Changing to AHCI mode on a running system (P5K)

Seen a few tutorials around on how to do it, for example here:

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=106575.40

Anyone successfully done this on a P5K/P35/ICH9 motherboard? I keep bluescreening..

Also tried to forcefully update my ide controller in windows to the ahci driver and that bluescreened too.

(I use AHCI when this computer is a server/development system under linux, which it is 95% of the time, and it's starting to annoy me to have to go into the bios to get windows to boot, that's my reason for trying this).

I'm using AHCI on my P5K-Dlx (One WD5000AAKS hard drive and one SATA Pioneer 212D DVD-RW). I didn't have the bluescreen when I did a fresh clean install of Vista Ultimate 64bit. In fact, I didn't even need to load any AHCI drivers prior to the installation but Vista's original AHCI works just fine and my SATA DVD and Hard drive were able to be detected without any problems. I just had to update to the Intel Matrix Storage driver 7.50.1017 in windows.

I'm preety sure if you had your system configured as IDE mode before, you'd need to do a clean install just to save you much trouble, but there are a few guides I've seen that you can still change to AHCI from IDE without reformatting your computer. The steps were enormously complicated though.

I have the P5K deluxe on XP Pro.

I've read the post from the MSI foruma nd the other threads on the Asus forum.

Have not been able to switch to AHCI.

In my case, I don' think its worth it as I only use the PC for email, gaming, internet and other non-critical apps.

having said that.....I wish I had slipstreamed the AHCI drivers prior to installing XP.

I switched to AHCI after installing Windows and device manager recognizes AHCI no problem (I did slipstream them). But I'm running Windows off of another controller (SCSI)

hmm I wonder if on XP (perhaps Vista but I dont have a copy to play with) if you do what I call a "repair install" it will prompt you for the raid pre-install drivers ?

OP this might be worth a shot, and should not take too awfull long if you want to try it.

Boot from the win cd, tell it you want to install xp, it will come back and say, there already is a win install on this drive and ask if you want to repair it, tell it yes and I am hoping it will prompt you to hit F6 to load the raid/AHCI drivers just like it does on the very first install. Then it will redo your win setup but will leave you data and apps alone. You will have to redo any fancy windows settings but IF this works it would see an easy way to do it and for sure the files go where they are susposed too.

Just a suggestion. I do not know/remember if this will work this way. Try at your own risk.

You can load the AHCI driver after the fact in XP. I moved from an XBX2 MB setup as AHCI to a P5K, but XP wouldnt load and would reboot with sata set to AHCI in bios. Set as IDE, it would work, but with the occasional error message. I had to do the 'repair install' booting from the XP dvd, and F6'ed the latest Intel Matrix AHCI driver onto the drive. Took the better part of the day with a couple of errors/hangs/uggh, but in the end it made it through the repair process and could boot with the HD set as AHCI. A visit to microsoft update and a 150 MB download later, good as new. Somehow something gets goofed up going from a ICH7R to ICH9R or ???. But it is possible to load the AHCI driver after installing XP.

reportedly yes, there was a post about 3 months ago on how to do it, extract the files to the HD instead of the floppy but I cant remember where in the Windows directory they had to go and what else needed to be done. With search off it will be a chore to find the post. (I know it was not in the storage subform, probally in Motherboards or motherboards/intel )

BillParrish said:

hmm I wonder if on XP (perhaps Vista but I dont have a copy to play with) if you do what I call a "repair install" it will prompt you for the raid pre-install drivers ?

Click to expand...

I will try this when I get the time for it.

BillParrish said:

reportedly yes, there was a post about 3 months ago on how to do it, extract the files to the HD instead of the floppy but I cant remember where in the Windows directory they had to go and what else needed to be done. With search off it will be a chore to find the post. (I know it was not in the storage subform, probally in Motherboards or motherboards/intel )

Click to expand...

