ENVY Desktop - 750-170se CTO install SSD

[FrozenGamer]

I have samsung 850 evo m.2 which is sata access  - http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-EVO-3-5-Inch-MZ-N5E500BW/dp/B00TGIW1XG?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true...

It is not recognized by bios a08 rom family ssi 2b4b (which is the one that came with my week old envy 750-170se desktop.  If this machine supports the newer nvme, that is great (but double the price) - What m.2 has been proven to work here and how the heck do i update bios on this thing, to see if there is newer supported m.2?

[old_geekster · Accepted solution]

FrozenGamer, welcome to the forum.

The M.2 sockets on the motherboard are "One M.2 socket 1, key A" and "One M.2 socket 3, key M" ( "M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2260/2280" so it supports drives that are 22mm wide and either 60mm or 80mm long with a M key"). The socket key A is normally for wireless cards and the socket key M is for SSD's.  The SSD that you bought is a B+M key.  Here is a picture that shows the two type of keys:

"

I believe this is your problem.  The M.2 interface is far more complicated than the SATA interface.  I am not certain that I understand it fully.

Please click the Thumbs up + button if I have helped you and click Accept as Solution if your problem is solved.

[FrozenGamer]

I have ordered the following - Samsung NVME 950 Pro - http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UT...

I could not find the specs to show that it is M keyed, but the photo matches.  There is quite a lot of speculation as to whether the the motherboard supports NVME here in the forums.  I will report if it works when i receive it and tested speed with bios a.08.  Any comments or experiences are welcome.  

PS Thanks old geekstar!

[old_geekster]

You are welcome.

I would appreciate hearing how it works.  Thanks!

[FrozenGamer]

I have received the drive (samsung 950 pro).  I didn't see it in the bios initially but when i booted up to the original ssd (a 2.5" 240gb PNY) The hard drive showd up in windows 10 x64 storage manager and asked to initialize.  Instead of initializing i installed samsung nvme drive, rebooted and then used samsung data mover software and cloned the drive.  Drive has latest firmware according to samsung drive magician.

The 950 shows up in the boot order as a legacy drive, and i have moved it to the top of the boot order under legacy, but it doesn't want to boot and stays at the HP screen.  I can still press f10 on a reboot and get to bios.  My bios version is THI VA0.08 system board ID 2B4B.  I think a bios update might help but i have been unable to figure out how to do this.  I know a bit about bios updates etc, but this doesn't make any sense - http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-ENVY-750-Desktop-PC-series/8499646/model/8501668

I assume i need to use the 2b4b one, which is a lower number 07 vs 08, yet dated later than the one that came with the machine.

Also for what its worth i have sata emulation set to ahci and will continue to read forums and reboot with different bios settings to see if this thing will work.

update: it appears that the machine boots after a 2 minute wait.  Once booted samsung magician has speeds which indicate it is probably working at NVME speeds.  same as the other screenshots i see 2500/1531 sequential read/write. 

So for those reading.  It appears HP Envy 750SE supports nvme samsung 950 pro- it just takes forever to actually start to boot.  This is with a cloned drive as well, not a fresh install of win 10x64 pro. 

This guy is having the same problem as me.  My assumption is that this can be easily fixed with a bios update.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Envy-750se-capable-of-M-2-NVMe-u...