Samsung 840 EVO SSD and Inspiron 17 5748 compatibility

Hi Amp82,

Please describe the problem.

Thanks for your reply Osprey. The laptop simply won't boot with a Samsung 840 SSD. It's seated correctly etc. Should for all intents and purposes work fine but doesn't. I've read that Dell has compatability issues with Samsung SSD. Wondering if it's an issue that's been addressed by BIOS updates or if there's a solution which doesn't involve buying a new non-Samsung SSD. Thanks.

Simply won't boot means what? Did you install the operating system on the SSD? Getting an error of any sort?

I'm using a Samsung 840 Evo in my Dell, so no compatibility issues here.

At startup screen shows "internal hard disk not found, to resolve this issue try to reseat the drive". Followed by "No bootable devises--strike F1 to retry to boot, F2 for setup utility, Press F5 to run onboard diagnosics." Going through the different options it's clear that the BIOS doesn't think there's a HDD connected.

The BIOS is set to legacy and SecureBoot is off, correct?

Hi, thanks for this. The HDD appears to now be recognised and it does load up (albeit not as quickly as it did in a different laptop). As it boots it shows: "pxe-e61 media test failure" followed by "pxe-m0f: Exiting PXE ROM". Whatever is going on here seems to be slowing the boot up time.

In addition, the SSD will regularly crash. This had happen immediately after start up and login or several minutes into operation. It begins by showing the cursor processing circle icon which will then stop being animated and eventually the cursor will become inactive.

I Safe Mode it works fine. I have the latest firmware, drivers, etc. I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Is the Samsung SSD simply not compatible with the Dell/vice versa?

Thanks.

I have a Samsung EVO in my Dell, and I've seen many other Dell forum members using these drives. So the answer is no, there's no compatibility issue with Dell.

Those errors would seem to indicate the drive is not seen by the BIOS at boot.

Usually if the drive is missing in BIOS it is definitely has not been seated properly. Mainly because of the 7.5MM profile, some of these drives create an illusion of correct seating during install, however full contact is not established, thus BIOS will not recognize the drive

You probably have Network Boot enabled in BIOS (all devices that are checked at boot have a checkmark next to them) please disable network boot (with pxe) to speed up boot-up process if you do not use it.

If you have used migration software instead of fresh windows installation,  the crashing symptoms are classic case of missing controller drivers or incorrect SATA translation settings. 

It is possible your drive is also DOA, please download latest Samsung Magician software to see what the status of the drive is.

Thanks Casstor, the boot priority reshuffle worked to speed up the boot. I've downloaded and installed the Magician Software in the hope of resolving the crash problem already but to no avail. I don't use migration software. The OS install was semi-fresh in that it had an install already on it which caused some problems so I did another reinstall/repair but kept existing data etc. Would it be worth while formatting and installing Windows from scratch? It did seem to work ok for some time after initial repair install and I also installed all Drivers from the Dell website and all the Windows Updates, when I began having the problems. Is there a known Win 7 Update that conflicts with drivers or the Samsung SSD do you think?

Thanks Casstor, yes the status does say GOOD on the Magician software.

The reason I semi-fresh installed Windows is because I was experiencing the crash issue after a fully fresh install. I will try again but must say I don't hold out much hope. Might there be a driver conflict or something? I'm reassured that it's not a compatability issue so will plug on. Thanks again for your help.

Hi Casstor. Just to let you know I managed get it to work following your advice, so thanks again!