Samsung 970 EVO Plus M2 PCIe NVMe drive working but not showing as NVMe device

[MrCheerful]

Hello, this is my first post so please excuse if there is vital information missing.

Last week I received a new PC Specialist PC to setup for a charity organisation that I work with which had with the following spec

Intel® CoreTM i7 Eight Core Processor i7-10700K (3.8GHz) 16MB Cache
ASUS® TUF Z490-PLUS GAMING (LGA1200, USB 3.2, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

then added nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphic cards and Windows 10 Professional as we already had these.

Initial setup and testing went well and I decided to run a UserBenchmark on it to see how good it was. Here I noticed that the SAMSUNG NVMe drive was reported performing reasonably below expected results.

I decided to check the drive setup and noticed that Windows only had an Intel driver and basic Windows driver under Storage Controllers on Device Manager.

I downloaded the driver from Samsung but when I tried to install it an error stating that no NVMe drive was fitted.

On checking the BIOS sure enough the SAMSUNG EVO drive is there under boot device and clearly works as I am running from it BUT under the BIOS NVMe Configuration it states ‘No NVMe Device Found’.

This seems wrong to me and possibly affecting performance but I have no idea how to fixed.

Any ideas gratefully received.

Many Thanks.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hello, this is my first post so please excuse if there is vital information missing.

Last week I received a new PC Specialist PC to setup for a charity organisation that I work with which had with the following spec

Intel® CoreTM i7 Eight Core Processor i7-10700K (3.8GHz) 16MB Cache
ASUS® TUF Z490-PLUS GAMING (LGA1200, USB 3.2, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

then added nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphic cards and Windows 10 Professional as we already had these.

Initial setup and testing went well and I decided to run a UserBenchmark on it to see how good it was. Here I noticed that the SAMSUNG NVMe drive was reported performing reasonably below expected results.

I decided to check the drive setup and noticed that Windows only had an Intel driver and basic Windows driver under Storage Controllers on Device Manager.

I downloaded the driver from Samsung but when I tried to install it an error stating that no NVMe drive was fitted.

On checking the BIOS sure enough the SAMSUNG EVO drive is there under boot device and clearly works as I am running from it BUT under the BIOS NVMe Configuration it states ‘No NVMe Device Found’.

This seems wrong to me and possibly affecting performance but I have no idea how to fixed.

Any ideas gratefully received.

Many Thanks.

Can you post the full specs from the order page on your main account?

 

[SpyderTracks]

I realised that my post was probably in the wrong forum board when I found the Technical Support - Desktops so have copied to there. I will get my spec and post on there if that is okay.

Can you close down this set of posts so I don’t annoy people with two of the same threads on different boards?

The other one was closed as it was posted after, this has been moved to the correct location.

 

[MrCheerful]

In answer to the full spec question this was the spec ordered and then I have added the nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphic cards, a Crucial 1TB SSD and Windows 10 Professional as we already had these.

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-10700K (3.8GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z490-PLUS GAMING (LGA1200, USB 3.2, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 22 to 24 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo

 

[SpyderTracks]

Which samsung driver were you trying to install, can you provide a link?

What method did you use to install windows?

Which M2 port is the drive plugged into, the one mid of the board or at the bottom?

 

[MrCheerful]

Thank you for offering to help, answers below

1.) I believe the driver was the one on this page

970 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD 1TB | Samsung Support UK

970 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD 1TB. Solutions & Tips, Download Manual, Contact Us. Samsung Support UK

www.samsung.com

But as it is not showing as NVMe in BIOS I am not sure it is a Windows issue, but happy to be proved wrong.

2.) Windows 10 Professional was a clean install as I hadn’t ordered through PCS as we had a new licence. It was installed from a bootable USB download.

3.) The drive appears plugged into M2_1 which looking at the motherboard installed is the bottom one. It has a cover (or maybe heat sink I don’t know) over it so you cannot really see it and not sure how it comes off.

Thanks

 

[1dogman1]

Mrcheerful, i installed the driver at this link

https://org.downloadcenter.samsung.com/downloadfile/ContentsFile.aspx?CDSite=UNI_UK&OriginYN=N&ModelType=N&ModelName=MZ-V7S1T0&CttFileID=7239378&CDCttType=DR&VPath=DR%2F202006%2F20200612081131488%2FSamsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.3.exe

It took first timei also installed magician to confirm it worked

 

[MrCheerful]

Thank you 1DOGMAN1

I will happily give that a go if it is a different one to that I have tried

however I am not sure this will have any effect in it appearing as an NVMe device in the BIOS but I don’t really know much about these M2 NVMe drives?

 

[MrCheerful]

Thank you SPYDERTRACKS and 1DOGMAN1 for your help. Unfortunately trying to just install the driver gave the same error (might have been the same driver I tried before).

Having another look at the BIOS settings and Motherboard manual pointed me in the direction of the SATA configuration. I had updated/installed what I thought was a generic Intel storage driver (Intel RST Premium with Intel Optane) but in the install process it appears to have changed my SATA configuration to RAID.

Looking elsewhere online

Switch Windows 10 from RAID/IDE to AHCI - Knowledgebase / Microsoft Windows - CTSi Group - Helpdesk

support.thinkcritical.com

Provided some instructions for how to convert from SATA RAID to AHCI.

I followed these and low and behold the NVMe device is detected in the BIOS and then I was able to install the Samsung driver in Windows. Making the change in the BIOS does warn of potential data loss but so far all appears okay.

Thank you for your help.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you SPYDERTRACKS and 1DOGMAN1 for your help. Unfortunately trying to just install the driver gave the same error (might have been the same driver I tried before).

Having another look at the BIOS settings and Motherboard manual pointed me in the direction of the SATA configuration. I had updated/installed what I thought was a generic Intel storage driver (Intel RST Premium with Intel Optane) but in the install process it appears to have changed my SATA configuration to RAID.

Looking elsewhere online

Switch Windows 10 from RAID/IDE to AHCI - Knowledgebase / Microsoft Windows - CTSi Group - Helpdesk

support.thinkcritical.com

Provided some instructions for how to convert from SATA RAID to AHCI.

I followed these and low and behold the NVMe device is detected in the BIOS and then I was able to install the Samsung driver in Windows. Making the change in the BIOS does warn of potential data loss but so far all appears okay.

Thank you for your help.

Well done!