Dell XPS 15 (9550): Hard Drive not installed? (AHCI)

Just got my XPS 15, and overall extremely happy. The screen especially is absolutely stunning! I have one problem though.

I did a clean install of Windows 10 after switching to ACHI mode. After the installation completed I installed the Samsung NVMe drivers along with other drivers, which I got from the DELL website. Everything seems to work fine, however, only when I reboot, I get the error that no harddrive (SSD) is found. Any ideas on what I did wrong?

Some people said that this is normal behaviour for the PM951 SSD, but I find it hard to believe. There should be a way to recognize the disk when rebooting. I read multiple things about this occurence but unfortunately I can't find the posts anymore. Instructions on how to proceed would be highly appreciated!

Pictures of BIOS settings: http://imgur.com/a/fQ2tJ

Model: 512GB SSD/16GB RAM/i7/4K

 

It's unrelated to the AHCI setting.

Go further up in the BIOS, and show me Boot Sequence.
Go further down in the BIOS, and show me Secure Boot settings.

One thing to try is to hit F12 during the boot sequence, to try and launch a one-time boot menu, and try to force it to boot off of your SSD.

Additionally, do you have any other drives installed on that machine, like a 2.5" drive in the SATA bay?

 

Interesting...I was sure I read more people had this issue after switching to AHCI. Anyway, thank you for your reply!

This is an image of the secure boot settings: http://imgur.com/wEIxb8F
And this one is for the boot sequence: http://i.imgur.com/2Oluo8h.jpg

I'm not sure what you mean by forcing the boot. The computer boots normally when powered down. It only gives the harddrive not installed error when doing a restart from within Windows. Should I still try F12 after a restart?

I do not have any other drives installed.

 

Just use the Intell driver it works great.

 

I see that in my Device Manager. Do you mean I need to remove the Samsung NVMe Driver I installed?

 

Yes if you still have the samsung driver installed remove it.. and just use the intel Driver its very stable.

The Samsung NVMe driver for the 950Pro changes some boot conditions that stock NVMe SSD cant understand.

 

The problem is Secure Boot. Turn that off, set your M.2 SSD as the primary boot device, and it should work.

 

I tried this first, and now I can't get it to boot at al .

If I get it to boot, I will try it with secure boot turned off. But how do I set the SSD as primary boot device?

EDIT: It doesn't matter if I choose RAID/AHCI or Secure Boot On/Off, it won't boot. I get a BOOT_DEVICE_INACCESSIBLE blue screen. :'(

 

Another question... when you did a Windows re-install, did you have another drive in the system, like a 2.5" SATA drive?

 

Nope, not at any moment in time did I have another drive in the system. I also still can't get it to boot.

On another note, I just called Dell and asked for a return and refund, which has been honored. Unless I call to cancel on Monday, UPS will pick it up op Tuesday.

The Dell technicians I spoke over the phone, while friendly, could only recommend reinstalling Windows AGAIN, or picking it up for a repair. I didn't want to wait another two weeks for the repair and seeing the complaints about Dell's repairs here on the forum, that is not a viable option for me.

I am now attempting to reinstall windows again. I'm trying if I can somehow manage to get everything working, because I really want to keep it. But this product was clearly not ready for release. Shipping delays, shortage on parts, software and BIOS bugs and major QC issues are a clear indication of this.

Extremely sad to have to return it but, would be even worse if I was out 2000 euro's for a non-working machine.

 

The 9550 introduces so many new techs/advances (all of which I want) - it's really a great machine.

But, that also means right now it's in early adopter / bleeding edge stage. Usually, I wait 3-6 months after a tech product is out before purchasing (to let issues get worked out), but I really wanted the form factor and have the time/patience right now to work through and wait for problems to be resolved.

That said, I can totally understand wanting a laptop that's past the bleeding edge stage.

 

I ran into this problem when dealing with a UEFI machine with Secure Boot.

Try this:
1) Go into BIOS --> Secure Boot --> Secure Boot Enable. Set Secure Boot = Disabled.
2) In BIOS --> General --> Boot Sequence --> Boot List Option = Legacy
3) Set Boot Sequence so that MiniCard SSD is on top (as the first boot item).

