From HP: Z-Book Studio not compatible with non-HP SSDs/accessories

After several weeks and three repair attempts, I was just informed by HP ZBook specialists (double-checked by their escalation specialists) that the ZBook Studio is not designed or tested for use with non-HP (non-certified) SSDs or other non-certified accessories.

In my case, I had installed a Samsung 950 Pro M.2 NVMe in my ZBook Studio (which SSD is basically the retail version of HP's Samsung-built Z-Drive). But the TPM chip on my laptop's motherboard died, so HP had to replace the motherboard.

When they tried to turn on the repaired machine (with the new motherboard), it wouldn't boot (not even into BIOS). So they replaced the new motherboard--but the problem remained.

After some investigation, HP has determined that the NVMe M.2 slots on newer ZBook Studio motherboards are not designed or tested to work with any standards-compliant SSDs other than HP's Z-Drives, and that the ZBook Studio is, as the ZBook Tech said, "a closed system." Some drives may work, but HP won't guarantee compatibility with the NVMe M.2 standard. The specialist said that he has seen this issue before.

So unfortunately now I have a repaired laptop which I cannot use and cannot return. I asked for the case to be escalated, and was told to expect a call next year (yes, seriously...HP has sent their customer relations people home for the next two weeks). I may have to buy a Z-Drive to replace my pricey 950 Pro because HP laptop has effectively been downgraded through repair with no recourse.

Anyway, word to the wise: if and when you buy a Z-Book Studio, be sure to get it with the memory and drives you're going to need--because even if your third party memory/drives work today, HP could break that compatibility in the future.

I'm really bummed. This machine had so much promise.

Billy

 

An interesting twist...

I was able to get the Samsung 950 Pro drive working, at least temporarily, in my ZBook Studio. It appears that the initial boot sequence was locking up when it detected the drive. I'm not entirely sure which sequence I tried got the machine to skip the initial boot sequence, but I was subsequently able to insert the drive and it works great.

I installed the Samsung NVMe drivers, secure erased the drive, and then reformatted it using GPT and NTFS.

So now I have a Samsung 950 Pro running as the secondary drive (D drive) in my ZBook Studio. A BIOS update could totally break this (or fix the issue permanently)--but it appears that outside the boot glitch it might be totally possible to use third-party SSDs in the Zbook Studio.

 

I had similar trouble getting a SATA M.2 SSD (Crucial MX300) working in the Zbook Studio. While it would boot just fine and detected the drive, any data getting written to the drive would be corrupted and the installation would eventually become unbootable. I finally traced the problem to the SSD firmware - once it was updated to the latest one available from Crucial. Earlier this year I had also configured a client machine with a 512GB M.2 Crucial MX200. That drive worked perfectly out of the box. It had already been released for a year or so, so maybe it came with any needed firmware fixes straight from the factory.

I think there was an issue with using a SM951 NVMe alongside a 950 Pro. The drives were similar enough that it would try to use the same driver for both if you loaded the 950 Pro's driver. However, the SM951 would have big performance issues unless it was using the stock NVMe driver included with Windows.

 

I can't figure out how to PM you, could you please PM me? I have a G3 that I have been fighting with Tech support for 2 months now and never get any help. I was hoping you may have answers to my crucial SSD questions, raid, and other stuff. Pretty please with sprinkles, cherries M&M's and Cool Whhip on top?