750 ssd missing from UEFI boot list win7 MSI gaming 5 Z97 mobo

[DPick2]

I recently built a new PC centered around the intel 750 SSD. I purchased the MSI gaming 5 Z97 mobo as it is listed as win7 compatible in the 750 FAQ.

I downloaded intel's nvme drivers, booted from a UEFI win7 USB stick and put a clean install of win7 on the 750 per the intel documentation. Upon rebooting, the 750 is missing from the UEFI boot list. Entering the BIOS there are only default options "UEFI HDD, UEFI usb drive" etc. If i switch to UEFI+legacy, I can boot into my old intel x25M sata SSD, and the 750 is viewable in windows explorer.

By cloning my old x25M win7 install onto the 750 I was able to trick it into booting from the ssd:

power on computer

select x25m ssd from bios boot list

boot into windows

reboot computer

enter bios

choose intel 750 ssd from force boot list

boot into windows.

While this sort of works it means I have to use the old install of win7 in MBR / legacy format rather than GPT/UEFI.

I've downloaded the latest intel nvme drivers and used intel ssd toolbox to update 750 firmware to the newest version.

Please advise!

[DPick2]

at this point it's been days of tinkering with configurations, i'm getting close to returning the 750ssd to newegg and buying a 730 just to get rid of this headache. I really want to make the 750 work but this is just so frustrating!

[AP16]

Have you tried with CSM option enabled in BIOS?

[DPick2]

the MSI Gaming 5 bios has no CSM.

I appear to have figured it out.

Under the "advanced" section in the bios, there's a sub group called Intel Ready boost or some such. Once enabled a number of other options appear, including the ability to set boot from IDE to AHCI, allowing booting from NVME and changing default boot to PCI-E first.

I don't know why it's buried under some obscure section instead of under CSM as notated in the intel installation guide.

Using these settings I was able to get it to cold boot into both windows 10 and windows 7 with GPT format. I'm using it with windows 7 now and it has been stable all day.

[DPick2]

Ugh, when I woke up this morning the PC would not cold-boot into the 750. not only that the drive was completely missing from windows explorer when I booted into my old SSD.

I was able to restart and the 750 eventually showed up, but any time I did a full power down the 750 would disappear. Despite proper configuration, the bios would throw an A2 error (boot device missing) and then eventually boot up the old SSD.

I've RMA'd the 750 and will update once I have a replacement.