Looking at the book, it appears I have 6 SATA ports, so if I lose 1 to the m.2 I still have 1 left.

That's ok.
What do you think?

You will not lose a SATA port. Your M2 drive is not SATA. M2 has two connections in it, PCI-Express and SATA. The slot on your board will take two different types of drive. Only the SATA drives eat a SATA port. Yours is PCI-Express so eats PCI-Express lanes. On the second M2 socket, it will disable the third PCI-Express socket, which you aren't using, so that's fine. All your SATA ports will continue to function as normal. Plug your M2 drive into the second socket and leave everything else as it is. This should allow everything to run normally.

Nope. Because the PCIe lanes are full on the CPU.

But one other question, where does the PCI slots board on that expansion unit go?
I see the little one that goes in the slot, but the big one? (the 4x PCI-USB)

They are not all full. You have 24. 4 to the chipset. 8 to GPU 1. 8 to GPU 2. 4 to either the second M2 slot or the third GPU socket. You are not using those 4. Lanes cannot just go wherever you want them, they are only wired to go to certain places. You're missing out on 4 of them. Just move it to the second one.

The "big one" is just 4 individual ones sat side by side, the same as the big one in my other link to the 1x PCI-USB. They go anywhere you like they're just connectors for the GPU to sit in.

Looking at the book, it appears I have 6 SATA ports, so if I lose 1 to the m.2 I still have 1 left.

That's ok.
What do you think?

You will not lose a SATA port. Your M2 drive is not SATA. M2 has two connections in it, PCI-Express and SATA. The slot on your board will take two different types of drive. Only the SATA drives eat a SATA port. Yours is PCI-Express so eats PCI-Express lanes. On the second M2 socket, it will disable the third PCI-Express socket, which you aren't using, so that's fine. All your SATA ports will continue to function as normal. Plug your M2 drive into the second socket and leave everything else as it is. This should allow everything to run normally.

Nope. Because the PCIe lanes are full on the CPU.

But one other question, where does the PCI slots board on that expansion unit go?
I see the little one that goes in the slot, but the big one? (the 4x PCI-USB)

They are not all full. You have 24. 4 to the chipset. 8 to GPU 1. 8 to GPU 2. 4 to either the second M2 slot or the third GPU socket. You are not using those 4. Lanes cannot just go wherever you want them, they are only wired to go to certain places. You're missing out on 4 of them. Just move it to the second one.

The "big one" is just 4 individual ones sat side by side, the same as the big one in my other link to the 1x PCI-USB. They go anywhere you like they're just connectors for the GPU to sit in.

M.2 #2 same problem.
If 16 channels are in use for GPU and 4 for CPU where are the other 4?

And I still get: (m.2 #1 and #2)
1/26/2022 9:05:53 PM | | GPU detection failed: process exited with status 0x1: Incorrect function. (0x1)
1/26/2022 9:05:53 PM | | No usable GPUs found

As for your extension kit, It looks like I can get 2 singles for around 25 Euro from Germany and I don't have to pay import fees like the ones from China.

Ah, you've already tried it in the second slot. Something weird is going on here. Like you, I see 4 lanes missing.

Ok, so what happens if you remove one GPU? Does the M2 drive and the other GPU work in Boinc then?

Also test the firmware update again with a GPU out, this is also pointing to something up with it. It's a pity you don't have another machine you can test it in. Friend or colleague willing?

I wonder..... incorrect function. Could Boinc be stupid enough to think your drive is a GPU because of it being on PCI express? So it fails to talk to it like a GPU, and doesn't bother checking for more of them?

Luckily the UK doesn't have import fees on low priced items, I think only stuff over £25 gets them, and I can usually persuade the sender to lie about the value or write "sample" or "returned faulty goods". I got some of mine from China, but then found a bitcoin (or some kind of coin) guy in the UK selling off a load of them, I got a pack of 10 which turned out to be 12 when he found some more for a fraction of the new price.

Please try only 1 GPU and the M2 drive first, to make sure nothing else is going on. There could be a faulty drive, which you need to send back soon to avoid hassle? If that setup works ok, then it's lanes, although we're both at a loss to where the missing 4 lanes went. If it's lanes, then the adapters will be good, it'll drop the GPUs from using 8 each to 1 each, then everything should work. You just need to work out where to mount them.

