Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2

[GM76]

Hello

I have HP ENVY All-in-One - 24-n020ne (Touch).

In an attempt to upgrade my system, I purchased Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 2TB and installed it.

The drive was recognized in bios and appeared to be working fine. But the problem is that whenever I do heavy usage to that drive, windows just freezes without any BSOD. The mouse continues to move but nothing else responds. I tried installing a good heat sink for the drive, but the problem remained the same. I checked the temperature, and it looks fine (60 deg C). I have checked that the drive has the latest firmware and drivers for win10. 

Is the Samsung 970 EVO Plus compatible with my motherboard ?

If not , what is the type of compatible nvme drive that will work without any problems ? 

Your prompt reply is very much appreciated

Thank you

[NonSequitur777]

@GM76,

Welcome to our HP User Forum!

Documentation for the HP ENVY All-in-One - 24-n020ne (L2K84EA) is indeed impossible to find.

According to: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05139365, your AIO is fitted with a Bulldozer-4GL motherboard (SSID: 2B3E), and all it says about the M.2 slot is: "One M.2 slot for SSD".

Not surprisingly, you are not the first one who is trying to figure out what M.2 SSD would work on this AIO.

Short answer: either the Samsung 950 Pro or the Samsung 960 Pro.  Unfortunately, these M.2 SSDs are rather pricey, and you may have to settle for a 512GB version, I'm afraid.

Please see this link/discussion thread: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/SSD-m-2-Bulldozer-4GL-Envy-24/t....

Hope this was helpful.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[GM76]

Re: NonSequitur777

Thank you for your prompt reply, but how does the Samsung 950 or 960 Pro differ from what I have purchased ?

Samsung 960 Pro : PCIe Gen. 3.0 x 4 lane interface and support of the NVMe 1.2

For Samsung 970 EVO Plus : PCIe® Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe™ 1.3

could it be an issue of NVMe version ? is there a way to force running the Samsung 970 EVO Plus as NVMe1.2 ? 

Thank you

[NonSequitur777]

@GM76,

Try to download & install the Samsung 970 Evo Plus driver to see if it helps out: Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[GM76]

Thank you for your feedback, but I already installed the Express driver version 3.3 but the problem still exist.

I even tried to install  Express driver version 3.2 , but also same, the problem still exist.

[NonSequitur777]

@GM76,

Yea, I am a bit miffed by this as well: given my own experience with Samsung M.2 NVMe SSDs over the years, I would have expected it to run well.  I very much doubt the Samsung 970 EVO Plus is to blame, it has got to have something to do with the M.2 slot's hardware configuration.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[GM76]

Is there a way to contact the motherboard manufacturer ? perhaps we know if there is any limitation on power or speed of the nvme slot.

Thanks

[DGroves]

this line of AIO's had some models (like your model) that were SATA  based not NVME

https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp---compaq/envy-24-n000nd

https://support.hp.com/lv-en/document/c04915741

https://support.hp.com/hk-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-envy-24-n000-all-in-one-desktop-pc-series-touch/...

as such only SATA SSD's or the Samsung 950 PRO nvme SSD will work as boot drives on you model AIO

NVME drives can be accessed as a non booting DATA drive

the 950 pro was a unique SSD model as the SSD's bios contained the missing nvme boot code that allows booting a nvme drive

later models like the 960 did not contain this nvme legacy boot code and as such can only boot on systems where the computers bios has the necessary nvme boot code

as to your freezing/pausing issue that's usually a OS related issue and the quickest fix is to simply reinstall windows as tracking down the issue is not something that can usually be done over the internet

I've also seen usb based mice/keyboards or some attached usb device cause OS pauses so you might want to try a different mouse/kbd while disconnecting all other usb devices

[GM76]

Thank you DGroves for the links.

I tried to do a fresh windows install, but the same happened. I am beginning to feel that it is a power problem. Perhaps the 970 Evo plus consumes more power than the port can supply ?

I think I have only two options: To stick to a 2.5 inch SSD , or buy an older version of Nvme drive perhaps compatible with 2016 boards. I found this in a nearby computer shop : Kingston NV1 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD - SNVS/1000G which has low power consumption (3.3 W max).

What do you think? Getting the Kingston NV1 is risky ?

Thanks for all the feedback

[DGroves]

you either did not read or understand my previous post,  your supplied computer model IS NOT NVME BOOTABLE,

it can only boot from SATA based devices

as such the samsung 970 EVO plus OR ANY OTHER NVME BASED DRIVE CANNOT BE USED AS A BOOT DRIVE

you might want to recheck your AIO computer model number as some later models in this line did support nvme