I acquired a couple Intel SSDs (M.2 SATA) that reportedly are supported only by the bootable firmware utility (which is Linux based), not the Windows GUI version. After 2.5 hours, I finally got it working. I tried creating bootable USB flash drive, three times, using both the Intel recommended Universal USB Installer (via PenDriveLinux) and Rufus. Secure boot on/off, CSM on/off, AHCI and IDE for storage controller. Then resorted to creating a CD (since that was one of the options, the boot image is supplied in ISO format). Secure boot on/off, CSM on/off, AHCI and IDE for storage controller. It's a Haswell era system so I was expecting no troubles. The ISO is the latest, built in April of this year.
I just happen to get a glimpse of the verbose (Grub) boot process halting on PCI device enumeration. What it was, I couldn't tell. So I get to thinking, maybe I'll try the onboard Intel graphics and remove the AMD Radeon PRO WX 3200 (RX550). VOILA! Booted through to the firmware utility as expected.
Oh and turns out the SSDs are OEM even though there is only official Intel part #s on it, no labels indicating it was Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. So after all that, no 'valid' Intel part found. lol 😆🤣
I just happen to get a glimpse of the verbose (Grub) boot process halting on PCI device enumeration. What it was, I couldn't tell. So I get to thinking, maybe I'll try the onboard Intel graphics and remove the AMD Radeon PRO WX 3200 (RX550). VOILA! Booted through to the firmware utility as expected.
Oh and turns out the SSDs are OEM even though there is only official Intel part #s on it, no labels indicating it was Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. So after all that, no 'valid' Intel part found. lol 😆🤣