Second ssd drive on elitebook 650 g9

[tk_srq]

@Gmerg,

A slot you inserted an M.2 SATA SSD into seems to be a WWAN slot. Two blue wires, shown on your photo, look like WWAN antena wires. Pull them carefully from underneath the battery to see if they are the loose wires with protective caps at their tips.

If you verify the slot is for a WWAN card, see this post below. AlexJF reports that the WWAN slot on his EliteBook x360 1030 G8 accepts only an M.2 NVMe SSD. So most likely your WWAN slot takes only an M.2 NVMe, too.

HP Elitebook 840 G6 SSD in WWAN Slot - HP Support Community - 8503827

GoneChar and AlexJF (on page 2 of the post) report that an M.2 NVMe on the WWAN slot drains battery fast-so fast that Alexis is even thinking about removing the drive from the WWAN slot. I suggest you read the entire post as it contains a lot of good info then decide to install an M.2 NVMe or not (If you keep the laptop on the desk plugged into the wall most of the time, the battery drain may not be the issue). 

[Catweazle68]

Hi,

I found the same situation in my 6F2N7EA as shown in Gmerk's model:

• B-coded socket (key on the left)
• Board labeled "WWAN" on the left and "SSD2" on the right of the socket
• Two blue antenna wires for a (not existent) WWAN module

@Gmerk, you have used an SSD that is controlled via SATA, but following the specifications we will need a NVME driven card. I already ordered the kingspec NVME model in China, so there are just a few miles left to a final result!

But this discussion indicates, that perhaps no SSD will work in our B-coded WWAN socket. So I'm really curious about a working - or not working NVME SSD... I will report ASAP.

Greets!

[tk_srq]

@Catweazle68,

You are not sure if M.2 NVMe SSDs ever work on the WWAN slot. Please see the discussion referenced in my previous post. AleixJF reports that he successfully installed an M.2 NVMe (LiteOn CL1-4D128) which he thought was pulled from a Lenovo laptop. A quick online search reveals the following info (acquired from the eBay site): It's a B+M keyed M.2 PCIe NVMe 2242 SSD. The label on the card indicates Gen3 (not sure how many lanes it has maybe 2 lanes).

If an M.2 SSD you ordered is a B+M keyed M.2 PCIe 2242, there's a good chance it works. Good luck.

[TzortzisG]

Hello Gmerg and Catweazle68.

Both NonSequitur777 EXPERT Level 11 AND tk_srq have made some very valid observations and have done an excellent job at assisting you in this problem.

Gmerg, in his original post, tried to mount an M-keyed 2230 Corsair SSD upside down. This can sometimes even short-out the motherboard, leading to an expensive replacement of the whole board. Gmerg, be careful! HP has two markings on either side of the "WWAN" slot, on the left side it has wwan and if the key is on that side, guess what it's for: wwan. On the right side it has ssd2 so that IF the key is on the right, you know you can plug in an M-keyed SSD.

NonSequitur777 has done an amazing analysis showing that to mount a 2230 SSD you need a special bracket. If this gear is not installed, and since the 3042 wwan cards don't use any kind of bracket, you can just use a plain 2242 SSD, as Gmerg has shown. I really don't understand why HP chose such an elaborate scheme for the SSDs, since 2242 are much easier to find than 2230, they're cheaper and have a much larger capacity.

Catweazle68 found and linked to an analysis I made about half a year ago. It's difficult to read all of it and follow the logic, so I'll just make a summary here:

HP laptop designers had one job to do. They did it very well. The Probook 4xxG9s and the ""Elitebook"" 6xxG9s (they're not really elitebooks, they're just renamed that way for marketing purposes) were designed to have TWO DIFFERENT versions. The basic one was to have a second M-keyed slot where you can plug in a second SSD that was short enough to close the cover (2280 were therefore out of the question). The other version was for those that had ordered laptops with a mobile/cellular modem. Those had a B-keyed slot. With the wwan card installed!

What happened next? HP corporate happened. Apparently the TWO versions are now FOUR. That means that there are three different configs one might find if opening a laptop that wasn't bought with a wwan card. If one is lucky, he/she will find an empty M-keyed slot for SSDs (2230, 2242). If one is unlucky, they will be faced with a B-keyed slot (empty of course) or on some very rare occasions, the proprietary HP "nada" slot. Incredible as it might seem, I have seen videos of 4xx/6xx laptops with NO connector micro-soldered there. If you take a look at the HP Shop page for the Elitebook 640 G9, a customer has written a review and posted pictures of the motherboard, showing the (correct) second M-keyed slot for upgrading!

Finally, tk_srq linked to a discussion about Bkeyed wwans on G8 (and older generation) Elitebooks. Is this relevant? Yes, but not completely. By the way, Catweazle68 you should be aware that B-keyed PCIe slots electrically connect to 2lanes. Even if it was possible to produce B+M key SSDs with 4lanes, the slot would only use the two. Therefore I suspect that the "proprietary" 4lane B+M key SSD is just a "typo". Back to the Elitebooks: Elitebooks have been known to "sort of" support a second SSD on the wwan slot from roughly G4/G5 and up (depending on model). Do they work properly? Not always. Worst case scenario, nothing is seen by the system. Best case scenario, power and standby issues. Obviously anything in the middle is worse than the power and standby issues (disappearing-reappearing drive, corruption, and all sorts of nice things). The G8 and G9 Elitebooks actually have a more advanced UEFI firmware, and the problems are less frequent (but still there). Read this Reddit Elitebook G9 thread and you'll see what I mean. Unfortunately, the true Elitebooks and the Probook4xx/pseudo-Elitebook6xx have Ø similarities. The BIOS is coded in a completely different way, and they have never been reported to show 2nd SSDs on the WWAN slot. I tried on two 6xxG8 laptops and couldn't get anything to work. The first post on the discussion Catweazle68 linked to possibly confirms that things haven't changed with the 6xxG9s that come with a B-keyed slot. Unfortunately, the author of the question there never came back to further explain the situation. However, to be completely honest, I would do the exact same thing Catweazle68 has done, and buy an appropriate drive to test the config. So, in the words of tk_srq "Good Luck"!!!!

