SSD not always recognised in BIOS

Hi all,

I bought a laptop from Scan/3XS (a rebranded Clevo) about a month ago.

It has a Crucial 256GB SSD on SATA port 5, and a Hitachi 1TB HDD on SATA port 1.

The boot order is set to the SSD first, as that is where the OS is installed (and nothing second - the SSD is the only thing in the boot order).

Initally, everything was fine. However, now, the laptop won't always recognise the SSD when it detects the devices on SATA ports - it will only recognise the HDD (and therefore won't boot).

It then tells me to restart or insert appropriate boot media.

If I restart a couple of times it will eventually recognise the SSD in port 5, not just the HDD and CD/DVD in ports 1 and 3.

Anyone have any ideas what's causing this? Loose connection maybe? Or something else?

How do I fix it? Will I ruin my warranty by opening the case? I don't want to have to go through the hassle of returning it to Scan if I can avoid it...

Thanks!

 

Check that you have the latest firmware for both the SSD and your notebook.

What O/S are you running? Win8.1 may need the proper Intel RST driver installed if the computer is setup for secure boot.

 

It's Win 8.1.

The SSD is a Crucial M550, so there's no firmware update available yet. How do I check firmware and the Intel RST driver? And I'm not sure whether it's set up for secure boot or not.

I don't understand why it's intermittent though... if the firmware/driver wasn't right, wouldn't it simply not work at all?

 

Just a thought and it may be wrong: I recall reading about a similar problem in some other notebook where the fix was to set the AHCI mode to Manual instead of Automatic.

A possible cause that the SSD isn't properly awake when the BIOS does the initial hardware check.

As for looking inside and possible warranty issues: Break no seals and do no damage then the supplier will be none the wiser.

John

 

I don't have the option to set the AHCI mode to Manual - it's either AHCI or RAID.

I think you're right... the first thing the BIOS does is check for SATA devices, and seems to be too quick sometimes. I find it odd that it finds the HDD though!

Maybe I should have the SSD on port 1 and the HDD in port 5, so I'll switch the cables and make sure they're seated properly.

If that doesn't fix it, what else can I try? Someone else mentioned laptop firmware? I wouldn't mind updating if there's a later version available - just not sure how to do it.

 

You might be able to get updated firmware (BIOS) direct from Clevo. However, if the cable / drive location swap doesn't fix the problem then I would restore things to as-supplied and pass the headache to Scan support. They might then point you to the right BIOS update if one exists. If not, they can pass the problem to Clevo.

It may be a generic issue with the Crucial SSD although I don't see reports of other similar problems.

John

PS: I've just noticed this which is a similar problem.

 

Hopefully swapping ports works. Please let us know your resolution if any. I personally would see if you could exchange the drive for another new one. It could be a bad connection, power issue, etc.

I just bought two MX100's for my kids' laptops, only installed one so far and so good, but these kinds of things are not reassuring.