M.2 Not Showing Up Bios or Win7 Z97-E

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WestEthics87

Prominent
Feb 19, 2017
5
2
510
Recently Bought a M.2 NvMe pcie 3.0 x4 drive. Its not showing up in my BIOS or in Win7. Ive tried to enable it by adjusting my pcie lanes in the bios but currently am having no Luck. Mainly because I don't know what I am doing. I am using two graphics cards, gtx 960 and a old 570 with pcie x8 x8.

Things I have considered.
1) Bios needs an update? - Was mentioned by ASUS but not confirmed and cant find BIOS update that specifys this. I have sent a support ticket to ASUS asking no response yet.
2) May need Windows 8-10? - Cant find good info to confirm, but wouldn't explain why BIOS doesn't detect M.2 ssd
3) CPU incompatible? - Dont know how to check this.
4) Motherboard M.2 slot incompatible? - Looks fine.
5) Maybe I have not taken correct steps to enable it in BIOS. -Looked into this I seem to be missing an option under BIOS-->Advanced-->Onboard Devices Configuration--->(missing)PCI Express x4_3 Slot (Black) Bandwidth) -->Auto/M.2/PCIe_x1 Mode/PCIe_x4Mode

I am at a loss as to what is causing it not to show up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

M.2 Drive I purchased
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167412

System is:
Windows 7 x64 Prof
ASUS Z97-E
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97E/
Intel I5-4690K
http://ark.intel.com/products/80811/Intel-Core-i5-4690K-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 960 x8pcie
Nvidia Geforce GTX 570 x8pcie

I have 3 drives plugged in to my standard sata ports not sata express.
Sata 128GB SSD
Sata 600GB HDD
Sata 2TB HDD


 
Solution
P
Yup Win10 has a generic NVME driver

If the BIOS wasnt compatible with the CPU it wouldnt turn on. So thats not the prob

Just extract the BIOS update put it on a flash drive use ez flash
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Deleted member 217926

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What I see is a board with a PCI-E 2.0 x4 slot providing 10Gb/s where as your drive needs a PCI-E 3.0 x4 slot providing 32Gb/s to run full speed. This alone will cause fast NVMe drives like the Samsung 950/960 to run at half speed.

Windows 7 needs an NVMe driver slipstreamed into the installation. It does not natively support the NVMe protocol.

Lastly I don't know for sure if that board includes the necessary UEFI module to boot from an NVMe drive. If not the drive will only work as fast storage.

NVMe drives may not even show up in the BIOS like a traditional drive. My Gigabyte Z170X - UD5 only showed my 950 Pro after the latest BIOS revision. The drive worked with the older BIOS version it just didn't show as what it was.


Edit: Oh and even on my Z170 board only 2 of the Intel controlled SATA ports work with the 950 Pro installed. Thankfully Gigabyte boards always include extra ports with a different controller so I have somewhere to plug my DVD burner in.
 
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WestEthics87

Prominent
Feb 19, 2017
5
2
510
Thanks so much everyone for the help I am currently in the process of all your suggestions and heres where I am at.

1) Checked M.2 seating for good measure.
2) Downloaded BIOS newest update 0803, extracted .CAP file onto FAT 32 USB drive.
3) Currently looking for NvME driver support on win7 without reinstalling as isnt really an option for me. Currently looking at this but the more I read the more I get confused as to if this is for me or if it will cause instability or loss.

The BIOS update seems simple enough,
Download 0803 .zip file from Drivers Tools--->Other--->BIOS--->0803
extract zipped .CAP File to a empty already FAT32 USB Drive
Reboot to BIOS, Select Tools-->USB Flash-->select .CAP file--> read. correct?

As for the windows "hotfix" I feel uncertain if this is going to cause me any issues heres what I am looking at.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2990941/update-to-add-native-driver-support-in-nvm-express-in-windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2

I havent updated a BIOS since like 2008 and this computer is all I have at the moment. I will be PC upgrading soon and thats what the M.2 Drive is for but currently I need the space on a SSD.
 
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WestEthics87

Prominent
Feb 19, 2017
5
2
510


Ok well that takes the risk away of losing my data if i backup for a reformat anyway. Ill be upgrading to windows 10 and that natively supports nvme correct?

Lastly before i upgrade to win 10 my steps for flashing the bios are correct? Just want to make sure i don't brick anything. As i said its been a while.
 
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