NVMe in HP probook 645 G2

[RuiPTSantos]

Hello,

I have an HP ProBook 645 G2 that was provided with SanDisk X400 SSD M.2 2280 128GB (SD8SN8U-128G) and recently I've upgraded it to SSD Western Digital 250GB Blue SN550 3D NAND NVMe M.2 2280 (WDS250G2B0C). From clean Windows 10 x64 fresh install, the performance of the second Drive is far worse than the first one (original). Note that I'm referring to usage of one at a time, not both at the same time, nor dual boot. A single drive operating per fresh installation.

I've searched a lot about the performance decrease it and did not find a true answer.

Possible issues justifying the problem:

1 - BIOS update (I have the latest BIOS installed...)

2 - UEFI configuration (BIOS do not allow me to reach anything related with Drive speed or interface speed selection)

3 - Drivers (I rely on standard Microsoft StorNVMe driver)

4 - Etc, …

Tried many different things without success. In fact, recently, using the WD, I've found that PCIe was degraded to PCIe Gen1 (using Western Digital Dashboard). It should be PCIe Gen3 (theoretically, the motherboard supports PCIe Gen3).

Can anyone help me to troubleshoot it?

Should I select a different drive to upgrade? If yes, based on what criteria? OPAL?

Will this work with PCIe Gen3: HP L12806-001 - 256GB PCIe NVMe Gen 3.0 x4 TLC 3D NAND M.2 NGFF (2280) Solid State Drive (SED OPAL 2) ?

Kind regards,

Rui Santos

[BeemerBiker]

Make sure you have BIOS version 1.45 or later

Version:

01.45 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Fixes an issue where the system resumes from hibernation much slower than expected when the system is connected to an NVMe drive

There is a video here where the author removes a M.2 SATA and replaces it with an M.2 NVME.

I just asked over there about performance as the SATA type M.2 are always slower than the NVME.

I am guessing that the basic interface is native SATA since the 645 G2 has a 2.5in SSD and can take an M.2 SATA.  Possibly there is a chip in the M.2 controller that converts NVME speed to SATA speed.

Your SN550 is excellent and I have used in several system at full performance.  

Does the SD8SN8U-128G have an HP label on it?  Possibly it is formatted differently and is recognized by the BIOS.

Run the following command using the Administrators command prompt and see if both SSDs have the same sector size

fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo c:

for example, an M.2 SATA-3 (not same as NVME)

[RuiPTSantos]

Hi BeemerBiker,

Thank you very much for the reply.

I took a report from CompuRAM RAMinator in 2021 and got this:

CompuRAM RAMinator V2.0.1.14
Execution time: 2021-02-15 23:56:59

...

Monitoring
==================================================================
Mainboard Model 80FE

DMI
==================================================================

[DMI BIOS]
Vendor HP
Version N77 Ver. 01.51
Date 10/17/2020

[DMI system information]
Manufacturer HP
Product HP ProBook 645 G2
Version
Serial *******
UUID *****

[DMI Baseboard]
Vendor HP
Model 80FE
Revision KBC Version 04.74
Serial ******

[DMI System enclosure]
Manufacturer HP
Chassis type Notebook
Chassis serial *******

[DMI Physical Memory Array]
Location Motherboard
Usage System Memory
Correction None
Number of devices 2

....

Meaning that BIOS version is according your suggestion (1.51>1.45).

As I've experienced that the referred downgrade, I agree with your statement: "Possibly there is a chip in the M.2 controller that converts NVME speed to SATA speed.".

Using HWInfo software, I got that SanDisk has SATA interface, and WD Blue got PCIe interface, but physically they are placed in the same M.2 connector. I think no one but HP technical experts can undoubtedly answer to this.

Technically, from HP website, these are the "Storage and drives" possibilities:

In reality, I got no way to take advantage of full PCIe Gen3 speed, always got PCIe Gen1 downgrade. I have screenshots from CrystalDisk, HWInfo and Western Digital Dashboard, all referring to the mentioned downgrade.

Can anyone demonstrate in steps/video/etc. possible troubleshooting actions in BIOS to force setting PCIe to Gen3, for example?

Kind regards,

Rui Santos