Issue with motherboard PCIe M.2 NVMe connector

[JoomAholic]

I have the HP Z4 G4 Workstation with the i9 CPU, 128Kb memory and four SSD hard drives installed. I added a 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD into the motherboard SSD#1 slot and the BIOS nor Windows 11 PRO is recognizing it as a new drive. I checked the BIOS and this port connector is enabled and the card is seeded into the port connector and screwed down.  In addition, now that this card is installed (however not recognized), I'm unable to restart the computer. I have to shout the unit down and power back up. Both issues seem very strange to me and it bothers be that HP does not care to even attempt to support their products. You would think I purchased a Dell computer! Anyways, if someone has a suggestion, solution... I'm all ears and thanks!

[BeemerBiker]

You have an i9 so I assume you have the x299 chipset version.  If your CPU is  i9-7800x it has only 28 lanes.  My i9-7900x has 44.

I looked through the Z4 G4 manuals for SSD x SATA x USB conflicts but no conflicts were listed although the x299 does have express lane conflicts. that cause boot problems among other non fatal ones.  

You might try a couple of things.  One user disabled USB-C to get the SSD to work

I have (or had) three of the x299 motherboards and all of them had restrictions on which SATA would not work depending on which M.2 was occupied.  You might try disconnecting your SATA/SSD hard drives, see if the m.2 works and then connect them one at a time trying different SATA connectors.

[JoomAholic]

BeemerBiker, My chipset is Intel 200 Series Chipset Family LPC Controller x299 - A2D2. I followed your suggestions and disconnected all of the SATA hard drives (minus the boot drive) and inserted the 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD into the SSD#1 slot. Booted up the unit and neither the BIOS or Windows 11 PRO recognize this installed SSD unit. I purchased a PCIe adaptor card designed to support the M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD, installed it and rebooted. Again, neither the BIOS or Windows 11 PRO recognize this unit. I am at a total loss to know what else to do or try. Any further recommendations would be greatly appeached!

Ed H.

[BeemerBiker]

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@JoomAholic wrote:

BeemerBiker, My chipset is Intel 200 Series Chipset Family LPC Controller x299 - A2D2. I followed your suggestions and disconnected all of the SATA hard drives (minus the boot drive) and inserted the 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD into the SSD#1 slot. Booted up the unit and neither the BIOS or Windows 11 PRO recognize this installed SSD unit. I purchased a PCIe adaptor card designed to support the M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD, installed it and rebooted. Again, neither the BIOS or Windows 11 PRO recognize this unit. I am at a total loss to know what else to do or try. Any further recommendations would be greatly appeached!

Ed H.

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What slot did you try the m.2 adapter?  Referring to page 5 and 6 of this document

https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA7-2219ENW

You may want to try that adapter in a Processor lane instead of a hub lane.

Did you try the adapter in another computer?  Possibly problem with the NVME.

BIOS may not recognized the memory in the adapter but windows should.  Bring up the admin command prompt and run diskpart

then type "list disk" and press return

Can you provide a link to the NVME item so I can read the specs?  I assume it can run in a Gen3 slot.  Some high performance gaming NVME that are Gen4 may have problems in Gen3

[JoomAholic · Accepted solution]

BeemerBiker, by following these YouTube instructions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-6Zh5bf7u0) I was able to have this NVMe SSD in the SSD 1 motherboard slot, assign a drive letter, format and access this SSD chip. Thank you for your assistance and please consider this issue as solved & closed.

Ed H.