M6500 + Intel 310 mSATA: SSD not recognized by BIOS

Hi,

I just installed the 80GB version of Intel's mSATA SSD into the FCM slot*, set up a RAID for my 1st and 2nd HDD in the BIOS, created a RAID0 in Intel's storage manager, rebooted and hoped the new SSD to show up somewhere in the BIOS.

Unfortunately I can't find it. I thought I should find it in /General/System Information/Device Information but I don't.
Can anybody please tell me what is wrong here?

I can think of two things:
1. Either the SSD or my FCM slot is broken.
2. The SSD isn't recognized by my ancient BIOS. Unfortunately upgrading the BIOS means to jump through some ugly hoops in my case so I'd like to avoid it unless it's absolutely necessary.
Am I missing a third point?

*) Yes I was grounded, and the rest of my M6500 works just fine.

 

Are you sure it works with a mSata device in your laptop?
Afaik, only certain netbooks usually have the right connectors/circuits connected for the mSata to work?

 

No, the Precisions have an I/O controller attached to their miniPCIe slots that allow SSDs to be utilized. It might be a whitelist problem in the BIOS.

 

Ok, I managed to create* a FreeDOS USB key from which I could run a BIOS update. I'm on A06 now, the SSD is detected properly by the BIOS and I'm already posting from Debian Squeeze installed on the SSD.
Some things I found out about running an OS from the SSD:
1. I read in the neverending M6500 thread that one needs to set the two internal HDDs to RAID mode when installing an mSATA SSD. This is not true. I did this but ran into other problems, so I went back to AHCI and everything works fine. Having two internal HDDs in AHCI mode, the mSATA SSD, a 3rd HDD in the optical bay and a 4rth one connected via eSATA is no problem (plus a 5th HDD via firewire, a 6th via USB and an expresscard-SSD (USB interface)).
2. When both HDDs are in RAID mode the BIOS doesn't offer the mSATA SSD as a boot device. With AHCI it does.
3. When in RAID grub-install fails when trying to install it on one of the RAID HDDs or the RAID volume. (Forgive me if I'm playing captain obvious, I have no experience with RAIDs in laptops.)
4. Since I have the SSD installed I get some strange error messages during boot that seem to be related to my Broadcom WLAN module. I don't use WLAN with my M6500 so I can't tell if the WLAN has problems now. Maybe I'll investigate that later.


*) Well, "creating" is a bit exaggerated. I just downloaded a USB compatible image from [1], wrote it to a USB key and added the DOS BIOS update executable.

[1] FreeDOS 1.0 USB Boot Image

 

Hm, maybe the 2 internal HDDs in RAID restriction only happens for windows. No clue, though. Maybe give havoctex a PM about your findings, since he was the one that brought up the internal HDDs in RAID in the first place?

 

You might be right and I'm certainly no Windows expert.
However, as far as I can see the mSATA SSD is recognized as a normal SATA drive by Debian, no matter in which mode the HDDs are. So I guess any Windows that comes with appropriate SATA drivers (Win7, maybe even Vista with some SP) should be able to detect it.
I'm not sure how setting the HDDs to RAID might make Windows work with the SSD. It definitely makes a difference but at least under Linux RAID mode seems to decrease the compatibility by reducing the boot options instead of increasing it. I don't want to say this must be the same under Windows, but I see no reason why both OSes should behave so differently.

Last time we had contact I challenged some of his statements about the M6500 in a way that might be considered impolite. No idea if he'd listen.
Maybe what he said about the FCM slot and RAID mode was valid for an earlier BIOS version than A06.

 

Oh, right, that argument. I'd only half remembered that. Hm. I wonder if the FCM slot you're talking about is the same slot as the mini-SSD slot that we usually talk about, or if it's an entirely different slot. From my original understanding, the limitation was that if you had a mini-SSD mounted in the mini-SSD slot, you had to have the 2 regular 2.5" drives in RAID, and the suspicion was that maybe the BIOS only "accepted" 3 total internal "drives" in the system (ODD, 1x 2.5", 1x 2.5", or ODD, 2x 2.5", mini-SSD). Also, of course, prior to the m310s, the only mini-SSD available for the slot in the M6500/M4500 was the Samsung one, which was somewhat difficult to acquire...

 

I don't know which other slot this should be.
In the M6500 thread Gophn posted some photos [1] and the FCM slot is the only option I see.

That's what I remember too, but that might have been valid only for previous BIOS versions.

True. But can the SSD influence the BIOS behavior? I mean, both are mSATA, otherwise they wouldn't work.


[1] http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ew-m6500-discussion-thread-6-print.html?pp=30
(the 30-post printable version is the only one where I remembered how to find this post)

 

Hm, ok, looking at the manual, it seems that the FCM slot is the "right" slot. And it's true, they may have "fixed" the issue for later BIOS versions. Hm... oh, I think I see where the original "issue" may have come about... and I wonder if you'd be willing to check on your machine sometime when you the chance. I'm looking at the Dell manual here, under System Setup Options, notice how in the General/System Information/Device Information, they only list Primary Hard drive, Secondary Hard drive, Fixed Bay Device, System eSATA device, and Dock eSATA device? I guess the idea was that the mini-SSD wouldn't show up in BIOS unless the other 2 drives were "compressed" into a single drive, and then it would occupy the "slot" on the other drive. Since you have your drives running separately, do you see the mini-SSD showing up anywhere in that BIOS menu, as in is there now a new entry for it apart from the previously mentioned ones (I know you mentioned you couldn't find it initially)?

 

With BIOS A06 I have an additional entry (I will have to look up the name) for the mSATA SSD in the Device Information list that wasn't there in BIOS A00.
This entry is there no matter if the HDDs are in RAID or in ACHI mode.

I also have an additional entry in the Boot Sequence menu for the SSD, but only if the HDDs are not in RAID.