Upgrade Pavilion 510 to Samsung 860 SSD

[PatrickFCT]

HP Pavilion 510-p136 (X6G37AA) with original hard drive and specs. The original hard drive is failing and causing the machine to run incredibly slow (can take 10 minutes for a program to load). The HP diagnostics also indicate imminent failure of the hard drive on startup.

I purchased a new Samsung EVO 860 1 TB hard drive as a replacement and, after hours of trying, I have been unsuccessful in getting the machine to recognize the drive and allow Windows to be installed from a USB thumb drive (Windows Media Creation configured). I upgraded the BIOS from the original version (34 I believe) to the latest version released in December 2019 (40 I believe).

I notice there are some other threads where users have the same issues with Samsung or Crucial SSDs. At this point I guess I'm confident that I've been caught in the same trap and I don't think anything can be done in the short term, but I want to register my frustration that HP allows this to happen. The Samsung EVO is a popular SSD, a best-seller and "recommended" on Amazon and the HP Pavilion 510-p136 can't recognize it after 4 BIOS updates?

Is there any hope that a future BIOS update will resolve this or did HP choose a drive controller chipset that is just incompatible regardless?

[old_geekster]

@PatrickFCT , welcome to the forum.

HP is not doing anything to impede the use of any other products in their computers.  Some components are simply more compatible than others.  I have always recommended and have used Samsung and Crucial products in my HP computers.  In fact, HP has used them as OEM components, as well.  The easiest way to upgrade from a HDD to a SSD is clone the HDD to the SSD.  This will transfer all of the data to it.  Here is a HP Knowledge Base article that will help you with this, as long as, your HDD hasn't failed completely:  https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Knowledge-Base/Upgrading-Desktop-or-Laptop-to-a-SSD/ta-p/73048...

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

[PatrickFCT]

This thread suggests I'm not the only person to be unable to access the BIOS when a Samsung SSD is connected to the main SATA port.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Boot-and-Lockup/Pavilion-510-p020-won-t-POST-or-boot-with-BIOS...

There is also this post:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/hp-pc-wont-even-allow-going-to-bios-when-ssd-connected.32296...

And this:

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2253348-sdd-attached-frozen-bios

With the Samsung SSD connected, I can only get as far as interrupting the normal POST/Boot process and getting to a black screen with white text showing the system specs and then "Press ESC for startup menu" at the bottom. No amount of pressing ESC or any other key allows me to make any forward progress. When I unplug the SSD and plug the old drive back in, I can access the BIOS, HP diagnostics, etc.

I will see about the cloning option, but I don't understand why I can't even access the BIOS when the drive is connected OR boot from a USB drive.

[old_geekster]

Thank you for the additional information, @PatrickFCT!

If you haven't done so, I suggest that you contact Samsung's Tech Support to see if they can give you a reason why their 860 EVO doesn't appear to be compatible with your HP motherboard.  They are the experts on their products.  As I stated in my previous post, I have used Samsung SSD's, including the EVO's, in all of my HP desktop computers without any problems.  I would appreciate hearing what Samsung has to say.

[PatrickFCT]

Thank you for your help. I will contact Samsung and let the community know what they say.

In the meantime, I plugged the Samsung drive into a Dell Optiplex and it was detected right away, no issues. I also purchased a Kingston A400 960 GB SSD and plugged it into the main SATA port...the Pavilion 510 booted right from the USB, no issues and, now with Windows 10 installed on the Kingston A400, boots right up.

I will follow up with Samsung but...very peculiar behavior.

[PatrickFCT]

I chatted with Samsung support and they could not identify a root cause. They advised setting the BIOS SATA controller mode to "IDE Compatibility Mode" but that option was not available on this Pavilion desktop. Link here.

They had no known compatibility issues with HP machines in their support knowledge base.

[old_geekster]

Thank you for the follow-up information.  I am not surprised that Samsung Techs have seen no compatibility problems with HP motherboards.  As I previously stated, I have used them for years in HP computers.

If you haven't done so, I suggest that you trying cloning your HDD to the SSD to see if that helps.  This is the way that I have always done it.  Once you get the SSD to work properly, you can try a clean install of Windows if that is what you want to do.