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1343 Discussions

Optane Memory Module not being detected by Intel Apps

AZito
Beginner
7,149 Views

Hello All,

I've been having trouble setting up some my set of Optane Memory.

I'm currently running an Intel core i7-7700K on an Asus IX Hero Z270 motherboard. I have my OS installed on a Samsung 960 EVO M.2, currently in my M.2_2 port. I have placed my 32GB Optane Memory in my M.2_1 port.

I have a good amount of hard drives in this system, but I'll keep it as simple as possible.

When I use my M.2_1 port it disables my Sata 1 port, nothing is plugged into my Sata 1 port.

When I use my M.2_2 in x4 mode it disables Sata's 5 and 6.

Sata 2 has my Games drive and is the drive I wish to accelerate with Optane Memory. (2TB Seagate SSHD)

Sata's 3 and 4 are Samsung 500GB SSD's running in Raid 0.

Because I have a raid in my system I elected to install the Intel RST application over the Optane app. Although I have experienced using the Optane application as well.

 

When in the RST app under Optane memory the app tells me:

 

"Your system appears to be Intel Optane Memory ready but no Intel Optane memory modules were detected in your computer."

In Windows 10 device manager and disk management I can see and even format the Optane memory. However the application can not detect it.

I can confirm that the following are all accurate to what my system has in it's bios/UEFI:

  • SATA mode is an Intel® Optane™ memory Enabled selection, not AHCI.
  • Intel RST is enabled.
  • Remapping is enabled for the PCIe-M.2 port that contains the module.
  • UEFI is selected as the Boot option for storage devices.
  • CSM is disabled.

I initially tried the Optane module in m.2_2 but after reading ones report that it worked for them when switching to m.2_1 I switched too and found no luck. I also tried opening CMD and doing a CLEAN ALL for my Optane Disk, but still it's not being detected. I'm really stuck here and have been trying this for almost five hours

Can anyone help?

Thank you in advance.

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8 Replies
idata
Employee
1,802 Views

Hello APZ84,

 

 

Thank you for contacting Intel technical support,

 

 

As we understand you are trying to use your Intel® Optane™ Memory Series 32GB, M.2 80mm PCIe 3.0, 20nm, 3D Xpoint on your Asus IX Hero Z270 motherboard to accelerate a secondary/data drive.

 

 

In order to complete that process we need you to follow the instructions available in the following article:

 

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026040/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026040/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

 

7th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processorshttps://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i7-processors/i7-7700.html Intel® Core™ i7-7700 Processor

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i7-processors/i7-7700k.html Intel® Core™ i7-7700K Processor

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i7-processors/i7-7700t.html Intel® Core™ i7-7700T Processorhttps://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/chipsets/desktop-chipsets/z270.html Intel® Z270 Chipset

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/chipsets/desktop-chipsets/q270.html Intel® Q270 Chipset

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/chipsets/desktop-chipsets/h270.html Intel® H270 Chipset

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/chipsets/desktop-chipsets/q250.html Intel® Q250 Chipset

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/chipsets/desktop-chipsets/b250.html Intel® B250 Chipset15.5 or later NoteFor secondary/data drive acceleration support, 16.0.2 or later is required. A System BIOS update is also required, contact your motherboard vendor.

 

Please make sure you have the proper driver version installed on your system for acceleration and the latest version of the System BIOS (contact your motherboard vendor).

 

 

The latest version of the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) User Interface and Driver can be found here:

 

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27984/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-User-Interface-and-Driver https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27984/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-User-Interface-and-Driver

 

 

In case that you are already running the latest version of the Intel® RST User Interface and the latest version of the System BIOS compatible with secondary/data drive acceleration provided by your motherboard manufacturer. We will need you to provide us with pictures and the marking of your product (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000025532/memory-and-storage.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000025532/memory-and-storage.html).

 

 

We will be looking forward to your reply.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

Josh B.

 

Intel Customer Support

 

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AZito
Beginner
1,802 Views

Hello thank you for your help.

