EFI Intel RST for SATA - 13.1.0.2126
OROM Intel RST for SATA - 13.1.0.2126
EFI NVMe Driver present
EFI GOP Driver IvyBridge - 3.0.1030
EFI GOP Driver SandyBridge - 2.0.1024
EFI Intel PRO1000 UNDI - 6.6.04
OROM Intel Boot Agent GE - 1.5.62
All cpu mcodes up to date
USB BFB ONLY, not EZ-Flash or OS environment.
It is advisable to have a separate USB disk with the untouched bios file for any recover procedure.
EDIT: Yes, BFB is correct for your assumption…
Every Asus mb bios file has to be renamed for certain operations…like USB BFB, didn’t you ever notice this note on any bios file update, in Asus product support page?..damm this means you never used this or updated any Asus mb…thats bad for anyone engaging in mod world…
It doesn’t need to be renamed when using EZ-Flash or AISuite, but this is NOT to be used in mods for every boards with USB BFB feature.
Oh, I’ve tinkered plenty and updated a gazillion bioses since the early 90s, but you know, life, kids, using mostly macs nowadays. It’s been a while and the amount of info on here is daunting. Also, honestly don’t remember having to rename asus bios files, but ya know, probably forgot. Thanks so much for your time, help and mod efforts!
I may have been stupid or need a pointer more. I flashed it succesfully and it boots. However, it doesn’t recognise the samsung 980 pro nvme drive on the the asus hyper m.2 x4 mini riser card in any slot.
Is this a pcie4-card-won’t-work-in-pcie3-only-MB situation? From my reading it should be backwards compatible, so hoping I’m just missing a setting or detail.
Also, I’m coming to realise it doesn’t seem likely that I’ll be able to boot into an existing windows ntfs install on this particular nvme?
Well, this was the first step that you should took when arriving to our forum…
This is the main article/guide that led to all successful NVMe mods, which is presented by our beloved forum founder Fernando, encouraging all users to do the mod themselves, read it and it will enrich your knowledge.
If you skip the notes on step 4… you will fail.
Which Windows OS are you running?
The SSD should be shown within the “Disks” section of the Device Manager. Otherwise you should check the SSD and its connection via adapter.
Thanks - I have actually read it, but not fully understood it. I am specifically trying to boot off an an existing windows nvme drive in this aging MB. I’ll probably just have to reinstall on a different disk. Thanks again
Doesn’t boot, sorry, but posts. I can’t see the drive in the bios menu. I’ll have to go through the guide more thoroughly. I was hoping to not reinstall windows on the nvme in question, but doesn’t seem that’s an option. Not sure why it doesn’t show, though, but again, as @MeatWar says, read the docs to the letter
Once the OS Setup has built the EFI Boot Partition onto the NVMe, the NVMe SSD will be shown as “Windows Boot Manager” within the BIOS.
By the way - a fresh OS install is the best option for users, who are going to replace a SATA disk drive by an NVMe SSD. Only this way you can get rid from all the former garbage.
In my case I have an ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS, with the BIOS modified to support the Nvme disk through PCIe 3.0.
At the beginning I had a lot of problems with afuwinx64, I tried many versions before I found the one that worked. This is the biggest conflict that many people have
after the modified BIOS is loaded, there are also other factors to consider for a successful windows installation
with this you should be able to see your disk and install windows, if you have not yet been able to modify your bios with the NvmExpressDxe_5.ffs module, I would be happy to do it for you.
Hi everyone, I’m wondering if I could get some insight/help
I installed the modded Bios and installed win 11 on the pc, and everything seems to work except when running some programs there are random stutters (or takes a long time to load)
So far I’ve had issues with Adobe Acrobat (opens the PDF and then hangs for a while)
Starcraft II has random stutters, and crashes when alt tabbing
I also had a scenario when after one of the windows updates the PC refused to boot back into windows. I had to wipe the hidden system drive on windows and using installation USB to fix windows before it would reboot
I’ve also had Windows stop recognizing one of the mSATAs (installed via an adapter connected to SATA) for a while, but now works again but with bad sectors
I wonder if it’s some sort of Bios setting I’m missing (I’m not the most knowledgeable) or if there’s some hardware issues ? (SMART doesn’t recognize any issues with the boot nvme)
Its a pity that for such report the user doesnt let us know the overall hw description of the system, overall OS setup, etc… a very important factor on this kind of presented issue, dont you think?
