Change from IDE to AHCI

[doberman90]

I've got it set to AHCI in the BIOS, although there's a "Combined IDE/SATA" setting which is set to enable and I have no idea what that does.

In Device Manager, it shows my HDD, connected to the right-most SATA2 connector, as connected to "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller".

I've checked that msahci is set to start and I've installed the latest Asmedia Sata 1390 driver, which has added an "Asmedia 106x SATA Controller" in Device Manager (with nothing connected) and there's also a "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller" listed there.

I realise I should probably connect the HDD to one of the two SATA3 connectors and I'll do that but first I want to get the SATA2 ports working as AHCI and not IDE.

[wazza300]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

isn't there an ahci option for those ports in the bios?

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

isn't there an ahci option for those ports in the bios?

As I said, I've set it to AHCI in the BIOS.

[wazza300]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

what board are you using? some boards have two options for ahci depending on what sata3 and sata 2 ports your using

for example the older x58 boards had options for marvell sata 3 ports to set them to ahci mode and for the intel sata 2 ports to set them to ahci mode aswell

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

It's the 880GMH/US3 and it does have two settings for AHCI but they're both set to that.

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Howdy Mate,

Does your Device Manager look anything like this?



Windows 8 64 Pro 64 bits, BTW. May look a little different if you have Win7.

This belongs to my Asrock 960GM/U3S3 FX (AMD760G/SB710) which from the specs of yours are somewhat similar except of course for the more advanced chipset you have. What I mean is that you apparently have the Asmedia sata controller tacked on to your SB710 chipset to give you 2 Sata III 6gps connectors whereas the rest are just Sata II 3gps or IDEs as the SB710 originally had.

In my bios (American Megatrends) in Advanced>Storage Configuration, I have:

Onboard Sata Controller-Enabled or Disabled
Sata Operation Mode-IDE or RAID or AHCI
Onboard Sata 3 Operation Mode-IDE Mode or AHCI Mode or Disabled

My choices are the ones underlined because I have a Samsung 840 SSD connected in one of the two SATA III connectors on the mobo, a Samsung SataII 1 tb HDD on one of the Sata II connectors and a Sata DVD burner on another of the SATA II connectors. All work in AHCI. Below these 3 lines is a table of IDE(Master-Slave) and Sata II (Sata II-1 to Sata II-4) components connected. My HDD is on Sata II-3 and my DVD on Sata II-4.

I did test an old IDE DVD burner with a IDE to Sata converter on one of the Sata II connectors but I chose the IDE option in Sata Operation Mode because it was still an IDE component and just had a sata cable to the mobo because of the converter. There is where the IDE/AHCI choice comes into play. My Sata II HDD was still visible for some reason but I didn't access it while I carried out the test. Of course the SSD was functional and received data from that IDE DVD read from a CD so I would say the test was a success.

A friend of mine passed me a Sata DVD burner that would no longer write but could read well and that is what I have in my system. I haven't burned a DVD for ages anyways....and is in AHCI mode too (automatically)!

Any clearer? Or did I misunderstand? Remember to post some kind of info/background of your system/component so we won't be guessing what you are trying to get across :)

Cheers

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Hi Papang

In my BIOS it has

SATA Controller - Enabled
SATA Mode - AHCI (other options IDE or RAID)
SATA/IDE Combined Mode - Enabled
SATA 3 Configuration - AHCI

and underneath it shows all the IDE and SATA ports, with the only one populated being SATAII_5 - Samsung HD103S. I have a SATA DVD drive and a IDE HDD and a DVD drive but don't have those connected yet, to keep things simple whilst I try and diagnose this problem.

In Device Manager, it shows the same as your picture except instead of "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" it says "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller". I think I'm meant to install some drivers so that it shows AMD SATA Controller instead though, as it does on my other PC, although I'm not sure whether it actually makes any difference.

That won't help with my current problem though, which is that my SATA HDD is showing as connected to the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller", as shown below in the "View - Devices by Connection" mode. I should try connecting the HDD to a a different SATA port though, as perhaps ports 4 & 5 are weird like this for some reason (maybe it has something to do with the "SATA/IDE Combined Mode", which I haven't found a description of yet).

EDIT: Yep, moving the HDD to SATAII_0 puts it on the "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller". Perhaps the "SATA/IDE Combined Mode" needs to be enabled to use the actual IDE port, I haven't tested that yet though.

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Hmmm, it is somewhat different from mine now that you shed more light on this. I just posted here a pic of my bios (took a photo of my screen) which is this one:

Give it click to see.

Took it too close so it is kind of blurry but you can see my three options. Onboard SATA Controller (line one) to me has to be enabled unless you don't have any Sata capable drives. You have the HD103SJ which is Sata II (great choice of hdd, btw, hehe, I have one too) so to get better performance, leave it enabled.

