NUC D54250WYKH SSD not detected issue - Finding and possible solution

[iann]

I just bought an i5 NUC 2 days ago, 8Gb ram. Tested normal HDD at the shop and everything ok.

At home, updated to latest BIOS (WYLPT10H.86A), I tried with my SATA OWC Extreme Pro 6G 240GB SSD, and it is not detected. Tried again with other SATA SSD, here is the result:-

1) OWC Extreme Pro 6G 240GB = not detected

2) Intel 520 480GB = not detected

3) Crucial M550 1TB = detected after 10 sec delay at POST

4) Crucial M500 960GB = detected immediately, fast and furious.

5) Samsung 840 Evo 1TB (mSATA) = detected immediately, fast and furious.

Out of 4pcs 2.5" SSD, only Crucial M500 is working flawlessly. The rest is having problem of slow detection or no detection at all.

This is annoying, and after trying around, i found the real problem of this SSD issue on all intel NUC, which later i found out many people is also facing:-

The short SATA cable in the NUC is NON_STANDARD type. The connector is standard, but the pin arrangement is not. Try this, take out that short NUC SATA cable and install it on a normal PC - NONE WILL WORK. Next test, replace the short NUC SATA cable with a normal SATA cable - again NONE WILL WORK. Intel has changed the cable standard, and then use the female SATA connector in the NUC to revert it back to "normal". By logic this should work; but in reality, many SSD suffer from this.

However, a good news is that the mainboard of the NUC has no problem, i try remove the NUC hdd caddy, replace with normal SATA data cable and an external SATA power cable to power the the SSDs. Guess what, ALL SSDs are detected and running perfectly !!

So the problem here is very clearly, not at the mainboard, but starts from the non-standard SATA cable until the female SATA slot connecting to the SSD. I don't know how intel is going to do about this, even their own 520 SSD is not detected. BIOS update may help, but intel has to test all SSD in the world to guarantee the compatibility.

From our consumer part who is tired of the SSD issue, besides waiting for the mercy of intel, the immediate way to overcome this is to remove the default cables + hdd caddy and replace with normal SATA data + power cable. normal SATA data cable is easy, but the power cable may not, you need to find both end female slot power cable, which is almost non-existent. One possible solution is to get the 1 male to 2x female sata power cable splitter and just use the 2x female end. Best if you can get someone to custom made for you a short female - female cable.

[iann]

After searching for some times at ebay, found a perfectly fit cable for this NUC. I have put an order, and this will eliminate all SSD problems found so far on intel NUC.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/290963308378 SATA 22 Pin Female to 7 Pin and 15 Pin SATA Power Female 12" | eBay

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Thank you for providing this valuable and detailed information.

I will make sure this is passed to the development team for evaluation.

[idata]

I ordered two of these per your recommendation. (BTW-Thanks for the research and recommendation). My question is how does this cable harness work out. It seems like there might be too much cable length at 12" per this harness. However, after some searching and as you confirmed, there's really no other option out there that I could see unless you get one custom made.

I'd be curious to know yours or anyone else's experience with this SATA cable harness in the Intel NUC D54250WYK.

Thanks!

[BvanI]

Hi,

I am having the same issue with my one and a half year old Intel Barebone NUC D34010WYK2 i3 4010U. I used to use a Crucial SSD 120GB, mSATA600, M500 drive. I now want to switch that for a large SATA drive which I don't mind having outside the casing.

So I bought a Toshiba 4.0TB 6Gb/s SATA, 7200rpm, 64MB cache, 3, 5 inch Desktop class drive. (That drive is actually bigger than my Nuc :-)

This drive isn't getting any power from the NUC.

I tried a 15 pin female - female connector for power with a seperate sata cable for data. Still no luck in powering the drive.

My questions:

1) Should it be possible to use this large disk?

2) If so would the cable posten by iieeann on 2 december and 2 februari work for me?

or

3) Would also need that replacement part.

No need to send me any replacements if that cable would do the trick for me.

Thanks for any advice.

