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HP Recommended
HP Spectre 13-AF000ND
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

Hi all,

 

My HP Spectre 13-AF000ND doesn’t recognize the SSD anymore. When starting it up, it says “3F0 – Boot device not found”. When trying to perform a hard drive check in systems diagnostics it also doesnt recognize the SSD. I know this is a very common problem with HP laptops so I spend hours reading forums and trying solutions. Nothing worked and I don't know what to do next.

 

Funny thing: when I connect an external SSD with Windows installed the laptop DOES boot up and work without any problems, so all hardware should be fine (except maybe for some SSD controller circuits/chips).

 

What have I tried so far?

1) Hard reset (disconnect battery and keep pressing power button for 1 minute)

2) Trying to start with as many parts disconnected as possible

3) Different SSDs (also NVMe)

4) Different ribbon cable to the SSD board

5) Installing/updating SSD drivers (SSD also doesn’t get recognized when using the laptop from the external SSD)

6) Trying different bios settings (among which enabling legacy support and restoring to system defaults)

7) Bios recovery and update to the newest laptop bios version

8.) I also measured the powersupply to the SSD. The SSD pins get 3.18V, so that should be fine I guess

 

As you can see I tried (almost) everything. Any suggestions what to do next?

7 REPLIES 7
HP Recommended

While what the post does seem to be something I have read before BUT I am curious as to the statement "Funny thing: when I connect an external SSD with Windows installed the laptop DOES boot up and work without any problems"

In what manner was this external SSD connected?  I have always seen/heard that Windows will not boot from an external source, unless it is the install media.


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HP Recommended

Thanks for your reply. The external SSD is connected on a usb port with a sata to usb converter. It's just an old SSD which I used to have in one of my previous laptops. I haven't formatted it, so it still has a working Windows 10 installation on it (legitimate 'student' version). I believe the Windows serial codes are embedded in the bios chips nowadays right? So communication between usb ports and bios chip is fine

HP Recommended

That is interesting.  I was taught that a Windows install would not boot from an external device, which some tech's would like, so as to be used a Live Windows OS to do things. 

As far as the "I believe the Windows serial codes are embedded in the bios chips nowadays right?" I do believe that is more or less true for the OEM installs. That is not true for an install outside of the OEM agreement (retail), however.  I also think that once the OS has activated, it no longer is used, but I may be incorrect on that.

 

Now to the original problem, it does seem that something is not right with the controller for the SSD.  Since it is listed as 

256 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD and I assuming that is the one "Missing"?


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HP Recommended

The 256 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD is the one not showing up indeed. 

Today I bought a new SSD connector board + ribbon cable, just to rule this out as cause of the problem. Should receive it within 2 weeks. I will post if it worked out or not. If it doesn't I think I will sell it in parts, since it will be really difficult (thus expensive) to diagnose and fix the problem. It think it will even be a tough job for an electronics expert, since there are no schematics of this motherboard unfortunately...

 

Hopefully the new SSD board + cable will solve the problem. I will let you guys know. And feel free to suggest other possible solutions in the mean time.

HP Recommended

Thank You

I await the next news step.


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HP Recommended

Last week I received the new SSD connector board + ribbon cable. Unfortunately this didn't solve the problem either, still 3F0 SSD not recognized.... Now it's 99% certain that it's a problem with a motherboard chip or circuit (probably memory controller related). I don't have the knowledge to diagnose this any further and bringing it to a repair shop will be too expensive. It will take a lot of time and efforts to find the problem, also because there are no motherboard schematics. So I decided to give up on it and sell it in parts on eBay.  Thanks for helping me.

HP Recommended

So sorry to hear this bad news.


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