CF-54 Doesn't see new m.2 256GB 950 pro

Hi!

It's installed and getting power (it gets hot to the touch when system is powered up) but it doesn't actually show up.

Is it possible to make this a bootable drive? Or is this something that can't be done? I heard you can't see it in the BIOS until windows is installed and the drivers are loaded. This seems crazy to me, what's the point of an ultra-fast nonremovable drive if you can't actually boot your OS off it?

It's a cf-54ax001cm I got off ebay brand new for $999 with no OS or paperwork, just the original packaging sans paperwork and discs. I'm on BIOS v1.00L16 with EC V1.00L12.

I ripped out the 4GB RAM module and tossed in a 16GB hyper-X kit, and also ripped out the 1TB HDD and dropped in a 512GB 850 Pro. I have a HDD caddy on the way for the 2TB HDD I ordered, and I'll throw that into the dvd slot.

This thing is a beast but I was hoping that new funky ssd would let me boot. Is that not the case?

 

How do you connect this drive?
Your main drive is 512GB 850 Pro (2.5", correct?).
Second HDD caddy for DVD slot - maybe. Panasonic claims Flexible configuration area* (DVD or 2nd battery or Smartcard reader or PC card).
Is there an additional M2 slot for the third drive (950 Pro m.2)?

 

Set the boot order in the BIOS.

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/computer/toughbook54/toughbook-54_oi.pdf

 

The HDD Caddy is an addon item and not installed yet. The CF-54 has 2 drives available, an M.2 (for the 950, inside the case under the panel) and the normal side-loaded slot for a HDD or SSD.

It isn't IN the bios to select and that I read that you can't see it in the BIOS until all the intel software is installed and the UEFI Bios is actively communication with the OS?

 

Ok then.

Good luck with your problems

 

let me be more specific.

it's connected and totally invisible to the bios, however it is getting power because it's warm to the touch 3 seconds after power on
It also doesn't show up in windows 10 x64 after all updates are installed and the UEFI bios is linked to the OS.
I'm looking for someone who added an M.2 drive to the CF-54 themselves and already went through the troubleshooting to get it to work.

 

I could tell you exactly what is wrong. Someone else had the same problem 2 weeks ago. But I offer free support to people that appreciate it.

I give responses to solve problems in a specific order for specific reasons. It is called a troubleshooting flow chart.
I am sorry that chose to feel offended. Since you know so much and are obviously perfect, you must not really need anybody's help.

Either you want help and appreciate any of MY time that I GIVE you for FREE or you can be a smart alec. You chose the latter.

BTW, You may want to call Heartlands and verify that the CF 54 is not stolen. It sounds very suspicious. Brand new in the box and missing all of the paperwork. Sold for 1/2 price of the true value. Those are warning signs to me.

Good Luck
Call Panasonic.
855-PSC-TECH (772-8324)
Monday - Sunday
24 hours

 

You need Intel Smart Response to change those settings
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/22501/eng/Intel SRT Enterprise Deployment Guide Rev 2.0.pdf
But I'm not sure there is a way to use m.2 SSD as your primary drive. It's there for caching purposes. You have to try Intel's software.
But if that m.2 SSD works only for caching you don't need it at all in your config. Your 850 Pro is fast enough and doesn't need additional cache.
So the most simple setup is to pull out 850 Pro, install your old HDD (if you really need it's space), install 950 Pro as Intel Smart Response cache.
But it's up to you
My choice is 1 SSD only. Also it's a question of battery life and noise.

P.S. Are you sure it's possible to install HDD into DVD slot? I don't see it in CF-54 specs.

 

The guy to ask about this might be @Toyo
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/life-with-the-54-after-a-few-months.786109/#post-10169336

 

It's not that I don't need help, it's that I specifically stated the drive doesn't show up in the BIOS so your advice in your first post was not useful. I'm also calling shenanigans on you knowing how to fix it, because if you did you would have offered that right out of the gate instead of telling me to select it in the BIOS

Not at all true, I said your information was being not helpful, that's it. You copped the attitude right out of the gate, which isn't my fault or my problem.

It came from a toughbook authorized dealer, it had 0 hours on it when I fired it up, and I already fired an email with the serial number to tech support yesterday. If it's stolen vs just being a laptop with no warranty, OS or paperwork, I get it for free because I can paypal backcharge on the ebay seller and that guy can deal with panasonic for selling stolen goods.

Yes. http://hddcaddy.com/en/panasonic-hdd-caddy/1505-panasonic-toughbook-cf-54-hdd-caddy.html You remove the connector from the dvd drive and install it on the hdd caddy to make the connection, the OS does the rest.

