HP Victus 16-d1005nq unable to install 2 NVMe SSDs

[ctrohin]

My laptop came with a 1TB NVMe SSD and has a secondary slot. When I opened it up to install the new SSD, which is a Samsung 512GB NVMe drive, I noticed that the factory installed SSD was located in the slot SSD 2. I installed the new drive and when I tried to to boot, it only detected the SSD in the slot SSD 1. I switched the drives around, installing the factory one in slot SSD 1, and the new one in slot SSD 2 and this time it only detected the factory drive from slot SSD 1. I removed the factory drive from slot SSD 1, and at that point it detected the Samsung SSD from slot SSD 2. Seems like no matter what I do, it will only detect a single SSD drive. Is the any setting in BIOS that I need to activate in order to be able to use both SSD drives? I doubt this laptop has two SSD slots, both with heatsinks on them but works with just one.

[tk_srq]

@ctrohin,

Your experiments indicate that BIOS always boots from an SSD in M.2 slot1 if both M.2 slots1 and 2 are populated with bootable SSDs. 

Most likely you can boot from M.2 slot2 using F9 Boot Device Options. Start the laptop and immediately tap F9 repeatedly for the boot options. you should see two OS Boot Managers (or Windows Boot Managers): one for SSD in M.2 slot1 and another for slot2. Select SSD in slot2 and click Enter key to boot from slot2.

If the factory-installed SSD is your primary drive, you need to put it in slot1, and whenever you want to boot into Samsung SSD, you can do so from F9.

[ctrohin]

Ok, maybe I didn't properly explain the problem... What I need is to have both SSDs working, and at this point, only one of them works, regardless of the slot. When I boot the laptop, in the boot selection menu, and even in BIOS, I can only see one SSD if I have both installed, and it's always the slot SSD 1 one. This makes me think that this laptop doesn't support two NVMe drives, and probably expects an M.2 SATA SSD in the secondary slot. I've looked high and low for the specs for this motherboard, but can't seem to find any.

[erico]

Is your plan to make the secondary SSD only more storage?

You can boot to Windows and  use Windows own diskpart utility to create a GPT volume, create a partition, format it as NTFS  and assign a drive letter to it.

Once that is done, the disk should be recognized as present by Windows Explorer and Disk Management and usable as additional storage

I wrote a Knowledge Base article on upgrading to an SSD. The method of invoking  and using Windows' DiskPart utilty applies to any HDD or SSD.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Knowledge-Base/Notebook-SSD-upgrade/ta-p/6898561

[ctrohin]

Yes, I want to use the second drive just for extra storage. I use this laptop for sw dev work as well 

The problem isn't about partitioning the drive, the problem is it doesn't get detected by BIOS or Windows. Every time I have both slots populated, only the one in slot 1 is detected. Slot 2 definitely works because it detects any of the drives I add there and boots from it, as long as I don't populate slot 1. In short, both slots work with either of the two drives, as long as there's a single NVMe drive in the system. It's only when I add both that the one in slot 2 doesn't get detected. That's why I tend to believe it's a matter of motherboard controller. If the slots are connected directly to the CPU on a x4 PCIe Gen 4 connection, only one of them will work. The other one should be routed through the SATA controller. If the routing would have been one directly to the CPU and one through the mb chipset, one slot would work at x4 PCIe Gen 4 and one at x4 PCIe Gen 3. I just want to confirm this is the cause so I don't fork out 100 euro for a new m.2 SATA drive for nothing...

[tk_srq]

I think I understand your issue now. Both factory installed SSD and Samsung SSD are bootable. Either SSD are bootable from slot1 or slot2 as long as the system has only one SSD. If both slots are populated, however, the system will boot from slot1, with SSD in slot2 not being recognized in BIOS or in Windows. Am I correct so far?

your experiments indicate both M.2 slots are functioning, and it seems to me that this is a bios-related issue. Not sure a newer version of bios will fix it (HP bios engineers may not be aware of this problem). You can certainly contact HP customer service and bring it up to them.

Your user's manual (page 2) lists only NVME M.2 SSDs as supported, and I'm not sure if slot2 supports M.2 SATA SSDs.

Maintenance and Service Guide (hp.com)

[ctrohin]

I did update to the latest BIOS release from Jan 24th, 2024 just after I bought the laptop, but I have no point of reference since I didn't try to add a secondary drive before the actual BIOS update. Maybe I should try to rollback to the previous version and see if that one works. Indeed, as you've mentioned, both ssd slots only support NVMe drives and I've read some other topics on the forums where someone with an identical config with mine has installed a secondary NVMe drive and it worked without any problems. Seems like a BIOS issue and I'll open a case on with HP. Thanks!

[TzortzisG]

Hi Ctrohin.

As Tk_srq said this certainly "feels" like a malfunction. The 16-d1000 series has a PCIe4 primary slot and a secondary PCIe3 slot as seen in these discussions: 

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/SOLVED-Maximum-upgrade-options... 

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Secondary-SSD-interface-gen/td... 

I've seen posts on other forums about people trying to install large SATA SSDs in the second m.2 slot and it wouldn't work. This is because they're only connected to PCIe lanes...... There are no settings in the BIOS to enable the second slot. It's already enabled and should work straight away. I agree with Tk_srq that this is one of the few times it's actually a very good idea to re-flash your UEFI firmware.

There might be some other possible causes for this -basically unheard of- symptom:

For example, it's possible the new Samsung drive causes some kind of conflict with the original one. A while ago I posted on a thread where somebody upgraded this gaming HP laptop with a 970 evo (as a second drive) and the dGPU refused to work. Another SSD he tried didn't cause this issue. He decided on returning the Samsung evo and getting another brand. What exactly is your new Samsung drive?

It's also possible that this malfunction is hardware-based, on the motherboard itself. For example, it might be power related....and the mobo might not be able to power two high performance drives at the same time.

Do you have any other PCIe drives you can try?

[ctrohin]

Hi TzortzisG!

Can't remember the exact Samsung SSD model. I had an older HP Elitebook 850 G6 that I got that drive from, and didn't check the exact model. I do have some more 256GB NVMe SSDs around, and will probably check with one of those and come back with the conclusions.

[ctrohin · Accepted solution]

So it looks like my problem is resolved now. What I did is reset the BIOS to default settings, and it suddenly picked up both drives. I've installed the factory SSD in slot 2, that's the Gen 4 one, and the other Samsung drive in the Gen 3 slot 1. Maybe I forgot to reset the BIOS after installing the new version. Hopefully, this helps someone!