3 Posts
0
5480
August 17th, 2020 05:00
Dell OptiPlex 5040 SFF keeps forgetting M2 NVME SSD
I bought a refurbished SFF OptiPlex 5040 because it supports M2 NVME and as far as I can see, it should be bootable too. So after initial testing, I installed a Crucial 1TB device and replaced the SATA HD supplied with a clean disc so as not to cause confusion.
I installed Windows 10 Pro on the NVME SSD (creating a NTFS partition of approx 0.5TB) from a USB stick, then I installed Linux Mint 20, also from a USB stick, onto the next half of the NVME SSD. The BIOS saw the NVME SSD and I can select it as boot device. It all worked very well, Grub on boot to choose OS, both OSs playing nice, fully updated & set up with numerous reboots.
Until I powered off. After which I got an error "no boot device detected". Entering the BIOS with F2 shows that the NVME is no longer visible on the list of boot devices, although its green LED is on, showing that it's powered up at least. Nor is it visible on the drive page.
Proper behaviour is restored by physically removing the NVME and replacing it. Then all is well until the next power off.
The setup and behaviour is:
- AHCI mode
- BIOS 1.16.0 (latest)
- All drivers up to date
- Same behaviour with legacy boot/UEFI
- Secure boot off
- NVME drive is always powered up, whether visible to the BIOS or not
- The Dell support diagnostics off the website and the diagnostics from f5 on boot are all ok
I have tried every combination of UEFI/legacy settings. Also, following advice elsewhere on these forums I nuked the SSD, disabled the SATA devices & did a complete new install. No change, before or after re-enabling SATA
I'm getting desperate. At the moment I'm running the thing with the lid off, CD & SATA drive hanging over the edge, but obviously having to physically remove & replace the NVME every time I want to use my PC is not a suitable long term solution.
Helpful suggestions most welcome.
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Doveoscar
3 Posts
1
August 24th, 2020 01:00
OK it can be done. After much trial and error and using several different sources, I have managed to achieve a working Dell OptiPlex 5040 UEFI dual boot NVME SSD Windows/Linux Mint system. I could find no comprehensive guide so below a few notes, in order, for anybody wishing to achieve similar.
1. The Crucial 1TB NVME SD model CT1000P188D8 seems to be incompatible with the Dell OptiPlex 5040.
Once working it stays working through restarts but is not seen after a power off/power on unless it is removed from the system for a few minutes. I have tried numerous BIOS settings but none seem to make it robust through power off/power on. Sometimes the drive is absent the system and reappears after a major BIOS setting change, but this is not repeatable.
2. The Sabrent 512GB Rocket NVME SSD is compatible with the Dell OptiPlex 5040.
3. You need to be familiar with how to get into BIOS/UEFI settings.
Some of these steps will require you to alter the boot order.
4. You need to be content using gparted.
gparted (initially off the Linux Mint USB stick) is used to set up the SSD without Windows taint.
5. Required: USB install stick for Windows, USB install stick for Linux Mint.
3. The SSD needs to have a GPT partition table.
This is essential for UEFI boot off NVME SSD.
4. The first partition on the SSD should be an ESP (EFI System Partition).
This is necessary for the Windows/Linux dual boot. Create with gparted. It is a FAT32 partition with the ESP flag and Boot flag set. I allocated 500MB - that seems to be plenty.
5. Second partition is the Windows NTFS partition.
Create with gparted. Leave enough unallocated space for Linux Mint.
6. Disable SATA during the installation.
This is Dell OptiPlex 5040 specific.
7. Install Windows from a Windows install USB stick.
Make sure that BIOS setting is UEFI boot. Install to the NTFS partition you've just created.
8. Turn off Windows fastboot.
Otherwise system boots straight into Windows even after Linux install.
Settings - power - additional settings - settings not otherwise available.
9. Install Linux Mint from USB.
Install to unallocated space by adding EXT4 root partition (via the install program).
10. Set boot order to Linux Mint first.
Boot into UEFI/BIOS, move Ubuntu to top of list with Windows boot manager below.
11. Re-enable SATA in AHCI mode.
That should be it. A couple of useful tools, which are in the Mint repository, are boot-repair and grub-customizer.
Doveoscar
3 Posts
1
August 18th, 2020 08:00
More information. I was beginning to suspect a hardware issue. Then I reset the BIOS to defaults and as I went through putting everything back to where it should be, I found the NVME drive had reappeared in the system info/boot/drives BIOS menus. I switched from RAID (the default) back to AHCI and rebooted, and all was (temporarily) well.
Experimenting, it does seem that switching SATA mode to RAID and rebooting back to BIOS brings back the visibility of the NVME SSD. Switching to AHCI and rebooting then gives me a (temporarily) normal PC.
I hope this may give somebody an insight? I'm almost ready to throw the PC through the window, which will be a waste of a good window and also of very many hours I've spent trying to fix this.
As before, thoughts very, very welcome.