Hi @daddle, Many thanks for your helpful hints on installing Win11. Following your advice, the installation proceeded without asking for any drivers and successfully completed partitioning, unpacking and copying files. After a while however the installation process aborted with error messages, indicating disconnection of the NVMe from the PCI bus, see below. Because the error is related to the connection/compatibility of NVMe and the notebook’s related port, I tried to find a replacement NVMe on the Medion service webpage, earlier indicated by @Fishtown. This nice and clear-arranged Medion webpage however does not offer/suggest any replacement SSD (instead just parts like touch pad, display, power supply, hinge, ..). The related Medion manual is silent on the notebook’s SSD port capabilities. Which NVMe is recommended by the OEM Medion to replace or upgrade the originally built in SSD? Please could you help with this? I’m very happy getting your support. Kind regards dgt.dabbler Reply to Questions as submitted by @daddle on 21th March 2025: ‘.. So first some questions’ 1. Does your NB have two physical M.2 slots? R: No, the Medion E14412/MD64010 has just one single (one and only) M.2 slot for SSD. 2. If you look direction into the M.2 Port is the key notch (the place with the missing contact) on the left or right sight side the left is a B- , the right is a M-key notch Most PCIe M.2 SSDs have a M-key. Most SATA M.2 SSDs nowadays have a B- and a M-key. But the slots, or with the B. or the M notch can accept or a PCIe or a SATA. It depends on the protocol which is linked to the port. Click here also --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2 Look under --> Form factors and keying R: The notebook’s single M.2 slot is M-key (notch on right side, by view from SSD into the opening of the notebook’s M.2 slot), see also the photo of the notebook’s M.2 slot and NVMe in above section D, of Dec 18th, 2024. The notebook could successfully detect and link both types of SSD situated in its single M.2 slot, a SATA SSD and a NVMe SSD: - If a SATA SSD like ‘S3+ S3SSDA512-ECS-1 512 GB’ is situated in the M.2 slot, it is linked to the notebook via AHCI. - If a NVMe SSD like ‘WD Blue SN570 1TB’ is situated in the M.2 slot, it is linked to the notebook via pcieport (→PCI 00:1d.0/01:00.0). The established link involves the limitation to just 2 lanes (width x2) and it involves repeatedly occurring error messages ‘RxErr’, related to the PCI bus. - The ‘WD Blue SN570 1TB’ and the notebook’s M.2 slot, both are M-key. The WD Blue SN570 1TB provides 4 lanes. In contrast, the notebook apparently provides just 2 lanes. The result is a limitation (downgrade) of the established link to just 2 lanes, and ongoing ‘RxErr’ messages. 3. If you try to install the Windows with an USB stick? Is it an installation stick made with Microsoft MediaCreatonTool? If not please do so. For Win 10 or Win 11? R: I only try Win11 (which is included in the package originally supplied by Medion). In order to comply with your recommendations (and MS instructions) for preparing the Win11 USB stick, - at first I inserted into the notebook’s M.2 slot the SATA-SSD ‘S3+ S3SSDA512-ECS-1 512 GB’ , which is included in the package, originally supplied by Medion, then - completed the installation of Win11 pre-installed on this SATA-SSD, originally supplied (a task which was pending for long time), - then booted the notebook from the SATA-SSD, - and carried out the the MediaCreationTool on MS webpage for creating/preparing the Win11 USB stick, as per your advice. And that worked! (Previously I had used Linux for downloading and for copying to the USB stick, a direct easy approach, I had thought. Now I am aware, I was completely wrong and acted against all requirements and rules. I have learned my lesson!) 4. You try to install on the now again empty WD Blue SN570 ? Or is it still partitioned by Linux with Ext4 or other schemes? Just wipe the new SSD completely. R: Yes, I tried to install on the WD Blue SN570. To ‘wipe’ the NVMe WD Blue SN570, I decided to erase/format the entire NVMe to FAT32. Here a few points on the related quite lengthy experience: - Erasure/Formatting the NVMe to FAT32 failed, as long as the NVMe was situated in the notebook’s M.2 slot (and linked via the protocol pcieport). Neither the Win11 installation process nor Linux tools (running from debian live system) could complete the erasure/formatting process. Instead either of them after a while aborted the erasure/formatting and showed error messages like ‘storage/disk no longer available/missing ..’, ‘path not found ..’. - When the abort occurred during formatting with Linux, the Linux diagnose tools showed, -- that the NVMe was no longer connected to the PCI bus (commands lsblk, fsck, lspci, gparted, ..), -- and that the RxErr incidences significantly increased (commands dmesg, journalctl), -- that the NVMe temperature displayed by command smartctl raised from around 30 to around 45°C, shortly before the disconnection occurred. Temperature figures below 50°C should not be an issue. - However formatting the NVMe to FAT32 succeeded right away, as soon as it was situated in the external NVMe to USB adapter and connected to the notebook via USB C port. This formatting took quite a while. By that, daddle, ‘the SSD was completely wiped’, in line with your advice! - Now the NVMe was inserted into the notebook’s M.2 slot again and the installation process was started: The Win11 installation process did not ask any more for drivers! Instead it wrote partitions, decompressed packages and wrote files to the NVMe (which I found later-on). However the installation process aborted before the installation could be completed, see further below, section ‘Win11 installation ..’. 5. Put the Intel VDM Drivers on the installation stick as well. They are needed for driving an PCIe M.2 drive.You can load them before installation begins with the F6 tab.. You will be asked for it R: The Win11 installation process did not ask for any drivers, upon I had followed your hints on creating the Win11 USB stick and ‘completely wiping the SSD’ , as mentioned. 