In this post I will show you how you can modify the BIOS of your Dell OptiPlex 7010 so that it can support an NVMe SSD drive as a boot device. This is a follow up to a post I did on how boot a Dell OptiPlex 7020 with an NVMe drive.
I also wrote an upgrade guide for the Dell OptiPlex 7010 which showed how to use Boot Disk Utility to boot from an NVMe drive by using a USB Stick. The method described in this post will allow the machine to boot natively without the need for any additional hardware.
The Optiplex 7010 has a UEFI BIOS, but it does not contain the NVMe driver. By adding the driver into the BIOS you can boot from a PCIe NVMe SSD. I managed to achieve these speeds with a Samsung 970 EVO Plus from Amazon:
This is the same drive that I put into an OptiPlex 7020, but for reasons that I do not understand, the same drive is even faster in the 7010.
Here is the PCI card and Samsung NVMe SSD installed in the machine:
Warning
This blog post contains instructions on how to modify your BIOS.
You could easily break your machine. Proceed at your own risk!
Table of contents
Required Hardware
In order to carry out this upgrade, you will need a few things:
- An NVMe SSD. I used a 512Gb Samsung 970 EVOPlus
- An NVMe to PCIe Adapter, I used this one from Amazon.
- A Dell OptiPlex 7010 to upgrade.
These instructions are specifically for the Small Form Factor 7010. I have not tried this on any other variation of the 7010. If you try it, please let me know your results!
Procedure Overview
This process involves the following steps:
- Upgrading your current BIOS to version A29. Download it here from Dell.
- Installing Required Software and drivers.
- Backing up your current BIOS.
- Adding NVMe driver support into the BIOS backup.
- Writing the modified BIOS back to the system.
- Optimising BIOS settings.
Install the Required Drivers and Software
Before being able to read from or write to the BIOS, you need to install the Intel Management Engine Components from Dell.
Download the Intel Management Engine System Tools v8 r3, which contains the tools required to flash the new bios.
Also download the NVME Driver which will be injected into the BIOS Image.
Finally you will need UEFI Tool 0.82 to make the actual BIOS modification. Here is a direct link to that version.
Put the machine into Service Mode
Now that you have the machine prepared, you need to put the machine into service mode before you can proceed:
- Shut the machine down.
- Remove the mains power supply.
- Locate the two pin service connector and put a jumper on it.
The service jumper is in an awkward position which will require you to remove the Optical Drive and Hard Drive cage to access it. Once those are out of the way, you can find it just above, and to the right of the RAM slots. Here is an image:
If, like me, you do not have a spare jumper, you can borrow the one from the Password reset jumper which is located next to it.
You can now boot the machine again in service mode, but you will receive a couple of warning messages:
You will then receive a message informing you that the machine is in Service Mode:
If you do not put the machine into service mode you will not be able to update the BIOS properly.
Modify and Upgrade the BIOS
Now that you are in service mode, you can continue with the modification. I’ve also made a video that shows how to insert the NVMe driver into the BIOS:
Backup the existing BIOS
Open a command prompt as an administrator and change to the directory where you extracted the Intel ME System Tools. Then navigate to the subdirectory \Flash Programming Tool\Windows64 (or Windows if you are on 32-Bit installation).
Within that directly use the command:
fptw64.exe -d backup.bin
Modify the BIOS and Inject the NVMe Driver
Next, open UEFI Tool and open the backup.bin file. Expand the sections as per the following screenshot:
Scroll to the bottom of this section and you should see an area that looks like this:
Next, right click on item with the name D95D6B4F-92FA-4E78-9C48-C68C0813688E and choose Insert After.
Choose the file NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs that you just downloaded earlier and you will see it appear right after the OemLinkDELLPwdLib section:
Now go to File -> Save Image File and save the file in the same location as the flash tool as NVME.bin. Go back to your command prompt and run the command:
fptw64.exe -bios -f nvme.bin
Shut down the machine and remove the jumper from the service pins and move it back to the password reset pins if you took it from there.
The BIOS modification is complete!
Install the PCI NVMe SSD
If you have not yet installed your SSD into the machine, you can do it now. If possible use the Blue X16 PCI slot, it is much faster than smaller black one.
Optimise BIOS Settings
Now that you have written the new BIOS, restart the machine. If you do not have any SATA drives connected you will receive a warning on start-up that says:
Alert! Hard Drive not found
You can fix this by going into the BIOS Setup and then System Configuration -> Drives. Untick all the SATA ports which do not have drives connected.
Finally, if you want the maximum possible speed from your new drive, consider disabling C-States in the BIOS. This makes it marginally faster, but I doubt you would notice much difference.
Conclusion
Now you can install an operating system of your choice or clone one of your existing drives to your new NVMe drive and enjoy a decent performance increase.
Upgrading the Dell Optiplex 7010 with PCI NVMe Solid State drive is a brilliant value upgrade, and completely transforms the machine. Especially if you are upgrading from a hard drive.
Again, here is the PCI adapter that I used:
- 512Gb Samsung 970 EVOPlus
- NVMe to PCI Adapter (The adapter comes with a heatsink also)
If you try it, I would love to know how you got on and what your results were.
Tony says
I will try to follow this post step by step tomorrow on my Dell 7010 and let you know. But How can I clone the existing hard drive to the NVME Samsung 970 EVOPlus SSD card after I finish ? Please advise! Thanks!
Paulie says
Suggest you follow the video instructions on this page:
Dell Optiplex 7010 Upgrade Guide. But as you have a Samsung SSD you could also use the Samsung Magician software to migrate your data, it is really good. Don’t forget if you are not already using UEFI/GPT boot it won’t work on the NVMe SSD without some additional effort.
Maybe you want to try a fresh install of Windows on to the NVMe first to confirm boot is all working as expected and then clone your existing drive.
Ganeshan says
Can I do this my Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF? Please let me know, thanks in advance
Paulie says
Ganeshan, I cannot tell you as I do not have a 9020 to test it with. But they do have the same chipset so I would guess they share a very similar firmware.
Tony says
My problem is that the Win 10 is pre-installed by DELL. I do not have any Win 10 disc for fresh installation after I finish the procedure here in my Dell 7010. I wish that I can clone my hard drive to the NVME SSD . Any advice? I get stuck! Thanks for your prompt reply!
Paulie says
As long as your current system is booting via UEFI boot and not legacy, I think you should be fine. Samsung Magician software I think will take care of the rest for you. It is dead easy to use. If you manage to successfully mod the BIOS, then you’re halfway there.
Tony says
Hi Ganeshan, I also have couple Dell 9020. If you find out a way to install and boot from an NVMe SSD on a Dell OptiPlex 9020. Please share your wisdom. One thing I can share is that I tried part of the steps for Dell7020 that Paul posted earlier with my Dell 3020, I can successfully back up the BIOS of my Dell 3020 100% complete! But I am not familiar with BIOS at all. I dare not to continue with the rest of the procedure that Paul posted for Dell 7020. I am waiting for our HERO Paul to give us further instructions for next future project Dell 3020. You may have more wisdom & knowledge than me, you may try Paul’s post for Dell 7020 on your Dell 9020. I believe they are the same family. I hope this help!
Paulie says
Tony – I would be happy to try and help you with the procedure on a 9020, because I think it would be very similar to 7020. 3020 is a bit different as it is a different chipset. But if we were able to confirm these steps work for a 9020 that would be really good. They do have different BIOS revisions, so there must be some differences in the systems.
Tony says
It is very kind of you. I appreciate for all your help. What shall I do for Dell 9020? Shall I follow the steps with your earlier post 7020 or using this 7010 post here?
Paulie says
I’ve just bought a 3020 – so I will try it out on that model and let you know when it arrives.
Michael Logan says
Will this work on the Dell T7600?
Paulie says
Hi Michael – there is no way I can tell you without trying. I would only recommend trying it if you have a ch341a programmer you can use to backup your bios flash rom. You could easily brick the machine if you’re unlucky.
