Thanks for replying. So, I actually checked again to make sure the SSD is installed correctly within the socket and it is. As it did not work I went ahead and removed it after transferring my data... I have heard that in past there was a firmware which destroyed the board so just incase, plus it wasn't reliable. I am going to look at the link you shared. Do you know if crucial SSD's work? and if so which particular model is the most reliable and good. I still haven't eliminated the thought that the motherboard my need replacement if the slot came damaged stock. Please, let me know your thoughts on this and if I should further debug using different methods

Hi @Anbu_Killx the Crucial System Advisor database is a good source of upgrade information. Most of the SSD reviews place the Samsung SSD as their best gaming drive.  

The 2TB Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD and the 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD are both highly recommended for Alienware m15 R7 internal drives.  

The 2TB 980 PRO and 4TB 990 PRO both have parts on one side only and use nickel coating to help manage the controller's heat level and a heat spreader label to deliver effective thermal control of the NAND chip. The M.2 2280 SSD Thermal Shield is DP/N 26X1Y, Example: Amazon.com: Slot 1/Slot 2 M.2 2280 SSD Heatsink 26X1Y 026X1Y 29GT8 029GT8 for DELL Alienware M15 R5 R6 R7 / Dell G15 5510 5511 5515 5520 5521 5525 Gaming Laptop SSD Bracket.   

The CPUID HWMonitor will capture system heat sensor information, including drive temperatures. HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID.  

Please try to improve/debug the Windows operating system using my Windows PowerShell post in Alienware m17 R3. Screen flickering and occasionally going black whilst awake - Dell Community.  

Alienware m15 R7 with Base cover removed

M.2 2280 SSD Heatsink DP/N 26X1Y

@Anbu_Killx the 2TB 980 PRO and 4TB 990 PRO SSD format, shall have the modern GUID Partition Table (GPT), and enable the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). GPT is also required for SSD capacity larger than two Terabytes. Another advantage of GPT drives is that these can have more than four partitions on each drive.  

So I ordered a crucial p5, to see if its really the SSD that's causing the issue or the slot itself. If it works then I can return the 980 PRO, which is disappointing but optimum choice. I will try to debug more with the Samsung 980 PRO. Oh I did try fixing it using powershell DISM.exe commands, but that did not fix the issue.

I installed the crucial p5 plus, seems to be running fine so far. However, I need some more time to be definitive. I will keep everyone updated here, just incase someone is having same issues.

Crucial p5 works perfectly fine, I did not see any issues with it while testing. Partly, I do think its because the SSD supports backwards compatibility so, even works with gen3 which is awesome. Thanks for the help @crimsom 

Hi @Anbu_Killx thank you for sharing update. 

Curious about drive Read/Write speed in your Alienware m15 R7, Windows 11, Gen4.0 slots.  

Please install Samsung SSD Magician Download | TechSpot and in Drive Management, run Performance Benchmark.

My 2TB SSD 970 EVO Plus Gen3.0 NVMe | Samsung US is advertised to have Read/Write performance with speeds up to 3,500/3,300 MB/s. Samsung Magician says Sequential Read/Write 3269/3039 MB/s. Evidently running Performance Benchmark in Safe Mode, will give the advertised Read/Write speeds.  

17 R4, Windows 10, Samsung 970, slow - Dell Community 

So, here are results from running the performance benchmark. But keep in mind that I was outside and my laptop was low on battery when I ran it.. idk if that changes anything. Thank you though for the help.

Hi @Anbu_Killx thank you for sharing that Crucial P5 NVMe SSD is running at PCIe Gen 5 Sequential Read/Write speed.