Adding Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SSD to HP Envy m7-n109dx

[soundprizm]

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@brandycmc2 wrote:

Did you find a solution to this?

I have a similar problem with a new Envy 17-n104.  Nothing I do gets the machine to recognize the Samsung Evo 850 SSD in the M.2 slot - by which I mean that not even the BIOS acknowledges that there is anything in that slot.

I have tried for hours various BIOS configuration and physical hardware configurations, including all the combinations of having the factory HDD and Evo SDD connected, in BIOS having Legacy Support enabled/disabled, various boot orders, and in desperation even tried some of the security options (like turning off TPM!!!) just in case.

The Evo SSD itself seems to be functioning - it works fine connected to the USB port of my other laptop (the SSD is placed in an adapter housing (M.2 -> SATA) and connected to a SATA->USB bridge).

I have tried 'ignoring' the fact that the BIOS does not seem to recognize the presence of SSD, and just gone ahead and cloned the HDD to the SSD.  When the SSD is installed back in the Envy, nothing has changed;  its presence still not recognised by the system.  I tried Samsung's own Magician software, plus a couple of other cloning programs.  Unsurprisingly, this did not help the Envy to recognize the SSD.

So unless anybody else has an example of a Samsung EVO 850 SSD working in the M.2 slot of an Envy 17-nXXX, I will have to conclude that - as of their current firmware versions - they are incompatible.

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I have been trying the same thing with an Envy M7-n109dx, and I've been receiving the same exact results as you. One question, did you have an M.2 SSD already installed and are just upgrading, or did the laptop come without an M.2 ssd? I am concluding that it is either a compatibility issue or that the M.2 slot requires a hidden BIOS setting that we cannot access as is.

[soundprizm]

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@szwejk wrote:

This is much wider problem. I have the latest spectre x360 Skylak i5 processor (HP Spectre x360 - 13-4102na) and just simple replacement of the current 128GB ADATA drive with Samsung 950 Pro NVMe results with the BIOS not recognizing the new drive.

Strange thing is that there are people who successfully upgraded their laptops with different SSDs including Samsung 950 Pro NVMe. (link page 4)

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Hp-spectre-x360-SSD-replacement...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/SSD-upgrade-for-spectre-x360/td...

Unfortunately not much details are being posted on how and seems that successful installations are related to the previous wave of HP Spectre based on 5th series of processors vs. your model and my model are Skylak 6th gen., don’t know if that would be the factor.

I know you have a different HP model but conceptually procedure and supporting mother boards/processor shouldn’t be much different and I would think to be even easier to do replacement.

What you did is exactly my next step, ruling out NVMe / PCI factors. Fact that your bios didn’t recognize the drive makes me very pessimistic about my try (850 should be on my desk next Monday)

Solving that mystery have cost me so far ~$300 and apart from being pissed off I’m stuck with ridiculous 128GB drive.

All the posts about unsuccessful installations make me think that there is something in version of the bios related to Skylak. BTW my bios version is F.2D

But maybe is just my ignorance. I’ll let you know about my try with 850 next week.

Would be nice if someone from HP tech. support took part in the discussion and clear the issue once for all, saving other’s people money.

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The Samsung 950 Pro NVMe will not work unless the M.2 slot supports PCIe, and unfortunately, the M.2s on the HP's are SATA.

[szwejk]

Thanks for that but according to the Maintanence and Service guide for x360 M2 does support PCIe. Probably on the other model with M2 slot it is the same.

[jkmatthews]

I am adding as a new drive, as it did not come with one previously installed.  

[soundprizm]

Sorry, my bad... I was sticking to the OP's topic with the 17t and M7 models; I'm not sure on the x360.

[szwejk]

You probably already have it...

Envy Mantaince and Service Guide (some info on HD):

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04696907

Envy Guides:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-ENVY-m7-n100-Notebook-PC-(Touch)/9365082/model/9365240/manual...

[brandycmc]

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@soundprizm wrote:

I have been trying the same thing with an Envy M7-n109dx, and I've been receiving the same exact results as you. One question, did you have an M.2 SSD already installed and are just upgrading, or did the laptop come without an M.2 ssd? I am concluding that it is either a compatibility issue or that the M.2 slot requires a hidden BIOS setting that we cannot access as is.

