I have a hp pavilion au193sa and I just bought a m.2 ssd and I can't seem to find where to put it?

[MuffinDotMan]

I have a hp pavilion 15 au193sa and I bought a m.2 ssd. I've taken the bottom of the laptop and can't seem where to put the m.2 ssd. Can anyone help me?

[Huffer]

You are not necessarily going to find it. Here is the Service manual:

Manual

See pages 32-34. You can install an M.2 disk (SATA not NVME/PCIe) But, and it s a big but, you need an adapter. The M.2 actually will occupy the physical space now occupied by the hard drive. 

You need one of these:

Solid-state drive board 856210-001

And one of these:

Solid-state drive cable 856353-001

These will allow you to have the M.2 as the only disk in the computer in lieu of and not in addition to the hard drive. 

The Manual does make reference to a dual drive setup where you can have a hard drive plus a 128 gig M.2. See p. 33. See the outline of the M.2 to the left of the hard drive? We have received reports that models sold with just a single hard drive do not have an actual M.2 plugin to the left and some have said it is there but oddly placed under the motherboard so the M.2 goes in upside down. Can you please post a picture of the area to the left of the hard drive on your motherboard so we can see which is true on yours? If the connector is there and you just had not yet found it, super, we have helped you. If not we have found another instance where the manual is not 100% accurate. 

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[MuffinDotMan]

Http://tinypic.com/r/xp693b/9

[MuffinDotMan]

Here's a picture of my laptop opened, the m.2 slot should be on the left of the hard drive.

[Huffer]

Yeah the picture is a bit dark over in that corner. The little brass circle thing is the screw mounting point for the M.2 but what I can't see too well is the edge of the motherboard directly "North" of the brass circle. If it has an M.2 slot there will be a black plastic mounting point/slot either on top or underneath the edge of the motherboard. I think the slot may be right north of that ribbon cable. The black bar thing.  

Don't shoot the messenger if it is not there. I don't work for HP but as you can see I have been helping HP customers for years. This is one of my pet topics. I have a couple HP laptops on which I have done the M.2 upgrade thing (not this model) so I tend to wade in when these questions come up and I have seen what is happening with it on recent models. 

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[MuffinDotMan]

Here's a better picture
http://tinypic.com/r/14tqx68/9

[Huffer]

There is a black plastic bar just to the "North" of the white ribbon cable. Is it a slot with gold pins inside where you can insert an M.2 card's gold leads? 

[Ratledge]

Yours is like my AU147 (2017 model Pavilion 15) - they didn't put the M.2 connector on the motherboard. Best you can do is swap the OG drive for a 2.5" form factor SSD or do like I did and put a 2TB FireCuda in its place.

[Ratledge]

(it is supposed to be between the existing hard drive and the corner. If you take a 2280 size M.2 SSD and put the notch down, you will notice that the end where the connection should be is just solder point with nothing soldered in place) The capture screw should be in the bottom left corner, and there is a place for that, too.