 

 

I wanted to give you some more insight into what I am dealing with. You are exactly correct when I want to utilize Optane memory or my secondary/data drive. You have the correct motherboard and the correct processor. My Bios for my motherboard is the latest bios offered by Asus, BIOS 1301 dated April 20th 2018. Inside my BIOS it does say my Intel RST Raid Driver is 15.5.0.2875. To my understanding this is prior to the 16.0.2 driver update needed to utilize a secondary/data drive. Which would leave me thinking if Asus doesn't update this motherboards BIOS with the new Raid Driver then I wont be able to take advantage of using Optane with a secondary drive. Am I correct? Or is there a way to manually update my Intel Raid drivers to 16.0.2 or later?

 

 

 

Even with that being said, I should still be able to detect the Optane memory in the RST application, which I am not. It does however show in Windows disk management, and Device Manager under Disk Drives.

 

 

Here is some information I have off of my Intel Optane box -

 

Prod CODE: MEMPEK1W032GAXT

 

Serial # PHBT81460112032E

 

SA# J45812-102
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idata
Employee
1,802 Views

Hello APZ84,

 

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

 

To answer your questions
  • Inside my BIOS it does say my Intel RST Raid Driver is 15.5.0.2875. To my understanding, this is prior to the 16.0.2 driver update needed to utilize a secondary/data drive. Which would leave me thinking if Asus doesn't update this motherboards BIOS with the new Raid Driver then I won't be able to take advantage of using Optane with a secondary drive. Am I correct? Or is there a way to manually update my Intel Raid drivers to 16.0.2 or later?

 

You are correct in order to use the Optane memory to accelerate a secondary drive you need a compatible Bios version.

 

 

You can update the RST Raid driver from the operating system (OS), the same for the RST software, but when it comes to the microcode in the BIOS it can only be updated by the manufacturer and is usually part of a BIOS update.

 

 

You mentioned your primary hard drive is a Samsung 960 EVO M.2, currently in M.2_2 port, is it similar to this one?

 

https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/solid-state-drives/ssd-960-evo-m-2-500gb-mz-v6e500bw/ https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/solid-state-drives/ssd-960-evo-m-2-500gb-mz-v6e500bw/

 

 

If we inferred correctly this drive is an NVME drive and the Optane Memory and software are not able to accelerate this type of drive.

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000024018/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000024018/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

 

 

Based on your board specifications:

 

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/MAXIMUS_IX_HERO/E12186_MAXIMUS_IX_HERO_UM_V2_WEB.pdf http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/MAXIMUS_IX_HERO/E12186_MAXIMUS_IX_HERO_UM_V2_WEB.pdf

 

 

M.2_1 Configuration:

 

[Auto][SATA mode][PCIE mode] [Auto] Auto-detects the M.2 device mode. If a SATA device is detected, SATA6G_1 will be disabled. [SATA mode] Only supports M.2 SATA devices. Please note that SATA6G_1 port cannot be used in this mode. [PCIE mode] Only supports M.2 PCIE devices.

 

M.2_2 PCIe Bandwidth Configuration:

 

[X2][X4] [X2] Run at X2 mode with SATA6G_56 enabled. [X4] Run at X4 mode for higher performance with SATA6G_56 disabled.

 

 

In order to confirm that you have the appropriate settings on your Bios please check that the configuration for your M.2_1 port that your Optane memory is plugged in is set up in PCIE mode.

 

 

We recommend you to update to the latest version of the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) User Interface and Driver that can be found here:

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27984/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-User-Interface-and-Driver https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27984/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-User-Interface-and-Driver

 

 

We will be looking forward to your reply.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

Josh B.

 

Intel Customer Support

 

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AZito
Beginner
1,802 Views

Thank you so much for your help!

You mentioned I could update the RST raid driver from the operating system. Is this the same as running the RST software? If not, how or where do I get and install the proper RST Raid Driver? I currently am already running the RST Software from Intel. RST is better for me than the Optane application because I am running other data drives in raid.

You are correct on my board, and that Samsung drive is also a similar hard drive to what I run for my Windows boot drive (different capacity). I am aware that Optane memory can not accelerate an NVME drive, and have no interest in doing so. On Sata 2 is my SSHD 2TB drive. That is what I want to accelerate. I understand this may be a problem for me and I need to keep my fingers crossed ASUS puts out another Bios update that supports the newer RST drivers for data drive acceleration, however shouldn't the RST application recognize my Optane? Perhaps because my bios isn't updated with the newer RST driver for data drives, the RST application automatically assumes I want to use Optane on my boot drive which is NVME and not compatible with Optane? But still shouldn't it DETECT the Optane at least?

