Aspire 3 A315-21-47B4 and M.2 SSD

When I run Hardware Info I get what is shown below. It appears I have support for M.2 3.0 x4. I used the wonderful instructions here - https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/532296/aspire-3-a315-51-has-m-2-or-msata-slot - and installed a 256GB Samsung M.2 SSD PCIe 3.0 x4, model PM961. But it fails to show up in BIOS. Any idea about what gives?

+++++++++++++++++++++++ Results from Hardware Info +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PCI Express

Version: 3.0

Maximum Link Width: 4x

Current Link Width: 16x

Maximum Link Speed: 8.0 GT/s

Current Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s

Device/Port Type: Root Port of PCI Express Root Complex

Slot Implemented: Yes

Hot-Plug: Capable

Hot-Plug Surprise: Not Capable

Emergency Power Reduction: Not Supported

Active State Power Management (ASPM) Support: L0s and L1

Active State Power Management (ASPM) Status: Disabled

L0s Exit Latency: 256 - 512 ns

L1 Exit Latency: 32 - 64 us

Maximum Payload Size Supported: 512 bytes

Maximum Payload Size: 128 bytes

Accepted answers

brummyfan2

I am afraid we are out of luck, I guess and you may have to get a M.2 SATA SSD, so far nobody has a NVMe drive installed in your model.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Acer-Aspire-A315-21/58857#Compatibility

All comments

brummyfan2

Hi,
Could you please run HWiNFO 64 program, expand Bus, expand PCI Bus, expand all PCI Express Root ports and post the snip, I would like to see what they are used for.

notification

Thanks for the help.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/f0/rlqkqp74iwat.jpg

brummyfan2

No problem, PCI Expressx4Bus 1 looks free and unless they have restricted in BIOS, it should work, could you be able to see the NVMe drive in Device manager?

notification

No, it doesn't show up.

brummyfan2

It could be the MB configured differently for NVMe support, let me do some reading and report back.

notification

Exercising great attention to detail, I just took it out and reinstalled it. I wanted to make sure the problem wasn't an installation issue. It still is not recognized.

brummyfan2

I am afraid we are out of luck, I guess and you may have to get a M.2 SATA SSD, so far nobody has a NVMe drive installed in your model.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Acer-Aspire-A315-21/58857#Compatibility

notification

I guess, then, the simple conclusion to be drawn is that the Aspire 315-21 is not compatible with PCIe NVMe even though the motherboard shows an active M.2 3.0 x4 bus. Maybe a future BIOS update will change that.

So, I will give M.2 SATA SSD a try. Should I expect a maximum SATA storage capacity or should everything from 128GB to 1TB work?