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To answer your question - my laptop came WITHOUT the factory installed SSD.  It was a single HDD model.

(I had previously purchased the SSD version, but sent it back after finding out that I could not install my own HDDs without paying HP well over £/$ 100 for the brackets, ribbon cables and adapter boards.)

I've been discussing this over on the notebookreview forum. too - including with MarkH who managed to get the Samsung Evo 850 SSD working.  You'll see from the discussion that I'm pretty sure it's the HP BIOS.

Mark is running a very early one:  F.1 revA.  My laptop came with F.24.  I cannot downgrade to F.1 beacuse HP only offer F.21 and F.16 on their downloads page.

So Well Done Again HP.  My laptop is now being sent back to you.  All I wanted from you was a laptop with a decent SSD and an HDD, and you've managed to bugger that up.

[QuadTips]

It would be nice to know for sure one way or the other.

I have replace the computer and it did not make any difference.  I saw the SSD logo for just a moment during the first launch of the Magician Application while on the bench at BestBuy.  But I "spoke too soon" it was just a Splash Screen and didn't mean the drive was actually found.

I had assumed it worked and closed the lid, thanking the tech as I left.

When I returned home I realized that it was actually just a spash screen for the Samsung Magician application.

I imagine a product manager somewhere telling engineers to disable the slot, this is supposed to be an entry level machine, but that is just my jaded sillicon valley voice in my head.

I'm sure there is going to be a simple fix, like connecting a jumper, or downloading a different BIOS, or holding F2, F3, and chanting the magic phrase "XYZZY".

I looks and feels like a very nice machine, I'm hoping the AData (due tuesday) does the trick.

jeff

[soundprizm]

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@brandycmc wrote:

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@soundprizm wrote:

I have been trying the same thing with an Envy M7-n109dx, and I've been receiving the same exact results as you. One question, did you have an M.2 SSD already installed and are just upgrading, or did the laptop come without an M.2 ssd? I am concluding that it is either a compatibility issue or that the M.2 slot requires a hidden BIOS setting that we cannot access as is.

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To answer your question - my laptop came WITHOUT the factory installed SSD.  It was a single HDD model.

(I had previously purchased the SSD version, but sent it back after finding out that I could not install my own HDDs without paying HP well over £/$ 100 for the brackets, ribbon cables and adapter boards.)

I've been discussing this over on the notebookreview forum. too - including with MarkH who managed to get the Samsung Evo 850 SSD working.  You'll see from the discussion that I'm pretty sure it's the HP BIOS.

Mark is running a very early one:  F.1 revA.  My laptop came with F.24.  I cannot downgrade to F.1 beacuse HP only offer F.21 and F.16 on their downloads page.

So Well Done Again HP.  My laptop is now being sent back to you.  All I wanted from you was a laptop with a decent SSD and an HDD, and you've managed to bugger that up.

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Thanks for the reply! You have pretty much confirmed my BIOS theory. I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I think it's just a "port-switch" thingamajigger--kind of like how in some BIOS's it allows you to switch off certain SATA ports and what not. HP does have one previous BIOS version named "F.11," but it won't upgrade our model because the file doesn't include our 80e6.bin. I haven't given up yet, and I'll check out the thread over on the notebookreview forum.

[brandycmc]

soundprizm wrote:

Thanks for the reply! You have pretty much confirmed my BIOS theory. I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I think it's just a "port-switch" thingamajigger--kind of like how in some BIOS's it allows you to switch off certain SATA ports and what not. HP does have one previous BIOS version named "F.11," but it won't upgrade our model because the file doesn't include our 80e6.bin. I haven't given up yet, and I'll check out the thread over on the notebookreview forum.

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We have come to similar, but ever-so-slightly different conclusions!

I think HP have created a 'whitelist' of allowable SSD, and only those SSDs will work.  You think they've disabled the port altogether.  Funny how we've both gone for malicious conspiracy theory answers though - rather than the 'HP just didn't test the new BIOS against Sansung SSDs and it was all an unintentional muck-up'  theory.