41 Posts
0
2173
XPS 8910, PEX4M2E1 x4 PCIe card M.2 SSD, not working
XPS 8910
@Tesla1856 I did get the Startech PEX4M2E1 to add an SSD to my system. You mentioned it works fine on your Intel build. The 8910 only has one M.2 slot on the system board. I wanted to check it out and add a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro and stop using one of the HD's.
Maybe you (or others) could offer any suggestions?
The card refuses to work on the XPS 8910. I've been on multiple chats with their techs. Finally, they looked across their tech calls and saw that some XPS 8910 owners were having some "odd interoperability" where the SSD drive is not shown anywhere. That is exactly what I am seeing. He also said on some motherboards (no specific brands or model mentioned) that once the internal M.2 slot is used one of the PCIe x4 slots is disabled.
We are still thinking that maybe the card could be bad, but after he looked up the XPS8910 tech calls, he then said that likely a new card might work. Well, a replacement from Amazon is already on its way, so I'll have a chance to check it out.
Their tech also indicated I should review the bios to see if it had any choices regarding the use of the x4 PCIe slot, regarding versions, etc. I went through the whole BIOS and didn't see anything obvious.
I spotted one really odd thing. When their card was in the PC with another SSD I had, as a test, it listed that named card, size, brand, etc, in the Bios. I took it out and put in the Samsung 980 Pro SSD and went into the Bios and the Samsung 980 Pro card was then named in the same spot as the other SSD card I tried.
So, i'm guessing the card is working, or at least partially, if that is possible. But no SSD NVME's installed in their card show up in Disk Mgmt. nor in Windows Explorer.
Any thoughts? Am I missing something?
Thx DD
DD660
41 Posts
0
September 8th, 2022 14:00
@RoHe @redxps630 @Tesla1856 @Chino de Oro
Hey guys! Major development
The new PCIe x4 NVME M.2 card works in the XPS8910!!
The winner is:
GLOTRENDS M.2 PCIe NVMe 4.0/3.0 Adapter with 0.12 Inch Thick M.2 Heatsink for M.2 PCIe SSD (NVMe and AHCI), PCIE 3.0X 4 Full Speed, Desktop PC Installation (PA09-HS)
for a whopping $12.55 from Amazon.
Ist boot winner.! It has a little red LED on it so you can see it is powered and the LED blinks upon data transfer...nice touch. I guess its Chinese mfg? Certainly not a name-brand product..But its been reviewed positively on YouTube by a few people.
Now, ONE thing happened when I shut down the box to install the card. Win 10 INSISTED to do an update, I could not dodge it unless I forgot how. No other options offered. After the boot and the card working was working, I went Win updates to see what it was. It was hiding...It was an Intel HDC dated 7/15/19 ver 16.8.3.1003. I may have download this the other day when I was messing around and forgot or ordered it to be download because I remember looking for it and realized I already had it...OR...
I did some snooping on this driver and this is the 1st post I saw on another forum.
(Key Twlight Zone music...)
https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/idmn2t/what_is_this_driver_for_intel_corporation_hdc/
So, here is where that driver was installed.
And this is the next level info on the driver:
So, fingers-crossed it keeps working properly.
Gotta give everyone here a big shout out and thanks for hanging with me on this!
Geez, if I had another x4 slot, I might order the same card and keep this box awhile, running 3 SSD's and NO HDD's. Still pondering. My GPU on the is PC is limping along and HOT as heck.
Here is the Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD on the Glotrend's PCIe x4 NVME M.2 card:
Can someone mark this as the Solution?
Thx DD
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
43.9K Posts
1
September 8th, 2022 17:00
@DD660 Glad you got an x4 that works. But I hate to dissolution you...
Those Intel SATA AHCI drivers were installed because you commanded them to be installed when you reconfigured Windows while changing BIOS from RAID to AHCI, and it's possible Windows Update subsequently found newer versions after you did the deed...
You started this thread, so it's up to you to mark a post as the Community Accepted Solution. Mouse over the 3-dot icon at right side of the date in post you want to be marked as the CAS, and select "Accept as solution" from the menu. You can even mark more than one post as the CAS...
ProfessorW00d
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
2.1K Posts
1
September 5th, 2022 18:00
I don't know what operating system you are running, but in my Windows version it is called "Device Manager" and at the top there is a menu option under 'Action' to 'Scan for hardware changes'.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
1
September 5th, 2022 18:00
1. IIRC (in another thread) I recommended it to someone for the XPS-8950 ... which already has NVMe slot(s) on the motherboard.
2. Yes, that is the exact card in my Intel (7th gen) i7-7700K Aurora-R6 (with one existing on-motherboard NVMe slot) ... 4-5 years old now but seems newer than that.
3. Sounds like the card works in a new-enough or compatible desktop. Sounds like you know what you are doing. Have you tried Diskpart Cleaning the SSD first?
Nice detailed post. I'll try to take a closer look if I have a chance.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
1
September 5th, 2022 19:00
1. To me, sounds like the Startech PEX4M2E1 PCIe card is completely working.
2. This is what I know, maybe it will help.
Back about 2014-2015, computers started appearing with M.2-slots on the motherboard. HOWEVER, you could only use SATA-3/600 (2280 sized) SSD in them. I have no experience getting a NVMe-SSD (or a Startech PEX4M2E1 PCIe card ) working in one of these older machines. I'm not sure it is even possible.
