Metis M.2 card on a Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX system

Question

I'm having trouble getting a Metis M.2 card to be detected on a Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX system, and I'm trying to determine whether this is a compatibility issue or if the card itself may be faulty.

System configuration

Motherboard: Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX (latest BIOS)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
Operating System: Windows 11

I tested the card in both available M.2 slots:

M2A_CPU (front slot)
M2B_SB (rear slot)

To rule out an issue with the motherboard, I first installed a known-good NVMe SSD in each slot. The SSD is detected correctly by both the BIOS and Windows in either slot.

When I replace the SSD with the Metis card, using the same BIOS configuration, the behavior changes completely:

The BIOS does not detect any device in the M.2 slot.
Windows Device Manager does not show a new PCIe device, not even as an unknown device.
The MetisOmega INF driver installs successfully, but reports that it was installed on 0 devices, which makes sense since Windows never detects the card.

I've also checked the following:

Both M.2 slots are configured to use PCIe (Auto), not SATA.
Lane-sharing limitations described in the motherboard manual have been taken into account.
The exact same slots and BIOS settings work perfectly with the NVMe SSD.

Based on these tests, it seems that the Metis card is not establishing a PCIe link with the motherboard.

Could you please let me know:

Whether there are any known compatibility issues between the Metis M.2 card and the Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX.
If there are any additional BIOS settings or diagnostics I should try (PCIe link status, LEDs, etc.).
Whether these symptoms are consistent with a defective card and if I should proceed with an RMA.

Thank you for your time. I appreciate any guidance you can provide.

Samuel.Maldonado · Accepted Answer

Hi! ThanksJust wanted to update you that it’s working now! Moving it to the M2B_SB slot did the trick after a couple of BIOS adjustments:Power Saving: Tweaked the PCIe power-saving options to avoid sleep state conflicts.iGPU Memory: Reduced the shared memory allocated to the CPU's integrated graphics.Once those settings were applied, the Metis enumerated properly as a PCIe device.This was likely happening because on this B550I motherboard, Slot 1 (M2A) links directly to the CPU lanes, whereas Slot 2 (M2B_SB) routes through the chipset/southbridge. That bridged path seems to handle the accelerator's initialization and lane distribution much better.Appreciate the guidance on this!

Spanner · Answer

Hi ​@Samuel.Maldonado, nice work on the systematic testing. A couple of notes and next steps:First thing that might help is thatthe BIOS not listing the Metis in the M.2 storage screen is probably normal. Because Metis is a processing accelerator rather thanan NVMe drive, I don’t think most BIOSes will show it there. Can’t say for sure especially with newer BIOSes, but FYI.Wha we’re looking for is whether it enumerates as a PCIe device, and I’m not sure it currently does.In which case, let’s think about a few things to try!In the BIOS, can you set the M.2 slot's link speed explicitly to Gen3 (Metis is a Gen3 x4 device and some boards fail link training on Auto/Gen4). While you're there, also disable any "PCIe ASPM" power-saving options for that slot.A full cold boot is surprisingly helpful sometimes. Power off completely, switch off the PSU for ~30 seconds, then power on, etc. Metis sometimes needs a genuine cold power cycle to link up.Maybe test with a Linux live USB (e.g. Ubuntu) and run lspci? Look for 1f9d:1100 or Axelera AI Metis AIPU (rev 02). It just removes the Windows driver layer from the equation and is a giid conclusive test. If the card enumerates under Linux, it suggests a Windows/driver issue; if it doesn't, we’re looking at a link-level problem. Bit of a faff, but a great diagnostic tool.Since it's an AMD platform, if the card does appear under Linux but misbehaves, amd_iommu=off is a known fix, but that's a later step.Let me know if any of that helps!