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Enable Intel AHCI under XP [Case Closed => read second last post]


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Looks like there is a typo in the Registry File:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2923&cc_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

Should be:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2923&cc_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

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Looks like there is a typo in the Registry File:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2923&cc_0106]

"Service"="iaStor"

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

Should be:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2923&cc_0106]

"Service"="iaStor"

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

I concur. At the time I tried it, using the original instructions, I had three control sets. After looking things over, I entered the info in by hand using the Current Control Set, and it worked after that. My goal was to be able to run OS X on a Hackint0sh; I now have OS X working, and can definitely assert that the AHCI fix does indeed work.

:rolleyes:

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Just a question. Has anyone noticed ANY increase in performance after switching to AHCI mode? Cause I tried some months ago and all I got were some annoying bios screens (of course, after enabling all the stuff) and waiting times before Windoze started booting :P

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Nerfed.

I have a ga-p35-ds3l that I just turned on the ahci and **** it caused major issues for me. CPU usage was whacked. Firefox using 50% to 90% cpu usage, explorer 40% to 60%, everything was causing major cpu usage. Wouldnt drop below 21% to 23% even with all programs shut off. The hard drive benchmark I have on this computer is Hard Drive Tach. I wish I had taken a screen shot of the results but I didnt. On the Seagate sata2 500gig ST3500630AS the cache burst was 140ish and is normally 210ish. The read speed was 55 high to 35ish low and is normally 70ish+ to 40.

Rather disappointing really.

I guess I also don't understand that if ahci isnt supposed to work on the non ICH9R chipsets then why is it an option ?

P.S. Woo hoo, member for over 2.5 years and I just made my first post. I rock..

Edited by SoulSeeker
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After a month and a half using AHCI, I went back to IDE.

Some of you might be interested in the reasons:

1. Burst rate is significantly worse with AHCI.

HDTune reports 120MB/s with AHCI versus 140MB/s with IDE

HD Tach reports 200MB/s with AHCI versus 225MB/s with IDE.

(why Tune & Tach don't give the same values is a mystery, but in all cases IDE > AHCI)

2. CPU consumption is definitely higher when using AHCI compared to IDE for seemingly no speed increase whatsoever.

3. AHCI introduces a HDD sleep bug !

I have 2 HDDs. In XP (SP3) power management, I set to switch off the HDDs after 2 hours of inactivity.

When I'm using AHCI, the 2nd HDD never goes to sleep, EVER, if the first one isn't already asleep.

With the same power management settings under IDE, no problem, 2nd HDD goes to sleep after desired time alright even if first HDD keeps being active.

4. Resume from standby is a bit slower.

So for now i'll forget about AHCI for my current config.

Btw, going back to IDE is easy as hell, just swith back to IDE in BIOS, reboot and all is fine.

If you're sure you won't be ever going back to AHCI you can remove the intel matrix storage manager driver (iaStor)

Later,

TSR

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Looks like there is a typo in the Registry File:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2923&cc_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

Should be:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2923&cc_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

Good one, I didn´t think about that and I will edit it directly, credits to you, thank you.
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After a month and a half using AHCI, I went back to IDE.

Some of you might be interested in the reasons:

1. Burst rate is significantly worse with AHCI.

HDTune reports 120MB/s with AHCI versus 140MB/s with IDE

HD Tach reports 200MB/s with AHCI versus 225MB/s with IDE.

(why Tune & Tach don't give the same values is a mystery, but in all cases IDE > AHCI)

2. CPU consumption is definitely higher when using AHCI compared to IDE for seemingly no speed increase whatsoever.

3. AHCI introduces a HDD sleep bug !

I have 2 HDDs. In XP (SP3) power management, I set to switch off the HDDs after 2 hours of inactivity.

When I'm using AHCI, the 2nd HDD never goes to sleep, EVER, if the first one isn't already asleep.

With the same power management settings under IDE, no problem, 2nd HDD goes to sleep after desired time alright even if first HDD keeps being active.

