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WD SN550 not working with Dell Inspiron 5676

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:07 am
by crosscourt
Ive tried before but I cloned my Sata ssd to my nvme ssd to use with the 5676 with Win11. Ive cloned many ssds on this system but every time I try to boot the nvme ssd its inaccessible. Its seen in the bios as the boot drive but wont boot. This same ssd when I clone it and put it back into my HP mini-pc boots up on the first try. The slot in the 5676 is definitely the nvme slot and the bios sees it. In disk management in Win11it also sees the drive and the partitions look fine. Ive also tried startup repair but still no dice. Again this SN550 works just fine in the HP. I wonder if its some strange hardware issue. Ive had minor issues with some of my laptops requiring several clonings to get it to work but it does work. My Alienware R10 Ryzen system has a WD sn550 nvme ssd that cloned fine from the Sata ssd in that system.
For now Im going to revert to my Sata ssd and just leave it be for now. I have to say that overall nvme compatibility is more of an issue than I had anticipated.

Re: WD SN550 not working with Dell Inspiron 5676

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 2:07 am
by crosscourt
I used my backup ssd, and cloned to a Hynix nvme ssd that I had thats a bit older. Clone went fine, nvme is seen in boot menu so I select it and it immediately goes to inaccessible. I checked the partitions while I was in Win11 and the Hynix checked out fine. It appears its some type of bios issue and with no updates to come it will never be solved.

Re: WD SN550 not working with Dell Inspiron 5676

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:23 am
by tlmiller
Not the first time I've heard of that happening, although definitely rare.

Re: WD SN550 not working with Dell Inspiron 5676

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:56 pm
by crosscourt
The 5676 is a nice system but the newest bios is 2018 and there have been a number of issues with this system. My Alienware system has a much better bios and they update regularly to improve and solve issues.

Re: WD SN550 not working with Dell Inspiron 5676

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:02 am
by tlmiller
I'll be honest, I never really understood the point of having both the 5675 & the 5676. The 5675 and 5676 overlapped in almost EVERYTHING you could get on them. The only difference was the 5675 was available in lower tier builds (pre-ryzen) while the 5676 was Ryzen only. But their CPU support (for the Ryzen boards) was almost identical, the boards weren't drastically different in build (they were different enough to not be identical, but barely), etc. Seems like they could have just saved money and had one model instead of 2 nearly identical models. Or avoidd confusion by having the 5675 be only the older pre-ryzen chips availble, nad have hte 5676 be...what it was. That way you wouldn't have 2 different motherboards for 1 model, and a board for the second model that's NEARLY identical to one of the ones from the first. You could just have 2 boards, and a clearly delineated models.

Re: WD SN550 not working with Dell Inspiron 5676

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 4:29 am
by crosscourt
I was finally able to get the WD SN550 installed and booting. It was always seen in the bios as the boot drive and was listed as such and was first in the boot list. Nonetheless I highlighted the WD SN550, hit enter, saved, rebooted and suddenly it was working. I initially got the Hynix drive to boot and repeated the process after cloning it to the SN550. My first thought was the Hynix was a 1.2 drive and that was the reason, but the SN550 is a 1.4 drive and works fine.

Re: WD SN550 not working with Dell Inspiron 5676

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 7:16 pm
by crosscourt
What I find silly about all this, is what I did isnt necessary according to Dell support. The drive was already first in the boot list, recognized as the boot drive by Windows manager. So anyone having issues try this and see how it goes.