HOWTO: enable AHCI mode after installing Windows - Page 2

mikeshoup · § #16 09-18-2007, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexo

Does not work for me.
Dell Precision 390 -- 975X Express chipset.

Machine starts booting and reboots immediately after displaying the Windows logo.

Help will be appreciated.

I'm working on one of these as well. Let me know if you figure it out, and I'll let you know if I figure it out.

alexo · § #17 09-18-2007, 02:45 PM

Success!

Read the instructions on http://forum.ru-board.com/topic.cgi?forum=62&topic=7941

For the Russian-challenged:

1) Downloaded and unpacked http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...cid=MIGR-62909

2) In PREPARE\IMSM_PRE.inf, changed all instances of dev_2829 to dev_27C1

3) Invoked PREPARE\INSTALL.CMD

4) Rebooted and enabled AHCI in BIOS. Windows booted fine.

5) Installed the latest version of iata76_enu.exe from Intel's site and rebooted again.

alexo · § #18 09-18-2007, 02:48 PM

Auto translation of the original page courtesy of Google

Knocks · § #19 09-18-2007, 04:17 PM

Installing the PREPARE inf file didn't do anything for my system. Still can't get into Vista with AHCI enabled.

I didn't change the devices from dev_2829 to dev_27C1 because my controller is 2829 already (ICH8M).

alexo · § #20 09-19-2007, 12:24 AM

Another thing that I tried before running PREPARE\INSTALL.CMD is making a copy of the CMD file in the Drivers directory of the expanded iata76_enu.exe, modifying it for Intel's inf files (also changing the entry point) and running it.

Both INFs complained that "installation failed" but they may have entered some correct values into the registry.

Can't help you with Vista though, don't use it.

Knocks · § #21 09-19-2007, 05:12 PM

I give up. Hopefully SP1 will address this.

blueboxguru · § #22 10-01-2007, 11:28 PM

I'm chiming in to tell everyone that the reported Intel AHCI driver does not work with GA-P35-DS3L running on Windows Server 2003 x64 w/ 4GB ram. I would get reproducible system lock ups.

For most applications I have encountered no problems. However, as soon as I launched UltimateDefrag or within moments of Skype loaded the system would freeze. This happens with all the stoppable services and drivers disabled. The lock up also freezes in safe mode with or without networking. Needless to say as a programmer myself, I was kind of stumped without any JTAG trace to work with, unlike from work

So after disabling everything in more ways than most people would, I pondered for a while to find the link between why only two applications, UltimateDefrag and Skype, had in common that all my other applications didn't.

I came to realize that I did install iastor.sys awhile back to SysWow64/drivers. As a quick test I renamed this iastor.sys to iastor.sy_ rebooted and found that UltimateDefrag and Skype no longer hung the system. To clean up I just went to Device Manager to show hidden devices and uninstalled the Intel AHCI driver from there.

The problem happens irregardless if the AHCI mode was enabled or disabled from BIOS. The AHCI controller need not be loaded. As long as iastor.sys was loaded the system would hang with certain applications when they're doing some kind of IOCTL. I've no equipment to pursue this further since it was after all the bus that had locked up. I'm sure putting in a couple debug trace messages would help but that's up to Intel engineers. Since the GA-P35-DS3L does not have RAID, AHCI, having no support, is pretty much a worthless marketing gimmick.

Sometimes I wonder why I just want to enable features that are there, not even overclocking or pushing performance. Lesson learned. Don't bother with things that don't have huge support in one form or another.

einshem · § #23 10-08-2007, 04:30 PM

2 IMPORTANT THINGS :

1. from the research I made AHCI is quite usefull also for normal desktop PCs running windows.

2. All this process worth nothing if you forget at the end to go to device manager, double klick your hard-drive(s) under "disk drivers", go to "policies" tab and mark "Enable write caching for this disk" (I recommend adding this to the guide)

Thank you very much !!

decepto · § #24 10-12-2007, 06:22 PM

Thank you sir!

I was in a bit of a bind. I have a GA-P35-DS3L and need AHCI mode enabled in order to instal OS X (osx86), but I couldn't get windows to install with this on. And I was getting the dreaded BSOD if I turned it on afterwards.

I'll give this a try when I get home.

Dmcclain · § #25 10-21-2007, 01:59 AM

Man, you just saved me from reinstalling everything. I build a new computer about every 4 years so my knowledge fades over time until I get back into it again. I bought a new Gigabyte p35 board with Maxtor SataII drive. I decided that I didn't need a Raid setup and not ever having a Sata drive before, I messed up when installing XP. Then I discovered a few hours ago that without enabling ACHI, I am missing out on some of the benefits. I was just about ready to reinstall everything that has taken me two days and I got lucky and found your article on google. I followed your directions and figured out how to install everything as you said.

IT WORKED LIKE A CHAMP!

I am so grateful to you. Thank you very much!

darkshark · § #26 12-05-2007, 07:51 AM

Thank you very much!

I've an ASUS P5K-VM with ICH9 but like it has the 4 sata ports controller, the only mod needed to your reg file is change DEV_2922 into DEV_2923 and voila!

But after the intel drivers install didn't work, then i've to use the drivers for Vista that cames with the motherboard and they work like a charm

I expect this help other people with my motherboard.

Regards.

**Ned Slider** · § #27 12-05-2007, 09:31 AM

Thanks everyone for the updates

**CMB** · § #28 12-10-2007, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Installing the PREPARE inf file didn't do anything for my system. Still can't get into Vista with AHCI enabled.

Fortunately this is very simple with vista, a minor registry edit takes care of it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

mr_raider · § #29 12-11-2007, 10:31 AM

My mobo (ATI 790/SB600) has 2ndary controller, and an eSATA controller that both support AHCI. They are currently set to IDE but do not have drives. I am interested in the hot plug support mostly for eSATA. Can I convert them to AHCI. The controller with my OS drive will remain in native IDE mode.

Electric Bill · § #30 12-11-2007, 09:29 PM

When I built my new Infinity NF570 I installed the Nvidia IDE drivers instead of using the MS drivers like I always have.
First thing I noticed was that hot swapping worked with my eSATA drives.
After doing some research I decided to also install them on my Lan Party Ultra-D and now it's hot swapable also.
Before I had to shut off the machine and plug the eSATA cable in then reboot in order for the drive to be recognized.
I don't think that either board supports AHCI.

Bill