Why is windows 11 on my Predator PHN16-71 only recognizing external SSD/HDD & not internal drives?

I've been surfing here for hours. Tried all the suggestions and have all the drivers ect from acers site. But none of these are working. Have tried EVERYONE of these listed here.

https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/product-support/Predator_PHN16-71/downloads?suggest=PHN16-71;1

Windopes 11 can't find the right drivers for my Predator PHN16-71 to install on any of the ssd's I have tried internally. Even up graded the bios to 16.something.
The original 1tb ssd won't even take a reinstall of 11. BIOS shows the ssd's installed on the board. However none will work.
Yes tried GUID partition table. Everything is formatted correctly. But the ONLY way windopes recognizes ANY hdd at all is if it's attached via one of the usb or usb C ports.
I have even gone so far as to do a complete install in both another older asus laptop and a dell close to same gen processor. Pulled the ssd's and tried them in the Pred. Only way it boots is if the SSD is external. Hell I can run the laptop via external drive all day. But will not work at all from internal ssd . REGARDLESS of format or which bay is used. There being 2 locations found on the MB.
Will try Linux Mint next just to see if that works. Linux IS my preferred OS branch. But this is making me want to toss this nice laptop.
And again the bios DOES show it whenever I have ssd's in the bays. BUT windopes seems to REFUSE to see anything except for external. WILL even boot from external.

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Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/720741/predator-phn16-71-windopes-11-only-recognizing-external-ssd-hhd-reasons

Hi, very funny. I have the same laptop with Windows11 24H2 and it works like a charm, fastest and most powerful laptop I ever had 😀

BillInTN

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1325516#Comment_1325516

Well. I don't think it's funny. Would love to pass it on to my daughter. She's a teacher and can always use a faster laptop.
I'm not remotely a gamer, Minecraft/Minetest is about it for me. But I do recognize decent equipment at a steal of a price. Got it in a business auction.
Replaced the 8gb stick of ramm that was stopping the boot up and here we are. Seems like it was in the midst of an update when ramm failed. Original sdd in external carrier, boots then stops at a blu background screen with message about update 64% may reboot multiple times……………. Then reboots. Never gets past that point. Doesn't do any better in the laptop than the others.
So far every Linux os I've tried works and recognizes each of the ssd internally installed. It's just a windopes thing. Ran it with a ssd from one of my dells in an external carrier. It ran good enough to surf, download the 16.something bios update and do more research on this windope 11 issue.
Still at a loss here.

BillInTN

Well I have tried multiple ssd and they are done in either the mbr/ntfs which works for 10 but when I do w-11 installs I use guid/ntfs . It just seems to me like windopes 11 doesn't WANT to see the ssd. Each and every linux OS flavor I try will work. I've installed mint, buntu, suse, rocky(the redhat clone) and a few others. Each time clearing the ssd used to a blank guid/ntfs state. The bios sees the ssd's on the MB and shows them properly in bios.

AnhEZ28

@BillInTN

For the missing drives in Windows Installation, download this IRST driver, extract the file, and copy that folder into the Windows installation USB. When the installation asks for the driver, locate the folder and choose the corresponding driver.

BillInTN

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1326053#Comment_1326053

https://community.acer.com/en/profile/AnhEZ28.

I have tried that. Also attached a second thumb drive with ALL the drivers offered on this machines driver support page. Not a single one worked. The installation media works on each and every other laptop and desktop I use it on. But not this one. I have even tried both old installation thumb drive and one with the latest offered by windopes. Only THIS laptop and ONLY windopes. 11 or 10 doesn't matter. Neither one sees a ssd on the motherboard. Fixxing to just pull it and drop something simple like Fedora or Mint on it.

AnhEZ28

@BillInTN

Then try to go into the BIOS, F1 to view advanced settings, go to Main tab, and press CTRL+S to reveal VMD controller. Disable the VMD controller and try the Windows installation again.

BillInTN

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1326650#Comment_1326650

Please remember to include @AnhEZ28 when you want to reply back to my comment so that I can check your response.

Included again.

Thanks for the ideas. But. Did not work. Regardless of what I do it seems like windopes won't see any internal ssd. Plan to scrap the win-11 install and just run with something Linux. Not buntu either. Leaning towards Mint cinn as it is my goto. Have live run and installed fedora and a few others on a 512 gb short ssd and a 128 long type ssd and tried them in both the 1 and 2 slots. No probs with them. Just windopes 10 or 11 will NOTT see any ssd's internally. I've even tried a couple ssd's with 11 installed on it from things like a Dell with a 11th gen core 7 and 5 processors. Full on installed to the other laptops. Swap over and get the same blu screen hdd failure message. Unaccessable type. I'll try to remember to take a picture next time. If I bother.