Pavilion model 15-au183sa missing M.2 slot on motherboard

[DavidRkpf]

I'm doing a favour for a colleague of mine, and trying to give their Laptop a bit of a kick in terms of a slow and likely failing 4 year old hard drive.

I'd done compatibility checks ahead of time, and while I can't find the exact site I got confirmation from, I'm near certain it said the device is compatible with M.2 NVME ssds. So I guide them to just your standard 500gb crucial nvme. It arrives, I open the laptop up, and.... well there's no socket.

I can see the pins on the board. I can see the holes in the board where the nvme socket should be, and the threaded hole off to the side all lines up perfectly with an nvme. there's no doubt that this, and it being near the HDD suggests this is where the NVME should go. But I can't mount it due to no socket.

Has anyone else had this? Any advice on how I'd go about installing the socket? I'm confident when working with complex electronics, and have a steady soldering hand if possible to solder manually. I just want to help this guy out and get his laptop working well again.

I've attached a photo of the SSD, and a very artful outline of where I know it should be going. You can even see the holes for mounting the socket in the photo

.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

NVMe SSDs are not supported in the model series (SATA M.2 only), and you can't do what you want to do.

You have to seek and buy the part to add the SSD board that is listed in chapter 3 of the service manual.

Only the models that came with M.2 SATA SSDs from the factory came with the M.2 slot hardware.

There is no advantage in speed between a SATA M.2 SSD and a 2.5" SATA SSD and it will probably be less expensive for you to replace the 2.5" mechanical hard drive with a 2.5" SSD then to buy the part you need to add a M.2 SATA SSD slot and buy a M.2 SATA SSD.

HP Pavilion - 15-au183sa - Setup and User Guides | HP® Support

Solid-state drive board   HP part # 856210-001