Luckily the UK doesn't have import fees on low priced items, I think only stuff over £25 gets them, and I can usually persuade the sender to lie about the value or write "sample" or "returned faulty goods". I got some of mine from China, but then found a bitcoin (or some kind of coin) guy in the UK selling off a load of them, I got a pack of 10 which turned out to be 12 when he found some more for a fraction of the new price.

Please try only 1 GPU and the M2 drive first, to make sure nothing else is going on. There could be a faulty drive, which you need to send back soon to avoid hassle? If that setup works ok, then it's lanes, although we're both at a loss to where the missing 4 lanes went. If it's lanes, then the adapters will be good, it'll drop the GPUs from using 8 each to 1 each, then everything should work. You just need to work out where to mount them.

It's getting messy. And your the only one with real information. The tech just gave me the same old information that I already knew. Can't really get Samsung involved just yet. I guess it's AMD I will have to ask now. But I'll try the one GPU tomorrow night.

But I don't think changing location of one GPU to the third PCIe 16 slot will make a difference.

As for import fees, remember, Brexit separated you from EU rules. Stuff purchased from the UK outside of the big players (Amazon etc) are also subject to tax. EU member to EU member purchases are excluded. It used to be the way you described, but then Allibaba dumping pissed of the EU and they passed these new rules.

If it works with one GPU and the drive, and the other GPU not connected, then it's lanes. Then you know where you stand - you could put one GPU on an extension to create 7 free lanes.

I didn't suggest moving a GPU to the third slot, because you'd said earlier that was physically difficult. But if you can do that, the third slot only has 4 lanes (it's called a 16 slot due to it's size, but if you shine a torch into it you'll see the connectors only go part way across), so you'd reduce the GPU to 4 lanes to give 4 to the drive. That could work, but you'd have to put the drive in the first M2 slot, as the second M2 slot shares lanes with the 3rd GPU slot.

I'm so glad I left the EU. Way too many rules and complications. I sold something to an EU guy on Ebay. I forget which country it was, but he paid three taxes on it, totalling more than the product! Import tax, sales tax, internet tax, something like that.

If it works with one GPU and the drive, and the other GPU not connected, then it's lanes. Then you know where you stand - you could put one GPU on an extension to create 7 free lanes.

I didn't suggest moving a GPU to the third slot, because you'd said earlier that was physically difficult. But if you can do that, the third slot only has 4 lanes (it's called a 16 slot due to it's size, but if you shine a torch into it you'll see the connectors only go part way across), so you'd reduce the GPU to 4 lanes to give 4 to the drive. That could work, but you'd have to put the drive in the first M2 slot, as the second M2 slot shares lanes with the 3rd GPU slot.

I'm so glad I left the EU. Way too many rules and complications. I sold something to an EU guy on Ebay. I forget which country it was, but he paid three taxes on it, totalling more than the product! Import tax, sales tax, internet tax, something like that.

Internet tax? That could be the anti alibaba tax thing.
Official documentation for Belgium just says 15 fees and 21% on items value (sometimes I think it is a perceived value or minimum tax because they "estimated" the value to be around 30 euros for something they didn't even look at. Trust me I gave them hell about that.

Internet tax? That could be the anti alibaba tax thing.
Official documentation for Belgium just says 15 fees and 21% on items value (sometimes I think it is a perceived value or minimum tax because they "estimated" the value to be around 30 euros for something they didn't even look at. Trust me I gave them hell about that.

I did once get taxed heavily for something. I bought a cheap item (about £20) from China. By way of an apology as they were out of stock, they first sent me a gift. It was a pointless 99p necklace or badge or something, but the idiot seller put "jewellery, value £40" on the customs label. I was out at the time so it got taken to the local post depot. I assumed it was the product, and thought I'd get the money back from the seller, so I went and paid the tax to the post office and collected it. I was also charged an admin fee by the post office. When I found this stupid little thing that cost me 100 times what it's worth, I went mental at the seller. The real product then arrived the next day with a value of £2 written on it. I photographed both things and the packaging and he paid up. It cost him a fortune.

Internet tax? That could be the anti alibaba tax thing.
Official documentation for Belgium just says 15 fees and 21% on items value (sometimes I think it is a perceived value or minimum tax because they "estimated" the value to be around 30 euros for something they didn't even look at. Trust me I gave them hell about that.

