Pavilion 15-ck cannot detect NVMe SSD

[Naikou]

I now got my new SSD which is the WD black 256GB NVMe. It was realy easy, I disabled the legacy mode, disconnected the HDD and installed the windows on the ssd. Didn't have to do anything else, laptop is pavilion power cb084

[nardek189]

Hello,

I am going to buy the same PC. I saw you have some troubles with SSD... The last one SSD you buyed is SATA or M.2?

Thank you

[lampbearer2]

I bought an M.2.  I was trying to ADD an SSD in addition to the existing spindle drive (2.5" form-factor, SATA cabling).
Within the M.2 specification, there are multiple protocols that can be used to communicate with the M.2 device -- all using the same connector.

So you can get an M.2  SATA SSD (not a 2.5" drive, but a "memory chip" that taks SATA on pins of the chip.
OR you can get an M.2 NVME SSD (also a "memory chip" but it uses a different protocol on the pins of the chip).

The NVME uses 3 bits at a time.  The SATA uses 1 bit at a time (true "serial" ATA).  Because of this NVME is basically 8 times as fast as SATA.

But . . . as far as I can tell, the laptop does NOT really support NVME.
The manuals are wrong.  The techincal service guides are wrong.  It is false-marketing.

HP would NEVER confirm this formally -- I escalated a whole bunch and pretty much never got a clear answer from an engineer and/or support people kept hanging up, getting rude in writing, refusing to take calls, and/or basically not knowing what they were talking about ("well the manual says . . . " -- why yes, yes it does, so why doesn't it work . . . )

Honestly, I'll be buying a Lenovo next time -- this has completely destroyed my like of HP -- I was used to them being a very solid competitor aimed at a corporate and hobbyist customer (translation - not overly-proprietary plastic junk that can't be upgraded).  Apparently, they have really gone downhill especially in the tech area.  I'm really irritated and really disappointed.  And I wish I hadn't bought this model -- it has been a whole lot of hassle on what was essentially false-advertising.

We'll see how long they leave this note up -- they have had a history of hiding negative comments too and/or just makiing them disappear.

[nardek189]

Well, thank you for your answer. I noticed there are a lot of complains about SSD's, I hope that one day they will resolve these problems otherwise they will do the same end of Nokia 🙂

Good luck man.

[lampbearer2]

I didn't make this real clear in my earlier reply, but I am pretty confident that a M.2 (2280) in SATA mode (you have to buy them specifically that say "SATA") should work as a module. 

I can confirm that the slot is in fact there -- but I cannot confirm specific manufacturers or models -- for some stupid reason, HP won't even identify who they source -- but the DO sell other models in this same chassis (same motherboard with different drive, CPU, and RAM configuration) that include SSD-only and/or SSD with Spindle drive.  So it is certain there is "something" that works in the slot.  My hunch is that SATA works / NVME doesn't.

The issue I saw (and many others) is that BIOS and Windows simply don't "see" the drive -- I have my hunch that the hardware itself is capable and it is likely a result of poorly-configured and crippled BIOS.  There is a concept of a "white list" whereby the bios looks at the hardware codes and decides whether to acknowledge the device or not -- I've had techs swear to me they are NOT whitelisting, but those same techs said "gee, well it should work according to the manual" so I'm not confident in their response.

If you search elsewhere on these boards there have been some specific recommendation -- one person pointed to an Intel model (which is old, odd, and double the cost it should be -- $180 for 256G).  Others have sworn by a Western Digital Black.  There isn't much you can infer from HP themselves -- they regularly use Samsung, Toshiba, Western Digital, and Intel.  They tried to steer me to Crucial and that was a joke -- the site doesn't even list this model -- their whole big thing was "buy crucial, they guarantee compatibility".  I should say Crucial did list SOMETHING -- but no NVME which was what I was looking for at the time.

My next shot at this is going to be something on eBay with no restocking fee and a clear return policy in a SATA M.2.  Of course, the next hurdle is going to be the fact that the HP software install of Windows won't recognize the drive as OEM and likely won't let me install fresh from disk -- and migrating over isn't always a smooth process.  That's a (probably) solvable problem for me personally but not for everyone -- it can be quite complex.

Post if you do buy something, try it, and at least get BIOS to say "hey, I see something new" -- I'd love to see the user community start confirming what works and what doesn't.