Can't install Samsung drivers on Samsung 960 Evo or use Samsung Magician

[dolmann1]

I have been using a Samsung 960 Evo NVME M2 as my boot drive since i built this computer about 1 1/2 years ago, and I cannot install the drivers from Samsung or use the Samsung Magician tool to observe or tweak my drive.

I have a Rog Maximus Hero XI wifi, Intel Core i7-9700k cpu w/ liquid cpu cooler, 32 Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 DDR4 Ram, Samsung 960 Evo NVME M2 500gb, Seagate Firecuda 4tb drive, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, and a Acer Predator 32" curved WQHD 165gh monitor.

The samsung drive appears to be using the intel drivers that the motherboard automatically installed. In the bios I tried deleting the secure boot keys to see if Magician would recognize the SSD, or if I could install the drivers. When attempting to install the drivers it says "Samsung NVM express device not connected. Connect the drive and try again".

Has anyone else experienced this, or have any advice to help my situation? I would appreciate any help from you gurus around here!

Thanks in advance!

[Saltgrass]

It would appear you have the drive installed as a SATA drive. It uses the Intel drivers and can get fairly good performance but will not allow the Samsung utility to work since the NVMe controller is not the primary controller.

You will probably need to check how your port is set up for the drive and alter how the controller for that port is configured.

If you want to change the controller configuration, you need to use the special procedure where you set msconfig.exe to boot the system back into Safe Mode after that change to the Bios. Once in Safe Mode, you can use msconfig.exe to set the system back to a normal boot. Depending on which build of Win 10 you are using, you may need your Password to get into Safe Mode..

[dolmann1]

I wonder why it installed in Sata mode in the first place. It's installed in the bottom NVME M2 slot, supposedly for better thermals. I put that Samsung 960 evo there in the initial build and booted up with it as the boot drive from day one. Would you know how I got it installing under Sata in the first place?

[Pavoluhliarik]

It's unlikely that bios update is needed for the use of a M2 device, however generally speaking you should always run the latest bios.


Here is the procedure for install of Windows on a Nvme drive.

1 - Make sure you unplug all SATA and USB drives, the M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.
2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.
3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, Not windows UEFI.
4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.
5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable iso of Windows 10 on it.
6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.
7 - Windows will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.
8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.
9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode.
10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys
11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install.

[dolmann1]

It's unlikely that bios update is needed for the use of a M2 device, however generally speaking you should always run the latest bios.


Here is the procedure for install of Windows on a Nvme drive.

1 - Make sure you unplug all SATA and USB drives, the M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.
2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.
3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, Not windows UEFI.
4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.
5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable iso of Windows 10 on it.
6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.
7 - Windows will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.
8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.
9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode.
10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys
11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install.

Thank you for the information. Is this scenario doable with the boot drive I'm currently using, or only if I started a new NVME drive?

[Pavoluhliarik]

Does the nvme disk show it to you in the biose? Does the nvme disk show it to you in windows?

[Saltgrass]

I wonder why it installed in Sata mode in the first place. It's installed in the bottom NVME M2 slot, supposedly for better thermals. I put that Samsung 960 evo there in the initial build and booted up with it as the boot drive from day one. Would you know how I got it installing under SATA in the first place?

I don't know about the XI but my XII shows the M.2_3 is a dual PCIe or SATA slot. Really, no way I would know how you got that set up. But I would check the Bios to see how that slot is configured. Also, look at other drives in both the M.2 and SATA ports.. Remember, if you are thinking about changing the configuration, use msconfig.exe, just in case to set up the special boot after making such a change..

When the drive is configured correctly, it will show in the Device Manger, the Samsung (or Microsoft) NVMe Controller In the Storage controllers section. The drive will show up in the Disk Drives section..

[Pavoluhliarik]

If it has me in the m.2.2 connector so it doesn't collide with the sata, I would try to reset the bios again.