Z170 ProM4s build help

The one time I don't suggest trying another PSU......

invasmani wrote: I'd also advice checking system agent voltage if that's set too low for a given CPU clock frequency/BCLK frequency not sure which is the cause it can fail to post or cause post failure messages to do with the boot drive being inaccessible. Generally speaking I've found SA needs to be 1.05v minimum or higher in typically up to around 1.15v to avoid such issues. I have no idea in the case of M.2 drives though that might require even higher SA in conjunction with other SATA drives is my initial suspicion based on what I've seen at least. I'd try raising SA to 1.25v and seeing if it helps and from there lowering it to the point where the boot drive inaccessible errors begin to occur and raise it up anywhere from 0.05v to 0.15v above that.

System Agent voltage (VCCSA) being to low causing POST failures and drive recognition issues?

I'm glad you brought this up, since it might be a factor in this issue, but possibly not directly for the reason you explained. Your idea is definitely worth testing IMO.

I wonder what the default/Auto setting in the Z170M Pro4S' UEFI for VCCSA voltage provides.

I've never had the problem with my drives that the others in this thread have, with the Auto VCCSA setting in the UEFI resulting in 1.072V for VCCSA. I had three M.2 SSDs in my Z170 Extreme7+ board with that VCCSA voltage.

VCCSA is related to memory stability in Skylake systems. We have seen some strange issues that were fixed by changing to memory with better compatibility. Is this another example of that?

Increasing VCCSA is done when over clocking memory, and the XMP profiles of high speed DDR4 memory (3000+) set VCCSA and VCCIO voltages to values significantly higher than the defaults. My G.SKILL DDR4 3200 memory's XMP profile set VCCSA to 1.250V, and VCCIO to 1.150V. I found that those rather high voltages could be reduced significantly, without loss of memory stability or boot problems, with the memory at its highest rated speed. But that depends upon the model of memory being used, and some DDR4 memory designed for X99 systems does not always work well with Skylake systems.

If anyone tries to increase the VCCSA voltage to the value suggested above, you might find the voltage value suddenly changing to a red colored font. That is normally done when a voltage setting value is above the range suggested by Intel. The voltages in red are not automatically dangerous, but there are limits to any voltage, beyond which damage can occur.

That is what I meant by increasing VCCSA not directly being a fix for this issue. That is, increasing VCCSA does not directly benefit the M.2 and SATA IO system itself (part of the Z170 PCH), but fixing any memory stability problems on these boards has also cured other strange problems like this one.

Another hint about this is, I reduced the PCH +1.0 voltage from the Auto setting, which was 1.016V by default. I wanted to see if that would affect the PCH temperature, and it did. The PCH voltage is the main voltage for the Z170 PCH chipset, which provides all the M.2 and Intel SATA ports. The default PCH +1.0 voltage would be another worth checking on the Z170M Pro4S.

Skylake is a rather different system from Intel compared to their recent past. The voltage regulators (FIVR) on the CPU die itself, found in Haswell and Broadwell processors, is no longer used in Skylake. Skylake also is the first non-HEDT platform to use DDR4 memory, and is the first Intel system to use PCIe 3.0 lanes in the PCH/Chipset, for use with the PCIe (M.2) and SATA storage interfaces. AHCI and NVMe use system memory to store and communicate IO requests to disk drives. Put this all together, and we can see the potential for new issues like this one.

I'm giving up on this board. I will start an RMA with ASRock. Thanks for all the input from all. Wish me luck on the next try

Excuse me bios is version 2.60 sorry

I see now that culdog1 and SacsTC are using different M.2 SSDs, so different that it's beginning to make me wonder... but as more information like this is known, there must be other things we don't know. Or it might be a problem with the UEFI/BIOS on this board.

I just want to say again that I use NVMe SSDs and SATA drives on multiple PCs using ASRock boards. I even have an Intel 750 NVMe SSD as the OS drive (Win 10) on a Z77 Extreme4 board, with two Intel SATA SSDs as data drives. My ASRock Z170 board is currently using only M.2 SSDs, no SATA drives, but I know I've had SATA drives working with it in the recent past. I'll revisit that PC to confirm the use of SATA drives is fine.

I'm reviewing information below, please correct it if it is wrong. We also need clear answers to several questions you'll find below.

You are both using the Z170M Pro4S board. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170M%20Pro4S/

SacsTC is using an M.2 Samsung 850 EVO, which is a SATA SSD. To use any SATA M.2 SSD as the OS drive, there aren't any special UEFI configurations needed.

culdog1 is using an M.2 Samsung 950 Pro, an NVMe SSD. NVMe SSDs require some configuration of the CSM option in order to allow them to be used as an OS drive.

Questions:

UEFI/BIOS version you are using?

You may already know all of some of the things I will review below, so bear with me, no offense!

Regarding the UEFI option settings, some of the settings we need to use are NOT default settings. That means each and every time we clear the UEFI/BIOS, or do a UEFI update, these options must be reset to the settings we need to use. Using a UEFI profile is a convenient way to save and restore your settings. A UEFI update will remove any saved profiles, be prepared to deal with that.

In the UEFI, what is the SATA Mode in Storage Configuration? Default is AHCI.

Please verify that the SATA Controllers option is Enabled. Also check the SATA Aggressive Link Power Management option, be sure that it is Disabled.

When you connect HDDs, that cause the boot failure issue, are they recognized in the UEFI? That would be in the Storage Configuration screen, and in the System Browser tool.

In the Storage Configuration screen, there will be an entry for each SATA drive. Clicking on an entry of a drive reveals its sub-options. Among the sub-options is one called Drive Type, or similar to that. Settings are either Solid State or Hard Drive, please set these options accordingly for your SATA drives.

One thing to try when installing the HDDs, clear the UEFI/BIOS before starting the PC after connecting the HDDs. Do not think you can get away with not doing this.

You'll need to restore all you non-default UEFI settings after doing that, including checking the Boot Order. That is very important, and may be related to your problems. Assume nothing is right automatically regarding Boot order.

The one possible (maybe, could be) exception to this is the CSM setting, and ONLY applies to Z170 and other Intel 100 series chipset boards. That is, once Windows is installed in UEFI mode on an NVMe SSD, it seems the UEFI is smart enough to use the appropriate underlying settings to allow an NVMe SSD to boot without setting the CSM option correctly after a UEFI clear or update. I tried this myself as an experiment and Win 10 booted fine.

If you check Device Manager, do you find an entry for ATA/ATAPI Controllers (or similar entry.) If so, what driver is being used for the Intel SATA controller?

Did either of you install the Intel IRST RAID driver? That is also an AHCI driver, and would appear in Device Manager under Storage Controllers. I'm trying to establish if the Intel SATA controller is working and which driver is being used.

That's enough for now, I'm out of time too. Any other information, like the models of HDDs you are using, would be good to have.