Help With Installing Additional M.2 SSD

[MrSix18]

Tired installing an additional 970 Pro 512 NVMe SSD to my motherboard and the pc wouldn't boot. I already have a Samsung 860 Evo sata m.2 installed with my OS on it. but when I put the NVMe into the open slot, computer wouldn't boot, no bios, no anything. im not wanting the new NVMe to be the Boot drive or have the OS on it, I just simply wanted to install it to have the extra storage for my media server. but again while I had the old 860 Evo M.2 installed, I added the new NVMe to the open m.2 slot on my motherboard and once installed it would not boot into bios nor windows what so ever. Can anyone shed some light on this? the top port is a 22110 "bigger" m.2 slot but gigabyte said a 2280 m.2 would work fine in the "bigger" port, and the 860 Evo that I have the OS on is underneath it in its own 2280 port. But again once installed the NVMe, the entire computer would not boot at all, no bios no anything, I uninstalled it and computer booted up fine!

Thanks ahead of time for the any answers/help!!!!
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Derek

 

[trents]

What is the make and model of the motherboard?

Are both m.2 sockets PCI-e or is one PCI-e and the other only SATA?

Also, you could have already gobbled up all the PCI-e lanes with video cards and the first m.2 PCI-e drive. Check your motherboard documentation for what it can handle in that regard.

Boy, there's that eyeball hurting bright text color again.

 

[MrSix18]

Sorry about the text color lol I was on a small tablet and it was hard to see the white text, my computer was doing a stress test just to make sure everything was okay after this fiasco lol but I changed it back to white for ya now that im back on the PC

Its an aorus z390 pro wifi board, I checked the manual and it gives instructions on "white sata lanes will be disabled if its a sata m.2 or if its an nvme m.2 that no lanes will be disabled" I attached a picture with a screen shot of the manual but according to it, both "M2A and M2M" m.2 ports are PCIe capable, I currently have one 860 evo sata based m.2 in the smaller "2280" size port and tried adding a 970 pro 512gb NVMe drive to the "22110" bigger size port. But again, no boot, no windows, no bios, nothing worked other than the RGB on my cpu water pump and ram sticks, not even the lights on my keyboard that's plugged into USB 2.0 Slots directly on the motherboard would light up. But as soon as I uninstalled it, everything went back to normal like nothing had happened?? and again im not trying to put my boot drive on the new NVMe drive, its already on the other m.2 stick that's been installed for 4-5 months now, just wanted to add it to the open "22110" m.2 slot for quicker transfers on my media server (plus I got it with gift cards for around 35$ so I said screw it) but again.. wasn't that easy!

I only have one single EVGA RTX 2060 XC GPU installed?? would that gobble up all of the lanes? I still have 2 open slots to fill according to the motherboard im looking at lol so im completely confused about how to proceed from here :/

regardless thanks for the quick reply

 

[Robert17]

How many HDD and DVD/CD drives do you have installed?View attachment Aorus z390 pro sata m2 config.pdf
Note that SATA 3.0 uses some bandwidth so if you have something connected to it you can't use the second m.2.

 

[MrSix18]

oh really? even if its an NVMe Drive? I currently have 1 860 Evo 2.5" ssd, 1 4TB Toshiba NAS N300 HDD, 1 Seagate Barrcuda pro, and the Optical Drive so 4 total out of 6 Sata ports. So installing too many sata drives will cause the second larger 22110 port unable to be used? because if so why on earth would it basically limp mode my pc and not even boot rather than say.. not detect the drive in disk management or something? not at all saying your wrong just saying if you are right, they need to put that in the motherboard manual because it says 1. you can use both m.2 ports, and 2. it says using the PCIe m.2 will not cause you to loose any sata ports whatsoever but since the OTHER m.2 I have currently installed while typing this (the 860 Evo sata SSD m.2) disables the 4th and 5th sata ports .. says nothing about not being able to use the NVMe 970 Pro if you have all sata lanes used, other than the diagram showing that the NVMe m.2 does not effect sata ports whatsoever ????

Ughh this is frustrating

 

[Robert17]

The manual does include that info; isn't my PDF upload working? Basically, the controllers for your MB have limited bandwidth, as do all mother boards. The limit is CPU bound. AMD has a different chipset and for some CPUs and MBs have a greater number of PCIe lanes available than Intel. Some Intel boards have more, but they are still limited by the chipset and CPU that are being used. Generally Intel has 24 lanes available. If your configuration has them all in use you can't add more. Also, there are a couple of SATA ports that have a different color plastic connector than the others. Those are the ones that you can't use when you hit your lane limit. Sounds like that's what has happened in your instance. Look at page 17 of the MB manual and you'll see what's what.

 

[MrSix18]

Must of totally overlooked it then in my manual, didn't think it would matter since its NVMe but I was obviously wrong. so can I unplug just anyone of them and then reinstall the NVMe drive? or does it have to be a certain one? and I didn't see your PDF until now but is it the same for the Aorus Pro z390 as the Aorus Pro wifi z390 like mine is?? just thought id ask since their two different boards, sorry man and thank you

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actually yeah their different, your PDF has something called an M2P port. i don't have that, i have an M2M and M2A ports ill post my mobo's PDF



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it says above with the M2A Port (the bigger one that i currently have empty) with an m.2 PCIe SSD installed that sata3-0 to sata3-5 are all available? but again what your saying completely contradicts that. i know that with my 860 evo sata m.2 that ports 4-5 are disabled which is why i moved my sata drives and dvd drive to the 0,1,2,3 ports since 4 and 5 no longer work with it installed

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and also the PDF you posted shows that the particular motherboard its referring to doesn't support NVMe/PCIe m.2's whatsoever, just sata.