I can say for sure, that its not a NVMe mod (itself) related and you will not find more than a couple of same situation reported from users, that in the end the cause was due to other culprits.
Your reported issues, if they were indeed related to NVMe mod, would had a very negative impact on the guide and mod presented in this forum for a very long time, that made thousands of users happy with it.
Whats the usage of that mSATA disk in the system? What do you think of an OS reaction when it has to deal with a disk that has problematics issues?
A stable system is always dependent of an experienced user initial setup, driver usage and overall hw setup, NVMe or not.
I apologize, I was thinking it was strictly because I don’t know how to setup bios settings that was the root cause of the issue, so I didn’t include hardware components.
But please see below for setup:
-P8z77-v MB
i7-3770k CPU
4x4BG RAM
GeForce GTX970 Vid Card
Samsung 970 Pro 512GB NVME (OS/installed programs etc)
Hitachi HDT21032SLA380 Sata (storage)
Samsung 850 Pro Sata (storage)
Sandisk SD9SN8W128G1001 M.2 adapter to Sata (storage)
Sandisk P4 mSATA adapter to Sata (storage) this is the SSD that has SMART issues
OS Windows 11 23H2 22631.4317
On the side note when I was searching for Windows version, I came across a section of windows update I’ve never noticed before “Selective updates” which I had just ran… I don’t know if this is the issue but I’ve always just installed updates I could manually find (since Windows 10)
Follow the guide, specially point#4
Set the system to a full PURE UEFI environment, if the system uses an EFI compatible card. CSM OFF not AUTO/ON, secure boot can be set to enable after 2 reboots.
Do not clone old OS, i advise you to perform a clean OS new install.
When doing so, disconnect all other disks, after setup and first 2 reboots and essential system drivers installed, you can attached them again.
Any disk/adapter will negotiate only @ PCIe 2.0 xX, PCIe 3.0 x4 only in 1rst PCiex16 when using iGPU. These are the limitations on these old boards.
I used till Jan 2024 a Maximus V with same cpu and W11 without no issues at all… for a very long time, doing all kind of use of the system.
Ugh I had forgotten to put in the GPU model. I’ve updated that on the original post.
As for following Point 4. I did exactly as that when installing.
As for the part mentioned about adapter negotiating PCIe speeds, does that mean I need to move it to the first PCIe x16 slot? (sorry I’m not tech savvy anymore) It could potentially cause stutters if it’s not in that slot?
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate it.
No if your priority is PCIe negotiation to the GTX 970 as 3.0x16 @ full speed specs of the device.
OR
yes if your priority is the NVMe as PCIe 3.0x4 (adapter in 1rst slotx16) and GTX970 as PCIe 2.0x8 in 2nd/3rd slotx16
The Z77, except a very few mboards and not your model, only negotiate PCIe 3.0 in slot1 x16 all the remain slots are 2.0
PCIe 3/2.0 is the Link speed, the x1/2/4/8/16 is the bandwidth negotiation in PCIe bus of a system board/chipset.
So the 970 PRO PCIe 3.0x4 in an adapter that can fir in any PCIe 3/2/1.0 and can negotiate from x1 to x4, the disk itself will be limited to the PCIe adapter where to connected, now picking the most speed of it, its all to user choice.
Thanks for the explanation. Looks like I have to confirm the locations of where the cards are plugged into. If I recollect correctly, I have the sound card in the x1_1 the graphics card in the x16_1 the NVME in the x16_2. While from the snippet you provided it doesn’t seem like anything is conflicting with anything else, but maybe I need to check settings to make sure it’s set the way I think it’s supposed to be in.
