Pavilion 510-p020 won't POST or boot with BIOS 81B4 F.37 and Samsung or Crucial SSD

[FrankInSF]

Several other threads stating this problem are locked, but just to add another data point, I had this same problem and gave up trying to use an SSD.

I'm not posting a question and looking for an answer, as the answers already posted by others (use a HP or Intel SSD) aren't ones I care to use.  I'm just posting my experience and hope that HP fixes this issue (allow other brands of SSD) in a future BIOS revision.

The PC is an HP Pavilion 510-p020 from late 2016.  It has its latest BIOS, 81B4 F.37 6/13/2018. Its spinning HDD is working fine, but I wanted to improve it with an SSD.

This one PC would not POST when any of my three SSDs were connected to either of its two SATA ports (labeled HDD and ODD).  The PC would stop at the HP logo screen, and if one pressed ESC, one would see some info about the PC's memory at the top of the screen and instructions to press Esc to Setup Menu at the bottom.  No amount of pressing ESC or waiting would get one to the blue menu for setup, diagnostics, etc.  One of the threads listed below shows a photo of this screen.

Details

One SSD was a new Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB that I intended to use on this PC.  Seeing that the PC would not POST with the SSD connected to its ODD optical drive port, I made a clone with the drive connected via a USB3-to-SATA adapter and the Samsung Data Migration software.  At this point I thought that maybe the ODD port would not support a hard disk, though that was not really the problem.  

Another Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB SSD is installed and working fine in my HP ProDesk 600 G2 MT PC with its latest BIOS N02 v2.36 7/17/2018.  And the same SSD that hangs in the 510-p020 works in the ProDesk, and actually the SSD clone of the 510-p020's HDD will boot the ProDesk.

After I started troubleshooting this problem, I also found that the 510-p020 would not POST when the ProDesk's Samsung SSD 860 EVO is connected to it. And the 510-p020 would not POST with a fresh Crucial MX500 2 TB drive that I had on hand for another project.

In other words, I've tried all combinations of SSDs and SATA cables to no improvement.

Experiences of others

In one of the threads, user John7381 reported on 2/5/2018 that an HP-branded SSD worked for him, but 20% of its Amazon user reviews report early failures of that drive after 2 weeks to 2 months so I'm not interested.  Another user TomasHC found on 12/17/2017 that the PC worked with an Intel 545 SSD but I only see those for sale in 500 GB size, not 1 TB.

FYI, Here are four locked threads with this same problem, newest to oldest:

SSD (Samsung Evo 850) no longer recognized by BIOS after update F.34
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Boot-and-Lockup/SSD-Samsung-Evo-850-no-longer-recognized-by-BI...

HP blocking SSD upgrades with newer systems and biosversions?
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Boot-and-Lockup/HP-blocking-SSD-upgrades-with-newer-systems-an...

This thread contains photos of the screen at which the PC hangs and that Intel and HP SSDs worked.
HP 260 G2 DM stuck at BIOS with connected SSD Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/HP-260-G2-DM-stuck-at-BIOS-with...

This user successfully migrated a 510-p020 to an SSD on 8/21/2016.  I hope it still works after BIOS upgrades!
Latest procedure for upgrading boot drive to an SSD?
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktops-Archive-Read-Only/Latest-procedure-for-upgrading-boot-drive-t...

[bamreihn]

I sure wish I would have found this thread before wasting about 8 frustrating hours of my time.

I actually have a 510-p050st with BIOS 81B4 F.38 dated 11/22/18 (most recent I could find).

There is nothing wrong with my original 1TB HDD.  It is just slow (mostly at boot) and I have installed SSDs in 4 other machines 2 HP 450 G1 laptops among therm) that I use so this was to be an easy upgrade (to a machine that should be the fastest one of my lot).  

So, I bought a new Samsung Evo 860 (500 GB) and a new Crucial MX500 (500GB).  First I had attempted to clone the Win10 Home 64 bit OS to the Samsung SSD (Acronis Clone software was successful).  I also attempted to install Win10 from USB stick.  What I found (as many others have) is that the machine will not post when the Samsung (or the Cruicual) SSD are attached (to either SATA port.  You cannot get into the BIOS or set boot order (if fastboot is not enabled you will see the at the bottom right that it indicates it is going into Setup, etc but it never loads the screen). 

I thought maybe there was an issue with Secure boot or the TPM chip and I wasted a lot of time researching those avenues.

I happened to have an older (240 GB) Kingston SSD (SUV400S37240G) so gave it a shot.  To my astonishment, it worked great (I re-cloned the original HDD).  However, it has a smaller capacity and I believe it may be a bit slower than the other SSDs that I have on hand (still, it blows away the original WD Blue HDD).

So now I have 2 new unused, fast SSDs that were purchased for the HP mini tower.  I would love it if HP would release a new BIOS for us that will recognize these SSDs from Samsung and Crucial.  If they don't correct this issue that is one more reason for me to look elsewhere for my next PC!

I should point out that I am writing this from an HP 450 laptop with the Samsung 860 Evo SSD installed (it was an easy test so I thought I would try it; maybe I'll keep it in here a while).

[FrankInSF · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much to Bamreihn who replied on 1-12-2019 that he had success in his 510-p050st by using an older 240 GB Kingston UV400 SSD (SUV400S37240G).  I found that Kingston's UV400 SSD was still available on Amazon and reliable, though expensive and no larger than 480 GB.  Amazon also had the slightly newer Kingston A400 series at a reasonable price, so I bought the 960 GB Kingston SA400S37/960G and it works in my 510-p020!!

I cloned the 1 TB HDD to the 960 GB SSD using Macrium Reflect Free Home v7 and slightly reduced the C: drive's partition size to fit on the slightly smaller SSD.

FYI, HP's US support website shows the latest 510-p020 BIOS as 81B4 F.37, but one can find the 81B4 F.38 BIOS by searching the web for sp92929.html

Thanks again to Bamreihn.