Hello folks,

I purchased a Dell 3620 fitted with a 512GB NVMe solid state drive, the intention was to install Linux Mint for use as my daily driver.

The installation needed to be installed using the whole disk as opposed to a dual boot system which I have done, requiring only a modest change to the BIOS SATA settings to AHCI instead of RAID the default.

Whilst the machine would boot fine into Mint if left overnight it would then fail to start, pushing the power button initiated the fans but then shut down. After much trouble shooting it appears the BIOS cannot find the NVMe drive so gives up and powers down, only problem here is that it also prevents accessing the Dell splash screen entering BIOS setup via F2 key.

The only way around this is to remove components such as NVMe drive, CMOS battery and leave it for 30 minutes, reinstall and after several attempt's it picks up the drive and off we go. In the last couple of days this has improved somewhat by powering on the machine for a minute using the power button located at the back, then after it stops powering on as normal, it still takes 4/5 attempts but does power on needing no further attention throughout the day.

Troubleshooting steps

Read multi posts on Dell forum around very similar issues following each resolution without success

Flashed BIOS to latest (Nov 21) using Dell tool which specifically mentions this issue and the flash update which should solve it.

Engaged with other Mint users via the forum who have experienced similar multi start problems with their own individual work arounds, some more technical than others.

Followed helpful steps and diagnostics here https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/precision-3630-workstation/prec_3630_service_manual/diagnostics?guid=guid-9620c9bf-652f-470e-b343-dc73f26a60c1&lang=en-us 

The end result I feel is using AHCI instead of RAID limits the BIOS seeing NVMe drive first thing, using SSD's instead appears to negate this problem but i would like to keep all of the features and storage associated with NVMe technology.

Thanks for any help