unpopulated M.2 Slot on mother board.. can i get it soldered and use SSD ?

[MS_K]

I have HP pavilion au-626tx and wanted to add 128GB M.2 SATA 3 sdd for faster boot. Before purchasing SSD i went through specifications, user manuals etc which indicated supported configuration is 1TB (5400) 9.5mm HDD + 128GB M.2 SATA-3 SSD.

Since my laptop model came with 2TB HDD, i replaced it with 1TB HDD which was lying with me and ordered 128GB M.2 SATA-3 SSD. When i opened my laptop after receiving ordered ssd, i was surprised to find in-spite of having connection pads on mother board the  m.2 slot was not physically soldered on board which makes this laptop useless from upgrade point of view. How HP can be so short sighted, i see no logic in not populating physical slot..it may be costing less than 1$ to original board manufacturer and if you are not providing connector please for god shake indicate it into your technical documents user manuals. It will definitely save many users from monitory loss and inconvenience.

Now in this situation i would like know, if i get connector soldered on to the motherboard from market will it work and support 120GB M.2 sata-3 with 1TB HDD as indicated in user manual.Missing m.2 connector can i get it soldered and use this SSD

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There is an optional M.2 board that you have to add.

See the service manual at the link below, chapter 3, page 17, item 13.

Solid-state drive board   HP part # 856210-001

You would also need the screw which secures the M.2 board to the system board.  There is no part number listed for that.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05228250

[Huffer]

We went through this quite a bit a couple years ago. That is why at least on my posts I always caution upgraders to open the laptop before buying anything. There are a couple HP model series where this seems to happen a fair amount and on your particular model series we had it happen where the M.2 port is not activated even if there is an apparent M.2 connector soldered on the motherboard. Soldering a connector in place is theoretically possible but so is time travel. So my best advice is not to try it. 

@Paul_Tikkanen  yes you can have an M.2 in lieu of the 2.5 inch hard drive by using the M.2 adapter board but on some versions of this model series there is a dedicated M.2 slot on the motherboard exactly where the OPs picture shows nothing but traces. In this case the OP wants both an SSD and a large storage HDD, I think. If you are willing to use the M.2 adapter you might as well just use a 2.5 inch SATA SSD as you can only have the one storage disk and a 2.5 inch SATA SSD is just as fast as a SATA M.2 connected through an adapter board. So you would save the cost of the M.2 adapter and the hassle of trying to locate one. 

Post back with any other questions and please accept as solution if this is the info you needed even if not what you wanted to read.