BIOS cannot detect msata drive

Ravi,

Thanks. I already tried with another mSATA from my co-worker's computer. Next I will try with a WWAN card.

Hi all,

        I have recently bought a M4700 which has a normal 750GB SATA HDD in.

I bought a 128GB mSATA (6Gb/s) SSD from Crucial to go in the mSATA/Mobile internet slot.

Crucial say this is GAURANTEED M4700 compatible, hmmm........

I installed it, booted up, the BIOS saw it straight away, Windows saw it, installed it, so i went to computer management to Initialize it.

Problem,  when i try to initialize it, WINDOWS  says "THE REQUEST COULD NOT BE PERFORNED BECAUSE OF AN I/O ERROR"

I am on my second SSD as i rang Crucial, AND Dell, who both said i was doing it right, so i sent it back to Crucial.

The have just sent me a replacement, and guess what.........

It won't work, exactly the same problem please help!!

SO far ive tried Updating ALL windows drivers, Flashing the BIOS, iv'e even reinstalled windows with the mSATA installed first.

I am a Microsoft Network  Professional and i'm stuffed if i can work out why it doesn't work!

I know the drive is mSATA III (6Gb/s), and for some bizarre reason the new Dell M4700 only runs mSATA II (3Gb/s),

but this shouldn't matter as they are meant to be fully backwards compatible?.

My full spec is:

Windows 7 64bit Pro.

I7 3720QM @2.6GHZ

16GB 1600MHZ RAM (2x8GB, 2x free slots)

K2000M Quadro grtaphics

Intel PRO wireless

Bluetooth card

DVD r/W

SD card rader

etc.

Can anybody suggest anything?, am i missing a driver, or are Crucial telling lies about it's compatibility,?????

as ive been told Dell program the system to only let certain mSATA's work??.

Many thanks,

Dan

I just tried put a WWAN card in the same slot in m4700 and it worked perfectly. I put my mSATA in a W520 laptop and the BIOS recognized the type of the mSATA. So it seems that both WWAN/mSATA slot and mSATA card are ok. That puzzled me. So I tried to compare the pin positions of the WWAN card with Crucial card and found that they do not align very well. So I wonder m4700 may not accept any typpe of mSATA card.

just wondering have you gone to bios .. and checked under .system devices  to see  if  the msata  /wwlan port was enabled  cant remember what default setting was ...check worth a shot

Mac II

I tried to change the BIOS settings many times and once with the help from DELL support. The WWAN/mSATA is enabled. I verfied this with a DELL approved WWAN card and it worked perfectly in that slot. After that, I took the WWAN card and align the notch in the middlle section and found that the pins on both cards are not align perfectly, The crucial mSATA's pins align with the spaces of the WWAN card. I connected the Crucial with a mSATA to SATA converter and then to m4700's eSATA port. Then BIOS detect the mSATA as m4 and windows read the firmware out no problem. So currently, I am thinking that ether DELL has a quality control problem or the slot is only be able used for certain type of card. I cannot verify this since DELL will not sell mSATA as a spare part. I checked with their sell and threre is no way to get a DELL approved mSATA card.

MAC II

Thank you very much for the help. I did talk to DELL this morning regarding the mSATA card. The lady told me they now only sell it when the system is ordered. I am considering exchange a different m4700 and try it.

Mac II / Ntest,

Just to let you know, after having another email chat with Dell support today, they have decided i have tried everything i can to get the Crucial Msata working.

They are meant to be sending an engineer out tomorrow to change the motherboard.:emotion-7:

Maybe they know they have an issue with the connections?, even if they do, i would have thought they will be all the same.

I don't realy want my 2 week old M4700 ripping apart,and i wondered if i was entitled to a new replacement.

I think they will say no, as i got it from the Dell outlet, so it was classed as a refurb, even though it looked unused.

It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, i will let you all know if the new board solves the msata problem,

Dan

Dan,

Thanks for the information. Let us know how it goes. Look like they are going to replace my motherboard next week too.

Ntest,

Well,

         Dell came out as promised yesterday and replaced the Motherboard.

It made not a jot of difference!, MSATA still won't initialise in Windows, exactly same problem.

The engineer didn't have a clue what it could be.

Anyway, i exchanged several emails this morning with Dell support, and between us we came to the conclusion it could be 1 of 2 things:

1. The Crucial mSATA is NOT compatible with Dell M4700, despite what Crucial claim (have they actually tested it?)

2. Corrupt Windows install, and/or faulty primary HDD, which would maybe explain why my  4700 fails the Windows Performance Index test on Primary HDD, saying 'the parameters are incorrect'.

So, given these 2 options, we went with option 2.

As the Windows 7 Pro image is on the HDD partition, reinstalling it did nothing as all i would be doing was reinstalling a corrupt image.

Dell are now going to send me a NEW HDD and a Win 7 Pro dvd so i can boot from cdrom and do a clean install.

As BIOS see's my Crucial SSD no problems, i am going to remove the HDD and attempt to install  the O/S to the 128GB SSD,

If that works, i will run the HDD as a slave storage drive.

So Ntest, i wouldn't bother with the new board if thats the only prob you have, it's more likely 1 of the 2 above probs?.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow then,

I will let you know what happens, as long as i don't throw the whole thing through the window!!,

Dan

Good news!!,

                   The clean install from the Windows DVD Dell delivered today went onto the msata drive straight away!

I then added the new  750gb sata Dell provided as a slave drive, i have just finished installing all the missing drivers onto my m4700.

It's now flying!, boots up from scratch in 15 seconds!.

So it looks like it was a driver thing afte rall. Maybe you just can't add an msata after the system has been fully configured in certain cases.

Dell take note.............as no one at Dell knew this would be the problem.

Anyway, thanks for the advice guys, hope my experience helps you all out with yours,

Dan

Dan,

Congradulation! Mine is slightly different. BIOS will not recognize the mSATA. DELL is scheduling to replace the motherboard on Monday. Hopefully, things will be ok after that.

Just let your guys know that DELL replaced the mother board in my m4700 and now Crucial is working for me happily now. thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Hi

I am having a similar problem with mSATA 256GB Drive from Crucial in my Dell Precision M6700 laptop. The same drive works perfectly in my Dell Precision M6600.

I am using BIOS A06 on both.

I have tried talking to Dell Technical Support for advice, but the idiot, after I explained what a mSATA was gave me a lecture on fitting non-approved parts despite offering an identical setup on new machines. Eventually, I dragged out of him that the latest BIOS is A06. Looking forward to the feedback form on that..

I am looking for some help in this matter, as I would like to use the mSATA as the boot and application  drive. Free-ing the two 2.5" slots for 750GB Spindle drives.

Thanks

Chris

Hi

I have checked and I can confirm that the copper strips appear to be misaligned on the mSATA  connector on the M6700 mother board. Hence my start-up problem.

Will demand new mother board

Alternatively, does any one know how to configure to wwan to act as a msata?

Thanks

Chris