Samsung 950 PRO NVM Express Driver

Hi all,

I just got a Dell Precision 7710. Naturally, the first thing I did is take the $2 HDD out and put in a 950 PRO NVMe SSD. Per something I read on a Dell document, I needed Intel RST RAID driver F6 loaded when I clean installed Windows 10 x64.

It works fine, but when I try to install the driver, it says the NVMe device is not connected. Is it because it is sitting behind the Intel RAID controller? Should I configure this differently (while still being able to boot)?

Would this work better if I change the UEFI BIOS so that it is in AHCI mode and not RAID?

Thanks all.

I have a 7710 and put in the Samsung 950. I changed the bios to AHCI instead of RAID and used the Samsung NVMe Driver. I did a clean install of Win 10 with the MS Download and all went well. I installed most the drivers from the dell site. I also have UEFI and Secure Boot enabled.

I have read if you have it in RAID, you need to use the F6 drivers to install windows (not needed with AHCI, MS install loads the drivers) and then you also cannot use the Samsung Driver with RAID. You need to instal the Intel IRST Driver.

If You installed in RAID, and want to go to AHCI, there is an easy way to do that. go to run, msconfig, boot, safe boot (safe mode). Reboot, but press F2 before it gets back into windows and change from RAID to AHCI. Then restart and it will boot into safe mode with the default MS driver for AHCI. Then reboot and install the Samsung NVMe driver for the 950.

You can also go from AHCI to RAID. I tried that too on the PCIe drive that came with the system (not the 950).

Mike

rinconmike said:

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You can also go from AHCI to RAID. I tried that too on the PCIe drive that came with the system (not the 950).
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Hey Mike,

Would you mind elaborating with more details on going from AHCI mode back to RAID?

Here is my situation. I have the 7710, two Samsung 950 NVMe drives in AHCI mode and using the Samsung driver. I am experiencing crashes daily on average. The nature of the crash is not a BSOD, but what appears to be a video crash where the system freezes and the screen becomes pixelated sporatically, with 1/4" square blocks blacked out and flickering - rather entertaining if it were not for the fact my system just crashed and I lost my current work! See the attached picture for reference. The only recovery is to force a cold boot.

I've been on the phone, chats, and emails with Dell about it (and the Thunderbolt Dock). Dell is saying I need to go back to the Intel RAID driver, and hence RAID mode for the system to work properly. To me, this doesn't make total sense, but after weeks of testing out different video drivers and no success, I'm ready to try going back to RAID mode and it is proving to not be very easy with NVMe drives in AHCI mode. FYI... This has nothing to do with the Thunderbolt Dock, as I have not used it in weeks - its a paper weight.

Ideas???

That does not sound like an issue with the NVMe drive. The factory default is where the bios is set as raid instead of ahci. Dell is probably stating go back to that. I beleive I posted the directions earlier in the thread. It is more or less while in Windows, set the next boot to boot to safe mode. Then reboot the machine and hit f2 on restart to go into bios before windows boots. Then change the bios setting to raid. Then boot to Windows which will be in safe mode. It should now load the Intel or Windows driver. Then reboot.

This sounds more like a graphics driver of card issue. However, does not hurt to try.

Maybe also try turning off switchable graphics so it uses the discrete video card.

Thank you for the fast reply!!! I did try your method as posted. I get the INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE BSOD upon rebooting after switching over to RAID mode. Yes, it came from the factory in RAID mode. I did a clean install with the separately purchased Samsung 950, and decided on AHCI mode at the time, as then the Samsung tools work with it.

I tend to agree, this crash behavior doesn't seem to be a drive controller issue, but I'm trying to be open minded. I just want my system to work reliably.

So, here is the question: You are using much the same configuration as I, are you having crashes of any kind?

That error happens if you do not have windows set to boot to safe mode. Try setting to boot to safe mode and reboot. Go into bios but do not change anything and then exit and boot to see if it does go onto sage mode.

Are you running Windows 10? This does not work in Windows 7.

Luckily I do not have the crashes. I have the latest bios and latest Nvidia driver from Nvidia website. Running Windows 10.

It does go into Safe Mode properly, as long as I don't change the boot mode from AHCI to RAID. Once I change that in UEFI/BIOS, upon reboot it goes to the INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE.

Knowing your configuration is the same AND you are not experiencing these crashes, and I did have the Switchable Graphics set to ON, I have disabled that, and let's see what happens while retaining AHCI mode. This actually makes a ton of sense, as the crash appears to be a video issue. So, this is great!! Thank you for the idea. I'll give this a few days and hopefully my system stability issues are gone.

Oh yeah, this is on Windows 10.