Line 2 belongs to the 4 Sata II connectors of the SB710 chipset which can be switched to IDE (let's not talk about raid now) if you plan on connecting your older IDE HDD. I use an IDE to SATA Converter by Vantec ($10usd) and thus can use a Sata cable to connect to these. In my understanding, altho the IDE HDD now sports a fancy new age Sata cable, it is still an IDE. These convertors work at the lowest Sata settings (1 or 1.5) which is almost the same as IDE performance. I think that with the converter, it will work both ways: IDE or Sata (in IDE emulation). I would test it both ways. The things is that the bios recognizes it. Same for you DVD burners. If the bios sees them too, great!

Line 3 is exclusively the Asmedia Sata III connectors (2 in a different colour to distinguish them from the SB710 connectors. Your HD103SJ, altho Sata II, will run fine in Sata III, maybe even a little faster. Only benchmarking (which I haven't done) will tell the truth--I might just be imagining it, hehe.

Your SATA/IDE Combined Mode is what has me scratching my head but I figure that it might refer to your SB710 connectors. Ahh, do you have a IDE mobo connector like me? That is the IDE master and IDE slave lines in the table and yes, I can connect an old IDE ribbon to it and the IDE HDD will appear in one of those lines and will work fine with my SSD with Win8 64bits. I installed Win XP x86 on the IDE (a Seagate 7200rpm 80gb with a molex for power-really old) and it works but I just did that today so I don't know how long that will last.

Why don't you read my other post which refers to something that you are trying to do like me (or rather I am trying to do like you):

http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/53347-960gm-u3s3-fx-ide-sata-ii-sata-iii-drives-connected-same-time.html

It might help clear some voids and doubts. Let me know about anything else, but I am still working thru that post now.

Cheers

P.D. You get your SB drivers from the AMD All in One driver file either dowloaded (I did this) or your mobo CD, if memory serves me right. Install those and AMD storage drivers will appear.

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Yeah, I've got a proper IDE connector on the motherboard, so would connect any IDE devices to that rather than buy IDE->SATA converters.

From reading your other post, it seems like your IDE connector is probably completely separate from the SATA controller, whereas on mine it seems to be shared, hence the "SATA/IDE Combined mode" setting and the fact the SATA HDD showed as connected to the IDE Controller in Device Manager when on SATAII_5. I'll have to test whether an IDE device is detected/works with "SATA/IDE Combined mode" disabled but I suspect not.

Thanks for the tip about the AMD drivers. I should know that but I forgot! Still not sure if it makes much difference using them or the Windows default ones but I guess it's best to use the proper drivers ;)

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Well, if memory serves me right, IDE connectors don't/can't support SATA, thus the for the newer Sata connectors on mobos. So I don't think that is the function of the combined mode you mention. For me it would work on the SB710 governed sata connectors only, not for anything connected to the IDE connector.

Could you upload a pic of your bios on the screen that would be the equivalent of mine? It should be in Advanced>Storage Configuration or something to that effect. I hope you understand that what you (us rather) are trying to do things that even the engineers at Asrock might not have done so besides clearing up our doubts, we could help others who are in a similar situation. That is how I have learned a lot of things--from the generosity of others that have taken the time to pass on what they have learned to others.

What I'm getting at is that if you connect your IDE HDD to the IDE connectors on your mobo, it should be totally independent from all that Sata, but you HAVE to see it in the bios somewhere to know that it is recognized in the first place. I have not seen a case where I could work with a drive without it being recognized in the bios (some say they have but I suppose is really rare). So a lot of testing is in order because you may be breaking ground on something no one has tried to do with that mobo, like Columbus discovering America, hehe.

That is what I was getting to in my other post, like the title says: I'm trying to connect to the SAME mobo 3 different animals--a Sata III SSD, a Sata II HDD and an IDE HDD. Not too many people are trying to this, I'm sure...and you are one of them ;)

Cheers

P.D. I[ll be posting my results of connecting all three types in my other post sometime today or tomorrow latest, lest I forget what I did (happens when I do a lot of things at the same time).

2nd P.D. I didn't edit the above so that you can see where deductive thought processes take you, haha. The reality is in the next post as seen on my bios (can't show more than 1 pic per post in this forum). I just finished jumping through hoops to get everything going as I (you) wanted.

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Here's a photo of my BIOS, which is a bit different to yours.



In fact, the manual shows a "IDE Controller Enabled" option but that isn't present but then again nor is it in yours, from what I can tell from your photo. Nonetheless, the "SATA IDE Combined Mode" along with the fact that my HDD on SATAII_5 was connected to the IDE Controller, not the SATA Controller, in Device Manager, makes me fairly sure that the SATA Controller and IDE Controller aren't separate on my board (the Asmedia SATA3 controller obviously is a separate device).

It shouldn't be a big deal to use the SATA3 Controller, the SATA2 controller and the IDE Controller all at the same time, as if they're three separate devices that should be fine and even if the SATA2 and IDE controller are combined, as mine appear to be, the BIOS has this option so it seems they're intended to be used simultaneously and having it enabled doesn't seem to cause any problems for the SATAII HDD, although I haven't tested extensively enough with IDE devices connected as well to be sure.

