samsung 960 pro - this drive is not supported (samsung magician)

[noobygirl]

simple setup;

asus rampage v mb with intel x99 chipset
1 x samsung 960 pro nvme via m.2 port (no other drives)
windows 7 (yes, really) installed and working perfectly. fyi; used the gigabyte windows usb installation tool to create working win7 usb stick.

drive seems to perform at close-ish to expected/advertised values. (see below) drive is also using latest firmware. i know so because i booted off the samsung firmware iso and after it checks, reports as "being latest". crystal disk mark and other disk benchmark tools all report same-ish results, as expected, so drive not hindered in any significant way. (could maybe improve around 5-7%?) magician itselfs shows expected-ish results.

my only concern of sorts is that samsung's own magician isn't fully supporting it. see below. is it because it uses microsoft nvme drivers? but if yes, what can i do? i did get current latest samsung drivers, installed them, rebooted, but no change. it's as if they -the samsung drivers- did nothing. they are installed under "program files" and have an uninstall option under windows add/remove as normal, but aren't installed really.

additionally, i also tried to manually update drivers by going to device manager > hardware > drive > driver tab > update driver, then point to the correct place that holds the four needed files. they are; secnvme.cat, secnvme.inf, secnvme.sys & secnvmeF.sys. they are the same as the ones the installer installs anyway, with the last two being digitally signed by both samsung (sha1) and microsoft (sha256). i also tried to "old" right click the inf file and click install, only to get "the inf file you selected does not support this method of installation".

i suppose i can just carry on, but decided to maybe try and somehow switch to samsung drivers, so magician recognizes and starts supporting it's own damn drive before i start installing the other apps and start using windows properly. since this is early stage, i have not updated windows to the very latest, though not sure that would make any difference here. the drive is up and running just fine, seems to perform exactly how it's supposed to, just that the drive maker's own software isn't playing nice with it.

finally, the bios settings for booting are currently set to; auto for the CSM (both auto/enabled work, decided to leave on auto) and "other os" for the safe boot section.


ideas?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I have a 970evo not pro I just left the driver to Ms and it works fine, magician installed ok.
Surprised me to find rapid not supported though due to not supporting nvme drive's at all.
Never owned a pro is it possible it's not supported.

The driver probably isn't important over all.

 

[noobygirl]

ah, yeah, i think it is very important for the drive's own software to see it properly and work with it. smasung makes both. and magician when "supported" shows drive writes, health, etc.. it lets you secure erase it and more. i'd want magician to work. it's not as if i'm wanting another ssd brand maker's software to work with the drive. then, one could understand some of the software features not working. this is samsung's own. it ain't right.

since magician is not seeing the drive, i am missing out on a lot of drive specific things. example. other software could pick up the slack sure, but why use those, when the drive's maker has it's own, and for such sensitive things it's best to use manufacturer ones. i want magician to work properly.


ps: forum "mods".. how much longer am i going to be babysat? ==> "This message is awaiting moderator approval, and is invisible to normal visitors."

 

[bogmali]

ps: forum "mods".. how much longer am i going to be babysat? ==> "This message is awaiting moderator approval, and is invisible to normal visitors."

PS: for as long as nobody notices the mod queues, not on purpose but by forum engine design and not everyone will see it-only the ones that moderate this section and super moderators.

 

[Ahhzz]

simple setup;
...

ideas?

So, it seems like the issue is Magician not recognizing your drive properly. What did Samsung's chat support say when you reached out to them?

 

[Hugis]

Shouldn't the view of magician look somewhat like this.

it is possible that your "Samsung " drive is a fake

Have you spoken to Samsung about an RMA? or to whoever supplied the drive?

Also, do us all a favor and fill in your System Specs

 

[Flaky]

additionally, i also tried to manually update drivers (...)

On what device exactly did you try this procedure?
There are separate devices displayed in device manager, one is an NVMe controller, and the second one is the disk itself. When switched to "devices by connection" view, you'll see the controller as parent of the disk.
The driver is for the controller.

 

[Ramo1203]

I think even without the Samsung driver you should still see it in Magician .

Step 1: Check if the drive appears correctly in the BIOS
Step 2: Install the latest 3.3 driver. (if you do the INF method, do it on the controller not the drive)
Step 3: Install the latest Samsung Magician to see what it reads now.

If you have trouble seeing anything, check with Samsung support. You might have a defective or fake drive.
Also idealy Windows 10 would be better, not 100% sure but NVMe driver support is better on Windows 10 than 7 and also because it's obsolete.
Finally X99 was in the begining of of NVME drives if I remember correctly, so the compatibility and support isn't 100% perfect.

 

[bobbybluz]

There's a section in Magician that indicates if the drive is authentic or not. I think it's on the update page.

 

[Vario]

It might be an OEM drive such as SM961 masquerading as a 960 Pro.