600P not recognised on UX501JW

[idata]

I have a Zenbook UX501JW. I contacted Asus support and they said that the Samsung SM 951 NVMe SSD is supported for my laptop. Well, that drive is the same exact spec as the 600P, so I got one. It should work, right?

Intel's information for the 600P says: "A small M.2 (80mm) form factor offers a wide range of capacities and simply plugs into M.2 - M key slots on major motherboards... Just install the drive and the NVMe driver, and you are good to go."

So why doesn't the 600P appear in the BIOS and is not accessible by the Windows Install disk? Can you guys please do some compatibility testing. I've read online that we are supposed to just buy your products and then return them when they aren't actually "good to go".

I'd like to blame ASUS for not having full NVMe support in the BIOS but Intel's marketing copy is clear that it should work! Is the Intel 600P drive supposed to work with my laptop?

Edit: PS, Kingston is able to provide good compatibility lists. http://www.kingston.com/us/memory/search?DeviceType=19&Mfr=ASU&Line=Zenbook%20Pro&Model=92363 http://www.kingston.com/us/memory/search?DeviceType=19&Mfr=ASU&Line=Zenbook%20Pro&Model=92363

[idata · Accepted solution]

Hello twoc,

The requirements for the Intel® SSD 600p Series are fairly simple, all you need is an M.2 port that will support PCIe NVMe* 3.0 x4 (older NVMe* generations are supported, but will slow down your drive's performance to match). Windows* 8.1 and 10 support this SSD natively, meaning no additional driver is required. We always recommend checking with your motherboard, or system manufacturer for compatibility.

Something that is very important is to make sure you have the latest BIOS, and Chipset drivers. An outdated BIOS may not detect an NVMe* SSD regardless of the brand.

- Downloads for ASUS® ZenBook® Pro UX501JW*:

https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ASUS-ZenBook-Pro-UX501JW/HelpDesk_Download/ https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ASUS-ZenBook-Pro-UX501JW/HelpDesk_Download/

Note: Any links provided for third party tools or sites are offered for your convenience and should not be viewed as an endorsement by Intel.

Please let us know if this helps.

Best regards,

Carlos A.

[idata]

Yes, the BIOS seems to be the issue. I have the latest BIOS, but I am at ASUS' mercy. The latest BIOS supports NVMe. It is only now that I probe ASUS that I find that the BIOS apparently only supports the NVMe device Samsung SM951 NVMe M2.

You say now that you "We always recommend checking with your motherboard, or system manufacturer for compatibility." but actually, that is simply untrue. The page for the Intel SSD 600p series does not mention that a single time. http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/solid-state-drives/solid-state-drives-600p-series.html Intel® SSD 600p Series: PC Storage Optimized

To tell it to you straight, if you are really interested in selling this product and not getting high return rate, you need to do what reputable SSD vendors do and notice that your product has limited compatibility. At the very minimum, I would hope you cease from this false advertising that it's just plug and play, and actually write a sentence like this on the product information: "We always recommend checking with your motherboard, or system manufacturer for compatibility." It's just not that difficult.

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For future reference of others who may read this, the Asus ZenBook Pro UX501JW does not support Intel 600P. Additionally, Asus Zenbook Pro UX501VW does not suport Intel 600P. They will not support any drives other than the SM951 unless ASUS decides to make an updated BIOS for this purpose. As far as I am aware, there are no laptops from ASUS that can accept the Intel 600P.

[idata]

If anyone is interested, this is the response from ASUS support:

親愛的華碩用戶您好:

感謝您使用華碩產品，今天將由我為您服務。 關於您的問題，此筆電最大支援512GSSD

經測試的SSD為:SAMSUNG/MZVPV512HDGL-00000

ASUS Service Center

0800-093456歡迎訪問FAQ（Frequently Asked Questions）頁面，在這裏您可以查看到常見問題的解決方案。http://www.asus.com/tw/support/ http://www.asus.com/tw/support/

Basically it says that the SAMSUNG SM951 drive, which is NVMe, identical to the Intel 600P, is supported. As for the Intel drive, they have not tested it.