M2 Socket for SSD

[Avon5]

I am trying to upgrade the SSD in an HP Pavilion 14-bk152sa. It has an M2 slot with M key. As far as I am aware, the M key is used for NVME SSD drives and the B key is used for M2 SATA drives. The current drive is a Sandisk X400 128Gb with both M and B keys, so I assume this is M2 SATA.

As the M2 slot on the board only has an M key, does this mean that it will work with a NVME SSD? 

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Chapter 1 of the service manual indicates that only M.2 SATA SSDs are supported.

c05635556.pdf (hp.com)

This forum member tried an NVMe SSD in their 14-bk notebook and it didn't work.

Solved: Can I Upgrade My HP Pavilion 14-bk0xx SSD - HP Support Community - 8091665

If you want to increase the storage capacity, look into one of the WD Blue SA510 M.2 SATA SSD's.

[Avon5]

Thanks very much for the information.

It begs the question why do HP fit an M keyed M2 socket on a board which only supports M2 SATA when most information indicates that the M key is used for NVMe SSDs.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Every HP notebook and desktop PC that I know of has a M.2 key M socket.

I've never seen one with a M.2 B + M keyed slot.

That is not an automatic confirmation that a NVMe SSD will work.

You have to read the service manual to see what type of drive the M.2 slot supports.

Some support SATA M.2 SSD's only such as your notebook's model series.

Some support both NVMe and SATA SSD's and some support NVMe SSD's only.

Also some notebooks that come with certain low-end processors such as the Intel Pentium and Celeron processors that have M.2 slots only support SATA SSD's when in the same model series with the Intel Core processors the slot support both NVMe and SATA SSD's.

Fortunately, there was at least one forum discussion out there that saved you some frustration and money.