4. Resume from standby is a bit slower.

So for now i'll forget about AHCI for my current config.

Btw, going back to IDE is easy as hell, just swith back to IDE in BIOS, reboot and all is fine.

If you're sure you won't be ever going back to AHCI you can remove the intel matrix storage manager driver (iaStor)

Later,

TSR

I've had the same experiences with vista as well as xp 64. However, once i installed proper drivers, the hdd sleep bug went away. I think its more work to have it installed as starting other things from cd/dvd that does have its own ahci drivers on media will not recognize drives. Its more hazzle then its worth for performance, and there is very neglible gain at _best_.

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Hi Everyone!

I have a Gigabyte P35-DS3 Rev1.0 (ICH9) motherboard with a SATAII HDD and I use Vista 32-bit. But I CANNOT activate the AHCI features, such as NCQ.

I know that Vista supports AHCI out of the box.

When I tried to install Vista in AHCI mode:

- Vista saw my HDD and started install itself

- after about 5 minutes the intallation stopped (no BSOD, no error message, just stopped)

So I could install it in IDE-emulate mode. After the installation I switched to AHCI and then BSOD under startup.

So I did these instructions: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Now I can use Vista in AHCI mode but I DON'T use the AHCI features (NCQ, hot-plugging) and the speed is a bit slower than before...

Can someone give me any suggestion?

Thx in advance!

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Interesting... Has anyone ever tried implanting Msahci.sys onto XP? I would take a look at it, but don't have enough knowledge... (and Vista, too).

GL

Edited by GrofLuigi
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I've had the same experiences with vista as well as xp 64. However, once i installed proper drivers, the hdd sleep bug went away. I think its more work to have it installed as starting other things from cd/dvd that does have its own ahci drivers on media will not recognize drives. Its more hazzle then its worth for performance, and there is very neglible gain at _best_.

This is interesting. I thought running the drive in native mode would benefit at least a LITTLE bit...

Edited by Octopuss
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After a month and a half using AHCI, I went back to IDE.

Some of you might be interested in the reasons:

1. Burst rate is significantly worse with AHCI.

HDTune reports 120MB/s with AHCI versus 140MB/s with IDE

HD Tach reports 200MB/s with AHCI versus 225MB/s with IDE.

(why Tune & Tach don't give the same values is a mystery, but in all cases IDE > AHCI)

2. CPU consumption is definitely higher when using AHCI compared to IDE for seemingly no speed increase whatsoever.

3. AHCI introduces a HDD sleep bug !

I have 2 HDDs. In XP (SP3) power management, I set to switch off the HDDs after 2 hours of inactivity.

When I'm using AHCI, the 2nd HDD never goes to sleep, EVER, if the first one isn't already asleep.

With the same power management settings under IDE, no problem, 2nd HDD goes to sleep after desired time alright even if first HDD keeps being active.

4. Resume from standby is a bit slower.

So for now i'll forget about AHCI for my current config.

Btw, going back to IDE is easy as hell, just swith back to IDE in BIOS, reboot and all is fine.

If you're sure you won't be ever going back to AHCI you can remove the intel matrix storage manager driver (iaStor)

Later,

TSR

I am currently running the modified driver.

For the last two days, I have been fooling with making bootable cd's and bootable USB. These devices do not have the drivers for the harddrive in ahci so they either crash or just do not see the hard drive. (I had enough trouble just getting the usb image to work at all, so I have not tried to add in the hacked driver).

So I decided to revert back to IDE mode, but when I set the bios back, all I got was the BSOD/stop screen, at about the point where it should be loading the desktop. (this is booting from the normally working harddrive not usb or cd) I didnt try anything else yet, like removing the HD or controller devices from the device manager, or seeing if i can roll back a driver. I dont want to get myself into a situation that I cannot boot the drive at all. I set it back to ahci and it boots fine, but for now I am stuck in ahci.

I thought I did get it to revert back on the first day, but it is not working for me now.

So for me at least, going back was not 'easy as hell'. GA-P35-S3G. maybe I will try it another day.

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