I'll give him a shot. Thanks.

 

I have used this caddy to add a second hard drive to my CF-53 and it won't boot from it unless the main hard drive is removed. There was no way I could get it to work as the first boot drive but perhaps the CF-54 is different.

 

Cool. It's strange there is no info in specs.

It was not the task to boot from that dvd caddy drive. So I think it's ok

 

It's not an official panasonic product nor is it endorsed for use. It's a custom item - but at the end of the day you're just connecting a device to a SATA port on a motherboard. Brand, laptop/desktop/etc are irrelevant because the firmware tells the BIOS what it is, the BIOS doesn't care what port it reports in on as long as it can read it.

You got it. This is just for storage.

 

You may also be running into an issues related to the type of M.2 SSD your using.
Not all M2 slots support the PCIe NVME that the 950 PRO uses. This could be a case of you need the 850 EVO drive which is AHCI SATA3 instead of the PCIe NVME 950 PRO.

 

methinks he is onto something .

i recall reading an article about ssd use and what does work ... the drives were tried on "normally available" ports .
i have used the evo drive on many different factory built and roll-yer-own comps ... works nicely .

 

My Lenovo Y700-15ACZ has the M.2 slot that is physically capable to accepting the samsung 950, but electrically is not compatible because my slot is SATA ACHI only and does not support PCIe NVME.....knowing Panasonic and their slowing down of SATA speeds I could see them not allowing for the M.2 ssd slots to connect to the PCIe bus and limit them to only SATA.

When this is the case, the computer will not see the drive at all.

 

Brand, laptop/desktop/etc are irrelevant....when it comes to Panasonic it is relevant. If they don't want you to install a certain hardware you can't. My guess they write this into the BIOS. We have found this out over the years of trying other cards/hardware in other Toughbook models. I think Shawn will tell you this. He has lost a lot of hair trying .

 

Blair,
I could tell the original poster his exact problem AND the solution.
But some of his posts were rude enough to need to be removed by a moderator. That is why my earlier posts seem off the wall. I was responding to his now deleted posts.
My knowledge and my experience is valuable.

 

I don't know how your BIOS setup looks, but maybe this solution is also suitable for your CF-54
https://tinkertry.com/how-to-boot-win10-from-samsung-950-pro-nvme-on-superserver
Also this article mentions you may have further problems with 950 Pro overheating.

 

Shawn...we do appreciate all that you do here. I must admit somethings we would be still figuring out if it was not for you. I know I would .

 

It's an m.2 sized slot and the 950 fits and gets warm...something else is up.

Again the ahci sata 3 doesnt fit, this the m.2 has 1 divider tab, the ahci has 2.

That would really, really suck but would not surprise me at all.

That's depressing, but not surprising. I can't complain with the price I got the laptop for, with 16GB of ram every single prefetch, swapfile, superfetch, indexing etc is off and it flies.

I call shenanigans. One deleted post, not multiple, and I'm sorry I didn't apologize because you didn't read my enire OP. I'm still not apologizing for you blowing your lid.

 

The price you paid is a deal for sure. Did you read the link i posted from Toyo? A lot of good points in the thread.

 

a further expansion ...
my comment about the evo drive was meant to be in reference to the "normal" sata ports ... and there are some of these types of SSDs that simply will not work with the available sata ports ; they will plug in and nothing comes of it . there have been references to this in these forums and elsewhere ... i never researched the *exacts* as to the why's and how come's .
i agree that things can get a little harrier when using something like the M2 slot ... and one would expect them to be in a certain way ...
the garden variety sata slot is meant for "joe allthumbs" to be able to plug *something* into (not to be confused with usb) and not crater the MB .

over the years , i have seen much equipment that was either/and/or physically and electrically/tronically differentiated in order to help keep things straightened out and minimize damage to the equipment and/or personnel .
(the aforementioned double key-slot is a good example of this)

however , many years ago , there were not near as many individuals digging into this type of equipment and the vast amount of the "service work" was done by "factory trained and authorized" individuals ... not so anymore .
and this is why these type of problems rear their ugly heads .

 

I had actually read every thread with CF-54 in the title before posting my question, as well as reading other websites (there's almost nothing on the web about the 54, sadly) and I sent him a PM after you recommended reaching out. Haven't heard back but I think when I sent it his last login was 2 weeks prior.

