How to switch on AHCI on P5K mobo ?

[GeoffW]

Hi

On my Asus P5k MOBO I have a WD 320 Gig HD on SATA1 connector (non raidable) I have installed XP OK but with the drive set to IDE in the BIOS.

I now realise that it cant be switched to AHCI after OS installation.

I did briefly try to install XP with BIOS set to AHCI but got a crash in the early WINXP install screens.

Setting AHCI seems very non intuitive and tricky

Could anyone walk me through the steps on how to get AHCI working please ?

Incidentally, any guesses as to how much of a speed up I would see in switching from IDE to AHCI ?

Regards Geoff

 

[LAGuy]

I just re-built my HTPC with a SATA 3.0 drive with two partitions. One the boot drive. Before I loaded the SATA drivers with the F6 key at the beginning of the XP install, I turned on AHCI in the BIOS and had zero issues with the install. Primary reason was for later hot swapping of external SATA drive.

Haven't had the system running for to long. About a week, but seems pretty quick. Haven't decided whether that's because of AHCI or the SATA 3.0 interface. Probably a little of both. But the seat of the pants dyno says the HD is running quicker.

 

[GeoffW]

Hello LAGuy

Thanks for the reply, what I was struggling to figure out was what drivers I should be feeding it when I press the F6 key. Any chance you could be more specific about where you got the AHCI driver from ? I couldnt spot anything that looked suitable on the CD or the ASUS website.

Last question. You didnt have to load a Windows XP driver once XP was running? You seemed to imply just at the F6 stage did the trick for you ?

Thanks for you feedback

Regards Geoff

 

[LAGuy]

Hi Geoff,

I downloaded the drivers (and floppy maker) from Intel's website. My board use's the P965/ICH8R chipset. I just searched for "ICH8R" in downloads. BTW, when I called ASUS to ask where I could find the SATA driver for my board, the tech support person didn't have a clue. Sheesh! Had to find it myself. Luckily it was in the first place I looked :mrgreen:

Once the driver is loaded with the F6 key, no further driver install is necessary. If an updated driver is released later, you can update the driver at that time.

BTW, the floppy that the Intel driver makes has several chipsets/variations on it. Just pick the one you need to install. Mine was ICH8R Desktop

 

[rwpritchett]

There are two alternative methods to switch from IDE to AHCI if you already have Windows installed without having to reinstall or repair. This works for the P5B, should work for the P5K too:

#1 Shutdown the computer. Remove SATA cable from the Intel SATA Controller and plug it into the SATA port of the JMicron controller. Boot the computer after changing BIOS to reflect the changes (Jmicron set to IDE, Intel SATA set to AHCI, set JMicron for boot). Once in Windows, install the latest Intel driver for the AHCI controller. Shutdown the computer. Move back the SATA cable to the Intel controller. Power up, change BIOS to reflect change in boot drive location.

-OR-

#2 With the Intel controller set on IDE mode, go into device manager and locate the Intel controller that the drive is connected to. Right-click and select upgrade driver. Select browse my computer for driver software. Select let me pick from list. In the screen untick the box "show compatible hardward". Scroll down under the Manufactuer column and select the Standard AHCI driver and select next. This should install the Microsoft AHCI driver. (Alternatively, you can install the latest Intel AHCI driver at this time if you have it handy using the "Have Disk" button.) Reboot. Then go into the bios and change your Intel controller from IDE to AHCI. Once your reboot you can then install the AHCI driver for your particular motherboard. This is assuming you are running Vista, I'm not sure if XP has default Microsoft AHCI drivers available.

Either option will work. The first way is nearly fool-proof, but the second way allows you to skip diving into the case and switching cables around.

 

[LAGuy]

#1 Shutdown the computer. Remove SATA cable from the Intel SATA Controller and plug it into the SATA port of the JMicron controller. Boot the computer after changing BIOS to reflect the changes (Jmicron set to IDE, Intel SATA set to AHCI, set JMicron for boot). Once in Windows, install the latest Intel driver for the AHCI controller. Shutdown the computer. Move back the SATA cable to the Intel controller. Power up, change BIOS to reflect change in boot drive location.

That's very clever! Good to know for XP installs.

 

[GeoffW]

Thanks guys for the very detailed information

Unless I have missed them, it would appear that Intel have not yet posted any official drivers on their website yet for the P35 chipset. I will save this info and look again in a few days.

Regards Geoff

 

[madsage]

The official version for ICH9 IMSM (intel matrix storage manager) storage drivers for ahci and raid is 7.8
They are not released yet, however 7.6 works fine until. Vista has an inbox intel ahci and raid driver that is version 6.0, works fine with ICH9 P35 boards.

madsage

 

[pow3rslave]

but from the asus support section:
"ICH9, ICH8, ICH7 and ICH6-based chipsets, as well as ICH5 and ICH5R-based chipsets, do not use AHCI."

i've got xp installed using the satas in ide mode, (had to downgrade the bios to get ahci to show) but when i select ahci it bsods in booting. i tried to use the ich9r driver exe, but it won't run.

can anyone point me to a download link for the drivers i need for the vanilla p5k with the g33/ich9 chipset?

 

[jeffli]

but from the asus support section:
"ICH9, ICH8, ICH7 and ICH6-based chipsets, as well as ICH5 and ICH5R-based chipsets, do not use AHCI."

i've got xp installed using the satas in ide mode, (had to downgrade the bios to get ahci to show) but when i select ahci it bsods in booting. i tried to use the ich9r driver exe, but it won't run.

can anyone point me to a download link for the drivers i need for the vanilla p5k with the g33/ich9 chipset?

HI,

Maybe you can try this,

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2101&OSFullName=All+Operating+Systems&lang=eng&strOSs=All&submit=Go%21