Acer Predator G3-710 not recognizing primary OS drive (nvme) G3-710

StevenWilk

Hello all,

Predator G3-710

Model Name: AG3-710

Part Number: DG.E04AA.002

I have Acer Precator G3-710 not recognizing primary OS drive (256GB NVME) included by manufacturer.

I am getting a message: Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in selected device and press a key

Things I have tried so far:

• Tried to flash BIOS using g3_710_bios_recovery.zip, from this post: solidstate drive, but faile d, would not flash
• Opened case, removed CMOS battery, pressed power button twice and waited more than 5 minutes, didn't work.
• Created Zorin OS with rufus and was able to boot from it. I am able to see secondary drives, but not primary drive (C:\)

Can someone suggest any other things I can try? If motherboard is at fault, is there a chance I can replace motherboard with an aftermarket motherboard.

Thank you in advance

Steven

billsey

It's much more likely to be the SSD at fault than the motherboard. Try booting on a Windows install flash drive and going into the command prompt. From there start diskpart and do a 'list disk' to see what the system sees in terms of mounted drives. The SSD should show up there...

StevenWilk

billsey said:

It's much more likely to be the SSD at fault than the motherboard. Try booting on a Windows install flash drive and going into the command prompt. From there start diskpart and do a 'list disk' to see what the system sees in terms of mounted drives. The SSD should show up there...

@billsey

I tried that, but no disks listed. I tried couple of more nvme drives but they are not recognized and doesn't show up in bios as well. I took my desktop to a repair place, they have inserted a m.2 SSD and it recognized and booted. Looks like it doesn't recognize the m.2 nvme that came with the pre-assembled system.

I am trying to find the correct motherboard to replace. I tried booting with ubuntu and used cpu-x to see what's the the chipset and I found this:

Intel i7 7700 @ 3.60GHz

Board: microAtx

LGA1151

B150

Would this be enough to find correct replacement motherboard?

TIA

Steve

billsey

If you took your desktop to the repair place and they put a SSD in and it booted, the problem is not with your motherboard, instead it is wit the SSD itself. The G3-710 supports SATA 3 SSDs in the M.2 slot, is there a chance you were trying an NVMe instead? I suppose it might support NVMe in some models, but the service guide specs definitely say SATA only.

StevenWilk

Thank you for the response @billsey

This Acer desktop came pre-installed with a 256GB m.2 nvme 2280 drive. One night suddenly it stopped booting. Repair shop guy tried an m.2 SSD (B-M key) instead of original nvme and it booted. Can you suggest a replacement motherboard? I am ready to buy a motherboard and swap it myself.

Thank you

billsey

If the SSD has failed, as I expect from your descriptions, putting a new motherboard in isn't going to help you. Since it boots correctly with a different SSD at the repair shop you know the MB is good. It's a lot more expensive to replace the MB than to replace the SSD. Why don't you just replace the drive? Get either a SATA 3 SSD for the M.2 slot or, if the original is NVMe x2, get one of those. I don't think an NVMe x4 will work unless it can down clock to the x2 speeds. What is the full model number of the original SSD?

LANMind

I have the exact same situation.

I thought that I might have a bad SSD, so I ordered a USB/M.2 external enclosure.  The drive wasn't recognized in it.  I then looked closely at the model of the SSD that came in the computer, and it showed me it was a NVMe drive, so I ordered a replacement SSD.  I put that in the computer and it wasn't recognized.  I then tried it in the USB enclosure and it wasn't recognized.  Weird part was the the SSD was very difficult to insert into the connector of the USB enclosure.

I then went back to what I ordered for the USB enclosure and found that it's not compatible with NMVe drives, only SATA.  So, I ordered a NVMe M.2 USB enclosure.  Guess what?  Both SSD drives were recognized just fine and in fact the original SSD had all of my data on it.  My computer just wasn't recognizing it.  I assure you that no matter what the documenation says, this is a NVMe SSD.  So, either the M.2 connector on the motherboard went bad, or the BIOS just went belly up.

I was successful with leaving the SSD in the USB enclosure and booted the computer from that.  It said there was a problem and needed to run Recovery.  I let it run recovery and it then booted up fine.  I just don't want to leave this USB drive dangling though.

I've been working on this thing for a solid 3 days.  I'm now in the process of cloning the SSD to a 2.5" SATA drive.  I'm hopeful that I will be able to put this drive in the computer and boot it normally.

LANMind

After the clone, I have a functioning Predator (albeit back to a factory load)!  Now, to figure out why it took so long to boot up.