I did once get taxed heavily for something. I bought a cheap item (about £20) from China. By way of an apology as they were out of stock, they first sent me a gift. It was a pointless 99p necklace or badge or something, but the idiot seller put "jewellery, value £40" on the customs label. I was out at the time so it got taken to the local post depot. I assumed it was the product, and thought I'd get the money back from the seller, so I went and paid the tax to the post office and collected it. I was also charged an admin fee by the post office. When I found this stupid little thing that cost me 100 times what it's worth, I went mental at the seller. The real product then arrived the next day with a value of £2 written on it. I photographed both things and the packaging and he paid up. It cost him a fortune.

I have never bought from China direct.
Takes to long. That expander would take a month to get here.
And the savings were not that great.
Oh well....
I'll change the GPU's tonight. Last try.

Well taking the 1050 out did not solve the problem.
So I guess it goes to my original theory that the drive is defective.
Going to finish off the last work and take the drive out and see what happens on reinstall.

I have never bought from China direct.
Takes to long. That expander would take a month to get here.

I just use them when I'm not in a hurry, like stocking up on something. Or stuff I'll need for a project later on.

Well taking the 1050 out did not solve the problem.
So I guess it goes to my original theory that the drive is defective.
Going to finish off the last work and take the drive out and see what happens on reinstall.

Did you have the drive in M2 slot 2 when you tried a single GPU? Otherwise I'm thinking it might be trying to take the GPU's lanes.

Actually I think it won't make any difference removing a GPU. Two GPUs use 2x8 lanes. One GPU uses 1x16 lanes. There is no way your board and CPU are designed so they can't cope with one GPU and one M2 drive. If you have the drive in slot 2 and it fails, it's busted. Add in you not being able to flash it. Something funny going on with that drive. I got a Crucial SSD drive once (just on SATA) and it suddenly failed to be recognised. "Known fault, flash it" they said. I couldn't flash what wasn't detected. Back it went.

Well taking the 1050 out did not solve the problem.
So I guess it goes to my original theory that the drive is defective.
Going to finish off the last work and take the drive out and see what happens on reinstall.

Did you have the drive in M2 slot 2 when you tried a single GPU? Otherwise I'm thinking it might be trying to take the GPU's lanes.

Actually I think it won't make any difference removing a GPU. Two GPUs use 2x8 lanes. One GPU uses 1x16 lanes. There is no way your board and CPU are designed so they can't cope with one GPU and one M2 drive. If you have the drive in slot 2 and it fails, it's busted. Add in you not being able to flash it. Something funny going on with that drive. I got a Crucial SSD drive once (just on SATA) and it suddenly failed to be recognised. "Known fault, flash it" they said. I couldn't flash what wasn't detected. Back it went.

I'm done with all this hardware swap nonsense. Going to box it up when things are done and swap it out.

Well taking the 1050 out did not solve the problem.
So I guess it goes to my original theory that the drive is defective.
Going to finish off the last work and take the drive out and see what happens on reinstall.

Did you have the drive in M2 slot 2 when you tried a single GPU? Otherwise I'm thinking it might be trying to take the GPU's lanes.

Actually I think it won't make any difference removing a GPU. Two GPUs use 2x8 lanes. One GPU uses 1x16 lanes. There is no way your board and CPU are designed so they can't cope with one GPU and one M2 drive. If you have the drive in slot 2 and it fails, it's busted. Add in you not being able to flash it. Something funny going on with that drive. I got a Crucial SSD drive once (just on SATA) and it suddenly failed to be recognised. "Known fault, flash it" they said. I couldn't flash what wasn't detected. Back it went.

I'm done with all this hardware swap nonsense. Going to box it up when things are done and swap it out.

Now I can't install BOINC mgr because D does not exist. I used revo uninstall to take the program out and ran wise365 to clean everything. But BOINC keeps telling me D does not exist and can not go further.
But windows does not see D anymore, so what now?!?!
Thinking the M.2 drive thing was a big mistake.

Now I can't install BOINC mgr because D does not exist. I used revo uninstall to take the program out and ran wise365 to clean everything. But BOINC keeps telling me D does not exist and can not go further.
But windows does not see D anymore, so what now?!?!
Thinking the M.2 drive thing was a big mistake.

