X399 Taichi - not detecting SN850X M.2 Drive

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   I'm having problems installing a Western Digital SN850X 2TB M.2 drive on my X399 Taichi motherboard.

The drive is not detected in the BIOS. When I try to install Windows 10, the drive doesn't show up during the install process. When using diskpart, "list disk" doesn't show the drive.

I've confirmed that the SN850X drive works because it is detected on another computer. I've confirmed that the M.2 slot on the motherboard works, because it is able to detect a different M.2 drive (a Samsung 860 EVO).

If it matters, I'm running BIOS version 3.92.

Things I've tried to far:

1. Tried resetting the BIOS to default settings.
2. Tried all three M.2 slots on the motherboard.
3. Disconnected every other drive on the system.
4. Tried with CSM turned on and turned off.
5. Tried with Secure Boot turned on and turned off.
6. Tried with IOMMU turned on and turned off. (I tried this because I've read that IOMMU can cause issues with installing Windows 10.)

Any advice on what else I can try?

As a side note, I'm aware that the SN850X in a PCIe Gen4 drive and the X399 Taichi has PCIe Gen3 slots, but it's supposed to be backwards compatible.

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Arundor Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 19 Sep 2017 Status: Offline Points: 117	Post Options Post Reply Quote Arundor Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: X399 Taichi - not detecting SN850X M.2 Drive Posted: 20 Feb 2023 at 8:50am
	I'm having problems installing a Western Digital SN850X 2TB M.2 drive on my X399 Taichi motherboard. The drive is not detected in the BIOS. When I try to install Windows 10, the drive doesn't show up during the install process. When using diskpart, "list disk" doesn't show the drive. I've confirmed that the SN850X drive works because it is detected on another computer. I've confirmed that the M.2 slot on the motherboard works, because it is able to detect a different M.2 drive (a Samsung 860 EVO). If it matters, I'm running BIOS version 3.92. Things I've tried to far: 1. Tried resetting the BIOS to default settings. 2. Tried all three M.2 slots on the motherboard. 3. Disconnected every other drive on the system. 4. Tried with CSM turned on and turned off. 5. Tried with Secure Boot turned on and turned off. 6. Tried with IOMMU turned on and turned off. (I tried this because I've read that IOMMU can cause issues with installing Windows 10.) Any advice on what else I can try? As a side note, I'm aware that the SN850X in a PCIe Gen4 drive and the X399 Taichi has PCIe Gen3 slots, but it's supposed to be backwards compatible.
	ASRock X399 Taichi (BIOS 3.90) \| AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X G.SKILL TridentZ 32GB RAM (F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ) \| Seasonic Focus Plus 850W (SSR-850FX)

threadzipper1957 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 05 Mar 2022 Status: Offline Points: 9335	Post Options Post Reply Quote threadzipper1957 Report Post Thanks(2) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Feb 2023 at 5:32pm
	Dear Arundor, This is a bit of a known issue, on all brands of motherboards, and it has to do with the controller chip, on the M.2 in combination with the hardware. Sometimes it requires a firmware update on the M.2, or, you need to use a different brand. As You said, the slot on the board is functioning with another M.2. But since M.2 storage is becoming increasingly popular, it sometiems happens, that the controller chip on the board simply doesn't report to UEFI, and keep in mind, the PCIE lanes come directly from the CPU. It doesn't really matter when the boards PCIE lanes deliver 3.0, and the drive is 4.0, it will just run at limited performance
	Kind Regards

Arundor Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 19 Sep 2017 Status: Offline Points: 117	Post Options Post Reply Quote Arundor Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 21 Feb 2023 at 11:37am
	Hi threadzipper1957, Thanks so much for your reply. I had been getting very frustrated and it's good to know that it wasn't an installation error on my part. I tried using a different computer to update the firmware on the SN850X drive, but even then it couldn't be detected on the X399 Taichi. It seems I'll have to return my SN850X drives. Thanks again for the assistance. To anyone else who stumbles across this thread and has a similar problem, save yourselves the headache and don't buy a SN850X for your X399 Taichi.
	ASRock X399 Taichi (BIOS 3.90) \| AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X G.SKILL TridentZ 32GB RAM (F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ) \| Seasonic Focus Plus 850W (SSR-850FX)

Arundor Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 19 Sep 2017 Status: Offline Points: 117	Post Options Post Reply Quote Arundor Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 22 Feb 2023 at 4:01am
	Just wanting to keep this up to date in case anyone else has similar problems. I've found a partial solution. I had previously opened a ticket with ASRock support, and they got back to me this morning. They suggested I try all three M.2 slots. I had already done this previously, but the suggestion made me realized that I had done it before updating the drive firmware. So with the firmware updated I went ahead and tried the drive again in the other M.2 slots, and it worked in slots 2 and 3. So to summarize, to get these drives working on this motherboard, you need to update the SN850X firmware (using Western Digital's Dashboard utility) and use slots M2_2 or M2_3 (but not M2_1). This does present a conundrum because you need to detect the drives to update the firmware, but you can't detect the drives before updating the firmware. So you need to have another computer you can use to update the SN850X firmware. Even then, it still doesn't work on the M2_1 slot. This partial solution is enough for me. Many thanks to Eric from ASRock support for helping with this.
	ASRock X399 Taichi (BIOS 3.90) \| AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X G.SKILL TridentZ 32GB RAM (F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ) \| Seasonic Focus Plus 850W (SSR-850FX)

SerchTech Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 16 Oct 2022 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 1335	Post Options Post Reply Quote SerchTech Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 22 Feb 2023 at 8:01am
	Thank you very much Arundor for sharing your experience, your very welcome! Let me contribute my experience with M.2 drives and X399 Taichi: Currently I'm using 3 x Samsung EVO Plus 2TB, all NVMe PCIe recognized by BIOS and working properly except low random write performance, not using any SATA drives. Installed 3 same model drives all with latest Samsung firmware on M.2_1/_2/_3 slots I've noticed that the order of BUS enumeration by BIOS (3.90 or 3.92) is not in accordance with the ASRock X399 Taichi User Manual, in other words .... - M2_1 Slot = Disk 1 - M2_2 Slot = Disk 2 - M2_3 Slot = Disk 0 ... therefore the real order based by BIOS and consequently to all OSs installed is bellow - Disk 0 = M2_3 Slot - Disk 1 = M2_1 Slot - Disk 2 = M2_2 Slot I don't know if this previous incongruity is caused by AMD's outdated/faulty AGESA code or ASRock's BIOS but it's so clear that it is not well finished, at least users should be informed. Keeping in mind my previous conclusion (if you find it interesting) also it is possible that your 860 EVO (SATA) is causing any bug, IMO it's really weird that your SN850X can't be detected only in M2_1. In my case now flashed BIOS 3.90 and would not recommend anyone to use 3.92 ... it's really BETA!! Since I've test it clear CMOS has not worked even removing the battery from the board and returning to 3.90 the previous configurations of 3.92 were maintained not resetting to default as it should, perhaps the clear CMOS steps you did have not worked either. Just my experience, hopefully it will be useful to you and best regards
	X399 Taichi (4.03) Threadripper 2950X DDR4 2 x HX432C16FB3K2/32