I've seen this post as well, I saw it when I bought the motherboard, which is why I didn't bother setting windows up in ahci mode right away, and now I can't find the thread (and I've tried quite a lot).

hi, I installed VISTA; couldn't load the F6 drivers for some reason (well, I could, but then in VISTA my mouse was freezy and everything and something was bo9rked which didn't happen in IDE mode).

so I screwed it, and just installed without the F6 options. Then I found this:

trick!
Which is a simple registry change that, once applied; you:


reboot

Change drives to AHCI in bios

install matrix storage drivers in windows and reboot again.


whoa, i just realized that link no longer works, stupid microsoft. I'm not the only one who found this out and used it, see this post of the same problem with the same answer *that no longer works*

here

wonder what';s up! This sucks, luckily I imaged my fresh install so it won't be an issue for me again, but the fix was simply changing a 0 to a 1 and I got AHCI working. WHERE in the registry I don't know as the only note I made about it was that stupid microsoft support DB entry.


Again, here's the reference to the original support article no longer avail.===
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976/en-us

Hey, I found the registry location after some googling...wow, lucky me.
Allows you to switch to AHCI mode after installing (HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msachi\Start needs to be 0 for AHCI to be active

hmmmm. what gives here?

that registry key is nowhere to be found on my registry.

Win XP Pro SP2

P5K Deluxe

I am using Vista Home Premium, maybe no go in XP?

When I wanted to use Linux, I had to set my PC into AHCI mode on my Gigabye P35-DQ6.
I couldn't access my Windows installation, it would blue screen.
I am thinking it is just the way you install it.

Just like if you install a PC on one motherboard, then switch to a new one. You will have to get a fresh install, or else you will run into problems.

I've tried it myself.

I also bluescreen in AHCI, and I think it is due to installing Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 when it was set to IDE.

And Linux, I just really hated linux after that.
I know it is open source, I know it is flexible, I know it is customizable.
But I can not browse a web page with Flash without it crashing.


Sorry for going off-topic.

This is the installation procedure needed to enable AHCI after XP has been installed:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t457699.html

I personally tried this a few months ago and it worked for me with my ICH7 motherboard.

If the device ID needs to be changed to reflect the ICH9 chipset, then here are the Device ID's for the ICH9 chipset

ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/specupdt/31697301.pdf

Under the device manager, my brother's P5K deluxe reads the SATA AHCI with a Device ID of 2922

Now, I also have a P5K deluxe (brother) and he really hates switching to IDE for XP and back to AHCI for Vista. I haven't tried the method above because this MB uses ICH9 instead.

I read somewhere that plugging the drive to the e-SATA port would make XP request the proper drivers, enabling ACHI. (Haven't tried it either)

"To load the AHCI drivers you will need to buy an e-sata to sata cable.
Use the e-sata port on the backplate of the board to boot up into windows, whilst enabling the AHCI option in the bios.
The installation will prompt you for drivers
Then, simply swap back onto the ICH9 sata port, with AHCI
Worked for me"

orion23 said:

This is the installation procedure needed to enable AHCI after XP has been installed:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t457699.html

I personally tried this a few months ago and it worked for me with my ICH7 motherboard.

If the device ID needs to be changed to reflect the ICH9 chipset, then here are the Device ID's for the ICH9 chipset

ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/specupdt/31697301.pdf

Under the device manager, my brother's P5K deluxe reads the SATA AHCI with a Device ID of 2922

Now, I also have a P5K deluxe (brother) and he really hates switching to IDE for XP and back to AHCI for Vista. I haven't tried the method above because this MB uses ICH9 instead.

I read somewhere that plugging the drive to the e-SATA port would make XP request the proper drivers, enabling ACHI. (Haven't tried it either)

"To load the AHCI drivers you will need to buy an e-sata to sata cable.
Use the e-sata port on the backplate of the board to boot up into windows, whilst enabling the AHCI option in the bios.
The installation will prompt you for drivers
Then, simply swap back onto the ICH9 sata port, with AHCI
Worked for me"

Click to expand...

Holy Moses!

That worked for me! Although instead of installing the drivers from IBM. I ran the latest Intel Storage Matrix utility. after restart...and BAM! AHCI drivers installed and running AHCI for both my SATA devices (HD and DVD+/-RW)

Thanks!

Cliff Couser said:

Holy Moses!

That worked for me! Although instead of installing the drivers from IBM. I ran the latest Intel Storage Matrix utility. after restart...and BAM! AHCI drivers installed and running AHCI for both my SATA devices (HD and DVD+/-RW)

Thanks!

Click to expand...

What exactly did you do?

Detailed steps please...

Here's what I did.