[iann]

No you can't get it work with NUC this way, the power supply from NUC will not power up desktop hard drive. You need external power for the desktop hard drive. This can be done with 2 methods:-

1) Buy a usb to sata converter, it comes with external power adapter. Throw away everything and leaves only the power adapter, use it to power up your hardisk, and connect data cable using STANDARD sata cable on to the NUC mainboard directly. This method is not 100% guaranteed, for unknown reason some desktop hard drives just cannot be powered up by the power adapter; could be what i bought was lousy brand. You may bring the hard drive to test in the shop physically and bought the working power adapter. Do note that the power adapter is not sold separately anywhere, you need to buy the whole package and use only the power adapter. Example here http://www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-PATA-IDE-to-USB-2-0-Adapter-Converter-Cable-for-2-5-3-5-Inch-Hard-Drive-/400919874565 SATA PATA IDE to USB 2 0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2 5 3 5 inch Hard Drive | eBay

2) Use a desktop Power Supply Unit (PSU) to power up the hard drive. This is 100% working method, but very messy and clumsy. If using nowadays ATX type, you need to short the connector to power it up, which is not recommended. If you can find old school (20 years ago) power supply where the on/off button is hard button, that will be better.

[BvanI]

Hi iieean,

Sorry that it took me so long to say thanks for that reply. Somehow doing that on my Phone didn't work and ... well... I haven't been behind a computer for some time.

I think I'll just return the desktop hard drive to the supplier and swap it for a laptop version.

Regards,

Salvolin

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Just to add some information for iieeann answer, the power connector of the NUC has the 13th, 14th, and 15th pins disabled, those are required for HDDs.

Here you can confirm this information (page 44): http://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/boardsandkits/D54250WYB_D34010WYB_TechProdSpec06.pdf http://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/boardsandkits/D54250WYB_D34010WYB_TechProdSpec06.pdf

Hope the new drive works fine for you.

If any additional questions or inquiries are present, feel free to contact us back.

Regards,

Esteban C

[iann]

Thanks a lot Joe.

An ancient hero is put into test today:- The famous Intel x25m Gen2 160GB. I love this reliable SSD back in the days, i still have 9 of them, but mostly kept in the freezer now.

This SSD is working flawlessly with NUC. I may just use this as bootdisk and add in another mSATA to get the space. Gonna love this old hero.

[Jose_H_Intel1]

I am glad to hear you got it working. I still have one x25-m working in a very old system.

We have received reports indicating that Intel® Rapid Storage Technology 13.5.0.1047 (or newer version) solves similar issues, just in case you still have trouble with the other drives. Otherwise, I suggest you reporting your issue through your nearest Intel support team.

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport Contact Support

https://servicerequestmgmt.intel.com/webticketui/emailpage.aspx Service Request Email

[iann]

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology cannot solve this issue, it is actually non related. SSD is not detected by the bios when NUC power up, NUC sees no presence of SSD. Intel® Rapid Storage Technology is a software for windows, it is installed in the SSD either during windows setup or inside windows itself, and the pre-requisition is the SSD must first be able to be detected. In this case, NUC sees no SSD, not windows sees no SSD. Only bios update can solve this; or physical modification as i mention in first post.

[Jose_H_Intel1]

iieeann and Spock1701, I was wondering if you already addressed this issue with your local Intel support team.

I have sent you both a PM.

[idata]

Nope, did not. What good will it do? Won't Intel just make me pay to send my unit in, wait weeks, and replace it with a refurbished unit that has a flawed SATA (Secondary Drive) header like this one?

Intel should have run a "straight-thru" SATA power and data cabling solution rather than monkeying with changing the SATA data cable specs. If things were standard I could use any appropriately sized SATA drive that meets the industry standard and it should work. The fact that Intel has to test SATA drives to see if they will work with their "non-standard" design for the secondary drive is ridiculous at best.

If there is an easier solution (like a replacement header/card and cables that follow SATA industry standard per cabling pin-outs, etc.) then I welcome them sending me a FREE replacement, so I can replace the defective "non-standard" part(s). If this is an option (not sending my unit in for replace/repair) then please let me know who to contact. I don't need Intel to do the repair. I can do it myself. All I need is the non-defective part(s) from Intel.

[Jose_H_Intel1]

It is not necessary to send the unit to us, we can send you the replacement part.

