x17 R1, AWCC not showing CPU/Memory

Hey @crimsom @thanks for the reply it’s much appreciated! Would you be able to tell me what drivers I need to load during the clean installation in order for the installer to recognize my drive?

If I try to install the OS with the Raid On option it does not recognize and drives during the selection process.

Thanks again for the help!

Hi @Riftwire welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell Support. 

Intel recommends that BIOS default is RAID ON so that system accommodates both RAID and AHCI irrespective of how many drives are installed. The drive partition should have the modern GPT format so that BIOS boot list option UEFI is enabled for fast and reliable boot. 

Hi @Riftwire thank you for sharing update. 

During the x17 R1 boot process, after POST (Power On Self Test), the Alienware splash screen appears to give F2 option to open BIOS, and on the first BIOS page the Drive should be listed. Exit BIOS and the x17 R1 with internet connection should boot into the Windows operating system and get any drivers that it requires. Visit Device Manager to check that there are no driver problems. Visit support for Alienware x17 R1 Drivers & Downloads and "Let Dell automatically find driver updates for you" will install the Dell SupportAssist application to check that all Dell drivers are installed for your system. 

If the fresh install of the Windows 11 operating system fails to acknowledge the drive, at Alienware splash screen hold down F12 so that Boot Menu opens, use Up and Down keys to find Diagnostics, press Enter key to run ePSA Diagnostics. 

If POST or ePSA Diagnostics do not give any diagnostic warnings, check that the drive is physically installed correctly. 

Hey @crimsom @thanks again for the additional info.

When I switch to Raid On and attempt to boot the computer blue screens and the error is no bootable media detected. At that point I have to switch back to AHCI/NVMe.

To clarify when I try to do a fresh installation of Win 11 with the BIOS set to Raid On the windows installer is not able to detect any drives. The screenshot bellow is what I see. It would seem I need to provide a driver in order for the installer to find the drive but I’m unsure which one.

Hi @Riftwire thank you for sharing update complete with image. 

It seems that your Windows 11 system has no OS(C:) boot drive, at Alienware splash screen hold down F12 key to enter boot menu. Look at boot sequence to see if Windows 11 is at the top and says boot from OS(C:) partition. Guess that x17 R1 boot menu is different to my boot menu (see image). Please share image of your boot menu so we can see what you see. thank you.  

Boot Menu options

Disk Management requires the boot drive partition to be assigned a Letter, usually C, so that Windows Setup can see and use the OS(C:) boot drive. Installing another operating system is possible, but x17 R1 should use the Windows 11 operating system, get the Windows Boot Manager to use the existing Windows 11 operating system. If the Windows 11 operating system is corrupt, then follow the Windows Setup instruction to install the Windows 11 operating system. 

Hey @crimsom bellow is a picture of my boot menu with the AHCI/NVMe option enabled. I currently have Windows 11 Pro installed on the drive with no problems. However I can only get the Win 11 installer to see the NVMe drive if I have AHCI/NVMe enabled in the BIOS. From what I have been able to find online it would seem I need the correct Intel Rapid Storage Driver. However when I go to the Dell Driver page and put in my Service Tag the driver provided there does not seem to work. I have tried downloading it and extracting it to a USB drive however none of the available driver options that show up work.

Hi @Riftwire thank you for sharing additional information and Boot menu image.

Please visit Intel® Driver & Support Assistant to identify your products and get driver and software updates for most of your Intel hardware. This will determine if your system requires the Intel Rapid Storage Driver and if required, provide download link. 

@crimsom Just gave this a try however the only thing is shows is the Killer Wireless Suite and a Bluetooth driver, no options for any chipset or storage controller that I could try during the clean install.

@crimsom That is what I am trying to do as ACC will only display the CPU/Memory modules if SATA/NVMe Operation is set to Raid On.

However the windows installer does not recognize the drive without loading a driver on another USB key. I cannot partition anything since the list of available install locations is blank.It would seem that I need to find the correct driver for windows to be able to see the drive with Raid On enabled. I need to put this driver on a separate USB key so I can load it during installation.

My issue however is I’m unable to locate the correct driver. The one from Dell linked to my service tag does not work.

Hi @Riftwire thank you for sharing update. 

Your earlier message of Windows Setup saying Where do you want to install Windows? seems to be your best option to create drive partition with drive letter and OS boot drive. 

As a small update I spoke to Alienware Tech support and apparently this is a known issue with Windows 11. They had me turn off Hyper V and Memory Integrity both of which were already off. However, after turning them both on and rebooting and then turning then both back off and reboot, the CPU/Memory modules seem to be loading correctly. 

I am still on the hunt for whatever driver I need to load in order to install Windows 11 with Raid On in the BIOS. However nothing I have tried currently works. Apparently this should get fixed at some point but there was no solid timeline provided.