cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Processors

secretempire1
Newcomer
‎11-02-2019 11:53 AM

Does the 240GE support booting from an NVME drive?

I recently bought an ASRock Deskmini A300 with an Athlon 240GE.  The board supports two NVME drives.

If I install an NVME drive into either M.2 slot, the system will not boot.  It will not even POST.  According to the specifications, the second M.2 slot is supported by Athlon 2xxGE processors, albeit at x2 speeds, instead of x4 speeds. 

 

- M.2_1: Type 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4
- M.2_2: Type 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4*
- 2 x SATA 6Gb 2.5-inch 7mm/9.5mm Hard Drive (RAID 0/1)

*Athlon 2xxGE series APU - PCIe Gen3 x2

I've tried every setting I can think of in the BIOS, I cannot get this thing to boot.  If I remove the NVME, it boots instantly.  I know it's not a firmware version issue because the board shipped with the latest BIOS revision (v3.50).

I'm seeing mixed responses to people in threads online about whether or not the 2xxGE series supports booting from NVME drives, but none are using my exact configuration, so I can't fully validate or invalidate their claims.

Any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks! 

0 Likes
4 Replies
elstaci
MVP
‎11-03-2019 06:06 AM

From your ASRock Support site QVL list for Storage devices for your computer model: ASRock > DeskMini A300 Series 

From your PC Manual:

Seems like with the Athlon 2xxGE only supports one NVME device on M2_2 on your motherboard. M2_1 doesn't support NVME device with Athlon 2xxGE installed.

0 Likes
secretempire1
In response to elstaci
Newcomer
‎11-03-2019 10:07 AM

Thank you for the response.  So do you think the M.2 drive is possibly DOA?

0 Likes
elstaci
In response to secretempire1
MVP
‎11-03-2019 01:05 PM

One way to sure is by installing it in another computer. If it does the same thing then it is a good indication it is bad. But most likely it could be due to not being compatible or the Motherboard has problems.

Does the NVME you are using support x2 speeds? If not that could be a reason why it is not working. It is possible your NVME needs x4 speeds to work unless it is backwards compatible.

I would open a ASRock Support ticket and see what they believe could be the problem. If it is the NVME or Motherboard or the Processor not able to support two NVMEs.

0 Likes
hardcoregames_
Big Boss
‎11-03-2019 04:59 PM

Even the 200GE CPU can boot from the M.2 slot. If there is a problem, then the SSD may be at fault. If it shows up in the BIOS you may need to install Windows fresh.

If dual m.2 SSD drives are installed the motherboard may not support that for boot.

0 Likes