Yeah, Magnuson-Moss and the rise of youtube how-to videos really changed the playing field when it comes to working on PC's and Laptops (as well as cars and other stuff). My first computer build of my own was back in 1999 and it was a supermicro board with a pair of slotted p3 xeon processors and like a 2gb hdd or something and 64mb of ram. What a pain in the butt. My current rigs in the house include a media server with 60tb of storage, 32gb or ram and an overclocked 3930k, and an ivy bridge 3770k overclocked with two 780ti 3g in SLI with 3 1080p monitors and 4 SSD's. Now that the 1080 cards are coming out I'm tempted to build another rig and give the 780 tower to the wife.

What used to take weeks of research and manual-reading now takes 12 minutes of google searches and common sense.

 

Boy does that take me back in time....power house

 

heh ...
i still have a *bigfoot* drive buried in the bone-pile ... i don't think it is much over a gig .
there are a couple of really old drives that weigh about 5 pounds and are good for about 40K .

 

So, @Toyo hasn't been on since before my original post, which kinda sucks. Does anyone else have a CF-54 they have opened up?

 

I replied to your PM. After reading this post I understand more of what you dealing with. My money is on the fact that Panasonic has burned into the BIOS limitations. Even though it's not a "supported" option you are trying to do, I would still call the Toughbook support or Heartland and see what they have to say. It's a crap shoot from my experience of who you get on the line in regards to helping you. I have talked to a few guys in support to where it was like pulling teeth to get some info. While others I had were so helpful beyond with what they provided.
I make a few trips out to CO, Utah and AZ twice a year. My most recent was last month. Right before I left I had been talking to Heartland about some questions I had. Towards the end of our convo he asked how the weather was in GA. Long story short, we got onto the topic of me going out west and the weather. He asked me what route I usually take and I explained I like taking i-70 across into CO and that I usually stop for the night in Olathe or Overland Park. He told me to give him a shout when I came thru O.P and that if I wanted to I could stop by his office and he would show me around. I had gotten into OP very late and left very early. I can kick myself for not taking him up on his offer. It would be a great 'In' with someone at Heartland. I guess my point is this. Talk to them in a down to earth, respectful way and they will take the extra effort in helping.
In addition, the guys on this forum are bar none the most helpful and generally nice guys. What I like, compared to other forums is the mature type members here.

 

@Toyo

PCB of an M.2 module provides a 75-position edge connector; depending on the type of module, certain pin positions are removed to present one or more keying notches. Host-side M.2 connectors (sockets) may populate one or more mating key positions, determining the type of modules accepted by the host; as of April 2014, host-side connectors are available with only one mating key position populated (either B or M). Furthermore, M.2 sockets keyed to support SATA or two PCI Express lanes (PCIe ×2) are referred to as "socket 2 configuration" or "socket 2", while the sockets keyed for four PCI Express lanes (PCIe ×4) are referred to as "socket 3 configuration" or "socket 3".

For example, M.2 modules with two notches in B and M positions use up to two PCI Express lanes and provide broader compatibility at the same time, while the M.2 modules with only one notch in the M position use up to four PCI Express lanes; both examples also support SATA storage devices. Similar keying applies to M.2 modules that utilize provided USB 3.0 connectivity

This article explains it all very well

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/ ... -next-ssd/

All current keys can give cards access to two PCI Express lanes, but otherwise interface compatibility is all over the place—so far, it's been pretty easy to guess what kind of peripheral you're dealing with based on the key it uses. Wi-Fi and WWAN cards tend to use keys A and/or E, since they only need the PCI Express or USB 2.0 buses and only need 30mm in length to fit all their key components. SATA SSDs and SSDs that use two PCI Express lanes tend to use keys B and M to maximize compatibility, since both connectors can deliver both SATA III and two PCIe lanes. The very fastest SSDs tend to be M-keyed since it's the only one that delivers four PCIe lanes.

The key system isn't always foolproof—our A- and E-keyed Wi-Fi module will physically fit into the B-keyed SSD slot even though the computer won't recognize it there. M.2 is certainly more confusing than the mPCIe and mSATA specs, but in the end it's more flexible. Components can access many different buses through one small internal connector, and you've got a lot of different physical card sizes to play with instead of being tied to either a "full-height" or "half-height" card.

 

Dude, you are too freaking brilliant for my presence!

 

The CF54 2nd drive port is SATA ONLY on a M.2 connector. It is not a full PCIe port. This is the same pattern Panasonic has used with the WWAN slots. They are PCIe slots but not fully enabled. BIOS modifications or any software hack will not work.

This will work. It has been tested by a member.
It has an SATA interface on a M.2 connector
http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-N5E500BW

These will NEVER work. The hardware does not support it.
It has a PCIe interface on a M.2 connector
http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-V5P512BW