No GPU/Monitor Signal after M2 SSD install

No GPU/Monitor Signal after M2 SSD install. I have an MSI Z270 SLI Plus motherboard. https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z270-SLI-PLUS/Specification
It has two M2 slots. I found this post on reddit.

The first problem is that I do not seem to have an option to set my x16 slot to x8. I tried to physically remove my GPU from the x16 slot and put it in the x8 slot. That worked as long as I did not have the M2 card installed. The moment I installed it, there was no signal to my monitor.

If anyone has any tips I will be glad to hear them.

Quick search on the specifics here,

[code]
SLOTS
ā€¢ 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (support x16/x0/x4, x8/x8/x4 modes)

ā€¢ 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots

STORAGE

  • Supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s
  • M2_1 slot supports 2242/ 2260 /2280/ 22110 storage devices
  • M2_2 slot supports 2242/ 2260 /2280 storage devices[/code]

Wit that said, are you on the latest firmware? It seems that NVMe compatibility was worked on and released in firmware 1.4, released on 2016-12-29. There have been a hand full of new firmware releases since then. You may then get the option to set the x16 slot to the proper speed. Also, ensure that your SSD is PCIe Gen 3 or lower. Gen4 will not work in your system.

Lastly, you did not specify which CPU you have, but if it only has 16 PCIe lanes and your first SSD and GPU are using x8, then you are out of lanes. I would imagine that one of those m.2 slots goes through the DMI/PCH but I have not had a modern Intel system with PCIe so I could not tell you.

Thanks for the reply. I checked and I am on the latest firmware.

I have an i7 7700K CPU.
People on other help forums people told on this motherboard the M.2 slots are wired through the chipset, not the CPU, so I should be having this problem at all. But I am =(.

The issue has been resolved, it was the SATA ports after all. I unplugged my HDD and everything worked, then I plugged the drive in to SATA 1 and it worked again. This may seem trivial. But the manual explicitly states that SATA 3 and 4 should also work when both M2 cards are plugged in, in fact SATA 3 and SATA 4 are the only ones that are never affected, where as SATA 1 will be unusable if one or both of the M2 slots are set to SATA. Also when I switched my GPU from x16 PCI to the x8, I did reposition my plug from SATA 3 to SATA 1 and it still did not work.

But now it does work when plugged in to SATA 1. I did not try to replug it back in to SATA 3. As the problem may have been fixed by disconnecting my HDD one time, and not by the repositioning.

Thanks for your suggestions.

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Wow, that sounds like you had a fun time. I am glad that you were able to stumble upon this wonderful fix.

Could you do me favor and mark your last post as a solution? It may help others that run into this particular issue.

Unfortunately the problem resurfaced today, even when I removed the HDD entirely from any SATA port. It is fine now that I have removed the M2 drive from the bay. Iā€™m just going to sent the drive back, even though I think the problem is my motherboard. But at this stage it is pointless to do anything about it, as it is 4 years old.

That is unfortunate. It could be that your system cannot realistically support more than one m.2 despite what the advert says. IT may be able to do that with select CPUs. Intel has been known to do that from time to time in the small print.

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