I currently switched the Samsung m.2 back to m.2_1 and Optane is back in m.2_2

 

I think this will be OK for my board. Options for m.2_1 slot is as you stated, "Auto, Sata, PCIE" I can leave this as auto, or switch to PCIE and I think I'll be ok. Probably should do PCIE for speed benefits.

 

Options for the m.2_2 slot is as you stated "x2 or x4" PCIE only. To my knowledge that slot should be set to x4 for Optane? Any opinion on this?

Again thank you for your help and your time. I look forward to your reply.

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idata
Employee
1,802 Views

Hello APZ84,

 

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

 

To answer your questions

 

  • The latest version of the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) User Interface and Driver that can be found here:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27984/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-User-Interface-and-Driver https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27984/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-User-Interface-and-Driver
  • The importance of updating the Intel® RST and the driver is to force the system to be able to detect and to use your Optane memory to accelerate a secondary/data drive using the Intel® RST software, even when the primary hard drive is an NVME.
  • Based on the manual the M.2_2 PCIe Bandwidth Configuration is the following:

 

[X2][X4] [X2] Run at X2 mode with SATA6G_56 enabled. [X4] Run at X4 mode for higher performance with SATA6G_56 disabled.

 

 

The only recommendations will be to have the SATA6G_56 disabled and in case that you have any doubt about this M.2 port we recommend you to consult with Asus technical support.

 

Our recommendation is to try to update your drivers and software to the latest version and to check if the system detects the Optane properly and to try to accelerate your secondary HHD.

 

 

In case that is not able please get in contact with your motherboard manufacturer to request a BIOS update for your system in order to support this feature.

 

 

I hope you find this information useful.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

Josh B.

 

Intel Customer Support.
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AZito
Beginner
1,802 Views

Hello and thank you again,

The link you provided me was to the RST software which I am already running. I tried downloading the Windows server and running the Service executable, but that doesn't seem to help, just opens a window and closes it.

I entered my bios and shut off the Sata ports associated with the Optane memory, it didn't seem to do much. However oddly enough when I was in RST it would detect that those ports were open or available, prior to switching it to disabled.

Windows has no problem recognizing the Optane as existent, but Windows doesn't know really what to do with it other than think it's another hard drive.

Any other suggestions in the mean time to consider?

 

I'm going to try and get in contact with Asus tomorrow to see if they are going to be updating this motherboard with any new BIOS. Once again thank you, I'm beginning to believe that my bios not featuring the newer RST raid drivers is the root of my problems with detecting and enabling Optane memory.
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idata
Employee
1,802 Views

Hello APZ84.

 

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

 

Since you are already running the latest version of the RST software and driver, and your OS is able to recognize the Optane memory (at least as a storage device) as you mentioned it is a good idea to get in contact with your motherboard manufacturer to get an update for your BIOS that supports the acceleration of a secondary hard drive as one of the features.

 

 

Another test that you can perform in case that you have an extra SATA hard drive that is not in use is to install a fresh copy of Windows including the latest RST software and drivers and to try to accelerate that new primary hard drive to check the system behavior and to discard any other hardware problem.

 

 

Please try this just if you have the available time and it does not affect your current configuration.

 

 

This being said we will be looking forward to your reply sharing your findings and please, do not hesitate to contact us again if you need further assistance.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

Josh B.

 

Intel Customer Support.

 

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idata
Employee
1,802 Views

Hello APZ84.

 

 

Thank you for having contacted Intel Technical Support.

 

 

We have not heard from you since our last communication and we would like to know if you need further assistance or if we can close this case?

 

 

Important note: Should further assistance or clarification be required, we will greatly appreciate if you reply to this post instead of writing a new one unless your inquiry is completely unrelated. This way we will prevent generating a duplicate post and we will not lose the train of thought.

 

 

We will be looking forward to your reply.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

Josh B.

 

Intel Customer Support.
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