That's odd, you should be asked where to install during the installation of Boinc. Make sure you're clicking "advanced".

I think you got a faulty drive. Find somewhere local that can sell you a tested one.

Now I can't install BOINC mgr because D does not exist. I used revo uninstall to take the program out and ran wise365 to clean everything. But BOINC keeps telling me D does not exist and can not go further.
But windows does not see D anymore, so what now?!?!
Thinking the M.2 drive thing was a big mistake.

That's odd, you should be asked where to install during the installation of Boinc. Make sure you're clicking "advanced".

I think you got a faulty drive. Find somewhere local that can sell you a tested one.

The drive is out
Biinc was removed.
Registery was cleaned with wise365 and CCleaner.
But the installer seems to think drive D still exists.

It looks like the only way to get around this is to put the drive back and see what happens and then if it's happy out the data onto E which is the HDD.

It's the freaking M.2 drive.
Data is now on E: on the HDD and things work.
So either the M.2 is defect or there are not enough PCIe channels available.
Taking the drive back tomorrow since I can't flash the firmware.
This is just nuts!

So here is what I find on PCIe channels

Expansions

In addition to the x4 lanes that are reserved for the chipset, the Ryzen 7 3700X has x16 for a discrete graphics processor and x4 for storage (NVMe or 2 ports SATA Express).

Expansion Options
PCIe Revision: 4.0
Max Lanes: 20
Configuration: 1x16+x4, 2x8+x4, 1x8+2x4+x4

But also I find:
The amount of PCIe lanes on AMD Ryzen CPUs range from 24 on an consumer grade Ryzen 3, 5, 7 and 9 CPUs all the way to 128 on workstation grade Ryzen Threadripper CPUs.

The popular desktop Ryzen series i.e 3000 and 5000, have 24 lanes.

So we get back to there should be 4 available for the M.2
But M.2 and BOINC at least here don't get along (possibly for a defective drive)

And I find this about the drive: SSD-interface PCI Express 3.0 x4

So it must be something wrong with the drive because this should work with my system.

2 x 8 for gpu
4 for M.2
4 for CPU

But someone at work was saying the SATA also affects PCIe channel count?

Now I can't install BOINC mgr because D does not exist. I used revo uninstall to take the program out and ran wise365 to clean everything. But BOINC keeps telling me D does not exist and can not go further.
But windows does not see D anymore, so what now?!?!
Thinking the M.2 drive thing was a big mistake.

That's odd, you should be asked where to install during the installation of Boinc. Make sure you're clicking "advanced".

I think you got a faulty drive. Find somewhere local that can sell you a tested one.

The drive is out
Biinc was removed.
Registery was cleaned with wise365 and CCleaner.
But the installer seems to think drive D still exists.

It looks like the only way to get around this is to put the drive back and see what happens and then if it's happy out the data onto E which is the HDD.

I don't understand this. Boinc puts some basic stuff into C:. But the majority goes where you tell it to. You should have been able to select E:.

It's the freaking M.2 drive.
Data is now on E: on the HDD and things work.
So either the M.2 is defect or there are not enough PCIe channels available.
Taking the drive back tomorrow since I can't flash the firmware.
This is just nuts!

I'm sure they wouldn't design a board and CPU which can't handle one GPU and one M2 drive. I'm sure it's a broken drive.

Now I can't install BOINC mgr because D does not exist. I used revo uninstall to take the program out and ran wise365 to clean everything. But BOINC keeps telling me D does not exist and can not go further.
But windows does not see D anymore, so what now?!?!
Thinking the M.2 drive thing was a big mistake.

That's odd, you should be asked where to install during the installation of Boinc. Make sure you're clicking "advanced".

I think you got a faulty drive. Find somewhere local that can sell you a tested one.

The drive is out
Biinc was removed.
Registery was cleaned with wise365 and CCleaner.
But the installer seems to think drive D still exists.

It looks like the only way to get around this is to put the drive back and see what happens and then if it's happy out the data onto E which is the HDD.

I don't understand this. Boinc puts some basic stuff into C:. But the majority goes where you tell it to. You should have been able to select E:.

Because the main section is a program. It falls under program files in windows.
The other stuff is data, you can put that anywhere.