Replacement Z840 'virgin' motherboard won't recognise SSD boot drive (that worked on previous board)

[KrisDirector]

Due to an issue with my motherboard, I had to replace it with an identical one. As it turns out, it was a 'virgin' motherboard so I input all the information from my Z840 frame into the appropriate place on the system (ie. serial number, SKU, Feature Byte). This operation was successful.

On my previous set up (with old motherboard) I would typically boot from my SSD into Windows 11, but with the replaced motherboard, although the system can 'see' both SSDs (there in the BIOS menu info), it doesn't appear to 'see' them when it comes to booting into the Windows operating system. In fact, when I used the USB installation disk for Windows, the Windows setup cannot see those SSDs).

My knowledge is not great when trying to work out all the various aspects of the BIOS (for example, what to enable or disable), but I am able to work out how to order boot order menu options, etc.

I've temporarily got around the problem by inserting a standard (the orginal one that came with the workstation) SATA HDD and install Windows on that. But even now that I'm in a fresh Windows OS, the system still doesn't "see" the SSD drives.

Please could anyone explain in simple language, steps that I could take which would enable the system to see those SSD drives again (besides just noticing they are there in the BIOS). Also note, I successfully upgraded the BIOS to the most recent version (M60 v02.61 03/23/2023)

Legacy - Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB (Boot menu can see, but not by MS OS or as a bootable drive)

Legacy - Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB (same as above)

Legacy - #0100 ID09 LUN0 ATA WDC WD10EXEX-6 (installed Win11 on this)

Dual Processors - Both are:  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2620 v3 @ 2.40GHz 

128 GB ECC RDDR4 / 1866 Mhz RAM

Boot Block Date: 07/02/2014

ME Firmware Version 9.1.45.3000

ME Firmware Mode AMT

Incidentally, that HD does have HP RECOVERY folder on it still (from when I originally bought the workstation), but unsure if I should use it as the BIOS has been updated several times since 2015.

Additional info that may be useful:

That little mini OROM Display box that opens top right on a fresh boot says the following:

LSI Corporation MPT S AS2 BIOS

MPT2BIOS-7.35.02.00 (2014.03.12)

Current Boot Device set to device at slot 1

FF LSI S AS2308-IR 18.10.00.00 11:00:00:10

FF 1 0 ATA WDC... etc. (the temporary sata drive I added to get past this)

LS1 Corporation MPT2 boot ROM successfully installed!

Thank you for any clear, constructive assistance - Very grateful.

[BeemerBiker · Accepted solution]

You can find the service guide here

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-z840-workstation/6978842/manuals

In the bios setup, select AHCI.  Go to BIOS under Advanced > Device Configurations > SATA Emulation Mode and
Advanced > Device Configurations > sSATA Emulation Mode.

Select AHCI  (or AHCI+RAID) discussion page 12 might be worth reading

Put your boot SSD on port sSATA0 as described on page 64

You may have to disable secure boot if your boot SSD was formatted as MBR instead of GPT.

[KrisDirector]

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@BeemerBiker wrote:

In the bios setup, select AHCI.  Go to BIOS under Advanced > Device Configurations > SATA Emulation Mode and
Advanced > Device Configurations > sSATA Emulation Mode.

Select AHCI 

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Thank you SO much, the above was all I needed to do (as I'd been set up on the old motherboard already). Except for me, it wasn't named "SATA Emulation Mode" it was "SATA Controller Mode"

I've been tearing my hair out for 48 hours trying to solve this. I know you must think, "Well, why don't they look in the documentation..." But you have to understand, to non-technicals it's very difficult to 'see' that stuff within the reams of documentation because oftentimes you don't know what you're looking for - You just know how to explain what the problem is.

Thank you again.