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NVME Weridness

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graceawong View Drop Down
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Joined: 16 Jan 2023
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    Posted: 16 Jan 2023 at 7:19pm
Hi all,

I'm pulling my hair out over trying to get the NVMe to boot. First off, specs:

ASRock B550M Pro4 Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G CPU
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2133 RAM
MSI Ventus 2X nVidia RTX 3050 GPU
EVGA 650 BQ PSU
128GB SPCC (no idea what brand this is) SATA SSD
Western Digital Black SN570 NVMe PCI-E SSD
Seagate 2TB HDD

Now then, onto the problem...

I am aware that when installing Windows in a system with multiple drives that everything should be unplugged except for the boot drive. So I had unplugged the two SATA drives so only the NVMe drive was installed. I went through the process of installing Windows 10 from a known working USB. The problem was that after the first round of the first round of the installation, the second round (ie. after the reboot) never happened. This happened time and time again. I followed instructions to a) turn off secure boot, b) turn off CSM, c) make sure SATA Mode is in AHCI and d) make sure the drive is formatted in GPT. I tried various and sundy combinations of these (mostly turning on secure boot and leaving CSM on). None of this helped. When I go into Advanced\Storage Configuration, the drive is detected in the NVMe option but nowhere else. And because of the all the settings tweaks going on, I can't remember which setting it was that I would get the error message to plug in a working drive (like the message you get when your boot drive craps out). Oh, and I also did update the firmware to the latest version.

I finally said screw it, this is irritating me so I pulled out the NVME drive and plugged in the 128GB SATA SSD. I was able to install Windows just fine and it booted just fine (for clarification, I turned off secure boot and turned on CSM to make this happen). So I figured it was time to plug the NVME drive back in and      things went to hell in a handbasket again. Even though the NVME drive was completely blank and the SATA SSD was plugged in, I ran into the exact same problem as before. Absolutely NOTHING I was doing was making this thing boot to the SATA SSD anymore, even though I had the SATA SSD at the top of my boot list. My understanding was that the computer is looking for the EFI boot files, which were obviously on the SATA SSD but was looking automatically at NVME, for some stupid reason.

Also, something else funny that I noticed. When I got Windows working properly on the SATA SSD, in the UEFI, the boot list was showing "Windows Boot Manager" exactly like it's supposed to. However, when I plugged in the NVMe drive, Windows Boot Manager disappeared and the SATA SSD is simply listed as being AHCI: SPCC 128GB SSD. So for whatever reason, the NVME drive isn't playing nice with the UEFI. I KNOW it's a settings issue - I've triple checked all the hardware (I did try a different NVMe drive and the same thing happened). But I have absolutely no clue where to go from here. I've been banging my head against the wall for the past eight hours with nothing to show for it.

I'm hoping everything I've typed here makes sense because I realize I'm rambling but it's 4:15AM and I'm tired. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.
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cx5 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cx5 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jan 2023 at 10:50am
You write clear enough....

Lets think out loud, first the USB windows installer successfully got 128GB_Sata to run Windows 10 and shows (Windows Boot Manager), but could still be MBR, not yet GPT ??? can you revify this point? just to get it out of my head.

second the SN570 is dead which I doubt .... because you tried another NVMe and same problem.

then third is the windows installer was_not_on or was_not_prepared_for UEFI(might be the wrong word/term???), was_not_prepared_for GPT(may be is right word???). HOW did you make the windows installr USB? if made by RUFUS then this problem could occue. If made using Microsoft's media creator, may be not, not very sure here. i.e. the windows installer on the usb is old or when making the windows_installer_usb and asked about a question you have choosen MBR kind of thing, not GPT, hence incompatible with UEFI.

last suspicious ....... CPU dead only at 4xPCIe_lanes direct to NVMe .....errrr try install the SN570 to far socket M.2_socket_2 (through b550 chipset not direct to CPU), if this work means the CPU is dead on the 4xPCIe_lanes direct ot M.2_socket_1

but windows could be installed on SN570, just cannot boot .......... sounds like a MBR windows installer USB stick ......
x370taichi@3.50gen4
AX750 Optane900P SN770
3800x PosdonZro4 BarrowPWM-17w>420x140x28
XFX SWFT319 6900XT
MSI RX560 LP to get Fluid Motion BlueskyFRC 75hz
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graceawong View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote graceawong Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jan 2023 at 2:12pm
Hi - thanks for the reply... :)

Could the installer be MBR? I suppose it could be - in fact, now that I think of it, I think it is - when I go into DISKPART in cmd, there is no little asterisk in the GPT column. Truth be told, I wasn't aware that the Windows installer USB had to be GPT as well. I made the Windows installer using the Microsoft media creator - I've never had very good luck with Rufus (in the context of Windows installer) so I tend to avoid it. It was, however, relatively new - it is Build 22H2.

I did try the SN570 in the M.2_2 socket and same problem, unfortunately. Which leads me to believe that you're probably correct re: an MBR Windows installer USB stick - as I said, I wasn't aware that that was a necessity. I'll have to give it a try at some point - this was actually on someone else's computer who has now taken it back (as I said, I gave up and simply sent the computer home with Windows installed on the 128GB SATA SSD. I do expect I'll see it again the near future, though... ;)

Thanks again! :)
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