Please follow up via PM.

[idata]

Wow! That would be great! I apologize for being a bit harsh in my previous remarks as I thought the opposite might be true, and that I'd have to send my unit in for repair and wait weeks.

Sounds like Intel is "spot on" in resolving this issue. I guess the real "proof in the pudding" though is when one gets the replacement part and sees (or not) that it resolves the issue.

[iann]

Thanks Joe for great assistance to send me a replacement SATA connector, received today. I can't find obvious difference by naked eyes, the numbers seem like the same.

However, the new SATA card now work with my SSD. I did not test all the SSDs earlier, but the OWC 240GB is now working flawlessly.

In other words, for those who has problem of SSD in Intel NUC, please contact support to get a replacement SATA daughter card. It seems like Intel has made minor revision of the card. The documentary mentioned "the resistor value of the SATA daughter card will be changed from 2K Ohms to 1.5K Ohms to increase drive strength". Hey, well i can understand that statement, but intel as an international company, PLEASE GET THE UNIT RIGHT !!! "2K Ohms to 1.5K Ohms"? Come on, Capital K is Kelvin, a unit for temperature. Small letter k is meant for x1000 . Correct statement should be "2k Ohms to 1.5k Ohms."

Do note that the SATA cable yet remains non-standard, so as the daughter card. Using normal SATA cable will not work with this NUC; and vice versa the NUC short SATA cable will not work in normal PC. Intel has implemented "negative x negative = positive" approach, and this daughter card revision seems to have solved the earlier problem.

At the end, I got my problem solved, and i really appreciate Intel's effort to attend to complain like this rather than blaming the end user for "incorrect installation" to get away from the problem.

[iann]

Sorry Spock1701 for late reply. I received the ebay cable 2 weeks ago, but it didn't work out as expected. Not because it does not detect HDD, but because the header/connector is too big to fit into the small NUC casing even with the HDD caddy removed. That ebay cable will definitely work, with the condition that I have to run the NUC with case opened, which defeat the purpose of compact design. I hv underestimated the ebay cable header size ... from the ebay photo it seems like thin, but in actual when received it is not.

Well, the road of DIY does not end yet. Here come a 90 degree angle adapter to rescue. This may make room for the connector to fit into the NUC, but I just feel too lazy for this torture...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/90-Deree-Right-Angled-SATA-22Pin-7-15-Male-to-SATA-22P-Female-Extension-Adapter-/111588699449?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19fb346d39 90 Deree Right Angled SATA 22Pin 7 15 Male to SATA 22P Female Extension Adapter | eBay

Has intel identified the problem? This does not seem to be individual case, more than 1 person has similar complain so this could be affecting world wide. Shops selling the NUC normally sell with complete working set, in most cases conventional HDD is used which has no compatibility issue. Only DIY users that wish to use SSD will have this problem.

Custom cable will not fit into the case, this leaves me not much choice but to use the original cable and connector with my old hero intel X25M 160GB SSD.

I have not contacted local intel reseller, i am in Malaysia and not US. Unless US intel acknowledges all the outlet in the world about this, my local reseller will not bother. (they may not even understand the case)

[idata]

I got word from Intel about the new (replacement) daughter card that they will be sending to me to replace my old one. Although they have read your findings about the SATA data cable, their engineering department believes that they have resolved the issue by increasing a resistor value on the SATA Hard Disk Drive Daughter Card changing it from 2K ohms to 1.5K ohms to increase drive strength. So this replacement card has been "re-engineered" to a degree.

Here's a direct link to the document: http://qdms.intel.com/dm/i.aspx/AC9C0719-A458-4D4C-A9DE-F7F24375D169/PCN113335-00.pdf http://qdms.intel.com/dm/i.aspx/AC9C0719-A458-4D4...

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Thank you for the feedback!

I am glad it is working now.

[KDrak]

I'm having a very similar problem. The SATA cable between the motherboard and the mount ripped, and now I can't replace it with a standard SATA cable due to this problem. Is it possible to get a replacement SATA cable, or the new board that's described here? Thanks!

[Jose_H_Intel1]

kyledrake, I suggest contacting your local Intel support team.

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport