Quoting ProfJCNash <profjcnash [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com>:
Possibly silly thought: Can you check that SSD is functional in another machine of some sort?
arrrggghhh ... never mind, spencer cheng asked the right question, as in what interface it uses. the laptop has PCIe slots, but the SSD uses a SATA III interface. can't believe i didn't notice that, but i'm also irked with where i bought this because i bought both the laptop and the SSD drive at the same time and *specifically* said i wanted to put that drive in that laptop, and no one warned me off. grrrrrr ... rday