Finally, NVMe-SSDs were created and became the standard for boot-drives. It also used a M.2-slot (but IIRC, it is keyed differently). Yes, it created some confusion for people trying to do upgrades. Anyway, computers of this vintage (like Aurora-R6 and newer) should be able to use NVMe-SSDs. Not only on-motherboard, but also in a PCIe card, like the Startech PEX4M2E1.
Does that help?
DD660
41 Posts
0
September 6th, 2022 07:00
Yes, which is the problem. The SSD in the card does not appear in Disk Mgmt nor Windows Explorer as a lettered drive. It is supposed to with this add-in card. But as the Mfg said they have had reports of it not showing the drive in my model XPS8910. So, I'm trying to find a workaround or will have to try a similar card from another mfgr.
ProfessorW00d
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
2.1K Posts
0
September 6th, 2022 07:00
The adapter may not appear as hardware, but the Samsung 980 Pro connected to it should.
DD660
41 Posts
0
September 6th, 2022 07:00
Thx! Good thoughts. Using Win 10. These cards are sort of known as bridge cards. They don’t have drivers and don’t appear anywhere as hardware.
thx DD
ProfessorW00d
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
2.1K Posts
0
September 6th, 2022 09:00
Did you try "Scan for hardware changes" in Device Manager? Once the M.2 SSD shows up, it may need to be initialized to assign a drive letter.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
1
September 6th, 2022 17:00
Here is the StarTech PEX4M2E1 in my Aurora-R6 (with a Samsung 970 2tb NVMe-SSD installed on it).
DD660
41 Posts
0
September 6th, 2022 19:00
That’s great. Thanks ! You drilled down in Device Mgr in a place I don’t think I have explored. I’ll look around some more. Amazon sent me a replacement of that card today and I tried it, same problem. The SSD in the card cannot be seen. I’m working on another solution that maybe with Raid on, it is interfering. I recall you said you are using AHCI. I reviewing a way to change mine to AHCI. Might be a bit messy but I’m still exploring with another member here.
DD660
41 Posts
0
September 6th, 2022 21:00
Trying to figure out where you were compared to my Device Mgr. Did you start in System Devices? You have a lot of different items than I do.
I entered the Twlight Zone tonight:
Something weird happened earlier tonight. I decided to put in the new StarTech card and before I did that, I also wiped the 2 TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD card I was messing with, which wasn't working in the StarTech card. It was new and then initialized in the USB NVME portable NVME case, several days ago. Thought I might reformat it today and put it in the new PCie card to see if it might worked. It didn't work.
The PC went to sleep for about 1 hour or so. Later I woke it up. Upon waking up it launched Windows Explorer by itself and showed the S: drive, which is the SSD card which was in the StarTech PCIe card!! I could explore it, it was listed in Disk mgmt, It was in Device Manager, in Windows Explorer with S: designation and no files. I tried to copy something to it and it erred indicating the Device I was copying to, does not exist. Error code 0x800701B1. I looked it up and didn't get much info. I tried CrystalMark disk speed tester and it could not write to it either but some how it did write to it but was not displayed even though it was open and on the screen. one test which was rather slow but the S: destination. Somewhere along the way the Device mgr refreshed and it was gone from everywhere I had found it earlier. Very strange.
Still thinking about changing the storage system in Windows from RAID to AHCI. Maybe that is what is interrupting the PCIe card from working? I am waiting for a reply from another member of this forum who has a document method to change the AHCI without having to do a fresh install of Win 10, which I do not want to do. Maybe we can catch up tomorrow. I'm in Northern Calif
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
0
September 6th, 2022 21:00
1. Cool
2. That is View Devices by Connection. If using (default) View Devices by Type, it is in Storage Controllers.
3. Yeah, they are nice.
4. It's a NVMe-SSD, right? It helps if it's completely un-initialized (I use DiskPart clean command). When it gets detected in Disk-Management, Initialize as GPT, create a (Simple Volume) partition, and format as NTFS.
But yeah, (obviously) the Startech PEX4M2E1 card must be detected and working first.
5. Yes, I'm using AHCI. That is the only way I've ever used it.
6. I've found that switching from RAID to AHCI is tricky (on a live install). I always clean-install Windows to do that. And then, I never install Intel-RST ... or any other Intel VMD software inside Windows).
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
1
September 6th, 2022 22:00
1. It's been a while, but yeah ... I've had nights like that before. It helps if you start playing the Golden Earring song . Just kinda go with it.
2. Turn-off sleep while troubleshooting ... computers tend to do all sorts of weird things when waking-up groggy.
3. Cool
4. Yes, strange. Not sure what that I just read.
5. See previous post above. IIRC, I also just typed it up longer is another post.
.One thing you could try is:
- Backup whole system (like with Macrium Reflect)
- Temporarily remove all (your live/real) HDDs and SSDs
- Except a (known good) yet blank/uninitialized NVMe-SSD in the Startech card.
- BIOS to AHCI mode
- See if you can clean-install Windows to it as a test (from Windows-10 USB flash-drive).
6. I'm in Texas, so a couple of hours ahead of you.
DD660
41 Posts
0
September 6th, 2022 23:00
Here is a pic of the StarTech card PEX4M2E1, same as the one you are using. Notice the large label in the middle of the card. Do you think it means something??...hmmm. Is there a message here?
DD