m.2 ssd wouldnt boot

[MrXT]

Yesterday i installed my first m.2 ssd and installed windows on it and all the updates went fine and i used it for a whoole day even turning it off and on a few times without a hitch. Today i turn it on and the computer goes straight into bios and the m.2 drive is undetected, i fiddled around in the bios trying to find out why it wouldnt be detecting it then decided to boot my windows usb drive and repair the boot sector hoping that might fix it but every time i turned the pc off and on it would go straight back into bios only detecting my 2tb sata sshd and the disk drive but no m.2.

I then unplugged the power and put it back in and then turned the pc on and it booted windows from my m.2 drive no problem. What on earth is wrong????

My specs in case it helps.
asus z97-p motherboard
i5 4460
8gb ddr3 ram
2tb SSHD
Its a 128gb micron m550 m.2
Windows 10 x64

 

[Ketchup]

Loose M.2 connection? Have you tried physically pulling the drive out and putting it back in? The latest of 14 BIOS updates on that board may also be worth a shot.

 

[MrXT]

Loose M.2 connection? Have you tried physically pulling the drive out and putting it back in? The latest of 14 BIOS updates on that board may also be worth a shot.

Tried reseating the m.2 drive and updated my bios to the latest version. Turned the pc on not long ago and it boots straight to bios with no m.2 drive detected then pulled the plug and put the plug back in and then turned the pc on and it booted up to windows just fine.

 

[Ketchup]

Well, at least you can't blame the SATA cable, lol. What power supply? If you run it for a while with the SSHD unplugged, do you still have the issue?

What firmware? Saw this listed for the latest:

Version MU02 includes the following changes:

• Improved stability, Efficiency, and Performance during power state transitions
• Improved handling of environments with unstable power supplies
• Improved handling of environments with SATA interface signal integrity issues
• Improved response time for SMART read commands
• Corrected error handling NCQ Trim Commands
• Corrected reporting of SMART Attribute 5

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm still coming up to speed with this, but I've gone through the hoops like a serious climb to the top of Everest building my Z170 system. One more problem over in the graphics forum, and I can "plant the flag."

symptoms sound like those I experienced first trying to get Win7 on my Z170 system. Check BIOS. I assume that Z97 is NVMe-ready.

From my Z170 experience, using the motherboard slot for M.2 means sharing the bandwidth with SATA-Express-1, or the two SATA ports that would be part of SATA-Express-1 and using them as independent SATA.

Second, in my Z170 BIOS, there is a menu item either in CSM or in PCH-Storage (can't remember at the moment) for "[M.2] versus (either) PCI-Express or SATA-Express (can't remember exactly again). If you use the motherboard slot, the board must be configured with the M.2 selection.

I can see now that the Micron 550 is an SATA/AHCI M.2 drive. There are M-key and B-key M.2 drives. Maybe you have all of this sorted out already.

Wish I had more to offer on this.

 

[MrXT]

Well, at least you can't blame the SATA cable, lol. What power supply? If you run it for a while with the SSHD unplugged, do you still have the issue?

What firmware? Saw this listed for the latest:

Version MU02 includes the following changes:

• Improved stability, Efficiency, and Performance during power state transitions
• Improved handling of environments with unstable power supplies
• Improved handling of environments with SATA interface signal integrity issues
• Improved response time for SMART read commands
• Corrected error handling NCQ Trim Commands
• Corrected reporting of SMART Attribute 5

Cant remember the brand and cant check because im at work but its 500w and for my system thats really over kill as you might be able to tell by my specs, At idle the system wouldnt even hit 200w and at load it wouldnt touch 300w so i dont think an m.2 drive is pushing it over the edge.

Firmware for what the m.2 drive? Where can i check the latest firmware for it?

I ahvent tried running it without my sshd, it would be difficult to replicate even if i did because it often boots up just fine then one boot out of a few it boots to bios and doesnt detect the m.2 drive until iv cut the power at the mains and then put it back on.

I'm still coming up to speed with this, but I've gone through the hoops like a serious climb to the top of Everest building my Z170 system. One more problem over in the graphics forum, and I can "plant the flag."

symptoms sound like those I experienced first trying to get Win7 on my Z170 system. Check BIOS. I assume that Z97 is NVMe-ready.

From my Z170 experience, using the motherboard slot for M.2 means sharing the bandwidth with SATA-Express-1, or the two SATA ports that would be part of SATA-Express-1 and using them as independent SATA.

Second, in my Z170 BIOS, there is a menu item either in CSM or in PCH-Storage (can't remember at the moment) for "[M.2] versus (either) PCI-Express or SATA-Express (can't remember exactly again). If you use the motherboard slot, the board must be configured with the M.2 selection.

I can see now that the Micron 550 is an SATA/AHCI M.2 drive. There are M-key and B-key M.2 drives. Maybe you have all of this sorted out already.

Wish I had more to offer on this.

I made sure the m.2 drive i bought was supported by the motherboard before hand and yes its a sata m.2 drive and the motherboard supports both.
I couldnt find many settings in the bios that i could configure even after the bios update i checked a youtube video which ran through the steps for getting an m.2 drive to drive on general z-97 motherboards but there are quite a few versions and the settings this one guy had are not there on my bios screen and after i installed the m.2 drive i was able to install windows and boot from it right away so i assumed my z97-p already had the right settings to begin with but ill go in again and fiddle around.

 

[Ketchup]

The Storage Executive software will tell you what version you are at, and should be able to take care of getting you the latest if you don't have it yet:

https://www.micron.com/products/solid-state-storage/storage-executive-software

 

[MrXT]

The Storage Executive software will tell you what version you are at, and should be able to take care of getting you the latest if you don't have it yet:

https://www.micron.com/products/solid-state-storage/storage-executive-software

Thanks, successfully updated to the latest firmware. Hopefully this has sorted the issue now.