Storage Solutions nvme not detected in the second slot

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Dark Star

Herald
I recently bought Samsung 990evo as my storage drive. I was planning to use it in the primary m.2 slot and my other 250gb drive in second slot. The second drive holds OS and what not.

Currently, the setup consists of a 250GB NVME (Crucial P2) in main m.2 slot and a 120GB Sata ssd (Samsung 750Evo) as boot drive and linux hub. Unfortunately, the second drive threw up health error so I wanted to get rid of.


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Now, I was planning to ditch the 120Gb and shift to NVME, since my board (ASRock B450M Pro4-F) has 2, m.2 slot, one working as PCIe 3.0 and other in Sata interface. I didn't mind the drop in speed since I was planning to dump my OS drive on it.

The board has certain condition for second m.2 slot to be used i.e. the #3 SATA port shouldn't be in use else one drive will not be detected. Thankfully, I only have 1 SATA drive in use and that too in slot #1.

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Screenshot 2024-10-12 at 13-11-05 ASRock B450M Pro4-F.png


To my despair, none of the m.2 drives are getting detected in the second m.2 slot. I even tried removing the SATA SSD altogether but to no avail.

What should I do? How do I get a working solution in this case. I wanted to keep both of my drive.

Is the port conked off? I never used it till date.

Note - Both the nvmes are working in M1 slot.

Board - https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B450M Pro4-F/#Specification

Regards and TIA
 
This board only supports 1xnvme and second is only sata. That sata m.2 won't work with nvme. You can use the x4 PCI-E 2nd slot (I thinks it's PCI-E gen2 x4) with an adapter for another nvme. The other alternative is to use external nvme to USB adapter.
 
Damn, I thought it will work since nvme also has m key. Now, I have to get an adapter. Do you have any recommendation for a pcie adapter ? I'll be using it in the other PCIE slot.
 
Dark Star said:
Damn, I thought it will work since nvme also has m key. Now, I have to get an adapter. Do you have any recommendation for a pcie adapter ? I'll be using it in the other PCIE slot.
Click to expand...
Instead of an adapter, you could get a cheap M.2 SATA SSD.
The adapters will add another layer, which can be avoided.
 
Last edited:
Dushie said:
I am using this one from the past 5 months in my optiplex 9020 and it works well and is backward compatible.

Also posting the speeds i got on the PCI Express16 slot for evo 970 plus
Click to expand...

Got the adapter, its working alright and the drives are getting detected. Unfortunately, the adapter is very close the GPU and is restricting the fans. Completely stopping the middle fan and creating screeching noise with the other.


Will order the PCI x4 adapter instead and if that doesn't work then changing the MB is the only solution.
 
Dark Star said:
Got the adapter, its working alright and the drives are getting detected. Unfortunately, the adapter is very close the GPU and is restricting the fans. Completely stopping the middle fan and creating screeching noise with the other.


Will order the PCI x4 adapter instead and if that doesn't work then changing the MB is the only solution.
Click to expand...
This same adapter will working in X4 slot also, try the same and test it, should work as x16 works in all the slots.
 
Probably due to the bandwidth limitations of b450.
If the gpu slot is in use, most prominently the 2nd m.2 slot won't work (but it works in high end b450 like aorus elite b450).
Had a msi b450 Gaming Pro Carbon, dual nvme slots, 2nd one not working. Couldn't figure out what's the issue.

Later on my msi b550 gaming edge wifi, I came across this thing that says that if I use the 2nd gpu slot, and the 2nd nvme, only the gpu slot will work, the nvme turns off.
But if 1st gpu slot and 2nd nvme, it will work

This is a limitation of the B450/B550 chipset, that prioritizes the 1st PCI and 1st NVME slot.
But out of the 2nd PCI and 2nd NVME, only one of them will work at a time, prioritizing the PCI.

This is where the x570 comes in, they can run all slots at full speed all the time.
Hence they are so expensive.
 
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