X220: mSATA not possible with i7 and USB3.0

i havent call, but let me check my FRU #

 

I received my X220 (i7-2620, 4GB, 320GB 7200 rpm HD) on June 1 and finally got around to installing an extra 4GB of RAM and the Intel 310 MSATA SSD yesterday. The extra RAM worked fine, and WEI memory ops even increased from 5.9 to 7.1. The BIOS and Win 7 cannot see the MSATA drive, however. I called tech support last night and got a case number, but then they didn't call back in 1/2 hr as they had promised. Updated the BIOS to v. 1.16 today. I called tech support again today. I explained the problem and told them that the Intel 310 is what their website recommends for Rapidrive, which is certainly advertised on their website. They then declined to help at all because I hadn't bought the Intel 310 from them. Of course, there is no sign of how one could even order an MSATA drive from the Lenovo website- either with the machine or afterwards. I managed to buy one from Electronica through Amazon when they were briefly in stock. I did get the onsite and TPP warranty for 3 yr; maybe I should have spent the extra $50+ for the priority tech support?

I don't even see a place in the BIOS where there is a listing of drives, except when one looks for possible boot devices, where there is certainly no sign of this MSATA drive at all. So it looks like I'm having the same problem with the core i7 processor and the MSATA drive reported in this thread. Yet some of you say that you have this combination running just fine in your machines. What did you do differently? Is there another driver, BIOS version, Intel software, etc. which might help? Or should I just give up, buy a large SSD to put in place of my spinning HD, and use a separate external HD? (I have a WD 1TB USB 3.0 drive which I got at a good price at Costco several months ago.)

I've been waiting to load software onto the machine until I got the MSATA working, but now I'm going to start loading some things onto the HD just so that I can use the machine (which is blindingly fast compared with the netbook I've been using for much of the last year). Which software is recommended for easily moving applications and data between hard disks later, assuming that I finally get some sort of SSD into this machine?

 

You installed the drive in the slot under the keyboard as displayed on page 95 (section "1130 mSATA solid state drive") of the hardware maint manual at Lenovo Support - Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad X220 and X220i ?

 

Sorry if I am stating the obvious, but did you go in Disk Management in Control Panel and set up the drive to be seen in BIOS?

Perry

 

I've certainly checked Disk Management in Control Panel but see no sign of the Intel 310 there, and so I have no idea how one could set up the drive to be seen in BIOS. If there is a way to do this, I need more instructions. (I thought the BIOS was underneath the Windows system.) Disk Management shows only Drive 0, with 3 partitions: SYSTEM_DRV, 1.17GB NTFS; Windows7_OS (C: ), 285.20 GB NTFS; Lenovo_Recovery (Q: ), 11.72 GB NTFS. If I insert a 32 GB SDHC card or connect an external hard drive, I see those in Disk Management. I've also seen my DVD-writer, when the Ultrabase 3 is connected. I've never seen a device there which could be the MSATA, however.

In answer to Thors.Hammer's query, yes, I did follow the instructions in the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the X220 and installed the MSATA in the WWAN slot. I actually followed the instructions for "1080 PCI Express Mini Card for wireless WAN," because I hadn't found the directions for "1130 mSATA solid state drive" previously. I just took the keyboard and palm rest apart again and checked the connections for the Intel 310 card, but it certainly looks seated properly, and the pin and screw both line up with the holes in the board and the motherboard.

Thank you both for your help.

 

sc3, you did what I would have done but apparently that is incorrect. you have the drive installed in the wrong location.

If you look carefully at section 1130 of the instructions, you'll see what I mean.

 

Until you can see the drive in your bios first, don't waste any time trying to "fix it" in windows or bothering with different drivers.

There are really only 3 outcomes for what has been reported so far:

1) some motherboards need a new BIOS written for them - easy fix, keep complaining and don't let up until you get it
2) some people have boards that are defective - annoying fix, return or repair
3) certain motherboards are not wired for mSATA - you're screwed, might be able to manage a return

 

BIOS is the base level of command interface before any OS is loaded, so when you first turn on the computer, you can usually get to BIOS on most computers by press "DEL" and check to see if your SSD shows up under the boot menu in any capacity. If not, it's not being detected by the computer at all.

 

I took another look at section 1130 of the instructions, and it looks to me as though I did install the drive in the right place, which is in place of the WWAN card, which I didn't buy. There are couple of extra disconnected antenna wires which I moved and placed over the MSATA card. Also, I don't see any other empty space in the machine where it could go. I do have a Wifi card, which is installed to the right of the MSATA and is about half its size. Unfortunately, I don't see what you mean at all.

 

My bad. When I looked at the schematics a little while ago it appeared there were two different locations described. Sorry for the wild goose chase.

Lenovo really needs to come clean with this. I really hope they don't have some models and motherboards that don't support mSATA. That would be a royal screw up.