Final observation: It's sad that this terrible WWAN slot debacle has also made its appearance on the G10 laptops. According to this 450G10 review, and although the documentation still lists secondary 2230 storage as an option, B-keyed versions are also being sold:

That means that Catweazle68 reporting the B+M drive upgrade as working or not-working will be extremely beneficial to many buyers of this series, both G9 and G10.

[Catweazle68]

Dear TzortzisG, dear all others contributing,

thank you very much for this brilliant summary! If I had found such a good work beforehand (maybe from HP?), I could have saved myself many hours of confusing research. To say it as clear as possible: The laptop model 6F2N7EA#ABD was ordered and shipped without WWAN. Nevertheless it is obviously possible to install such a module, see the present blue antenna wires. In my opinion this is  finally the reason why HP installed a B-key socket.

Unfortunately, I have to report that the 2nd SSD only worked for about six hours. 😭😬😖

Yesterday the KingSpec SSD arrived from China (M.2 NVMe SSD NE 2242 PCIe Gen3 x2), capacity 1TB, B+M-key. First I initialized the module in an external USB case. GPT, one partition, NTFS.

The following installation in the Elitebook 650 G9 went well, the card fits to socket and also mounting nut.

The new drive was directly found by Win11, no issues here. To analyze its performance I started a test with CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo.

I've been a little disappointed about the poor transfer rates, so I (again) started a research on the web to find some hints to improve performance. I'm quite sure: besides some checks (TRIM, alignment, ..) I changed nothing.

After reboot the system stopped to detect the 2nd SSD. No chance: not by diskpart, not in the device manager, not in disk management. Nowhere.

I run out of ideas now how to get a 2nd SSD working in this notebook. And I idiot bought it so I could put a second SSD in there. Now my whole plan is shot to hell and the already upgraded, bigger 1st SSD is too small now for all the data I want to save.

If someone has any idea - you're welcome!

Greetings!

UPDATE:

I again opened the rear cover and removed the 2nd SSD from the board. Installed in an external USB-case, the SDD is detected by Windows immediately after plug-in. So I think the SSD itself ist OK. The problem is somewhere inside of the "business laptop for professional use". Or between keyboard and chair...

No working 2nd SSD at all. It's a shame.

[TzortzisG]

.....No surprise there Catweazle68. Enable private messaging on your account's options.

[tk_srq]

@Catweazle68,

Sorry to learn that your laptop stopped detecting an M.2 NVMe.

AleixJF successfully installed an M.2 NVMe on his EliteBook x360 G8. But apparently, TzortzisG's prediction has been proven correct that ProBook turned EliteBook 6xx G9's have different BIOS code that doesn't handle an M.2 PCIe on the WWAN slot.

Too bad that $1.5 K EliteBook 650 G9's with the WWAN feature come with no 2nd M.2 slot.

[Catweazle68]

Hello everyone,

in fact, I somehow misinterpreted the HP product documentation. Before ordering the notebook, I wanted to be sure that a second SSD could be installed. The following footnote can be found in the data sheet:

43 Second storage is only available with non-WWAN base Unit AND Primary M.2 storage.

So you need a non-WWAN base unit, not only a device without WWAN module. Misleaded this way I ordered a pre-configured device "without WWAN" from a local web shop and figured that would fit the footnote. I went wrong.

For anyone considering buying an Elitebook 650 G9, G10 and similar models with option to have a 2nd SSD, let me place the following, final hint:

• Buy a model with an already built-in 2nd SSD or
• If you discover a socket with a B key inside your laptop, then send it back without any further investigation

Best regards!

@TzortzisG  where do I actify PM? 

[TzortzisG]

- So you need a non-WWAN base unit, not only a device without WWAN module. Misleaded this way I ordered a pre-configured device "without WWAN" from a local web shop and figured that would fit the footnote. I went wrong.

Yes, I saw you also said you're an "idiot" on a previous post. I have to say both Calvin and Luther would have been extremely proud of you. You're about as much to blame for this, as I am to blame for wars starting all over the globe. And by the way, non-WWAN base unit (translation): the base model that does not have a WWAN module installed. 

- For anyone considering buying an Elitebook 650 G9, G10 and similar models with option to have a 2nd SSD, let me place the following, final hint:

Buy a model with an already built-in 2nd SSD 

Yes, if you take a look at the discussion Tk_srq provided the link for, I mentioned that I bought the 650 G9 with the extra SSD already installed (just in case). Have already moved on to the OWC P13 2TB drive as a second one.

- where do I actify PM? 

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Setup-Software-Drivers/Can-t-Receive-Private-Messages/td-p/810... 

- If you discover a socket with a B key inside your laptop, then send it back without any further investigation.

👍