[SOLVED] SSD playing hide and seek?

Kayayem · 12-13-2020, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

I'm not so convinced that it is as clear-cut as that.
I still see a chance of a software or kernel driver problem, or even PEBKAC.

Kayayem, the ouput in post #13 seems to show 2 internal drives, am I interpreting that correctly?
You probably need to grep for other things too, or just wade through the lot ungrepped.

The system came with a 512GB NVMe and a 2.5" HDD/SSD drive expansion bay, which is the reson I chose this model...my intent was to install Ubuntu to the 2.5" 4TB and one or to other distros to play with...

I'll run the grep again later when I boot into the live session. Are there any modifiers I should use with the grep command, and does it matter which live USB I use (Ubuntu or Fedora)?

Thank you for your time!

Kayayem · 12-13-2020, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computersavvy

That post shows a "failure to communicate!!"

I think you have two options.
1) replace the drive (costs)
2) update the mobo bios. (free but for time involved)

Updating the bios likely would be the first choice if I was doing it.
Advantage: The newer bios on the board usually supports more or better/newer devices and fixes potential problems that might or might not ever be seen depending on usage.
Disadvantage: None! Even if it does not fix the problem it almost never has an error and you are only out the time.

Windows is often more tolerant of borderline devices than linux.

Just recently a member bought a new M.2 drive and the board would not recognize it. He upgraded the bios and the new drive was usable. Often happens that way, especially for devices that are newer than the bios on the board.

If the bios fixes it that's good. If not then you are still out nothing except the time to load and try new bios, and still can replace the drive.

Looking down this avenue, the laptop shipped with the most recent version of the BIOS (v1.04)... there's not a ton of options, not like previous computers I've owned...

https://i.postimg.cc/MGSD3RYN/IMG-2116.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/C1vsK2Vp/IMG-2117.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/fLWvDNpv/IMG-2118.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/yxthmSdf/IMG-2119.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/6qyL4h92/IMG-2120.jpg

computersavvy · 12-13-2020, 08:10 PM

@kayayem, I looked through the dmesg you posted online plus the one with the grep -i command. I also looked through the images you posted from the bios and at acer.com for the bios.

First, I see no evidence of the OS recognizing the drive, nor does the bios give any evidence of recognizing the 4T HDD.
The web site for acer, although the version for the bios is still 1.04, has a version dated 11/11/2020 so I suspect that is newer than what is currently on the laptop. In spite of improvements in hardware it is still possible that your existing bios is old enough that it cannot recognize the 4T drive and if it cannot see the drive it is impossible for the bios to make that drive available to the OS.

With that said, however:
Another thing I note is that in your most recent post of the dmesg output the system obviously sees something on the ata1 port, tries negotiating communications at all 3 available speeds (6.0, 3.0, then 1.5 Gbps ) and when it fails that it gives up. So it knows something is there but cannot communicate properly.

As I understand it, you put this drive in the laptop. Is it possible that you somehow managed to have a cable that has a bad connection somewhere? Either directly on the drive or at the other end. I have experience with the difficulty of properly seating ribbon cables in a laptop (and with unintentionally disturbing that connection as well).

Kayayem · 12-14-2020, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computersavvy

@kayayem, I looked through the dmesg you posted online plus the one with the grep -i command. I also looked through the images you posted from the bios and at acer.com for the bios.

First, I see no evidence of the OS recognizing the drive, nor does the bios give any evidence of recognizing the 4T HDD.
The web site for acer, although the version for the bios is still 1.04, has a version dated 11/11/2020 so I suspect that is newer than what is currently on the laptop. In spite of improvements in hardware it is still possible that your existing bios is old enough that it cannot recognize the 4T drive and if it cannot see the drive it is impossible for the bios to make that drive available to the OS.

With that said, however:
Another thing I note is that in your most recent post of the dmesg output the system obviously sees something on the ata1 port, tries negotiating communications at all 3 available speeds (6.0, 3.0, then 1.5 Gbps ) and when it fails that it gives up. So it knows something is there but cannot communicate properly.

As I understand it, you put this drive in the laptop. Is it possible that you somehow managed to have a cable that has a bad connection somewhere? Either directly on the drive or at the other end. I have experience with the difficulty of properly seating ribbon cables in a laptop (and with unintentionally disturbing that connection as well).

Thank you for the reply!

BIOS does recognize and correctly list the SSD. It's listed on the first screenshot as HDD1 (see below). Windows can see and properly interact with the drive as well... I also checked the firmware on the SSD and it is most recent version... On the BIOS, my system MFG date was 11/05/2020 so that is a possibility. I'm trying to determine what the two versions of the BIOS on ACER.com are and which I need. One is "Update Paned ID" and the other is "Update Internal ID Panel". It's ashame ACER doesn't specify what they are or change logs or any info at all...

https://i.postimg.cc/MGSD3RYN/IMG-2116.jpg

I can check the cable...if I do open it up I will also try ondoho's suggestion to hotplug it and see what response I get from dmesg

Thanks for your time!

Kayayem · 01-16-2021, 09:27 PM

@ondoho and everyone who made suggestions, I wanted to say thankyou and post an update in case anyone else lands here. I am posting this from Fedora on the SSD. With end of the year projects at work I havn't had time to get this system working. Anyways, I tried to update the BIOS but it gave me an error that it was the same version. I discovered that Acer BIOS have hidden options, unlocked with Ctrl+S. The option I disable was "VMD Controller" (Intel Volume Management Device Bootcamp).

Booted into live session and there she was, just waiting to be formatted!