Inspiron 15 7567 + Samsung 960 EVO - 250 GB

This is definitely an issue. We are experiencing the same issue with the 960 Pro. There is another forum about it here: en.community.dell.com/.../20004106

I see several folks having a problem with the 960 EVO but none, including myself on my XPS 13 9365, having a problem with the 960 Pro.

Have read the Win 10 NVMe driver by Microsoft is so bad the OEM drive may work better when set as SATA.  The fact the 960 Pro has it own NVMe driver is a plus.

I think I found the solution!  I had this same problem installing the Samsung 960 Evo on the Dell 7567.  It would not recognize the drive so I turned off the secure boot.  It was then recognized so I restored my Acronis Image.  Acronis warned me it would not boot afterwards--and it did not.  So, I turned the secure boot back on, and it works like a charm!

Could you please check that which SATA Driver is being used now in your system? The problem here is 960 EVO could not be recognized with AHCI mode.

It works with RAID On mode, but then Samsung Driver and Magician Software could not recognize the SSD because Windows uses Intel SATA Driver instead.

The one thing I have not emphasis is the Bios Setting with a check box for M.2 PCIe SSD.  I should not assume, if the option is present that the default setting would have it checked.  

So, anyone who has not checked for this option, please do so.

en.community.dell.com/.../20988954

So am I reading this correctly that the solution to a Samsung 960 NVMe drive is to run it over the 2004 AHCI protocol?  Why bother with an NVMe drive if it isn't supported, may as well stick with the 850?

So then it doesn't support NVMe only AHCI (or RAID).  AHCI is in fact the same protocol we use for SATA  connected drives.  Seem like everyone is confusing physical connection standards with protocols, SATA and M.2 are the physical standards vs AHCI and NVMe are protocols.

I would be happy to be wrong and perhaps Dell is actually supporting NVMe somehow in all this.

Did someone did some transfer rate testing of it being on RAID (if ever that will work) or in AHCI?

Acronis True Image 2017 that I got wasn't able to detect the 960 EVO when its in RAID mode. In AHCI, it is able to restore the factory image from the stock Sandisk X400 that I backed up beforehand.

Did someone did some transfer rate testing of it being on RAID (if ever that will work) or in AHCI? Acronis True Image 2017 that I got wasn't able to detect the 960 EVO when its in RAID mode. In AHCI, it is able to restore the factory image from the stock Sandisk X400 that I backed up beforehand.

I think I remember trying to install on a clean 960 drive in RAID and it did  not work.  Ubuntu will also not pick up the drive if it is set to RAID.

I have restored the OEM (RAID) Image using the Windows 10 Recovery drive to the AHCI controlled 960 and it works fine.

Ok as said above, using Acronis True Image 2017, I was able to restore the disk images from the stock Sandisk X400 to the Evo 960.  That is on AHCI mode.  Problem is it won't boot (no boot device found).  After two retries of that failure, Dell OS support recovery kicks in, I did factory image again, same results.

But when I change to RAID mode, it boots fine.  Using CrystalDiskMark 5.2.1 x64, set at all its defaults (5, 1GiB)  it was able to get:

Seq Q32T1  3229  1510

4K Q32T1  531.3  432.9

Seq  1903  1518

4K  41.53   152.9

I wasn't able to have the Samsung Magician detect it, and I can't install the Samsung NVMe driver.  I assume this is because I am not on AHCI mode.  Whenever I change to AHCI, it won't boot.

Any suggested steps to have it on AHCI ?

To change modes, you really should reload the OS from the beginning - make a set of recovery media, change the drive mode and boot from the recovery flash drive.  Do a clean install of Windows.

My unit came with 01.00.05 dated 03/01/2017 (don't know which one is day or month on that notation). When I install that 1.05 from dell 7567 support (BIOS) Inspiron_14_15_7000_Gaming_1.0.5.exe ... it doesn't effect even after a successful install, my version remains at 01.00.05. A downgrade lowers the version so I believe 01.00.05 = 1.0.5. I wonder why Dell doesn't put its version notation consistently and causes confusion.

Whenever I use the factory image that came with the stock Sandisk X400, it only works as RAID. If it booted on AHCI, inaccessible boot error.

So what I did to fix : I had the mode set to AHCI, expectedly it won't boot successfully, eventully forcing the SupportAssist OS recovery to kick in. Now instead of restoring factory image, I just did a "total" Reset of Windows. This proceeded to reset/reinstall Windows (not restoring a factory image), but still with Dell drivers and all, under AHCI this time. Samsung NVMe driver installs good, and Samsung Magician finds the Evo 960 now with all its feature set.

So my conclusion here is the factory image on the stock Sandisk X400, was imaged / created in RAID mode. That explains also why when I set the BIOS to factory defaults, it goes to RAID. Using the factory image on an NVMe will not work. Hence a need for reinstall.

Ok so I did a CrystalDiskMark 5.2.1 x64, set at all its defaults (5, 1GiB)  on AHCI mode (my above previous post was RAID mode) it was able to get:

Seq Q32T1  3270  1518  (very slightly higher on AHCI)

4K Q32T1  572.5  507.7 (very slightly higher on AHCI)

Seq  1759  1429 (very slightly lower compared to RAID)

4K  41.16   164.6 (almost the same)

I may have not turned off the McAfee during the RAID testing which could be a factor why AHCI got some slightly higher count on Q32T1 tests... but basically THESE ARE NEGLIGIBLE on real world scenarios.

This proves that the performance is just identical whether running on RAID or AHCI.  But its best to be on AHCI so Samsung NVMe driver can be used and Samsung Magician can identify the drive.