6. Before you begin, take the SATA M.2 SSD out.. If there is a Win Installation on the machine already, the installation might go wrongly R: Just one single M.2 slot for SSD is available in this notebook. Such conflict is excluded. Win11 installation began fine but after a while aborted: (Upon connecting the NVMe via external NVMe to USB adapter, formatting it to FAT32, inserting it back into the notebook’s M.2 slot it was ready for the installation of Win11.) - The Win11 installation process (‘Win11 installation system’) on USB stick booted fine. Language, locale were same as with the Win11 included in the package originally supplied by Medion. - Partitioning was confirmed as suggested by the Win11 installation process. - The installation process successfully completed partitioning, unpacking and copying files, ..), according to the status information .. and the completion status bar steadily grew until .. - .. until at some point beyond 50% completion status the installation process aborted and an error message like ‘path not found’, ‘disk missing’, ‘access to file failed’, .. occurred, which indicate that the NVMe was no longer connected to the PCI bus. The installation got stuck and reboot was required. - Booting from NVMe failed, since the Win11 installation obviously had been aborted too early, so before the creation of a bootable system on the NVMe could be completed. - To continue, the Win11 installation process had to be booted from USB stick again and all the steps were repeated. - In 3 sessions, each with 4 installation attempts I tried to complete the Win11 installation, but without success. During these attempts I tried the following variations: -- Create/prepare a Win11 installation USB stick once again, by using a brand new USB stick and of course the MS MediaCreationTool, -- formatting the NVMe once again to FAT32, upon connecting it to the notebook via external NVME to USB adapter (and then inserting it back into the notebook’s M.2 slot), -- alternatively reuse of the existing partitions (so no formatting), -- wait 24 h or more before starting the next installation session. All the tried out variations did not change a thing. Always the installation process aborted. - During an installation session, with each further installation attempt the abort occurred earlier, so at lower completion status. After a break a day, the first installation attempt reached again a higher completion status, before it aborted. Then things continued as obeyed before. - The environmental temperature may have impact. On very warm summer days, the abort occurs earlier, so at lower completion status. - The Win11 install process does not offer diagnose tools for looking into the system. At least I am not aware of such tools. Would Linux install on this NVMe, though Win11 obviously doesn’t? Let’s give it a try. - The NVMe WD Blue SN570 1TB once again was formatted by Linux to FAT32 upon connecting it via the ‘external NVMe to USB adapter’ to the notebook’s USB C port. - Upon inserting the NVMe again into the notebook’s M.2 slot, a debian live system was booted and the Linux installation was started. Linux allows using diagnose tools for monitoring the temperature, checking the NVMe, NVMe connection status, error messages related to PCI bus, .. - Upon selecting language, locale, partition parameters (and creation of new GUID) the Linux installation began fine, but after a while it aborted with error messages like ‘can’t read file’, ‘can’t write ..’, ‘disk no longe available..’, ‘access to random file blocked ..’. In that situation the NVMe was no longer connected to the PCI bus (acc. to command lsblk, fsck, lspci, gparted, ..). The incidence of ‘RxErr’, ‘type=physical’ significantly increased when the installation aborted, acc. to the output of commands dmesg, journalctl. - Upon rebooting the debian live system, I saw Linux partitions and a lot of files on the NVMe, but the Linux system was still incomplete. Accordingly booting from the NVMe failed. - Repeating the Linux installation failed in the same manner as the Win11 installation had failed before. Attempt by attempt the installation aborted with lesser and lesser completion status. After a break of a day, the first installation attempt reached again a higher completion state, before it aborted. All as obeyed before with the Win11 installation process. - The NVMe temperature indicated by command smartctl generally was in the range of around 30 to around 45°C. The max. temperature figure of around 45°C was displayed shortly before the NVMe was disconnected. A temperature below 50°C should not be an issue. - Adding a thermal pad to the NVMe’s surface did not have a significant impact on the abort of the installation and on the temperature displayed by command smartctl. The space available in the notebook does not allow installing a substantial heat sink on the NVMe. - To confirm the NVMe temperature displayed by command smartctl by a different method, -- the thermal pad was removed from the NVMe again, -- a debian live system was booted and the installation of debian was started (while the notebook’s bottom cover remained removed) . -- While the installation was going on, the temperature of the NVMe’s main chip did not raise a lot, -- but the temperature of a smaller chip on the NVMe (close to M.2 connector) significantly raised! -- Yet, in that situation the command smartctl displayed a temperature of around 45°C. Obviously the temperature displayed by smartctl does not consider the smaller chip getting very warm. Summary: During the debian installation (involving steady write and read on the NVMe) - the incidence of ‘RxErr’ significantly increases, - the temperature of a small chip on the WD Blue SN570 1TB significantly increases (without command smartctl does display this), - the NVMe is disconnected from PCI bus and - the installation is aborted. All above issues occur only when the WD Blue SN570 1TB is situated in the notebook’s M.2 slot. However, when the NVMe is connected via the external NVMe to USB adapter, not any issue like installation abort, errors related to link or significant chip temperature increase occurs. NVMe benchmark test, writing large files on the NVMe, even installing debian on the NVMe is no problem at all. Just I don’t like the system running from an NVMe connected to the notebook’s USB C port via external NVMe to USB adapter. How to go on from here? - Do you still recommend installing Win11? What is the plan with running Win11, and what the benefit? (To get your advice and guidance, I agree to temporarily run Win11 and carry out whatever you recommend to resolve the occurring PCI bus issue, i.e. a firmware upgrade, etc.. As soon as resolution is achieved, I will go back to Linux.) - Should I try to confirm the present WD Blue SN570 1TB’s proper PCI connectivity capabilities by other means? - Which NVMe is recommended by the OEM Medion as replacement and/or upgrade? (The Medion webpage is silent on this. Also the related Medion manual is silent.)
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