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and that ones also showing it only has 4 total sata ports, i have 6.. no biggie just stating why i was confused

 

[Robert17]

When I was downloading the manuals I wound up with six of them, some in Chinese, and so deleted them, but nevertheless it sounds like you found the correct one. Try unplugging all your SATA drives leaving only your boot drive (is that the NVMe?) connected. Boot. Then add your second M2M (if that's what you have), boot, see what happens. If all goes well continue the sequence of events adding one drive at a time plugging into the SATA ports until you get a non-booting problem. Trial and error are often the best way to work these things out.

Nice system, by the way.

 

[MrSix18]

negative the boot drive is currently installed and it is a sata 860 evo m.2, the NVMe im just trying to get working at this point lol its not installed currently its on the desk in front of me just laughing at me cuz I cant get it to work, and okay ill try that next.

quick question, if I made a bootable USB drive from windows media creator or whatever the software is called. can I "technically" remove the current 860 evo that has my OS on it, and install the NVMe that is currently not installed and blank..not even formatted yet. and boot off of the USB drive and then was wondering how to get the OS onto the new NVMe drive at that point, never done it. because if all else fails and the trial and error doesn't work to my advantage. id obviously rather have the NVMe drive installed than the current 860 evo sata m.2 drive that has my OS on it

catch my drift lol sorry for the extended questions just trying not to waste yours or anyone elses times for that matter with a question you don't understand lol

can build a computer at this point but as far as booting goes and the UEFI and legacy crap and all that.. im basically looking at it like mandarin Chinese, im trying to learn but its just sooo much lol and compatibility issues is insane. idk how yall do it!

and thanks man, first PC build for myself and it turned out okay I suppose, just wish the case cleaned up a little better but for being my 1st full tower and only 3rd or 4th build ever (first three I just helped install stuff for friends who obviously would of rathered I at that point install their hardware with only youtube videos as teachings than themselves for whatever reasons) but im happy with it overall.. screams in 1440p with the hefty overclock on the 2060, idc what anyone says, regardless of raytracing, this 2060 beat the pants off of my 1070ti after I OC'd it. and was on sale for 319$

 

[MrSix18]

just tried unplugging all sata drives and still no luck, pc wouldn't boot with the NVMe installed in the bigger m.2 port, and the 860 Evo sata m.2 drive installed in the other smaller port. unplugged all sata drives and optical drives like you suggested but still no luck lost for words at this point, hopefully somebody tomorrow has some answers before im stuck with a 970 pro NVMe I cannot even use lol

 

[Robert17]

Your M2A connector has a different pin-out than your M2M. So your NVMe won't work in that port. Review this and proceed.

 

[trents]

Is the drive you are having trouble with initialed? Remove all drives but that one and see if it can be found by the Windows installer.

 

[MrSix18]

@Robert17

so basically only a 22110 size m.2 will work in that port, HUGE shoutout to gigabyte technical support for telling me an M keyed 2280 970 pro NVMe would work fine in the larger port. so pretty much im left with replacing the current 2280 size 860 evo sata m.2 that's currently occupying the smaller M2M slot with the new 970 pro NVMe and transferring my OS to it. So again im basically switching out a sata m.2 for an NVMe at that point and no real gain would be noticed.. which is awesome...not!

If I purchased an 22110 M key m.2 drive would it work in that M2A slot then like I think im understanding while reading your link?

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@ Trents

no its not, hasn't ever been installed except for last night and the pc wouldn't post. its exactly how it came from Samsung factory...blank

 

[EarthDog]

Ok...


1. M2M and M2A are the same spinouts. They both support SATA and pcie m.2 modules.
2. Trents, I believe, was asking if you initialized (not initialed or installed ) the drive. They typically come blank and need to be partitioned before use. I'd imagine not since you cant even get to the bios.
3.does this module work in another pc? If it is moved into the other slots and is the only drive attached to the PC, does it work?

 

[DaPoets]

I think you also have to tell the bios to use the NVMe as controlled by RST or as a PCIe drive. I ran into this on my older Gigabyte Z370 board and there was some combo of RST managing the drive as PCIe and then everything worked fine. I know this isn't an exact line of help but I hope it does something for you.

 

[jjrecort]

Hello There.

I have a similar problem with a similar MB (Designare Z390)

I have installed a second NVme, and the PCIx8 has stopped working.
The card is on (fan working) and the status led are okay (all green)
But the card does not show up in the system as it has been before adding the secon MVme
FYI is a Sonnet raid card.

I knew about trading SATA ports for MVem, and is in the manual as you posted here.
But it does not says anything about trading actual PCIe slots.

Is like this?

Thanks!

 

[jjrecort]

Hello,

I make it work.. I just had to take out the PCI board, restart without board, install the board and restart again..
Seems it was a BIOS thing!