Samsung Series 5 ExpressCache iSSD broken bios is waiting ultra slow boot

Hi,

After searching helf the night for a solution without any success I hope you can help me. Basicly i have the same problem as many others before. My iSSD alias ExpressCache is not showing up anymore. This causes the Bios to wait for it for around 6 minutes at every start of my Samsung Series 5 8GB 256SSD, before it starts Win10 and runs fast as normal:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...30-hangs-on-bios-screen-for-6-minutes.767042/

The user Dannemand refers to his answer in the "other thread". Wich thread is he talking about?

Does anyone has found a way to deactivate the iSSD or even to take it our? May be i can even cut some legs of the chip on the mainboard? Wich chip is the ExpressCache? So far the only solution for me is never to turn off the computer but to keep it in S3 Suspend to Ram to be able to restart it if needet...

Thanks so much

 

Hi @ta-rider, welcome to NBR.

I added a link in that post of mine to the response I was referring to. But essentially it is says the same as my other response earlier in the same thread -- and several responses in several other threads: That a failed or worn-out iSSD is only truly fixable by replacing the motherboard.

Since then, member @zhao xiao ming described in this excellent post how he how was able to remove the iSSD chip from his NP700Z5C -- which solved the boot delay and introduced no ill effects. Obviously this requires excellent soldering skills.

Before that, some members had reported that disabling the iSSD in Windows Device Manager helped speed up boot times once the iSSD had begun to fail.

If the iSSD no longer shows up in device manager, you should be able to reveal it by opening Device Manager from a Command Prompt with the commands below, then enable Show hidden devices in its View-menu.

Code:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
devmgmt.msc

Edit: I attached a zipped BAT file to open Device Manager this way.

 

I really wish they would have daughter boarded these devices.

 

Absolutely. Or just put the iSSD in a socket -- though maybe it would add too much size.

 

Hi Dannemand,

Thanks sooo much for your reply. If been reading a lot of your answers, only understand 1/4 but know if there is someone able to help me its you so thanks for your time

Opening the Devicemanager your way it does not show a second Hard Drive only the normal 256GB SSD with Windows. On top there is an unknown device.

Before Windows starts, the Computer takes 6 Minutes with Samsung Logo on start doing "nothing" HD LED on. Navigating menu to 'Security' tab in the BIOS will make it still for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, just like the experts problem in the linked thread. Would be great if it would be just about soldering out a (which?) Chip but im not such an expert and also affraid of bios updates.....

If finally the Windows Logo and the turning circle appears, the computer starts within seconds like normal and running fine and fast as long as I dont switch it off. Must be something wrong before Windows.
I knew its bad to wear out the iSSD so i just used it as a second harddrive for some static files...

 

@ta-rider, thank you for the nice words. Do realize that most of the advice I've posted here over the years is simply repeating reports from other members, whose situations may be different.

And in the particular case of a dying or dead iSSD, I honestly don't think disabling it in Device Manager could do more than improve boot speed slightly (and at best) since it doesn't solve the delay during POST (power-on self-test) -- as evidenced by your report of a 6 min delay before Windows even starts loading.

Thus, I wouldn't spend more time finding it in Device Manager if it doesn't show up when using the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices flag.

Indeed, after reading zhao xiao ming's report, my advice in these situations will be to find a repair shop that can remove the iSSD chip (for those who do not feel like doing it themselves, which I wouldn't dare).

Short of replacing the motherboard, we always knew that removing the chip might be the ultimate fix; but until his recent confirmation, we didn't know if it would cause problems with BIOS/POST looking for a device that is now entirely missing. His report confirms that BIOS/POST has no problems with a missing iSSD. At least in the case of the NP700Z5C-S02UB on which this lobotomy was performed.

What is puzzling is that a seemingly dead iSSD causes a POST delay, while a removed iSSD does not. This indicates that it still somehow reports its presence during POST, but then fails when called upon do to anything useful.

If you find a repair shop to help with this procedure, do show them zhao xiao ming's post and the picture in it. That should help guide them. (I see that you already found it, but for others, the post is here).

 

Hi,

I used your bat file to open the Device Manager before i made the screenshot. This includet devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices flag right?

Would be nice to find the iSSD again to but a dummy partition on it. There was a time when there was a NTFS partition on it. With this the computer started fast only froze when a programm wanted to enter D:. I thought i just delete the partition while reinstalling Windows and format it new but scince deleting the partition the drive its totaly gone even in windows setup partition tool and Win10 partition tool causing the ultra slow start...

Had an isue with the power plug few months ago. The computer shop people quoted 75 € to replace it so i changed it my selfe within 5 minutes using a 7,95 € part of ebay. Soldering would be waaaay to expensive...i will look for a used computer with broken screen or so...

 

Correct, that BAT file merely sets the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices environment variable then opens Device Manager. I've used it since the WinXP days to clean out devices that are still lingering in Windows' device tree. You still have to select Show hidden devices in the View menu to see these devices.

I am a little puzzled by the fact that your iSSD decided to die exactly when you deleted the partition on it. This coincidence, combined with the fact that you haven't used it with ExpressCache (so wear is presumably minimal) makes me wonder if there MIGHT be another problem here.

