Acer Nitro 7 AN715-51 can't recognize NVME SSD

So I have an Acer Nitro 7 AN715-51 laptop. The specs are below:

Intel Core i7-9750H
GTX 1660Ti
32GB (16x2) RAM DDR4-2666 (upgraded from 1x8GB stock)

I have a 500GB SATA SSD in the M.2 form and one 1TB SSD SATA SSD in 2.5 inch. Both SSDs worked just fine.

The problem is when I try to install my ADATA SX8200 NVME SSD. It simply refuses to read it.

I also have my SK Hynix 256GB NVME drive that came with the laptop. Also can't be read.

However, both of them are readable if I swap it with the 500GB M.2 SATA SSD, but I cannot install my OS inside as the Windows 10 installation doesn't read the drive.

It's on the latest BIOS too. Any solutions? Thank you.

Accepted answers

wpblast63

meshswapnil said:

wpblast63 said:

meshswapnil said:

wpblast63 said:

So I have an Acer Nitro 7 AN715-51 laptop. The specs are below:

Intel Core i7-9750H
GTX 1660Ti
32GB (16x2) RAM DDR4-2666 (upgraded from 1x8GB stock)

I have a 500GB SATA SSD in the M.2 form and one 1TB SSD SATA SSD in 2.5 inch. Both SSDs worked just fine.

The problem is when I try to install my ADATA SX8200 NVME SSD. It simply refuses to read it.

I also have my SK Hynix 256GB NVME drive that came with the laptop. Also can't be read.

However, both of them are readable if I swap it with the 500GB M.2 SATA SSD, but I cannot install my OS inside as the Windows 10 installation doesn't read the drive.

It's on the latest BIOS too. Any solutions? Thank you.

I have a same laptop with 9300h and 1660ti and I'm pretty sure I had this problem when I was installing a WD500GB M.2 SATA SSD . I installed the WD ssd in the free slot and then booted the laptop and yep windows didn't recognize the ssd .
Then later I swapped the default kingston 256gb ssd with the WD 500gb one and it showed up in bios and since then I'm using it like this . It was weird
Also I installed a 2TB SATA HDD .

Makes sense. Your Kingston SSD is an NVME drive and you installed it on the PCIE only slot, which only reads NVME SSDs. The WD drive is SATA, which can be read by the PCIE/SATA slot.

My problem is no matter what drive I put in the PCIE only slot, it doesn't read it at all, even the one that came with the laptop.

Ooh now I get it .
Will it help if you can downgrade to the 1.05 BIOS ? cuz I know a way to downgrade .

Nope. I tried both versions. No luck.

Also a little bit of update: Switching to AHCI makes my NVME drive actually readadble in the PCIE/SATA slot. I have successfully cloned my OS into it and I'm typing this post on my laptop with the OS on the NVME drive.

Still no luck on the PCIE only slot. But I did find one very interesting discovery: If I put my NVME drive on the PCIE slot, not only that the BIOS still doesn't read it, it's actually heating up my NVME drive into ridiculous levels.

So I think I can conclude that this PCIE only slot is broken. I have to deal with just one PCIE/SATA M.2 and one SATA storage, which means that if I want more storage, I need to buy a bigger drive.

Thank you all for the help, especially on switching the SATA mode.

All comments

Commodore_1995#

Are all ssds recognized in the bios info tab? Can you upload a bios screenshot?

wpblast63

egydiocoelho said:

Are all ssds recognized in the bios info tab? Can you upload a bios screenshot?

Nope. Only the SATA ones.

Here's a pic with the ADATA XPG NVME on the PCIE slot

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/31/u1p1vxmd303d.jpg

[Edited the thread to protect personal information]
Acer-Samuel

Commodore_1995#

In this case, have you tried to connect ssd nvme to these two slots?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/xl/iblm8iukakjg.jpg

If it is still not detected, enter windows and enable safe booting. Then go to the bios and change the sata mode to ahci and post the result.

wpblast63

egydiocoelho said:

In this case, have you tried to connect ssd nvme to these two slots?

If it is still not detected, enter windows and enable safe booting. Then go to the bios and change the sata mode to ahci and post the result.

Ah yeah uh... that's a problem.

If I put the NVME drive on the PCIE/SATA slot, it is detected by the BIOS, but it's not detected by the Windows installation. So I can't install Windows in it.

I cannot change the SATA mode into AHCI because it's a very recent BIOS, and they removed that option for it.

The older BIOS has an option to change between AHCI, IRST with Optane, and IRST Premium with Optane. Only IRST Premium with Optane makes the NVME drive readable on the PCIE/SATA slot. AHCI and IRST with Optane will cause the NVME drive to be unreadable in both slots.

Commodore_1995#

OK! When you press ctrl + s, does sata mode appear? Also, have you already converted ssd to gpt to install windows?

wpblast63

egydiocoelho said:

OK! When you press ctrl + s, does sata mode appear? Also, have you already converted ssd to gpt to install windows?

Ok pressing Ctrl+S does bring the SATA mode. All modes still don't read the PCIE only slot.

And the XPG is a brand new drive. So I probably haven't converted it to GPT.

I'll see if I can boot into Windows installation with the NVME drive on PCIE/SATA and install it from there.

Commodore_1995#

Converting ssd for gpt:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/d9/0nl3y7ihbd1n.png

wpblast63

Putting the NVME drive on PCIE/SATA on AHCI works. Windows Installation detected it.

But putting the NVME on the PCIE only slot on AHCI with the SATA M.2 SSD doesn't work.

Commodore_1995#

What happens when you put a ssd m2 sata 3 in the pcie-only slot?

wpblast63

egydiocoelho said:

What happens when you put a ssd m2 sata 3 in the pcie-only slot?

If I put the SATA M.2 SSD on PCIE only, it's simply not detected.

Commodore_1995#

can you connect another ssd nvme on the pcie only port to check if it is recognized?

wpblast63

egydiocoelho said:

can you connect another ssd nvme on the pcie only port to check if it is recognized?

Yes. The SK Hynix drive, the one that came with the laptop, is also unrecognized.

Commodore_1995#

OK! Have you checked if the problem persists when disconnecting hdd and other ssd and leaving only ssd nvme connected on pcie only port?

wpblast63

egydiocoelho said:

OK! Have you checked if the problem persists when disconnecting hdd and other ssd and leaving only ssd nvme connected on pcie only port?

I haven't. In the meantime, I'm cloning my SATA M.2 drive to the NVME drive. I'll get back when I'm done.

Commodore_1995#

It would be interesting if you tested one ssd nvme, disconnecting the hdd and the other ssd and checking if you change that mode, if only that ssd would be recognized on the pcie-only port.

Commodore_1995#

Have you tried upgrading uefi bios to version 1.10? Also, have you tried to update the ssds firmware?

wpblast63

egydiocoelho said:

Have you tried upgrading uefi bios to version 1.10? Also, have you tried to update the ssds firmware?

Alright. It's been a while. So let me share a couple of findings.

Removing the SU800 SSD while the NVME SSD is on slot 2 doesn't work. Removing the RAM stick doesn't work either.

I think the M.2 slot there is broken. It just refuses to read any of my NVME SSD including the one that came with the laptop.

I haven't updated the firmware of all the SSDs, and I couldn't at the moment.

Version 1.09 is the latest BIOS version for this model. There's no Version 1.10 in the support page.