Try booting your machine from there

If that doesn't work, then re-install Windows with those settings. You need to run through a Windows install with those settings, so that Windows can write the appropriate bootloader information to the correct location on the drive.

One more note... I'm assuming you're doing this, but it's worth mentioning anyway. When you do a clean Windows re-install, be sure to delete all drive partitions (from within Windows Setup), and choose to install Windows onto that blank unpartitioned space on your SSD. Windows Setup should correctly partition that drive, and put the bootloader info where it needs to go.

 

TriC, which driver/version are you running? I have the 14.6.0.1029 version from Intel installed and experience random BSODs with PM951 in AHCI:



Compatible versions on my machine:

 

I agree, that's why I'm trying my best to resolve the issues I am having. For me, the only thing that comes close to this machine is probably a MacBook Pro. And while I have nothing against OSX, I just prefer Windows.

Before you posted this, I already reinstalled Windows using one of the options in advanced start up options (or whatever it's called). I checked the BIOS, and secure boot is off and AHCI is on. I did not change the boot sequence though. Should I still do this? It's worth noting that when restarting the XPS now, it DOES normally reboot. No idea why though. I didn't have to install any drivers (presumabely because of how I did the reinstallation this time) and I just let Windows update run. I restarted afterwards and it just worked?

I also deleted all the partitions on my first clean install.

 

The problem was your boot options.

You needed to have Secure Boot = Off, Legacy Boot = On, and then install Windows from that. It's a pain in the rear.

 

I see. So depending on how the XPS performs this weekend, I might not have to return it. Do I need to reinstall Windows again, this time after using Legacy boot? Because, like I said, it's still on the standard settings.

 

If it boots reliably as-is, then just leave it alone.

Honestly, returning the laptop won't help one bit. The problem isn't a hardware defect... it is a problem with the way that you have your settings configured between the BIOS, and how you are installing Windows.

 

I wouldn't return it for a repair, but for a refund..so that would help me . Anyway, I will leave the settings now. If it makes it through this weekend without issues, I will keep it.

Thank you very much for your help, I really appreciate it! I will report back if I encounter anything strange.

 

Yup. If it works reliably, then count your blessings.

This is one of those cases where if it works for some unknown reason, leave it alone! Don't try to figure out why, or replicate it! You rarely need to re-install Windows; so just count your blessings, and start downloading all those Steam games to run on your 960M.

 

I'm using 1088 driver!! no issues!! did a clean install of windows with AHCI setup in the bios before install windows..

 

I've counted them quite a few times...I restarted like 6 times in a row to be sure it wouldn't give the same error .

Hopefully everything stays good now! When everything clicks, this really is a great machine. I will put some small games on here for sure, but for the real deal I also have a desktop gaming rig! Currently contemplating if Star Wars Battlefront is worth it, seeing how many people complain about the amount of content in it.

 

Just to follow up: I gave AHCI a try again with the PM951. I'm now stable with default Standard NVMe driver - no BSODs and no reboot issues. Original system (not a clean install) with all latest Dell updates. Only system software I got elsewhere was Intel RST (I left it installed). Best I can figure is a Windows Update resolved the issue.

 

After the reinstall, I left everything as is as well. I am tempted to try the Samsung 950 Pro's NVMe drivers again, though. On another note, do you think it's worth it to upgrade to the 950 pro? And is it stable with it's own drivers?

 

I did a fresh install on my 950 pro and used the samsung NVMe driver. I haven't had any issues.

 

Someone on Youtube appears to successfully swaped out the stock M.2 with a Samsung NVME. Watch here:

I am also trying to figure out how to set up bios to swap out the 2.5 HDD with a 2.5 SSD (I have a 2.5 SSD in an older laptop that I will be using). The stock 1TB HDD is just mediocre. I would be happy with machine if I could just swap out the HDD with a SSD, but I too ran into the same thing and had to replace the entire laptop. I would have to drop another $600 for a 512GB M.2 SSD, i76700HQ, and larger battery. HAS SOMEONE Successfully done this? Either swap out the 2.5 HDD with a 2.5 SSD? or install a bootablle M.2 SSD with a separate 2.5 SSD for storage? THANK!!!!! I FELL YOUR PAIN BROTHER!!!