But the only other situation I can possibly think of that would cause this POST delay, is if BIOS (or the EFI boot manager in case you are running in UEFI mode) is looking for an OS on the iSSD -- but not finding it because the iSSD isn't visible until after POST has completed. This MIGHT occur if you have recently installed Windows from a USB flash drive (as opposed to from a DVD). And most likely only if you installed in UEFI mode (as opposed to legacy BIOS/CSM mode). And even then, the iSSD should show up in Device Manager.

In other words, based on your descriptions I don't think this is likely to be anything other than a defect iSSD chip, particularly if you haven't recently installed or updated Windows. But I guess it cannot be ruled out.

Check that the Boot Priority page in your BIOS (F2) looks normal. You could try to reset BIOS settings to default in there.

Note: IF the problem here is one of corrupt BIOS/UEFI boot tables, there is a risk that any changes in BIOS settings or any OS installing could completely prevent booting, effectively soft bricking the computer. The symptoms you describe, including the fact that you are able to enter BIOS with F2, makes this unlikely. But I do want to mention it.

Edit:
While I wrote this post, I notice that you updated yours. The fact that you recently installed Windows increases the probability that you might have another problem going on relating to corrupt CMOS/NVRAM. Still, the fact that the iSSD doesn't show up in Device Manager makes it the most likely culprit.

If you want to clear your NVRAM just to make sure that isn't the cause of your problems, follow the advice in this post -- except ignore the stuff about creating a WinPE on USB since you are able to boot Windows on your SSD.

 

Ah ok now i clicked show hidden devices and it shows my external USB Backup drive even if its not connected. The iSSD does not appear under "Hard drives" but funny thin it also dont show up on my friends computer. Same machine without any problems.

My iSSD probably died before thats why i wanted to format it and because this did not work i deleted the partition and finaly because everything got wors I reinstaled Windows. The iSSD wich made windows freeze so the iSSD problem was first.

Boot priority is USB CD then 256GB SSD and defaults are loadet. Now as long as i use suspend to ram insted of shut down and cold restart everything runs fine...even restart is fast. The problem is under Samsung Logo before any Bootmanager action starts so i guess its hardware

Thanks a lot for your help anyway

 

The iSSD'd are not actual drives before bios post. It is afterwards it becomes a drive and as you mentioned the device driver was never loaded since failure. Good thing is that chip should be very easy to find on the main board. I wish it were a higher res first picture in the other post to make the chips identifiers more readable.

What is you exact model number?

 

Its a NP530U3C so must be a big chip like here:

https://goo.gl/images/wGXmdH

Here they even say something about just removing some smaler items beside the iSSD but i will just live with it now... better then destroying my computer:

https://www.elvikom.pl/samsung-np53...dysku-issd-jak-wylaczyc-dysk-issd-t42082.html

 

I agree 100% with TANWare: It sounds like the iSSD died before you installed Windows, so it never showed up in Device Manager in the first place -- which is why it cannot be found there now, even with the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices flag.

As for identifying what the iSSD looks like: I am pretty sure it's a Sandisk chip, and I believe your model has 24GB (which I envy, having only 8GB in my NP700Z3A). Googling Sandisk 24GB iSSD located this post in our own Asus forum. (Samsung owners are not the only ones suffering from defect iSSDs.)

If you ever feel the courage to perform this lobotomy (or have a repair shop do it) that post has good details, including hires images (though I still cannot read the print on the chip).

 

Looking at OEM replacement pic's on ebay I could not see the chip, it might be hiding under the cmos battery.

Edit; actually it would be wonderful, since there are so many issues, if in BIOS we could disable the chip and its detection. This could solve multiple issues.

1.) the failure of the drive could stop this delay by the bios not even looking for it.
2.) Whenever doing a new install etc just disabling the drive preventing Windows from trying to use it as a boot device.
3.) possibly stop windows from trying to boot from it where the install did go wrong.

etc.etc..

 

Wow this Forum is great Funny thing: also on my friends Samsung Series 5 there is no iSSD showing up in device manager unter "Hard drives" even his computer is working without any problems. He bought it second hand...

Yes it would be nice to just modefy the bios but to get the source code is probably harder then to take out the chip. Anyway reading this the trick is probably just to heat ab the whole iSSD from the top side: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/ux32vd-issd-not-detected.679687/page-11

I just took my iSSD out today and made a Video doing so.



Thanks for all your help!!!

 

You did it! Awesome!

 

I found the way to fix it permanently from this thread, which is to remove the SSD entirely from the mainboard.

I have searched and tried everything on the internet and nothing worked. Finally I found this and some of the replies in that thread are NP530U4C like us. and they confirmed that it works. So I decided to remove it too.

Today, I finally removed the SSD from the mainboard. It fixes the problem. The boot loop is gone. My machine boots for 4-5 second into the Windows.

In case, you are not sure how to do it yourself, please take it to computer shop and tell them to follow the disassembling steps here:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Disassembling+Samsung+Laptop+Ultrabook+NP530U3B/23322

and the SSD chip is on the backside of your main board as in the picture below (at step #16)


Hope this comment help. It just work really great for my case.

I wrote a blog about this solution here!

 

@9Bombs: Good job fixing that.

I took the liberty of moving your post from this thread where you originally posted it. That thread is about corrupted NVRAM, not about defect iSSD (although both can cause boot problems).

You should feel right at home in this thread, though.

Once again good job with the fix.