AB350 Pro4 no POST with NVMe in bottom M2 slot

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   Hi all,

I purchased another M2 NVMe SSD and MBO is having hard time POSTing after installing it in bottom M2 (M2_2) slot. I am fully aware that both AB350 Pro4 specs and manual state that bottom M2 slot is intended for M2 SATA drives only, but it is keyed as NVMe slot and I have seen (and talked with) people (there is a post on Reddit), with the same MBO and CPU, but different SSD brand, using their drives successfully this way.

Here are the (important) specs:

* ASRock AB350 Pro4 (BIOS 8.02)
* AMD Ryzen 5800X3D (Arctic Freezer II 280)
* Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT
* 2x Patriot Viper RGB 3000MHz 8GB PVR416G300C5KW (Micron H-die)
* ADATA ASX8200NP-240GT-C M2 NVMe SSD (installed in Ultra M2 slot)
* ADATA ASX8200PNP-2TT-C M2 NVMe SSD (new, installed in bottom M2 slot)
* Seagate Barracuda Guardian 2TB 7200RPM ST2000DM008-2FR102 (not in SATA3_3)
* Fortron Raider II 750W 80S

Behavior is as follows: In 9 out of 10 cases, booting stops at "ASRock" logo, without being able to enter BIOS. This one successful case let me enter BIOS and MBO recognizes both M2 NVMe SSD on Bus 0 and Bus 1 respectively. Also, this one successful case POSTs, but gets stuck when loading Windows from primary NVMe (disk activity LED suddenly stops blinking). Rebooting the system does not help, clearing the CMOS does not help. The only thing that helps is removing the NVMe from bottom slot.

I have already tried:

* testing new 2TB SSD in top (M2_1, Ultra M2 slot, works every time)
* swapping NVMe drives, 2TB one in M2_1, 256GB one in M2_2
* reseating both drives multiple times
* fiddling with smo PCIe speed settings in BIOS

Any suggestions? 

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DonYenko Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 22 May 2017 Location: Croatia Status: Offline Points: 28	Post Options Post Reply Quote DonYenko Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: AB350 Pro4 no POST with NVMe in bottom M2 slot Posted: 12 Mar 2024 at 4:59pm
	Hi all, I purchased another M2 NVMe SSD and MBO is having hard time POSTing after installing it in bottom M2 (M2_2) slot. I am fully aware that both AB350 Pro4 specs and manual state that bottom M2 slot is intended for M2 SATA drives only, but it is keyed as NVMe slot and I have seen (and talked with) people (there is a post on Reddit), with the same MBO and CPU, but different SSD brand, using their drives successfully this way. Here are the (important) specs: * ASRock AB350 Pro4 (BIOS 8.02) * AMD Ryzen 5800X3D (Arctic Freezer II 280) * Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT * 2x Patriot Viper RGB 3000MHz 8GB PVR416G300C5KW (Micron H-die) * ADATA ASX8200NP-240GT-C M2 NVMe SSD (installed in Ultra M2 slot) * ADATA ASX8200PNP-2TT-C M2 NVMe SSD (new, installed in bottom M2 slot) * Seagate Barracuda Guardian 2TB 7200RPM ST2000DM008-2FR102 (not in SATA3_3) * Fortron Raider II 750W 80S Behavior is as follows: In 9 out of 10 cases, booting stops at "ASRock" logo, without being able to enter BIOS. This one successful case let me enter BIOS and MBO recognizes both M2 NVMe SSD on Bus 0 and Bus 1 respectively. Also, this one successful case POSTs, but gets stuck when loading Windows from primary NVMe (disk activity LED suddenly stops blinking). Rebooting the system does not help, clearing the CMOS does not help. The only thing that helps is removing the NVMe from bottom slot. I have already tried: * testing new 2TB SSD in top (M2_1, Ultra M2 slot, works every time) * swapping NVMe drives, 2TB one in M2_1, 256GB one in M2_2 * reseating both drives multiple times * fiddling with smo PCIe speed settings in BIOS Any suggestions?