Switching SSD in Orico USB4.0 Thunderbolt enclosure doesn't work

Hardware HDD's & SSD's
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A few months ago I bought a Thunderbolt SSD enclosure from Orico. This is the “USB4.0” version based on the Intel JHL7440 Thunderbolt chip that also has USB 3.0 support through a additional JMicron chip.

Last week I decided to switch the SSD inside but it seems that changing the SSD causes the Thunderbolt-mode to stop working for a new SSD.
I tried a couple of different SSD’s and these have the same problem:
The WD SN550 (the first SSD I ever put in the drive) works fine in both USB and Thunderbolt mode.
Changing to a Samsung 980 Pro, an Intel 660p or a Gigabyte SSD all have the same problem: USB mode works fine, Thunderbolt does not work.

In the Windows Thunderbolt control center the device IS detected (as a “Intel USB4.0 SSD” device, but no NVMe drive is detected in device manager or Disk Management.

Do these Thunderbolt enclosures store device information in firmware or something? Anyone have a suggestion how to fix the problem?

thanks!

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A question for clarification:

  • Does the enclosure operate in TB mode again when you go back to the initial SN550 SSD?
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So dumb question does thunderbolt only work with a 4.0 PCIE ssd?

Never mind, the 980 is pcie 4.0… maybe a difference in controller generations… I know my 970 has 1.3ver of PCIE 3.0… but haven’t looked up the others…

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Yes. If I put the SN550 back it works fine in both Thunderbolt and USB

5

Thunderbolt is PCIe 3.0 only, but the 980 Pro should be backwards compatible.

Orico even recommends this Samsung 980 Pro in the newer AliExpress product description. So it definitively should work.

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