Upgrading to NVMe SSD

[Cathy97]

I am wanting to upgrade my laptop to a NVMe SSD.  I have an M-keyed M.2 slot and Speccy says it is a PCI-E x4 slot.  I am not sure what generation it is. I am fairly certain the slot would take an NVMe SSD, but I want to make sure I can put my OS on it and am able to boot from it.  

Motherboard
 Manufacturer HP
 Model 8339 (U3E1)
 Version 49.37
 Chipset Vendor Intel
 Chipset Model Kaby Lake
 Chipset Revision 02
 Southbridge Vendor Intel
 Southbridge Model ID9D4E
 Southbridge Revision 21
  BIOS
   Brand Insyde
   Version F.15
   Date 11/1/2017

 Slot Type PCI-E x4
 Slot Usage Available
 Data lanes x4
 Slot Designation J8C1
 Characteristics PME, Hot Plug
 Slot Number 4

[Huffer]

No the M.2 slot is SATA only see p. 3 of the Manual:

Manual

M.2 slots are not keyed; M.2 disks are. All M.2 slots have 2 chambers and the issue is whether the motherboard is engineered to support NVME disks. "M" and "B + M" M.2 disks will physically fit in the slot but they won't necessarily be recognized by the motherboard. And it is not a BIOS issue, either. 

So you are confined to a SATA M.2 SSD such as the Samsung Evo 860 series not an NVME M.2. 

Post back with any other issues or questions and I will not ask for solution because I have not endorsed your analysis so nobody ever is happy with me in such cases. Good luck. 

[Cathy97]

That was definately not the answer I wanted, but thank you for your response.  Would you know or know I how I could find out if I could use Optane Memory in my M.2 slot?

[Petro_]

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@Cathy97 wrote:

That was definately not the answer I wanted, but thank you for your response.  Would you know or know I how I could find out if I could use Optane Memory in my M.2 slot?

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HI!

It doesn't support that either, it's also NVMe...

I too have an M-slot M.2 and even if our hardware supports NVME the Bios doesn't, it needs an upgrade and it is now apparent that Hp is not keen to open up that door to us...

[Huffer]

That is half right. Optane is a kind of NVME so if the motherboard does not support NVME it also cannot handle Optane, but not every board that supports NVME can support Optane, either. And I will say again. Its not the BIOS. You cannot turn a motherboard that only supports SATA M.2 into one that does NVME with just a BIOS upgrade. The motherboard has to be engineered differently internally.I am not an electronic engineer so I cannot say exactly how they are different just that its a difference in the way the M.2 slot is tied into the PCIe bus, 

[Petro_]

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@Huffer wrote:

That is half right. Optane is a kind of NVME so if the motherboard does not support NVME it also cannot handle Optane, but not every board that supports NVME can support Optane, either. And I will say again. Its not the BIOS. You cannot turn a motherboard that only supports SATA M.2 into one that does NVME with just a BIOS upgrade. The motherboard has to be engineered differently internally.I am not an electronic engineer so I cannot say exactly how they are different just that its a difference in the way the M.2 slot is tied into the PCIe bus, 

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A board with an M.2 M-slot supports NVMe as long as the chipset does. Otherwise an B-slot would had been used so the one notched M-sticks couldn't be used. Look at other OEM's.

It is a bios matter what ever HP tells you... I understand your defence but as other manufactures has been able to realease an upgraded BIOS version for this, so should HP.

If you put a random hardware interested person in charged of this at HP for on week we would have it at the end of the month...

[Huffer]

This is just not the case. All M.2 slots have two chambers not 3. Some support only SATA some support SATA or NVME. A simple BIOS Code update cannot change one into the other. 

[Petro_]

Explain this, on an old HP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4SArKdyBn0

And a search outside this forum shows who´s right, have a good look there before answering back please, maybe in the end you'll agree it's HP's intent to not upgrade the BIOS.

Just because sombody tells me -my beloved company or not- that it doesnt work doesn't mean it's true... Either they lying to you or you covering up mate, sorry.

I've been an hardware enthusiast since 1993 when I first slaughtered my Amiga for speed and later on moved to PC's, my Duron 600Mhz clocked 1200 on air back in the early 2000 and on it goes...

I am not saying I am better than any one and as you probably seen by now I don't really care, it's just that what HP telling us is that they are lazy, greedy and don't care about customers.

[Petro_]

https://youtu.be/fJCHx7mZEKo?t=298

[Huffer]

I am open to being proven wrong but I do not understand what you think these videos prove. There is an M.2 slot. It has 2 chambers. There are M.2 SSDs. Some have a "B + M" edge and some have an "M"...all fit in a 2 chambered slot. Show me proof of a situation where the manufacturer originally designed the laptop to only accept a SATA M.2 SSD and then issued a BIOS upgrade that then allowed use of either a SATA or NVME M.2 SSD. I can't prove a negative that it has never happened so find a positive instance.