I think I'll share this info about my board in your other thread in case anyone there has any insights ;)

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Well, we talked a bit on my thread but focusing more on your case, I had some doubts so I got a pic of your mobo:



--What do you have connected to the white Asmedia connectors?

--What do you have connected to your dark blue SB710 connectors?

--I suppose you haven't connected anything to you IDE connectors.

To further find out for sure how you have your drives configured now, it would help to have a another great pic of your bios but this time of the Advanced/Storage Configuration with how your drives are recognized. I see a button on the top left of your previous bios pic. Does it take you to that screen?

You haven't mentioned what OS you have but since I see you have AHCI enabled almost everywhere, you did install the OS with AHCI enabled from the bios I suppose? Device Manager I feel doesn't say clearly if your drive is in AHCI mode. The fool-proof way is if it says AHCI in front of your drive description in Storage Configuration.

Feel up to it yet? A pic is worth a thousand words like they say. Most get the idea better when you get everything like you want, seeing pics than a 5,000 word essay. I sure do.I miss posting multiple pics in a post which shows the flow of the instructable, but I'm checking with the mod how to do so.

Cheers

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Nope, on my BIOS that is the Advanced/Storage Configuration screen.

I've got nothing connected to the white Asmedia SATA3 connectors, only one HDD connected to the first blue SATA2 connector and nothing connected to the IDE connector (for testing anyway).

I've learnt from setting up other PCs that if the BIOS is set to AHCI mode then this is what the HDD will operate in and if Windows can't find the AHCI driver, then it will fail to boot, so I'm quite sure that it is working in AHCI mode.

Here's a weird thing though. I disabled the "SATA IDE Combined Mode" and connected my IDE HDD and DVD drive to the IDE connector and then the BIOS doesn't show anything attached to IDE Master or Slave, whereas if I enable that mode it does show them. However, booting into Windows (I'm using Windows 7 x64 Ultimate) it then detected and installed two new device drivers and shows the IDE devices in Device Manager! Note it already showed them in Device Manager with the Combined Mode enabled and it still shows the same "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" as before. So I can only assume that the IDE connector can either run separately or, with that mode enabled, it is somehow joined to the SATA chipset. It doesn't make much sense to me and I can't see any benefits from doing that but there you go.

Bonus, disabling the Combined Mode has stopped the BSOD I was getting every time I tried to run Plex Media Server :)

I think I should make a new thread asking about what the Combined Mode is for!

EDIT: New thread here http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/5...tml#post460480

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Ah man, that renders my experience sort of sideways. We have similar chipsets but the bios changed quite a bit, especially for the new "SATA IDE Combined Mode".

However, from experience, my SSD definitely runs faster on the white Asmedia connectors than the SB710 ones. It is Sata III 6gbps ready and I KNOW your HD103SJ will even benchmark somewhat better/faster. I found that by using AS SSD: Alex Intelligent Software - Downloads
I get a maybe 10-15% better bench in Sata III than in Sata II. And no, it not only works for SSDs but will also read my HD103SJ. The benchmark takes a while or quite a bit more than with a SSD (10min vs 2min) which goes to show the difference in speed!

It also shows on the upper left side two important things:

-What driver is being used. If it says for example "pciide" you are NOT in AHCI mode and

-If your drive is "Aligned". Didn't know that it meant until using this app. It is crucial for SSDs altho it affects to a lesser degree HDDs.

So I have both my SSD and my HD103SJ connected to the white ones in order to get the best performance. I suppose you are after this because it is the title of your op.

From your Drive Manager pic, I see you have the Asmedia 106x driver loaded in Windows so it should not affect Win 7 from booting. Leave "SATA IDE Combined Mode" ENABLED or DISABLED so long as the IDE devices are seen in bios and does not bork your OS.

I hope you have better luck on the new thread but the case may be that this bios is unique to your 880g/SB710 chipset and like me, there are no users of this mobo (or mine) on this particular forum. I see this in my other thread: http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/5...-heatsink.html
which has zero responses. Drop by and see.

Oh btw, do you have a sensor of your NB? If not, does it feel inordinately hot? That is what that thread is about. All works and that is the only anomaly till now.

Cheers

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Yeah, maybe I should e-mail Asrock and see if they can explain this Combined mode.

I probably will move the HDD to the SATAIII ports and benchmark it but it's definitely using the MSAHCI driver on the SATAII ports now.

Strangely, although Plex doesn't seem to cause BSOD anymore, when I just launched HwInfo64 my screen went blank and I had to hard reboot. Running it after rebooting and it works but it seems I still have some issues to iron out with this PC!

Anyway, there's only two sensors on this board, one for CPU which reads 37.5c and one for Motherboard which reads 45c, which may be the NB or not.