Defiance V - Insyde BIOS issues

[illarion]

I have a new Defiance V - and the Insyde BIOS supplied seems awfully restricted, especially for a machine pitched as a gaming/desktop replacement, and with a price tag to match. Certainly it's very sparse compared to that on my old Optimus.

Is there an advanced mode or something that I'm missing?

I can't, for example, seem to disable the built in SSD drive (I would prefer to use the M2 NVMe "drive" to boot from, but I can't get the Windows installer to do that. Normally I would just disable the other drive until after Windows installation).

I don't want to physically remove the drive, because - again, unlike my old Optimus - I would have to completely disassemble the thing to get at the SATA port.

There also doesn't seem to be a tool in the BIOS to update itself. Maybe I'm spoiled by modern Acer BIOSes on desktops, but I can't remember the last time I did a BIOS update other than from the BIOS itself.

Physically, it's a nice machine. It's light, sleek, and powerful. The inability to get at the drives and battery, I can grudgingly accept as a trade-off for that, though it's likely not one I'd make again.

But the dinky toy BIOS? Sheesh.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Why can’t you install to the M2? Is it showing in the BIOS?

you don’t need to disable drives for installation.

what OS are you trying to install?

Custom chassis don’t update BIOS in the same way that off the shelf laptops do. For any BIOS updates you have to contact PCS and work through it with them otherwise if voids you’re warranty. The only place to obtain the BIOS updates is through PCS also.

 

[illarion]

The M2 is showing in the BIOS, yes (under "Offboard NVMe controller configuration" - not that you can actually configure anything there).

I'm using a standard MDT deployment image to install via WDS/PXE. It does not allow for installation on different drives/partitions, but - normally - one can easily work around this by temporarily disabling any additional drives.

I haven't yet checked if I can install to it manually, but I would normally avoid doing so - that tends to end up with the boot and system partitions being on different drives, which I'd rather avoid.

OS is Win 10 Pro volume license.

Point taken re BIOS. SOP for me is to check for the latest version when provisioning new machines (and since the last batch of desktops I had from PCS weren't all up to date, I am unwilling to simply trust that they have done it. I guess I'll just have to get in the habit of asking the question when I'm doing laptops.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Boot and system partitions being on different drives hasn’t been a thing since the very first iteration of SATA SSD’s a long time ago, it’s no longer something that happens.

 

[illarion]

I beg to differ! I've seen it many times, rather more recently than you suggest. Indeed, my desktop at home has that very issue (admittedly, it's a pretty complex beast, with 12+ drives, some SATA, some SAS, one NVMe - can't entirely fault Windows for getting confused).

But "no longer something that happens" is simply incorrect.

I'll give the manual install a whirl, see how it goes. But honestly, I shouldn't have to. Disabling drives is basic functionality, frequently used. I can't see a legitimate reason for the BIOS not to support it.

And the lack of it has already turned what should have been an automated process into a many hour debacle.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I beg to differ! I've seen it many times, rather more recently than you suggest. Indeed, my desktop at home has that very issue (admittedly, it's a pretty complex beast, with 12+ drives, some SATA, some SAS, one NVMe - can't entirely fault Windows for getting confused).

But "no longer something that happens" is simply incorrect.

I'll give the manual install a whirl, see how it goes. But honestly, I shouldn't have to. Disabling drives is basic functionality, frequently used. I can't see a legitimate reason for the BIOS not to support it.

And the lack of it has already turned what should have been an automated process into a many hour debacle.

Ok, on a standard system build, it no longer happens. I haven't had to disable secondary drives for over 6 years on 5 builds done at home and many hundreds done on nvme builds at work.

On a server environment that may well be different, but I promise it's not an issue on desktops or laptops.