[HowTo] Get full NVMe Support for all Systems with an AMI UEFI BIOS

Special Topics NVMe Support for old Systems
1061

@ccozmo :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!

If the latest available ASUS P9X79 Pro mainboard BIOS already contains the required NVMe EFI modules, there is no need to do any BIOS modification yourself.
You can check it by downloading the BIOS, opening it by using the AMI Aptio IV MMTool and searching for NVMe modules.

Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)

1062

Thanks Fernando, I tried it and have lost my overclocking settings ā€¦ and even with the ones I had I am not able to hit the previous ā€¦ anyway not important

So is my only option to do what you explain in post one to the bios ?

1063

I gave you the advice to download the BIOS, to open it by using a tool and to check, whether there are NVMe modules in it, but I didnā€™t write, that you should flash it.
Furthermore you should know, that flashing a new BIOS always means, that you have to redo your previous individual BIOS settings.

Yes, if there is no NVMe support given by the original BIOS.

1064

ok thanks - yes I am not blaming you for anything ! Thank you for your advice and support.

I will try that tomorrow :slight_smile:

1065

oh damn - so sorry, I just saw you did msg I download and look ā€¦ I had already doneā€¦ sorry

1066

I have a Asus Z170 Pro Gaming with 2003 Bios and habe buy the new Samsung 960 EVO M.2.

1067

And now? What do you want to tell us?
The latest ASUS Z170 mainboard BIOS should natively support NVMe.

1068

I think Iā€™ve done something wrong. When I insert the NvmeExpress.DxE.ffs file and save as the modded bios, the bios sizes are the same. Now that I have that bios, Iā€™ve updated my system bios (Asus Rampage IV Extreme Edition/980ti/Hyper M.2 x4 mini/950 pro/Windows 10) I still have a problem where I can only boot one time into the drive and then the bios resets and connectivity to that drive is lost.

1069

@pcgumshoe :
Welcome at win-RAID Forum!

Please give us some informations about your current BIOS settings within the "BOOT" section and how you tried to get Win10 installed.

Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)

1070

In the CSM folder, I have everything turned to legacy (when I want to access the m.2 drive). The drive shows up and I select it as a primary drive. I installed the OS from USB and within the setup program, the m.2 drive was available to me. on reboots, I lose the access to the drive and get a recovery error.

1071

Why that? The inserted NVMe module will not be used in LEGACY mode.

In UEFI mode?

1072

Why that? The inserted NVMe module will not be used in LEGACY mode.

In UEFI mode?


I donā€™t see the NVMe module. And when I read peopleā€™s accounts of modding the bios they seem to be using all three files, but my read of the instructions only require the first file.
How do I know if I did UEFI mode? I just ran the usb windows installation and chose what options were available to me.

1073

To see it you have to open the BIOS file, which you recently have flahed, by using an appropriate AMI UEFI BIOS tool.

Both methods will work, but it is easier to insert just the NVMeExpressDxE.ffs file instead of 3 different files.

You will get the OS installed in UEFI mode, if you have done the following:
1. The UEFI boot options have to be enabled within the "BOOT" section of the BIOS.
2. When you are going to create a bootable USB Flash Drive containing the OS Image, you have to choose the "GPT Partition Scheme for UEFI" as partition scheme (and not the option "MBR=Master Boot Record").
3. After having started booting off the USB Flash Drive and get access to the Boot Manager, you have to choose the option "[UEFI] <NAME of the USB Flash Drive>".

1074

Thank you! Iā€™ve got it running now. In the CSM Settings, I changed Launch from Enabled (with multiple settings) to Auto. Then uninstalled all my other drives, reinstalled the usb drive and installed from it onto the m.2 drive. All is working now. Out of curiosity, what benchmarking software are you using to check the drive speeds?

1075

@pcgumshoe :
Thanks for your feedback. It is fine, that you got your NVMe SSD working.

I prefer Anvilā€™s Storage Utilities. You can find the download link within the start post of >this< thread.

1076

My scores were:

4,122.23 Read
242.45 Write
4,364.68 overallā€¦

Did I screw something up on the write side?

1077

I suspect, that you forgot to change the write caching settings. For details look >here< (point 8).

1078

That seemed to work, now my numbers are more comparable.

Is there a reason why my pcie audio card wouldnā€™t work, nor my on-board audio card after this fix? I can see them installed and they appear to be making sound, but nothing is coming out of the speakersā€¦ this is a new issue with this install of Windows on the m.2

1079

I donā€™t see any relationship between the write caching settings of the disk drive and the audio devices.

1080

Hey,
Iā€™ve got a 4930k with GA-X79-UP4 (running at F7 bios version) and iā€™m trying to figure out if I can get a 960evo to work at full speed with my cpu or if I have to change everything (as 4930 is on 2011 socket) in order to get nvme speeds.

HWiNFO64 says shows my 960 evo running as NVME (version supported v.1.2)
however the speeds are 1483 mb/sec read 389mb /write for sequential with AS SSD; and 4K is 36mb/s read 2mb/s write which is pretty bad.

If I flash and follow the instructions as per the guide on the first page I have a chance of getting this working? Thereā€™s a lot of terminology iā€™m still going through in order to properly understand and not mess this up.

Thanks!

edit:
Iā€™ve installed the drivers from the samsung website now my stats are:
Seq : Read 1458mb/s write 1450 mb/s