X51-R2 BIOS says Samsung 840 Pro Series SSD is "Not Installed"

Turn off SecureBoot.

http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/16216-moving-pre-installed-windows-8-hdd-ssd-7.html

Or leave and on and clean install. Get Win8 discs or Flash drive from Dell.

2) What version? Seen that before when in Legacy mode and running Single Disc RAID mode. Ask Samsung if worried. I wouldn't if bench is good eventually.

3) Dell will have to answer because no x51-R2 here to look at. I have see this though ...

Precision m6600 Lap    
 
Seq. Read: 514
Seq. Write: 401
IOPS Random Read: 61177
IOPS Random Write: 23950

Thank you for your help, Tesla! Here is what I have done so far:

1) Turned off SecureBoot in the BIOS. The BIOS still says the SSD is "Not Installed".

I have just gotten off the phone with Dell. They are overnighting me a Win8 flash drive. Hopefully, a clean install will do the trick.

2) I have BIOS version AO2, 7/30/2013:

I have disabled Legacy mode in the BIOS, but AHCI still does not display as an option. I do not see any options for RAID mode either.

While on the phone with Dell, I also asked them how to activate AHCI . They said it should be possible, but they are not sure why the option is not displaying. They advised me to try a clean install of Win8 on the SSD, and then perhaps AHCI will not matter.

I might call Samsung tomorrow because I am curious if they might know of a way.

3) Those speeds are much faster than what I am getting with the Samsung 840 PRO. Here is the Samsung Magician Performance Benchmark for my SSD:

To the best of my knowledge, the Samsung 840 PRO should be faster than the Samsung 830. I mentioned this issue to Dell as well. They confirmed my computer should have SATA 3 with 6 Gb/s speeds on all three ports. They said perhaps a clean install of Win8 will resolve this issue. If I call Samsung tomorrow, I will ask them about this one, too.

Joseph

1) Might just be a bad clone (maybe incapable program). I would say try to fix with EasyBCD, but I think it only works on booted drive. Clean install from Win8 media will answer.

2) Weird. They should know how to give you AHCI or "Single Disc RAID Mode". Did you look around deep in UEFI (BIOS)? Maybe it's always/only AHCI?

3) Ya, looks like it's capped at SATA2-300. Those IOPS are pretty excellent though ... especially Write.

 

SSD should be good. I thought you used it as a second drive? If not, do so to test it ... or install in other machine.

Right, with only SSD installed.

Reset BIOS/UEFI options to optimal defaults

Reboot machine. Press F12 for One-Time-Boot menu. Boot Flash drive.

Install Win8 cleanly.

1) I spoke to Samsung tech support. They admitted their proprietary cloning software had limitations and advised me to try third-party cloning software. I am holding off on third-party cloning software because now I want to do a clean install. Today I have received the Win8 flash drive. It fails to install Win8. Below are screen shots. I have had to crop them so they are below 64 KB in size. I had only my SSD connected; both my HDD and my DVD drive were disconnected the entire time.

a) Drive Diagnostics: No Errors

b) Smart Repair Results: Boot Files - Unable to repair

c) System Reimage Results: Automated Operating System Install performed/Factory image installed - Failed

d) Details: Error - Cannot format system partition

e) I removed the Win8 flash drive and then clicked the Restart button. (The Restart button was greyed out until I removed the Win8 flash drive.)

f) internal hard disk drive not found: F5 enter PSA

g) PSA: Error Code 2000-0151

Other Dell forum posts suggest Error Code 2000-0151 means the drive needs to be replaced. What do you think? The above outcome is reproducible at will.

2) Yes, I have looked around deep in UEFI (I call it BIOS only because that is what it calls itself). I am not sure if it is always AHCI...

3) I have run AlienAutopsy hardware diagnostics to determine the "Negotiated Signal Speed" of my SSD is in fact "3.0 Gbps". However, the "Negotiated Signal Speed" of my HDD is "6.0 Gbps". I am thinking perhaps my SATA 3 cable is really only SATA 2, so I will try another one.

