HELP! Intel 510 SSD Not Detected

Hi Guys,

I've been browsing the forums for the last couple of weeks deciding on weather or not to get the M14x. Well lets just say it worked and I was convinced to get one. However I have a problem:

I just received the laptop today. I booted it up and everything was great. I wanted to make sure that it was working for one and secondly that it had everything that I ordered. After confirming everything I decided it was time to open up my just received package from New Egg that had my Intel 510 120GB SSD in there and put that bad boy in and do a fresh install.

I booted up the machine and to my surprise It did not detect the SSD. Confused I booted into the BIOS and looked over all the settings. I changed it from AHCI to ATA and rebooted but was stuck with the same problem, no detection. I changed it back to AHCI and rebooted again and again and turned it off, unplugged from wall, from battery... rebooted... still nothing.

Now I am figuring that I have a dead drive on my hands. So for kicks I throw it in my M9700 as a secondary drive to see. Boot into BIOS and viola it appears. Now im pissed as my M14x is not seeing it but this old machine is?!? So I booted into windows and it finds the new hardware and installs the drive just fine.

I turned off the M9700 and took out the SSD and put it back into my M14x. determined to get it to work. I made sure the connection was complete and nothing was wrong with the connectors on either end. Boot it up and ... Nothing. The M14x hangs for ~10 seconds and then allows me to hit F2 to boot to BIOS. No disk found no nothing... However, if I throw my HDD in that came with the M14x it fires right up and is ready to go.

Does anyone out there have any idea what is going on? I mean is the drive not compatible with the M14x?

-- I even tried to install the newest firmware for the SSD and it said it was up to date. The BIOS for the M14x was also up to date. What the heck is going on? Someone please save me before I throw this $300 drive across the room!!!

Any Help MUCH Appreciated.

Thanks,

Jarod

 

I would plug the ssd in your desktop if you have one, just to see if its detected. Clearly your sata ports are functioning correctly in the laptop.
Its not unheard of to get a doa drive although damage in transit to an ssd is highly unlikey.

 

I dont think my desktop will vary too much from the M9700 I stuck it in. I will try hooking it up to the desktop.

Another thing... I was thinking of calling Intel support and seeing if they can help and then I'm thinking, wait they are going to ask me if I tried it in another computer and when I say yea it worked they are going to say oh sounds like a motherboard or whatnot issue. Then If I call Dell they are going to say oh it must be a bad drive! I can see it already.

HELP!

 

If its not detected in the bios screen, I wouldnt do anything other than try on my desktop. It should show in the bios screen if its present and correct.

I cant see any other alternative................................... if its dead, its dead lol

 

Did it come with a SATA to USB cord for data transport? If so, try connecting it that way and see if it is detected? Not sure if that helps or not, though. Also, do a search, I think there is a thread somewhere either in the SSD section or the Alienware M17x section where someone else was having an issue with the 510 not being detected correctly.

 

No no no... I think you are reading my post wrong. Here is a quick summary

Intel SSD in Alienware M14x - Not detected in BIOS, (HDD that came with M14x is detected however.)

Inted SSD in Alienware Aurora m9700 - detected by BIOS

Why is one laptop detecting it but the other not? And I would understand if my M14x did not detect anything but alas the original 500GB HDD works and is detected.

Does that make more sense?

 

yes much more, so the drive is detected fine in the m9700..............and the settings are ahci?
no jumpers on drive for legacy support or options to redetect drive in bios.

you have also tried loading default bios settings.

difficult at moment as mines due to turn up today (m14x) as first was faulty :O)

 

I think there is an issue withe BIOS and the 510, maybe? look at this thread, http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/576313-m17x-r3-port-0-true-always-sata-6gb-s-2.html , they are also having issues with the 510, not the same as yours, but it is not being detected correctly by the bios.

 

I will have to confirm that the settings in the m9700 are on ahci, but either way it is detected on that one none the less. For the M14x it doesn't detect any drive no matter what setting (only two to choose from) I put it at.

I swear I have looked through all the options in the BIOS and cannot find anything that can be changed to help. I did reload default settings a couple of times.

