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Go to Solutionm15 R6, SSD compatibility issue
Hi folks,
Just got my m15 R6 and it has been great! One little problem with it was SSD compatibility. From some reviews I had the idea at least one of the SSD slots support PCIE 4.0. Though when I tried to install a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB, the SSD won't run at slot 1 at all, and run only at PCIE 3.0 at slot 2.
More details:
Laptop: Alienware m15 R6, 11400H + RTX3060 version
SSD: Samsung 980 PRO 2TB, can be recognized in BIOS. When installed in slot 1, constant read/write timeout. When installed in slot2, run only at PCIE 3.0 protocol.
Other SSD like the original 2230 Hynix 250GB or my Samsung 980 1TB worked find in slot 1.
Thanks!
4417
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Posted February 22nd, 2022 14:00
Here are screenshots of samsung magician showing the differences in the speed. If you move the SSD to the other slot you will have the gen 4 speeds you want.
1174
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Posted January 14th, 2023 16:00
TLDR - HWInfo64 shows clearly M15 R6 Slot 1 is PCIe Gen 4 at 16 GT/s & 75W and Slot 2 is PCIe Gen 3 at 8GT/s & 25W.
Hi again - in addition to my previous comment I was curious about Slot 1 and Slot 2 PCIe performance - so I investigated with HWInfo64. I think Dell's documentation isn't clear at all. The SSD sizes and speeds Dell shows in its documentation are just the SSD options that may be installed by Dell, rather than slot capabilities.The HM570 chipset is indeed PCIe Gen 3, as described in the M15 R6 Dell Manual Page 10/11 and Intel's HM570 webpage. HOWEVER, other HM570 motherboards do have ONE PCIe Gen 4 SSD slot somehow e.g. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-tiger-lake-cpu-motherboard
I therefore used HWInfo64 to look at my girlfriend's M15 R6 and that clearly showed Slot 1 is PCIe Gen 4 and Slot 2 is PCIe Gen 3 - with Slot 1 being twice as fast as Slot 2. You can see the results in the big image below. To view the image clearly, you may have to click on it, then right-click "open image in new tab".
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Posted September 19th, 2021 04:00
https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/alienware/alienware-m15-r6
it says here that your Laptop is certified to work with their 2Tb PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2’s so the issue I think is because it wasn’t properly formatted. Run some tests using the ePSA Tests while it’s plugged into slot one by doing a write test and read. Then I recommend reformatting it via USB with a fresh install of windows and doing a full format. You could also switch from NTFS to another file system, format and then switch back to ntfs as that sometimes helps.
But make sure that if the test cannot run in slot one that indicates a motherboard hardware issue which you need to use the warranty on the laptop to fix it.
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
5316
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Posted September 19th, 2021 11:00
Thanks for the suggestion! I followed your suggestion and here's the result:
- Disk self-test in Dell's BIOS diagnosis passed
- Boot from a USB Windows installer, disk started to show problem. Existing partitions on disk can be recognized at first, though deleting any existing partition will fail with a timeout error. After a while the disk disappeared.
- Inserted on slot 2, fully reformatted and installed Windows, moved again back to slot 1, Windows would failed to boot and have blue screen, or even show bios error disk not installed.
Really weird...
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Posted September 20th, 2021 07:00
Im seriously thinking its a slot issue or something wrong with the SSD but the tests clearly show its fine???
Ok so when you reformat it and it doesent work in the first slot, does it mess it up so it doesent boot on the second one?
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
5285
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Posted September 20th, 2021 13:00
Haha, yeah that's the weirdest part, the tests passed. Putting the SSD back to slot 2 it will work fine (at PCIE 3.0).
It looks to me more like a problem with the slot, as the SSD also worked fully at PCIE 4.0 speed on my desktop with a B550 motherboard. It's just not compatible between this particular slot and SSD. I don't have any other PCIE 4.0 SSD at hand, but will report back if I had the chance to try other models out.
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Posted September 20th, 2021 14:00
Since it’s a close to recent laptop you brought you still have the one year warranty so return it and ask for a replacement model. Preferably not a faulty one lol.
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
4709
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Posted November 18th, 2021 09:00
The laptop can run a additional 2Tb Gen 4 SSD.
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
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4278
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Posted February 22nd, 2022 12:00
Hi @GABSTER24 @halimacc @havefun8 @CorgyX @JusFaulk !
This laptop supports NVMe GEN 4 on the first slot while the second slot is GEN 3. Both go up to 32Gbps confirmed by @DELL-Chris M.
1st Slot = GEN 4, Max Speed 32Gbps, Width X4, Max Storage Size 2TB
2nd slot = GEN 3, Max Speed 32Gbps, Width X4, Max Storage Size 1TB
This is shown in the online m15 R6 Setup and Specifications PDF. It clearly denotes one slot is Gen 3 and one slot is Gen 4 =
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*
Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!