Can't get AHCI to work

thor

Just posting the second of my problems dual booting xp with win 7.
In this case it probably has nothing to do with dual booting but rather hardware.
My motherboard is an asus F1A55-m LE running an AMD A4 cpu with 4 gig ddr3 ram. The hard drive being used is a sata Crucial M4 SSD 128GB.
The motherboard has IDE and AHCI modes but the AHCI mode is unuseable as it crashes the system(causing a reset) whenever it is selected.
To rule out the hard drive I tried booting off my sata dvd drive and got the same fault.
I have updated my motherboard bios and visited the manufacturers website but have found no solution.(I was hoping this was a common complaint) so am at a loss.
Anyone know a way of getting AHCI working in this case?

robmar0se

Others may correct me, maybe I'm out of date, but it certainly used to be the case that you had to select the AHCI in BIOS before installing the OS; you couldn't change it after installing the OS.

I wasn't sure from yr post which way round you actually did it.........

Notmyrealname

You need to install the correct SATA controller drivers for your motherboard. Once you've done that, it should work fine.

TBH if you're getting the problem with Windows 7 that would surprise me but with XP, I'd expect it to be unbootable if you installed it in IDE/Compatible mode then switched to AHCI.

robmar0se

Notmyrealname wrote: »

You need to install the correct SATA controller drivers for your motherboard. Once you've done that, it should work fine.

TBH if you're getting the problem with Windows 7 that would surprise me but with XP, I'd expect it to be unbootable if you installed it in IDE/Compatible mode then switched to AHCI.

Yes that makes sense.......

Toxteth_OGrady

What SATA controllers does your mobo have?

thor

Notmyrealname wrote: »

You need to install the correct SATA controller drivers for your motherboard. Once you've done that, it should work fine.

TBH if you're getting the problem with Windows 7 that would surprise me but with XP, I'd expect it to be unbootable if you installed it in IDE/Compatible mode then switched to AHCI.

Both were installed in IDE mode as that was the default bios setting of the motherboard. It was only after this when I tried using AHCI where both fail to even get to the windows loading screen.
I have had a go at finding sata drivers but I am not sure how to install the ones I downloaded from Asus's site. There were amd_sata.cat, amd_sata.inf, amd_sata.sys and smd_xata.sys. With .inf files I usually run them by right clicking and hitting install but I just get a message saying "The INF file you selected does not support this method of installation" so I am stuck at the moment.

thor

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

What SATA controllers does your mobo have?

I don't really know.
In device manager there is no sign of any SATA hardware- perhaps this is an indication I have no sata drivers? would sata drives running in ide mode need drivers?
According to my motherboard manual it has AMD A55 FCH southbridge serial ATA 3Gb/s connectors though.

Richie-from-the-Boro

BIOS URL="http://in.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_FM1/F1A55M_LE/#download"]1101[/URL set to AHCi and the SSD [SATA 3G - drive 0] & DVD [drive 1] drive only on the BUS and do a clean of Win7 64bit with an up~to~date iso of Win7 SP1 from Microcrap.

.NOTE1. There's an available certified AMD AHCI Driver V1.2.1.269 for Windows Vista/7 32bit & 64bit.(WHQL) on their site

.NOTE2. forget WinXP and any other drives for now do a virgin 64 bit 7 with only the SSD connected and let the group know what happens.

Notmyrealname

Personally I'd not bother with the stinking pile of poo that is XP. If you really need XP for a couple of applications, use Virtualbox and set up a virtual PC with it on.

thor

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

BIOS URL="http://in.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_FM1/F1A55M_LE/#download"]1101[/URL set to AHCi and the SSD [SATA 3G - drive 0] & DVD [drive 1] drive only on the BUS and do a clean of Win7 64bit with an up~to~date iso of Win7 SP1 from Microcrap.

.NOTE1. There's an available certified AMD AHCI Driver V1.2.1.269 for Windows Vista/7 32bit & 64bit.(WHQL) on their site

That is the driver I have been trying to install from my Win 7 64 bit system. When I hit right click and install on it, I only get a message saying that 'the inf file you selected does not support this method of installation'. What other ways are there of installing this file?

LucianH

I'm about to try to do the same on an Asus P8Z77-V mobo (either this weekend or next). From what I've read, you should only need the drivers for Win XP and not for Win 7. I'll let you know how I get on.

There is one question I have not found the answer to - if you have an SSD as the system drive, what real performance or other advantages do you get using AHCI over IDE?