Ganeshan says
Hi Paul,
You mention when we do the Bios ” put your machine into service mode ” It means I should “ON” the service mode then I shutdown the system, sorry maybe very silly doubt please excuse me. Thanks in advance
Paulie says
Shut the machine down first, disconnect the power cord, then jump the service mode pin.
Tony says
Dear Paul, By following your instructions in this post, I successfully upgraded two Dell OptiPlex 7010 computers with WD BLACK 500G SN750 NVME SSD. They are running much faster than my Dell 5050 which comes with Dell’s NVME SSD. They are running very close to the max official speed of 3430 Mb/s. I am surprised. You are my hero! I am working on the next upgrade project, my Dell 3020. I will let you know my result. Thanks!
Abhilash Ramineni says
followed the steps and there is no change in bios version number , i still see my old bios version
Paulie says
Abhilash – Did you reboot after applying the Dell Bios update?
abhilash says
hi paul,
tried the steps again , now i can see the new bios version , my windows is on legacy boot and can see the pcie ssd storage on windows 10 manage , but i cannot find this in legacy boot, when i switch to uefi in bios setup i do not see ssd there ,when tried installing ubuntu i was able to see this device and installation is successful, but the issue is that im unable find this in uefi boot options even after ubuntu installation, tried pressing f12 booting options still no luck, any suggestions? . thank you for the quick response
Paulie says
Well, did you modify the bios as per the instructions or just upgrade it to the latest version?
abhilash says
hi paul,
yes i have modified the bios as per the steps and got FPT operation passed with nvme.bin
Paulie says
Can you try installing windows 10 to the nvme? You won’t even see it in F12 boot options. It just comes up as Windows Boot Manager (but I guess it’s different on Linux)
abhilash says
i realized my mistake ,worked with fresh installation (installed ubuntu after changing to uefi ), able to boot ubuntu over nvme pcie, thanks a lot for your response, i almost gave up yesterday, thanks a lot, below is the ouput of the write speed
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/output.file bs=1G count=1 oflag=dsync
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 1.33316 s, 805 MB/s
Paulie says
Well done! Speed seems quite low though. What SSD is it?
abhilash says
AARVEX ,AX650 pcie nvme 1tb, M.2 PCIe 3×4
Shows Average read rate 3.2 GB/s (100 samples)
Hector Soliman says
Hey Paul
TREMENDOUS ARTICLE!!!
Very well detailed and explained for someone like me who has never even opened the BIOS system on any machine. Thanks to you everything went well except my machine doesn’t find the new driver. As mentioned, everything went very smoothly and I even unticked a SATA port not being used in the BIOS settings but it doesn’t find the nvme driver. Remember, EVERYTHING went exactly as your video, I don’t get it. Can you help me with this??
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and hopefully you can help.
Paulie says
How do you know it does not find it? If you put the machine back to service mode and read the backup the bios again do you see the nvme driver present in there?
How have you transferred your installation to the nvme storage?
Hector Soliman says
When I started my computer the “alert” notification came up that it could not find my device driver. I then checked for m,y devices and only see my original SSD. I bought this computer used with a 256G SSd in it and it has a Window 7 OS.
Paulie says
If you want to use Windows 7 then you need to do additional work to make it nvme compatible – you’ll have to Google that as I haven’t tried it. But sounds like your have done the modification correctly.
Hector Soliman says
If I upgrade to Windows 10 do you think it will take care of the problem?
Paulie says
Windows 10 will certainly handle the nvme drive no problem.
Hector says
Windows 10 upgrade is done and the drivers there.
Thanks Paul
Paulie says
Brilliant news – I think it is so cool to see everyone performing this upgrade successfully.
Minkwon says
Very surprise news, Paulie !
Thank you for your efforts. Can I ask something about ?
I have a optiplex 7010 MT (not SFF) and I would like to try your creative trial.
Is there any problem for application ?
please advise. thank you.
trs96 says
@Minkwon it makes no difference which form factor you have. They both use the exact same 7010 A18 BIOS.
trs96 says
Meant to say the A29 BIOS. The 7020 models use the A18.
MINKWON says
Thank you for your helpful feedback.
Great day!