Dell laptop randomly reporting no hard drive found

[carmen617]

Client drops off 4 year old consumer grade (but not bottom of the line) Dell laptop for SSD upgrade - upgrade goes fine, cloned to Samsung SSD. System boots as normal, everything works, all passes diagnostics. However, if I walk away from the system on my bench, there is a good chance I will come back to a Dell Support Assist screen reporting no hard drive found. If I shut the system down and restart, it's fine, comes back normally. What I don't know is what is causing the system to reboot, and why, when it reboots, it's going to Dell Support Assist and reporting no drive. I have disassembled the system twice now and made sure all cable connections are intact and look good.

I'm crazy busy and have to get the system back to the client tomorrow. Have actually told the customer about the problem - they are "ok" with it (planning to replace the system next year) "as long as it reboots fine when restarted", but I have no way to guarantee that. Anybody seen this particular problem before and have any advice for me?

 

[backwoodsman]

If it didn't do it before, I'd suspect a compatibility issue between the machine and the SSD. Try a different brand of SSD and see what happens.

 

[Porthos]

Client drops off 4 year old consumer grade (but not bottom of the line) Dell laptop for SSD upgrade - upgrade goes fine, cloned to Samsung SSD.

Since you did a clone, there might have been an issue before you did not know about and was not disclosed by the client and the client thought the SSD would fix it.

 

[cypress]

If you still have the original hard drive, I would do a clean install on the Samsung SSD and see what happens?

FWIW I had this issue with a Dell Inspiron laptop as well about 3 years old. Did a clone with Silicon Power SSD and even did a clean install and the machine will not boot at all to it. Could not figure it out for the life of me.

 

[mattsnoddy]

Sounds like hardware, would do the following (if not already done):

• Check the BIOS and upgrade if firmware available
• Check the SSD firmware and upgrade if available
• Health check of the SSD via Samsung Magician or whatever tool you have

There's a chance the brand new SSD is just bad; if you have another and can re-clone to that, see if the problem still exists

 

[Sky-Knight]

Update the BIOS, because it sounds like it's trying to sleep and failing. A driver update sweep wouldn't hurt.

If THAT doesn't fix it, I'd replace the SSD. The fact that it passes tests is irrelevant, it's RAM and when RAM goes bad it does strange and random things. Assuming it's not a sleep issue, the SSD will fail... it's just a matter of when.

The problem is you can never really be sure.

 

[phaZed]

I agree with the other suggestions as far as trying a different brand. I've had similar issues where I theorize the SSD is "ready" or "not ready", too fast or not fast enough for the BIOS to detect it during it's initial startup... whichever way.

I have always been able to rectify the issue with a different SSD drive brand.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Client drops off 4 year old consumer grade (but not bottom of the line) Dell laptop for SSD upgrade

What exact model is it?

RANT -Really should not have to ask this. Some models have known issues. It’s always best practice to mention the model number when you post.

 

[carmen617]

Thanks for all the responses - it was absolutely the drive, a Samsung 970EVO that I will RMA. Put in a WD Blue and all good and stable.

I had forgotten, but the same drive gave me a different problem with a Dell AIO, not being recognized after clone, which I chalked up to system incompatibility, having seen that Dell AIO/Samsung EVO problem before. Since I didn't think it was the drive itself, I put it back into inventory. Two strikes and it is out!

 

[Sky-Knight]

Thanks for all the responses - it was absolutely the drive, a Samsung 970EVO that I will RMA. Put in a WD Blue and all good and stable.

I had forgotten, but the same drive gave me a different problem with a Dell AIO, not being recognized after clone, which I chalked up to system incompatibility, having seen that Dell AIO/Samsung EVO problem before. Since I didn't think it was the drive itself, I put it back into inventory. Two strikes and it is out!

Not a cheap lesson to learn, but what you did was the only way to really be sure the drive is defective. SSDs are just tough to troubleshoot sometimes.