Solved Mini-PCIe SATA-card is not recognized by MSI AM1i mobo

Hello,
I have a newly home built MSI AM1i motherboard and have it running fine with Windows 8.1. I am trying to expand the number of SATA ports it has (comes with only 2). The mobo has a mini-PCIe card slot.
I purchased a AsMedia 106x, 2-port, mini-PCIe card (had to use a ribbon-cable extender to get it connected).
That all appears to be fine. I struggled a bit with drivers, but eventually found a Windows 7 AsMedia 106x driver set. Loaded that, seems ok.
Problem: When I go to device mgr, it does not see the added 2-ports. When I first boot up, during the black-screen phase, it does report that the AsMedia device is loading and will actually find/name a hard drive that I attach to one of the new ports. It then almost looks like it will load windows, give the nice little blue windows 8 flag and just sits there. I can hear a drive cycle every 2-3 seconds, but nothing.
I eventually have to hit the power button to shut down. If I disconnect the drive added to the new card, it will start up. The AsMedia device looks to load during a black-screen phase, but reports no device found, and then loads Win 8 Correctly. When I get in, again, no SATA ports shown for the new device.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Usually the mini PCIe slot is reserved for Wireless Nic cards.

Well, I basically gave up. Went and got a regular PCIe 2x SATA card, and moved the wireless function from what had been a PCIe wireless card, to a USB wireless dongle I had laying around.
Did not really resolve the configuration. Yea, I know about the mini-PCIe card usually housing a wifi card. Somehow that communication is different than other PCIe applications?
Oh well, no bother, moving on.
Thanks

Hi, I have the exact same issue as KETBD. MSI AM1I motherboard with a BPlus PM1061 mPCIe -> 2xSATA adapter.

When I plug the adapter in with no hard drives attached, Windows 7 boots and I can install the driver and it is recognised as a Asmedia 106x SATA controller in device manager. I shut down the PC and connect two hard drives and restart. Before the BIOS splash screen loads, there is some text saying the Asmedia controller has initiated and displays the two connected hard drives. POST completes and windows splash screen shows, but goes no further. I have to hard shut down, unplug the drives and restart for windows to load.

KETBD used a PCIe adapter instead of the mPCIe adapter to work around this problem, but I can't see what the difference between the two should be?

Anyone have any ideas on what to try to get windows to load and have the connected hard drives recognised?