Yes, it works as a secondary drive. I was not sure if the SSD could still be bad.

I have reset the UEFI options to optimal defaults. After rebooting, I hit F12 and selected the Win8 flash drive. However, I am getting the same outcome as in my previous post--please see screen shots e) and f). After I put the Win8 flash drive back in and restart--as instructed to do in screen shot e)--it starts all over with the recovery process. It never actually installs Win8. How do you make it install Win8?

Also, when I try to set up Over Provisioning, it says,"Please check that the drive is not being used by another process and try again."   I have just e-mailed Samsung about AHCI and Over Provisioning. I will let you know what they say.

There is already space reserved. Why do you want to over-provision?

Oh, and thanks for verifying that x51-R2 does have SATA-3 ports and speed (I think someone else was asking about that).

Good troubleshooting. I also buy OkGear brand ... mainly a name brand to stay away from the Chinese iffy quality of others. However, someone else mentioned they changed construction of them recently. All cables need to be high-quality ... it really shouldn't have to be a dice-roll. 

I like MonoPrice high-end HDMI, so I just bought a few SATA to try. At NewEgg, might also try brands like Rosewill and Bytecc (bigger players).

Will be interested to hear what Samsung says about AHCI. Like I said above, I have also found Magician AHCI detection un-reliable. But bench numbers are good so I know it's not in "IDE Compatibility Mode".

RAID mode can cause it to fail and also some enhanced SATA drivers.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/AHCI_vs_IDE

 

Thanks. I am going to stay away from OkGear from now on. I am pleased with the Monoprice SATA 3 cable. I will keep an eye out for Rosewill and Bytecc.

Samsung's response regarding the AHCI is as follows: "The AHCI I’m not sure about, but if you’re getting those speeds, I’d say you’re doing pretty good."

Magician is also unable to detect the SATA interface (the red box in the bottom right corner of the below screen shot):

Thanks for sharing that link.  I have run the performance benchmark several times over the past few days. The speeds are consistently high. Therefore, I *think* AHCI is enabled, so I am going to call it a day on this issue.

There is only 100 MB reserved. Samsung recommends over-provisioning 10% of the available space to improve the performance and reliability of the SSD. They walked me through how to manually over-provision with Windows 8 Disk Management using the "Shrink Volume" feature. The size of my drive is 488258 MB, so I have made the size of my unallocated space 48826 MB (I have rounded up to the nearest whole MB):

You're welcome. I really appreciate your help.

Also noticing some strange-ness inside OS Optimization screen.

I want Max Reliability, but with Normal (System Managed) Virtual Memory. Using Advanced kept suggesting Max Performance (which has many opposite settings). Only way to get it was to ...

Set to Max Reliability, Apply, and Reboot. Go to Control Panel and manually set Virtual Memory back to System Managed.

Nice answer from Samsung 

I just so happen to be installing a 840 Pro in my brother's XPS-410 box. During BIOS post it says AHCI Mode twice. Never the less, Magician 4.12 reports just like your screen shot above.

There is only 100 MB reserved. Samsung recommends over-provisioning 10% of the available space to improve the performance and reliability of the SSD. They walked me through how to manually over-provision with Windows 8 Disk Management using the "Shrink Volume" feature. The size of my drive is 488258 MB, so I have made the size of my unallocated space 48826 MB (I have rounded up to the nearest whole MB):

I think that "Reserved Space: 100mb" is something else because mine was 0.

His box is going back soon. Ok, well his is only 256gb, so I did 5% or 12gb. On Win7-64 it worked right from Magician, but like you said ... it's just Shrinking the partition a bit.

I'll check into this a bit more. If warranted, I'll do the same to my other two systems with 830's.

Oh, BTW ... my Aurora shows "AHCI Mode" in Magician 3.x . They must be looking for certain devices (like in DM) and/or certain driver files being loaded.