Gigabyte H170 Gamer 3 and NVMe issues

[lytalbayre]

So I building a new computer after about 5-6 years. I see there are lots of new developments out there. In particular, I was really excited about the m.2 NVMe ssds on the market.

So, I bought these components:

Gigabyte H170 LGA 1151 Gamer 3 motherboard (Rev. 1)
Intel i7-6700 chip
32gb ddr4 G.skill NT series (F4-2133C15D-16GNT)
Samsung 950 Pro 512mb M.2 NVMe PCIE SSD
(3) HGST ultrastar 4tb hard drives (2 in raid 1) (1 as backup)....
EVGA GTX 960 4gb (stock speed version)
seasonic 500w fanless power supply.

I want a stable, reliable and fast system. I don't overclock. I do some video editing, use the computer to watch lots of streaming content. File storage, etc. I will play some games, but not heavy gamer, connecting to a 4K LCD (sort of a HTPC setup).

So, now that is out of the way, here is my problem:

Before installing my M.2 NVME drive, with BIOS revision 1, the BIOS detected all of the legacy harddrives. It also detected CPU and memory without issue.

So, I updated the bios to rev. 5 using qflash, and then connected my M.2 drive.

Now in bios, none of my harddrives are detected. My three legacy drives, which were previously detected by manufacturer, model number and size, were not showing, and my 512mb SSD was not showing either. Even after loading optimized defaults....

Any ideas on what is going on? Should I revert back to a lower BIOS?

I understand the 950pro is sort of backwards compatible with legacy type protocols.

Could there be some weird conflict with a legacy vs. UFEI setting somewhere? I can't seem to find it and would assume loading optimized defaults would get rid of this issue....

 

[vailr]

Note: the M.2 drive being present is going to prevent certain of the regular SATA ports from being functional. There may also be special M.2 bios settings, in order to enable M.2 drives. Check your printed manual for details.

Here's what I'd do in your situation:
1. Remove the M.2 drive and then see if the other SATA drives are now detected.
2. If so, install Windows on one of the regular SATA hard drives.
3. Or: on another PC, create a bootable Win10 "Windows to Go" USB thumb drive, using: Aomei Partition Assistant (free software) + a 32 Gb USB thumb drive + Win10 .iso file.
3. Set the bios to optimized defaults & re-boot to the Windows desktop, using either the SATA drive or the Win-to-Go thumb drive.
4. Use Gigabyte's "@ bios" Windows software (instead of Q-Flash) to re-flash the latest F5 bios.
5. If that fails to correct the problem, the backup secondary bios can be accessed using Ctl-F10 during system boot.

 

[lytalbayre]

So messed around. I had to turn on cms (compatibility mode) but then turn all legacy options on as legacy only.

This allowed my boos to detect my old drives. I think Samsung makes the 950 backward compatible with legacy rom so it was detected too.

Where the m.2 should be detected, under pcie drives, it does not show up.

Nevertheless I was able to install Windows directly to it and use Samsung drivers. The Samsung test is showing read and write speeds where they should be.

So it seems to be working though I still feel like this is a design flaw with the mob and bios....

 

[Triloby]

From what I've heard, using an M.2 slot on your motherboard will disable certain SATA ports on your motherboard. I think it disables all RAID 0 SATA ports, but I don't know for certain.

 

[lytalbayre]

Pretty much confirmed this with the Gigabyte H170. Though, in legacy mode the Samsung 950 pro is still detected, even while in the m.2 slot, and it still runs at spec'd speeds, so seems to be the work around.

But regardless of settings, I could not get the BIOS to detect the M.2 drive under PCIE devices where it should have been.

LOL

From what I've heard, using an M.2 slot on your motherboard will disable certain SATA ports on your motherboard. I think it disables all RAID 0 SATA ports, but I don't know for certain.

 

[bonehead123]

From what I've heard, using an M.2 slot on your motherboard will disable certain SATA ports on your motherboard

This is true, at least for now on most current boards, including the one in my sig. You have to check your manual to see which ports are disabled... they are generally numbered 0-5 or 7 depending on how many you have.

Since my board has 2x m2 slots, and I use them both, I lose 4 of my 8 sata ports, but I only really need 2 anyways for my dvd drive and my back-up SSD, and my other storage drives are USB 3 units