1A.)Download latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&OSFullName=Windows* XP Professional&lang=eng

Instructions:

1) Make sure AHCI is not enabled in your BIOS, otherwise this guide is pointless for you.
2) Back up your Windows folder and prepare a boot disk in case this guide fails!
3) Download 79im05ww.exe from http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-62909

4) Extract the file to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\SATA.
5) Open C:\DRIVERS\WIN\SATA\PREPARE\IMSM_PRE.inf in Notepad.
6) Replace any instance of DEV_27C5 with the following, according to your southbridge:
ICH6R - DEV_2652
ICH6M - DEV_2653
ICH7R - DEV_27C1
ICH7DH - DEV_27C1
ICH7M - DEV_27C5

*** I have an Asus P5K Deluxe, and the AHCI SATA code is 2922 ---> I changed all instances of DEV_27C5 ------> DEV_2922 ***


7) Save the file and close Notepad.
8) Click Start, select Run.
9) In the Open field type C:\DRIVERS\WIN\SATA\PREPARE\INSTALL.CMD and click OK.

10) Restart your computer, and enable AHCI on in your BIOS Setup.
11) Start Windows XP. The Found New Hardware wizard will start automatically.
12) Click No, not this time then click Next.

13) Run Intel Matrix Storage Manager .exe file
14) Restart.
15) Check Device Manager to see if AHCI is functioning.


GOOD LUCK AND BE CAREFUL!

outDAMNstanding !

Someone needs to double check me on this but I think the codes for ICH9 and ICH8 would be:

ICH8(R) http://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/specupdt/31305709.pdf
DEV_2821 Desktop AHCI Mode supporting 6 ports
DEV_2822 Desktop RAID 0/1/5 Mode - requires ICH8R
DEV_2824 Desktop AHCI Mode supporting 4 ports

ICH9(R)
DEV_2922 Desktop AHCI Mode (Ports 0-5)
DEV_2923 Desktop AHCI Mode (Ports 0,1,4 and 5)
DEV_2822 Desktop RAID 0/1/5/10 Mode - requires ICH9R


the above is an extrapolation of the original posts information assuming the same device ID scheme, I do not know the above to be true, it came from Intel data sheets and I have tested nothing. Use at your own risk. The raid info is particulary suspect in that I think the deivce id is correct but have no idea if the IBM file referenced contains raid support or not.

Cliff Couser said:

Here's what I did.

1A.)Download latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&OSFullName=Windows* XP Professional&lang=eng

Instructions:

1) Make sure AHCI is not enabled in your BIOS, otherwise this guide is pointless for you.
2) Back up your Windows folder and prepare a boot disk in case this guide fails!
3) Download 79im05ww.exe from http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-62909

4) Extract the file to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\SATA.
5) Open C:\DRIVERS\WIN\SATA\PREPARE\IMSM_PRE.inf in Notepad.
6) Replace any instance of DEV_27C5 with the following, according to your southbridge:
ICH6R - DEV_2652
ICH6M - DEV_2653
ICH7R - DEV_27C1
ICH7DH - DEV_27C1
ICH7M - DEV_27C5

*** I have an Asus P5K Deluxe, and the AHCI SATA code is 2922 ---> I changed all instances of DEV_27C5 ------> DEV_2922 ***


7) Save the file and close Notepad.
8) Click Start, select Run.
9) In the Open field type C:\DRIVERS\WIN\SATA\PREPARE\INSTALL.CMD and click OK.

10) Restart your computer, and enable AHCI on in your BIOS Setup.
11) Start Windows XP. The Found New Hardware wizard will start automatically.
12) Click No, not this time then click Next.

13) Run Intel Matrix Storage Manager .exe file
14) Restart.
15) Check Device Manager to see if AHCI is functioning.


GOOD LUCK AND BE CAREFUL!

Click to expand...

I just came back from my brother's place and was able to enable AHCI once in for all for his DUAL boot setup (XP MCE 2005 / Vista Home Premium 32) thanks to everyone's contribution here, especially you Cliff!

Thanks!

glad it worked out orion. all I did was follow your original post.

Anyways, just in case others are wondering, I am running a single SATA drive and SATA OD. NO RAID!


320Gb Seagate SATA II
Samsung SATA DVD +/-RW
eVGA 8800 GTS
4Gb DDR2 667
X-Fi Fatality
XP Pro SP2
Asus P5K-Deluxe (Bios 0404)