AB350M Pro4: Ultra M.2 Slot not working-960Evo

makrm wrote: Hi, I can see if I can try my SSD in my friend's motherboard, however I am really considering returning the mobo as well. I was just told by support I should return the mobo AND the ssd, but that will mean return shipping costs, restocking fees, and I will have to wait a lot longer for my new parts. Thanks for all your help John.

Don't bother returning the SSD yet. If possible, try the 960 EVO on your friend's board.

The 960 EVO is an NVMe SSD, not SATA. I have two of them. I have an ASRock X370 Killer SLI/ac board, and mine is recognized in the Storage Configuration screen fine. An NVMe SSD will not be recognized in an M.2 slot for SATA M.2 SSDs only.

You should have the 960 EVO recognized in the UEFI/BIOS, without a Window installation, or without loading an NVMe driver. The Windows 10 installer should see it without any problem. I've even tried my 960 EVO in an M.2 to PCIe adapter card, mounted in a PCIe slot. In this configuration, it will NOT be recognized in the UEFI, but is shown in the Boot order, and boots Windows 10 fine. You do not need to install an NVMe driver during the Windows installation.

You could try configuring the CSM option in the Boot screen as follows, to see if this helps with it being recognized:

With CSM enabled, set the CSM sub-option, Launch Storage OpROM Policy to UEFI Only.

Or set CSM to Disabled.

In both methods, you must Save and Exit the UEFI before the settings will take affect. Go right back into the UEFI and see if the 960 EVO is recognized.

Also, with any Windows 10 installation media, check the boot order for the installation device, and be sure to select the entry with this format: "UEFI: <device name>". The "UEFI:" entry may not be the first entry in the boot order, and is required for NVMe SSDs like the 960 EVO. But again, this is not related to your SSD recognition problem.

Frankly, this is not the only ASRock Ryzen board that has had problems recognizing M.2 SSDs. My Ryzen board has never had this problem. It seems that certain production runs of boards have this issue. If you get the same board from the same retailer or source, chances are it will be from the same production run. Was your friends first board from the same retailer?

makrm, if you get an RMA approved, there will be no charges except to ship the part(s) to the vendor(s).  I was wrong about Instant Flash, it is under Tools.  Sorry you are having so much trouble.  I knew when I started my build so soon after release I was asking for trouble and I had to RMA my MB.  Enjoy, John.

makrm, I suspect your SSD does not need a firmware update.  I have two almost three months old and they came and continue to have the latest.  What was the BIOS (firmware?) date/time?  The latest Firmware (2B7QCXE7) is dated 2-15-2017.  What ASRock BIOS version are you using?  Have you updated to the latest?  When/if you do be sure to Load UEFI Defaults (F9) after the update.  Open your BIOS to see the BIOS version and make sure you have Instant Flash (under Advanced).  Some older MBs did not support Instant Flash and need to be flashed using a DOS boot disk.  Would it be possible for you to try your SSD in your friend's MB and see if is recognized?  You should almost never need to use the Reset button.  It is a last resort when you PC is out to lunch.  Note that retail PCs have no Reset button.  The power button should never need to be used to power down the PC.  Again as a last resort.  Since you do not have an OS installed you have no choice.  Good luck, John.

So I got home and tried it in the M2_2 slot as well. The BIOS still does not detect the drive. In addition, I just got an email from support asking me to check if I can see the SSD in the BIOS even though I mentioned I couldn't. Their response seems to be quite slow, so these forum posts are the quickest help I have gotten. 

Yes John, I did screw down the SSD properly, and I can still try to M2_2 slot when I get home. However, I didn't know that Windows 10 already has the drivers for the NVMe drive. This was not reflected in the fresh install when asked for a storage device to load the OS onto (it did not detect the ssd, or the .exe driver from the Samsung website).