New Asus X870E Strix board - M.2 drive disappearing

[Cheairnyndahl]

Hello, just installed my new Asus X870E-E Strix motherboard, loving it so far. When I initially got in to Windows, all of my drives were present (even the new one that wasn't formatted yet was showing in Disk Management) - I updated everything in terms of latest drivers for the motherboard etc, rebooted and enabled EXPO on my RAM, set to 6000MHz with voltages set, didn't touch any other settings...

And now one of my M.2 drives is not showing up in BIOS or in Windows?  I've tried changing the BIOS setting for Bifurcation to GPU+M.2 mode, that doesn't help.  Any suggestions as to what else I can try?  I have a feeling it's related to the whole thing of the GPU slot & the M.2-2 & M.2-3 sharing bandwidth, but the drive that's in one of them is showing up while the other is not now.
I'm going to try disabling EXPO & see if that helps for some reason... wouldn't make any sense if that was it, but perhaps the BIOS version I'm on is messing something up.

[AOMi]

Any Asus tech personnal here to fix this?

[Cheairnyndahl]

Unfortunately these are user-forums, there is no Asus Tech Support on here that I know of. I wish there was.  I'm tempted to email this thread to GamersNexus and have them do some investigating to see how wide-spread this is... I've asked JayzTwoCents to check it out in comments, but I don't know if he'll ever see it, but since I KNOW he could get this Asus board if he asked for it, worth a shot.

Asus needs to recall these boards if it's this widespread & offer replacements or refunds, instead of forcing us to just do regular RMAs, which I literally cannot do, because I don't have a backup board & I can't afford weeks of down time - I'm literally having to wait until I can afford another motherboard to RMA this one... I will be buying a different brand, RMAing this one & reselling the Asus replacement after I make sure it's not faulty, then keeping the new one I get from another brand... just gotta pick one. 
Really pisses me off because I bought this motherboard specifically because of the 3 large M.2 heatsinks on slots 1-3, and I can't even USE them, let alone the slots, on a consistent basis.

[Jiaszzz_ROG]

Hello all

Apologies for joining the discussion late, and may have missed some of the detailed context.
We have released BIOS version 1104 on our official website to address this issue. Kindly consider updating the BIOS to version 1104 if you were having a related problem. And we would also appreciate it if you could continue to update us with the results after performing the update.
For instructions on how to update the BIOS, please refer to [Motherboard] How to update the BIOS of the motherboard? (Including different generation CPUs).

Thank you.

[AOMi]

2x Samsung PRO 990 4 Tb at M2_1 & M2_2 (total 4/5 of them...).

v1104: 20 reboots, PCIEX16_1 Bifurcation AUTO - M2_2 always seen, videocard always 8x. So v1104 finally fixed detection of M2_2.

MB Description at the site and documentation did not clearly tell that user can not have more than 3x M2's (and only one at PCI-e 5.0) if GPU will get x16.
If I knew it before buying this MB for such inadequate price I'd better move to Threadripper.

PS: add device detection logging to usb flash drive to avoid such problems as topic describes to faster fixing troubles in future.
PPS: change BIOS v1104 description not to only "Samsung EVO 990 2TB". I think it touches every Samsung SSD (and maybe every SSD, not only Samsung).
And it is not related to DDR EXPO. You can read my post https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-motherboards/new-asus-x870e-strix-board-m-2-drive-disappearing/... and find that there is no connection to DDR profiles.

[Cheairnyndahl]

It may not have been directly related to EXPO, but for me every time I enabled expo previously, my drives would start disappearing randomly, whereas on auto it was much less frequent. I'll be testing more today since I'll actually have time after work, hopefully. 

[DarekGra]

Unfortunately, in my computer, the problem of the disk disappearing still occurs. Usually, when the computer goes to sleep, during a cold start, the problem occurs less often.

[Hipflask]

---

@Psamtik wrote:

Best bet then so long as you are not concerned with the gpu dropping to x8 is to set the ram profile to auto and then manually enter the timings. Since I have done this I have had zero issues with all 6 drives working with no issues, plus if you are up for a bit of tweaking you can get better performance out of the ram than the EXPO/DOCP profiles give you on top of slots 2 and 3 working. 

I would recommend saving the text version of the bios to usb if you do tweak the ram settings so you can see what you need to put in again if the future bios updates are not compatible with previous versions profiles.

If it helps, for my SK Hynix 48GB 6000 kit I use these timings with FCLK Frequency [2067 MHz]

Tcl [30]
Trcd [36]
Trp [36]
Tras [28]
Trc [68]
Twr [48]
Refresh Interval [65535]
Trfc1 [500]
Trfc2 [400]
Trfcsb [300]
Trtp [12]
TrrdL [8]
TrrdS [4]
Tfaw [20]
TwtrL [16]
TwtrS [6]
TrdrdScl [4]
TrdrdSc [1]
TrdrdSd [Auto]
Trdrddd [Auto]
TwrwrScl [4]
TwrwrSc [1]
TwrwrSd [Auto]
TwrwrDd [Auto]
Twrrd [2]
Trdwr [16]

---

If that's the case then it's tied to an unstable OC, hence why so many people only report it happening with EXPO profiles.  The SOC is responsible for a number of things so if the DRAM is unstable it has the potential to cause weird behaviour. Hence why using slots tied to the chipset remedies it also. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/comments/17jf2yi/msi_x670e_ace_mobo_different_m2_drives_keep/?rd...

https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=24978&title=x670e-not-recognizing-m-2-2280-sata

https://community.amd.com/t5/pc-building/m-2-ssd-often-disappears-after-standby-resume/td-p/718285

This is why actually stress testing with the proper tools after applying memory overclocking profiles is important and so many people neglect doing it.

[AOMi]

It has no connection to DRAM. I tried my G.Skill 6400 2x48 kit at 5600, 4800, 3200. This bug persists at any tested speed.

[Hipflask]

Even after clearing CMOS?

What about if you reduce the PCIE link speed for the 990s?

Are you using AI Tuner or PBO?

What board?

Looking at the thread, most people state the problem goes away when removing OC - has anyone else said it happens at stock?

[AOMi]

I repeat:

New/latest BIOS (so configuration is default), Load Optimal Defaults or how it is named, no any changes to config, no any software (it's BEFORE any software).

Just a BIOS POST.

G.Skill 2x48 6400 Kit F5-6400J3239F48GX2-RM5, 9900X, 2x (of total 4/5) Samsung 990 Pro 4Tb, RTX 4070 Ti Super
RAM tested at speeds 6400/5600/4800/3200, PCI-links M2's tested Auto/Gen4/Gen3.
RAM, CPU, SSD's, RTX - absolutely (!!!) 100% OK.

2 of SSD's inserted at M2_1 and M2_2. Powering on Asus X870E ROG Crosshair Hero - M2_2 seen at POST OR NOT seen. Reset - can be seen or not seen too. Reset again - can be seen or not seen too. A lottery!

Especially annoyed there are no PC SPEAKER out and I can't understand where POST was if I'm not looking at monitor (I can be in other room, at other machines etc). Especially crazy when waiting for RAM training and results after this - is M2_2 seen or not!

Asus engineers have their hands out of their asses, and the marketing department has cosmic greed. This MB must be placed at low-cost range ~100$ and lower and not at the >=750$