 

As doc said, it seems likely a bios issue as you have identified the drive is being correctly reported on another system. Time to get the phone out lol either that exchange it for a different manufacturer SSD that other have tested working on the m14x

 

Yea I was afraid that I might have to resort to that. I was hoping there was some setting I was overlooking.

I think I will call Dell first. Seems like it could be an issue with the M14x.

Why couldnt the drive just not have shown up in my M9700 and I could have been like "oh, a DOA drive... easy fix just exchange it out. But no... its never that easy.

Thanks for the responses guys. I will keep you posted and let you know what the outcome is.

 

Alienware better get working on BIOS updates to these new machines, between SSDs disappearing or crashing and 6Gb not popping up on others, they got some issues.

 

This makes me nervous- I've got the Crucial Real C300 128GB SSD that I'm going to put into my M14X when it arrives at the end of the month. I really hope that I don't run into the same problem.

 

+1 I just bought a 256GB M4 with the same intentions. Won't know how it will work until it get's here.

 

I had a C300 in mine and it worked fine

 

Just got off the phone with Dell. This is my second time calling today. The previous guy walked me through the BIOS (like i hadn't done just about every configuration before) but I went along with it. He told me that it had to be in ATA mode in the bios to see the SSD. Tried that... no luck. Then he tells me it sounds like its intels problem because of the SSD and that if I had only bought theirs it would have been fine, yea no thx.

Anyways, I call intel and the guy tells me that everything seems to be fine with the drive since I can detect it in the BIOS on two other machines and that it must be something with the M14x. Great, I saw that one coming. So I call back dell and explain all the previous and then what the intel guy said. He puts me on hold after him saying again that it must be the SDD. He comes back after 15 minutes and says well it probably isnt the SDD since it does work on two other machines and since the M14x boots fine with the original HDD that the SDD must not be compatable with the system. Not compatable!?! The chipset is friggin made by intel and you are telling me that my intel SSD isnt compatible with a brand new M14x but my old aurora m9700 and desktop computer can see it just fine? Sounds stupid to me.

I told him that there was another guy on a forum I wrote on was getting the same drive (sk3tch) and I would talk to him to see if he got his to be recognized and that if it was recognized they should expect a call back from me and that I would be returning this laptop.

So yea... that about sums up my last 3 hours. Now I can throw in the old HDD and and moan while I game. haha

 

A standard connection SATA drive not being compatible with an intel board? COME ON!!! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard...

 

That is good to know.

 

Well man...mine works. Sorry if this is bad news. But at least perhaps you will get some sanity!

Screenshot:

(click to enlarge)

This was tested on a brand new M14x that I received today (replacement for my original - it had build-quality issues). I did nothing but swap out the nameplate (they forgot to include my custom one...grr) and open it up and replace the HDD (Samsung fwiw) with a brand new, retail, unopened Intel 510 series 120GB SSD.

I have not tested loading an OS or anything yet...gotta go to bed...and I probably won't have time to do that until tomorrow night. But everything looks real solid for the next step.

 

Glad to hear that it works for you.

So you didnt update anything? Using A01 firmware (think thats right) and didnt do anything else to the SSD drive, just plugged it in and wham?

The way it stands now, I will be calling dell again and letting them know this piece is getting sent back.

 

No changes at all. Opened M14x box - made changes described in my post. Opened Intel 510 SSD box...installed.

 

Thanks man, I just installed windows xp on the m9700 on the Intel 510 SSD so obviously it is not the drive itself. Has to be something with my m14x. Now how to convince Dell of that? haha

 

so have you two guys compared drive firmware to see if its different?

 

I contacted Dell today. The guy told me that there is nothing they can do for it and that if I wanted a return I would have to pay the 15% restocking fee which was $150. They can suck that.

THe guy said that since I opened my machine and replaced the drive that they put in that it was no their fault. Then why make the computer accessible? Saying that they configured it for that drive... bull.

Damn I am pissed off right now. And can a guy talk to someone that speaks fricken english... geez