Samsung SSD on HP Spectre x360 14-tea000

[zamakent]

I have a question about my Samsung SSD 970 Pro, 1TB.  Works well.  No issues.

When I got this laptop new several years ago, I had quite a time upgrading the SSD right out of the box.

Today I installed Samsung Magician software to check the status of the SSD.

Under "NVMe Driver" it says "Unknown"

Clicking on the information prompt says "Driver Intel Corp 18.6.1.1016 - SSD Firmware update may not be available due to compatibility issues with the Intel VMD driver.  Please contact your local Samsung service center for update instructions.

I've troubleshot, made sure that RAID was not enabled in BIOS, and I only have the one drive in the laptop.

Currently Device Manager reports:

Disk Drives: NVMe Samsung SSD 970 Pro 1TB (driver says Microsoft 10.0.26100.5770).

Samsung Magician says I have the latest Firmware (1B2QEXP7)

When I try to install the Samsung NVMe Driver package, the install fails and says "Samsung NVMe Express Device is not connected.  Connect the device and try again."

In Device Manager under Storage Controllers, it shows:

Intel RST VMD Controller 9A0B

Intel RST VMD Managed Controller 09AB

Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller

   - nothing reflecting the Samsung SSD

All drivers reported as up to date.

All this to say:  is there a way to have my HP Spectre x360 recognize my Samsung hardware, and be able to install the drivers for it?   I've looked at a lot of websites and tried a few tips but nothing works.

Seems like this Intel VMD software does not want to be changed.  I've never had a laptop with this kind of issue.  I'm thinking of buying a new Spectre since this one has a few years on it . . . wonder if I will have the same experience with the new versions of the Spectre (I don't recall the new name at the moment).

If I have to use the Intel RST software, is my version the latest?  I can't tell because everything I check on the RST software includes Optane Memory references which I don't have.  If I can't configure the system to use Samsung - then I'd like to make sure I'm otherwise updated.

Any help appreciated.     Kent

[resistencia]

Hi @zamakent 

The laptop has an 11th generation processor. This processor requires the Intel VMD driver; any other driver will cause an error.

The Intel VMD driver is the best you will find for laptops. If you want to check for updates, use Intel Assistant.

Intel® Driver & Support Assistant