Sata2 problems booting up

[pauldc]

Ok seems i haven't been able to get an answer from gigabyte support i will try here

Just did a rebulid with the GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard new cpu: amd 64x2 6400+ and corsair: kit of 2 CM2X1024-6400C4 ram.
From my old pc im using a Nec dvd reader/writer and a Samsung SpinPoint SP2504C 250GB hard drive
os:xp and tryed vista too


Ok the problem is:
When i use the hard drive in sata2 mode set via the bios both xp/vista seems to freezes for like 10-20 secs on the splash screen even the green/blue status bar stops moving and after that the system boots up as normal.
If i change the settings in the bios to ide mode instend of sata2 its boots up with no freezes. I have also noticed that while trying HD Tach on the hard drive i was getting a faster burst rate in ide mode then sata2 even thoe this is a sata2 drive.
I never had any problems with this hard dive on my old set up where i ran it as a sata2 drive so whats wrong or is it that the drive just dont work good with this motherboard or do i have a moutherbord with a problem?

Any help would be great seems after searching the web for hours im none the smarter.

 

[dhg]

I had similar problems with the DS5. I could not get XP to recognize my SATA2 drivers to install. I went back to Gigabyte and downloaded just the SATA drivers (farther down the driver list) and XP recognized them. I also have my SATA set to IDE and both drives show up in the IDE list during POST. This is not a big deal for me since my boot drive is actually an IDE drive with a SATA adapter. My second drive is a true SATAII drive. I have a second set of SATAII ports configured as SATA which I may plug my second drive into to see if it is recognized as SATAII. I am also having problems getting my old RAID set recognized in the new system. The drives keep coming up as non-Raid in the SATAII listing. Any ideas here would help me as well.

Thanks

 

[rwpritchett]

I have a Gigabyte board that had this problem and I was able to solve it under a previous a installation.

Go to device manager, and 'update' your SATA controller driver to the generic Microsoft AHCI controller driver. Worked for me and increased my Vista experience score for hard drive by +0.1 point.

For some reason, on my current installation, it won't let me change the driver to the default MS one without becoming un-bootable. If this happens to you, just do a hard shutdown, reboot, and when the boot options menu appears select "boot using last known working configuration (advanced)" or something like it. It will go back to the bootable driver that has the short hangup.

 

[pauldc]

So theres hang up's could well have something to do with drivers and not hardware.
Like if there no problems with the moutherbored then thats fine. You all know what its like when you buy something you want it to work perfect

 

[rwpritchett]

Problem solved (again).

I installed a previous version of the SB600 AHCI controller driver and the 10 sec. hangup disappeared. The version I was using on my Gigabyte board that had the problem was dated April '07. I installed an older driver dated December '06 and now there's no hangup.

 

[pauldc]

hmm been looking around the net for the older drivers "SB600 AHCI controller driver "dont spose you have a link to where i might find them and have installed xp on a harddive to test couldet find the generic Microsoft AHCI controller driver im guessing there a vista only dirver

 

[Zorg]

You won't see any difference, in speed by going AHCI. Just set the controller to IDE and use it that way. Unless you want NCQ, hot swap, or RAID it is of no value.

 

[rwpritchett]

hmm been looking around the net for the older drivers "SB600 AHCI controller driver "dont spose you have a link to where i might find them and have installed xp on a harddive to test couldet find the generic Microsoft AHCI controller driver im guessing there a vista only dirver

I actually cheated a bit to get the driver. I went to the Asus website and downloaded the driver for a board with the SB600 chipset (M2A-VM HDMI).

Under drivers section look for:

ATI SB600 RAID/AHCI Controller Driver for Windows XP & 64bit XP & 32bit/64bit Vista 2008/01/18 update
(even though the updated is dated Jan 18th, the Vista driver is dated December '06... I think the XP driver is dated March '07)

After downloading, unzip the file. Now, go to device manager and manually install the driver. You will have to use the "Have Disk" option to install the driver because it won't automatically install an older driver. You will have to navigate to the driver in the unzipped file instead of a 'disk'.

This worked for Vista. It might work for XP, though the bundled XP driver is a newer version. Post back if this solves your problem.

Zorg, don't forget that AHCI also enables hot-swapping for SATA hard drives. Very helpful if you have an eSATA plate connected to the controller. If AHCI is available, I say use it.

 

[rwpritchett]

You can also try the XP drivers that are dated 2007/04/02 on Asus' website (driver is actually dated October '06) if the above driver doesn't fix the problem for XP.

 

[Zorg]

I did say if he needed hot swap then use AHCI, so if he is using eSATA then he would be using hot swap and he would need AHCI. However that mobo doesn't have eSATA, so I don't think that is going to be a problem. Everyone thinks that AHCI gives a major performance boost, when that is not the case.

 

[rwpritchett]

Sorry Zorg, I overlooked the hot-swap comment.

Yeah, AHCI doesn't do anything for performance. I just get bugged by things that don't work the way they should, even if I don't use/need it.

 

[Zorg]

I go the other way, if I'm not going to use it why deal with the aggravation. Even though it isn't really that much aggravation, I say why bother.

 

[pauldc]

Ive now tryed the different drivers got it to work with the asus driver. But i think i will be sticking to ide mode seems sata mode tock longer to load but least i know no thats there no problems with my hardware thanks for all your help.