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Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: mkpersson on June 26, 2017, 04:11:26 pm

Title: M.2 expansion card on Z87-HD3?
Post by: mkpersson on June 26, 2017, 04:11:26 pm: Hi,

Will m.2 expansion-card on Z87-HD3 work?

Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: M.2 expansion card on Z87-HD3?
Post by: mkpersson on June 29, 2017, 11:34:06 am: I have tried this now but can't get it to work. Hopefully I'm missing something.

I have connected the m.2 expansion-card to the PCIeX4 slot and have nothing in the PCIeX1 slots. The m.2 drive is installed on the expansion-card (Samsung 850 Evo).

Note, Im not trying to run Windows on this drive, it's only for storage. However the drive isn't showing in Windows. I have updated BIOS to the latest version even though it did not mention anything about m.2 drives. I have tried changing the speed on the PCIeX4 slot in BIOS but it's the same on all options.

Anone able to point me in the right direction?
Title: Re: M.2 expansion card on Z87-HD3?
Post by: absic on June 29, 2017, 02:30:22 pm: Hi there,

Not sure if this motherboard supports M.2 devices but, have you checked under Windows/Control Panel/System & Security/Administrative Tools/Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions? The drive might need to be formatted and, if it is being recognised at all it will show up here.

If you can't find the M.2 Drive under the Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions utility then you probably need a BIOS update to get it working. You should be able to request this through Tech Support or go over to TweakTown ( https://forums.tweaktown.com/ ) and see if someone there can mod the BIOS for you.
Title: Re: M.2 expansion card on Z87-HD3?
Post by: mkpersson on June 30, 2017, 08:38:55 pm: Quote from: absic on June 29, 2017, 02:30:22 pm
Hi there,

Not sure if this motherboard supports M.2 devices but, have you checked under Windows/Control Panel/System & Security/Administrative Tools/Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions? The drive might need to be formatted and, if it is being recognised at all it will show up here.

If you can't find the M.2 Drive under the Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions utility then you probably need a BIOS update to get it working. You should be able to request this through Tech Support or go over to TweakTown ( https://forums.tweaktown.com/ ) and see if someone there can mod the BIOS for you.

Hi,

Thank you for the reply.

I sent a ticket to Tech Support and they provided me with bios version F9a and said it supports nvme devices (I can't see that version on downloads for the motherboard?). Anyway, will give it a try when I have some spare time :)
Title: Re: M.2 expansion card on Z87-HD3?
Post by: shadowsports on July 01, 2017, 09:11:25 pm: Nice that support send you a modified BIOS. NVMe is not natively supported on chipsets prior to z100. That said, there have been mixed results success/failure with some cards and drives with certain BIOS revs. Will be helpful if you could post your results, AND if you can see the card in BIOS even better :)
Title: Re: M.2 expansion card on Z87-HD3?
Post by: mkpersson on July 03, 2017, 06:51:08 am: Still cant see the drive in Windows (or BIOS but not sure if Im supposed to either, cant find anything obvious about NVME). I have updated the ticket to see if they can help me further.