Turbo drive not detected in Z620

[_henry001]

I've just added a Z Turbo G2  drive to my Z620 with a plan to use it as a data drive (i.e. I have no plans to try and boot from it) however it doesn't seem to be detected at all.

Both the adapter and the memory card are 2nd hand from e-bay (different sellers), so either or both could be defective. But are there any bios settings that are important or other things I might be doing wrong?

The card is in slot 4. I don't have the cable to attach to the LED, but I'm assuming that is unimportant.

Bios version is not the latest, but is newer than the minimum 3.69 mentioned in the docs

I see the same number of devices listed if I run lspci with and without the card, which leads me to suspect the card is faulty. Is that a correct assumption, or would it also fail to show if the memory card was bad? Should the device show up if the memory card is removed? Or is lspci the completely wrong way to check?

Thanks

[DGroves]

since this is a test reset the bios to factory defaults and if nvme drive fails to show in bios replace the HP m.2 pci-e card with a cheap one from ebay and again test for bios id

last, check existing m.2 nvme ssd in another system

the HP card can be made to work in other systems by removing surface mount transistor "Q1" located near the 3 pin jumpers

[_henry001]

Unfortunately I don't have any other systems to test either the nvme drive or the adapter in.

Where exactly should things show up in the bios if correctly detected? Presumably if both the adapter and nvme are working the nvme would appear in the list of available drives? Would the adapter itself show up anywhere if I installed it without the nvme on the assumption that the nvme is faulty?

Thanks

[SDH]

Try this... I did:

I had an issue with a Z620 v2 that could not see a known-good ZTD (G1 or G2) that had a known-good AHCI-controller M.2 stick in place. The Z620 worked fine with 2.5" form factor SATA SSDs. One thing I've noticed over the years with upgrading builds from W7Pro64 to W10Pro64 to W1123H2 is that some of the drivers got dragged along during the "in-place" upgrades.

Our friend DGroves helped me fix this with excellent advice... the key was to set BIOS to factory defaults and then do a clean install with only the ZTD/M.2 stick as a target boot drive. For your build I'd try that but with a bit different approach. I'd do a clean install of W10Pro64 onto a SATA SSD and then see if adding the ZTD as a second drive let it be seen, now that you have all new updated drivers and factory default BIOS settings.

For me the clean install loaded new updated drivers, and that plus the factory default BIOS settings did the trick. Another thing HP says and DGroves also advises is to remove any other drive during the clean install. You can put them back in later, and tune your BIOS as you wish later too.

So, it may be that both your ZTD card and your M.2 stick are fine.  Sounds like you know that to boot from a ZTD in a Zx20 workstation you need to use an AHCI-controller M.2 stick. For just a data drive you also can use a NVMe-controller M.2 stick and can still boot from a SATA SSD.

Bonus Information: You can run two ZTD cards with one being your AHCI-controller boot drive and the other holding a NVMe-controller data drive. I like the ZTD G2 but if you have a couple of spare ZTD G1 you also can use an aftermarket M.2 cooler. I like the HP 919952-001 one that you can get for 10.00 USD from the eBay guy shipping from China... that is where they are made, and this keeps your ZTD at 1-slot-width narrowness. Just allow 1-2 weeks shipping time.

The SM951 AHCI-controller version M.2 stick is quite hard to find these days, but they are much faster than the original PM941 if you ever choose to go that route. Assuming a Z620 is finely tuned with fastest memory and near fastest processor(s) this combination would truly be a significant user experience upgrade. Just remember to shift a green device ID jumper over on one of the headers on the second card so they don't have the same IDs. Slot 4 is good for the first or only ZTD card. You don't need to ever use a drive activity cable and that never worked very well in the Zx20 workstations. That cable does now work fine in the Z4 G4, however. The card won't show up in Device Manager unless a M.2 stick is in it. If drivers are old/wrong it usually won't show up either but might show up with a DM exclamation. Mine did not show up at all until my DGroves fix.

[_henry001]

Still nothing visible in the bios after a factory reset, so it sounds like one or both purchases are faulty and the only way to track down which will be to purchase duplicates.

[_henry001]

Thanks,

I should probably have mentioned that the box is running linux (ubuntu 22). Given that nothing is detected in the bios after a factory reset, it seems that the issue is not at the level of the OS however.

[SDH]

For our Z620 and Z640 builds I set BIOS to Legacy and don't use UEFI at all. Remember that use of F9 gets you to a "1-time" boot selection. Using F10 gets you to set your "usual" boot device selection instead.

Here is what BIOS looks like when there is a proper functioning ZTD in a Z620 v2 running on the latest BIOS, both by using the F9 and F10 approaches. You should be seeing the same thing if you're inside BIOS regardless of the OS:

Via F9... 1-time selection

Via F10... your usual boot device selection

[DGroves]

generic no name m.2 pci-e cards and m.2 128Gb ssd's can be easily found on ebay for 10/15 dollars each

i would buy a cheap ebay m.2 card, and if the ssd still fails to show in bios then the ssd is most likely at fault

[_henry001]

Thanks, my card is definitely not detected. I've a cheap generic replacement on order now.

[_henry001]

And the nvme works fine in a card that cost less than £5. So it seem that the HP adapter is junk.

The generic card doesn't have any heat sinks, which is quite the contrast to the large one on HP adapter. Is heat dissipation  worth worrying about for an nvme?