen but pressing F12 to enter doesn’t do anything.
Looking at my mobo (Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro) the VGA LED is glowing red, so there seems to be a problem with my GPU (8GB MSI RTX2070 ARMOR), like it won’t boot or something like that.
I already checked the functionality of the GPU by removing the M.2 again: The pc works completely fine.
After searching in the manual of my mobo and in the internet for literally hours, I still can’t get my pc working with the M.2 being installed.
These are the steps I already did:
updating BIOS to version F64e (newest version)
checking the manual for any hints on GPU-M.2 compability (found nothing)
checking the manual for deactivation of SATA ports on my mobo as soon as you install an M.2 (there is actually some info here, but the SATA ports I use for my standard SSD and the HDD shouldn’t be affected)
checking the compability list of my mobo (my M.2 is listed here)
switched M.2 to the lower M.2 port (no changes, same behaviour)
I’m slowly running out of ideas. I would be very thankful for some help, as I would really like to run my pc with the M.2.
Any chance you can borrow another drive to test? Something wrong with the drive could potentially be killing PCIE on the board, causing it to treat the GPU as not unconnected.
But does another M.2 work in either of your slots?
A problem with the ports could do much the same thing, or even an issue with how the drive is seated in the slot.
Try setting your Fastboot to enabled in bios when your computer is working. This apparently will allow for further configuration while in BIOS according to pages 30, 31 of your manual.
Oh and try spamming the Delete key to get into your bios.
Dang, this is pretty interesting! Can you verify which SATA ports your drives are plugged into by looking at page 13 of the manual or the board itself? The different m.2 slots you’ve tested should cover the SATA lane conflicts but a sanity check is always good.
I would go through the following to test things out. The general idea is to reduce everything down to the bare minimum, get some valid test results and then move forward until it breaks again. It’s pretty tedious and time consuming doing a test (getting to BIOS and finally to Windows) after every step, but it should narrow things down.
From a working/bootable state:
Enter the BIOS and go to the Save & Exit tab
Save your current configuration
Load the optimized defaults
Save and exit
Leave all components as-is and make sure you can boot into Windows
To sanity check our default settings work
Power off, unplug the power and then unplug all extra drives/PCIe devices from the motherboard
You should only have the GPU and the NVME drive plgged into the top slot (M2A_SOCKET) with nothing else consuming PCIe lanes (no HBAs, sound cards, etc.)
Can you power on and get into the BIOS?
If it hangs:
Try using the NVME in the bottom M2B_SOCKET
Try placing NVME back into M2A and move the GPU to each PCIe slot (not ideal but a decent sanity check)
Move the NVME back to M2B and shuffle the GPU through the slots
Try a single stick of RAM?
Have another GPU to test with?
Abort and go with a standard SATA SSD?
If it works:
Make sure that the NVME drive is listed somwhere in the BIOS. Check the boot options, NVME settings, etc. to verify the system recognizes it and proceed to #4
Sutdown and reattach your boot drive to SATA3-0
Bottom right corner of the board, top port closest to the bottom of the board
Can you power on and get into the BIOS?
If it hangs
Try the boot drive in a different SATA3 port
Try the boot drive in one of the ASATA3 ports (for the hell of it - this is against the manual I’m looking at)
Move the NVME drive to M2B_SOCKET and keep the boot drive in an ASATA3 port
Try a single stick of RAM?
Have another GPU to test with?
I’m out of ideas if it doesn’t work at this point
If it works - make sure the boot drive is set correctly in the BIOS and verify that it will boot into Windows and roceed to #5
Slowly start attaching additional components and adding BIOS changes back in until everything is good, or you find what the straw breaking your back.
I had a very similar issue with Intel 670p 2TB SSD’s
I had two of them, and two M.2 slots on my Asus B550-I motherboard
With one of the SSD’s in the front M.2 slot, the system booted with no issues.
Whenever I added one of the SSD’s to the rear M.2 slot, the system would not boot, and it became apparent it was some kind of power-transmission problem related to the rear SSD.
This was extremely perplexing because I had previously used other model SSD’s in that rear slot without issue, and I was able to plug in other adapters to that slot without issue either.
The issue was specific to those model Intel 670p 2TB SSD’s, and the rear motherboard slot. I even got a video showing an attempted boot, where the PSU was left “clicking” over and over with the board failing to boot, until I pulled out the SSD from the slot, and it booted successfully immediately.
So, this could end up being a similar strange combination of M.2 slot + SSD model issue.
On paper I never found any supposed incompatibility, but IRL it just simply would not work. Very strange.
something else you might also consider for general debugging on the B450 platform, is to dig up a compatible Ryzen APU such as 3200G, should not cost too much on eBay used, and if you are able to swap it in, you can test the system without a GPU. This would help to further isolate potential causes of problems by removing the dedicated GPU from the picture while debugging.
Soo I set the Fast Boot Option to Activated, installed the M.2 again and started the PC, but I still have the same issue. VGA LED is glowing red, PC won’t boot and I’m stuck in the AORUS logo screen (look at the picture of my screen). Also spamming one of the BIOS opening keys sadly didn’t do anything…
Did it activate any of the other settings to play with? Like can you enable All Sata Devices?, Set your VGA support to Auto? Set USB to full Initial? and I don’t know if you’re using a PS/2 keyboard and mouse but enable that too if necessay?
It seems you’ve covered a lot already. Make sure your M.2 matches your motherboard’s key type. Double-check BIOS settings for boot order and M.2 configuration. Clearing CMOS might help if there are conflicts. Verify your GPU’s seating and power connections. Also, ensure your PSU can handle the extra load.
First of all, thanks for all your help and time! And sorry for not answering that fast to all your ideas, I’m a little bit stressed atm.
I kind of have some good news: Me and my brother tested his M.2 SSD in my PC today - what can I say. It worked perfectly.
The M.2 SSD we tested is a SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus NVMe 500 GB.
Knowing that another M.2 SSD worked just fine, I’m kind of willing to just buy another M.2 and refund the WD Blue. It saves me a lot of time because somehow, it feels like it doesn’t matter what I do, it won’t work.
But, before I just buy another M.2 that possibly does not work with my PC: Does the fact, that the SAMSUNG M.2 works and the WD Blue M.2 does not, make ANY sense to one of you? E.g. because of the capacity? Age? Compability? Something I should know before buying another M.2?
If so, I’d be happy to know. This seems all a little bit strange to me.
That’s good news that something is working. Unfortunately, I can’t think any key technology differences between the two that would cause the issue you’re seeing. The WD may be faulty or you’re dealing with an extreme edge case similar to gc71’s experience.
Perhaps… I mean is the WD drive in question blank? It may be that the BIOS is grabbing the drive and finds nothing installed on it therefore no boot and no GPU drivers. Does the WD m.2 work on any other computer at all?
They’re both Gen3x4 TLC with cache. The only difference is Sandisk(WD) flash/controller vs Samsung, and of course the board layout and minor physical variance.
Have you tried with a bootable USB as suggested? Have you tried using DEL to enter bios rather than F11? Have you tried formatting the drive in your brother’s computer and seeing if it works afterwards? Have you tried seeing if it’s loose at all/making sure it’s seated correctly?
If all of that fails, all I can think of is there’s some handshake issue with the PCIE controller on the SSD that’s causing your board to become confused. This kind of thing can happen with PCIE.
