ZBook 15 mSata detection problems

[JerryPi]

I have a brand new ZBook 15 with a 180GB INTEL mSata SSD (SSDMCEAW180A401) and a 750GB HDD. The OS (Windows 7) resides on mSata SSD, the bios is set to legacy, fast boot is off and the only boot option chosen is msata. The multiboot selection menu is also set to 5s (just to see which devices are available, making diagnostics easier).

Turning the notebook on, Express boot options show mSata and notebook hard disk, after 5s, the OS from mSata starts and everything is fine. While in Windows, choosing shutdown, the notebook shuts down and after turning it back on, everything is the same as before, the Express boot options show mSata and Windows boots after 5s.

Now here's the problem:

Choosing restart in Windows reboots the notebook, the Express boot options show up, but the mSata is missing. Only the Notebook hard drive is shown and after 5s I get Bootdevice Not Found! Pressing enter, the notebook reboots again and terminal like HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) shows up. Choosing exit and confirming it reboots the notebook again, the Express boot options stil only show Notebook hard drive and the process repeats itself. The only way out is to press the power button and after it turns off. Turning it back on, the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) show up and upon exiting it, the Express boot options show mSata again and the system boots.

Seems to me like this is a BIOS problem - while in reboot mode, it does not detect the mSata drive. If in cold start mode it does. Perhaps the mSata SSD is not yet finished initializing at the time Express boot options come up and there should be a delay of some sort.

This is getting very frustating as updates will reboot the PC and it wont come back on without my intervention. Having updates disabled is not an option.

Some help please!

Thank you,

JerryPi

[KuvaHanski]

Hi,unfortunately I don't have a solution for you, but have also a brand new zBook 15 with 750GB HDD. This machine still has the original 32GB mSATA SSD installed. I just received a new Crucial 240GB mSATA SSD (CT240M500SSD3) and planning to replace the 32GB with it.

Did you do the same or was the 180GB INTEL allready installed?

If you made the installation yourself, in which order you did it?

Since reading about this detction problem I'm now hesitating with the replacement...

[JerryPi]

While I wanted to buy the model with preinstalled 128GB msata it was not available here and I couldn't even get an estimate when it will be. I ended up buying the 32GB msata version of the notebook and a 180GB msata INTEL ssd. The dealer then made the swap and cloned&resized the partitions from hdd to msata ssd. It all appeared to work fine until I used the restart instead of shutdown.

Because it works in cold start, I think the fix should be relatively simple, however when will HP provide it, if at all, is another matter.

[KuvaHanski]

Ok, thanks for the info. I'll contact my local HP dealer for more details about the swap procedure.

[MPrudente · Accepted solution]

Hello,

To solve your problem you need to make sure the SATA Device Mode is set to RAID, you can find it in Advanced Menu -> Device Configurations-> SATA Device Mode.

I believe the problem arises because of the HP implementation of intel Smart Response SSD caching wich uses only the msata ssd and should just be working with an HDD and requires the Sata mode to be in RAID.

So in the Zbooks with msata ssd you need to make sure it stays in RAID mode. Also HP does not support msata ssd together with sata ssd, and i don't believe it supports the use of msata ssd to other uses other than cache.

Also if you want to use Intel SRT the maximum utilizable cache size on the msata SSD is 64 GB.

Best Regards,

[JerryPi]

Thank you MPrudente!

Switching SATA Device Mode from AHCI to RAID solved the problem. Nothing else changed, the msata device is stil the primary disk drive and appears to function as a normal disk. There is no trace of Intel SRT. Looks like it automatically functions as AHCI if the msata SSD is bigger then 64GB.

Now everything works as intended!

[soldato]

hi to all,

i have an  issue installing this model.

if i put the sata controller in AHCI mode i can install windows 8.1 but with some issue.

1) it puts the system partition only on msata disk (30GB SDD)

2) there is no way to put the system partition on HDD 500GB, i got an error during installation "windows cannot install on the specified HDD".  if i disable the msata SDD HDD windows cannot install on HDD, with the same error.

if i install it on HDD with the system partition on SSD i can boot windows but if i put the SATA controller in RAID mode i got the error 0xc0000008 INACESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

if i put the sata controller in RAID mode there is no way to install on SSD or HDD.

i also tried to install the intel raid driver but with no success, i cannot load the driver during installation.

i would install on HDD and enable the Intel Rapid Storage Tecnology later.

can anyone help to me to install it?

MANY THANKS!

[ZbookUser]

soldato: Same problem here, did you have a solution yet

[MPrudente]

Hi,

After setting the computer to RAID Mode you need to enter Intel Rapid Storage Bios (Intel Matrix Bios). I think it's ctr+l .

Then you should disable the smart cache. After that you should be able to install Windows without any problem.

By the way you shouldn't need to add drivers to windows installation and after installing windows in RAID you can't change to AHCI and vice-versa.

I usually sell these machines with 2 SSD drivers on them, one msata and other 2,5 sata.

Best Regards,

[joeker]

Disable UEFI and only enable LEGACY, then your M.2 SSD will be readable and be taken as the primary while Sata will be your seocndary. I also hear now the BIOS latest version you don't need to make those changes.