[Fernando 1]

Haruspex, on Dec 31 2007, 04:27 PM, said:

I don't have any IDE devices to my system. I have a Samsung SH-S203B SATA as well a H.D.D. WD SATA2. The question is if i set the SATA Mode to AHCI to enable the AHCI features and of course integrate the Intel SATA/RAID drivers with nLite will it work? I am asking because i did a test with my original XP Installation Disk and it doesn't even detect the SATA DVD (meaning it doesn't even the show the message "Press any key to boot from CD") when i set it to work in AHCI Mode and i don't know if the integration method with nLite going to help on that.

AFAIK you have 2 options:
1. Run the BIOS and set the S-ATA Controller, where the DVD-ROM drive is connected, to IDE mode and the hdd connected Controllers to AHCI mode.
2. If the first option is not possible, you should borrow somewhere a natively IDE connected optical drive just for the OS installation. Once it is finished, you will be able to replace it by your S-ATA connected one.

Quote

Oh and one more question about AHCI in general. I heard that if you enable AHCI and you have the Intel ICH9R controller you can't enable write caching under XP and/or Vista, only if you have a RAID setup you can enable write caching. Did you experience this "problem"?

As I don't have an Intel ICH9R chipset mainboard, I don't have any own experience regarding this problem.

[Haruspex]

Thanks for the quick reply, will try the second option as the first it's not possible. I think i have an old IDE CD-ROM somewhere... *me searching for old cd-rom drive*

[Gruby]

Hi Fernando,

Thanks to your advice I install XP SP2 on my laptop computer.
"Medion MD 96370 with DVD-RW on ATA, HD on SATA and pre installed Vista Home Premium."
I trying to made fresh installation of XP but without your guide I can't (invisible HD).
Now everything looks OK but in Properties - Device Manager - Other device - Unknown Device.
"Location on microsoft ACPI - Compliant Embedded Controller"
"Details - Device Instance Id - ACPI\PNPOC32\2"
"Hardware Id - ACPI\PNPOC32 *PNPOC32".
Can you help mi solve the problem (I try to reinstall all available drivers, doesn't work).

Happy New Year

Gruby

[Fernando 1]

Gruby, on Jan 4 2008, 03:18 AM, said:

Now everything looks OK but in Properties - Device Manager - Other device - Unknown Device.
"Location on microsoft ACPI - Compliant Embedded Controller"
"Details - Device Instance Id - ACPI\PNPOC32\2"
"Hardware Id - ACPI\PNPOC32 *PNPOC32".
Can you help mi solve the problem (I try to reinstall all available drivers, doesn't work).

Hi Grubi,
it's fine, that I could help you with my guide to get XP installed onto your Intel chipset Medion laptop.
I have done a google search for the Hardware Id "ACPI\PNPOC32", but I only got links in cyrillic letters, which I cannot read.
It is obviously a power management driver for your laptop (originally a Toshiba Satelite?). Ask the Medion support for a suitable driver.
If you have a laptop with preinstalled Vista, you may have problems to get a working XP driver for that device.
Good luck and happy new year!
Fernando

[Akkuma]

I just wanted to let you know Fernando that plain old ICH8 does indeed support ACHI, http://kerneltrap.org/node/7582 , contains the information about it. You might want to add it in as an "experimental" and a use at your own discrepancy type of warning.

[Fernando 1]

Akkuma, on Jan 5 2008, 08:09 PM, said:

I just wanted to let you know Fernando that plain old ICH8 does indeed support ACHI, http://kerneltrap.org/node/7582 , contains the information about it. You might want to add it in as an "experimental" and a use at your own discrepancy type of warning.

Thank you for this important information.
Since obviously some ICH8 and ICH9 chipsets are fully supporting AHCI despite the contrary announcements done by Intel, I have updated my guide regarding this point.

Thanks again!
Fernando

[Akkuma]

Just wanted to add in order to have ICH8 achi/raid support you need to modify the files that site says, which I have done, but have not tested yet.

Here are those files:

http://rapidshare.co...iaahci.inf.html FIXED VERSION
http://rapidshare.co...TSETUP.OEM.html

It really is easy to maintain the iaahci.inf and txtsetup.oem, since you basically add in a total of 4 entries. Additionally, these files aren't updated that often.

This post has been edited by Akkuma: 06 January 2008 - 12:56 PM

[Fernando 1]

Akkuma, on Jan 5 2008, 09:33 PM, said:

Just wanted to add in order to have ICH8 achi/raid support you need to modify the files that site says, which I have done, but have not tested yet.
Here are those files:
http://rapidshare.co...iaahci.inf.html
http://rapidshare.co...TSETUP.OEM.html
It really is easy to maintain the iaahci.inf and txtsetup.oem, since you basically add in a total of 4 entries. Additionally, these files aren't updated that often.

Thanks for this additional statement and the download links.
Since I do not want to make my guide larger than necessary, I have just put an additional link to your post into my guide.

CU
Fernando

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: 05 January 2008 - 03:47 PM

[Akkuma]

I can confirm that my system is running in ACHI mode, since everything is set to it in the BIOS, except I have a strange entry in the device manager. NOTE: Missed one line in the .inf file, so I am replacing the one I uploaded at rapidshare. If anyone has used the old one and integrated it DO NOT WORRY as it looks to be just literally a string setting for what name to display in the device manager.

[Fernando 1]

Akkuma, on Jan 6 2008, 07:50 PM, said:

I can confirm that my system is running in ACHI mode, since everything is set to it in the BIOS, except I have a strange entry in the device manager. NOTE: Missed one line in the .inf file, so I am replacing the one I uploaded at rapidshare. If anyone has used the old one and integrated it

Thanks for your post and for uploading the fixed INF file version.
Which "strange" entry do you have in the Device Manager?

[Akkuma]

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2824&CC_0106.DeviceDesc this strange entry is fixed with this line PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2824&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = "Intel® 82801HB SATA AHCI Controller"

In other words, it just sets the display name properly. I fixed this by updating the driver with my newer version. As a side note, I have done performance testing and AHCI has no performance benefit seen in HD Tach. This is compared to vista in IDE, XP in IDE, and XP in AHCI

[Fernando 1]

Akkuma, on Jan 7 2008, 05:17 AM, said:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2824&CC_0106.DeviceDesc this strange entry is fixed with this line PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2824&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = "Intel® 82801HB SATA AHCI Controller"
In other words, it just sets the display name properly. I fixed this by updating the driver with my newer version.

Thanks for answering my question.

Quote

As a side note, I have done performance testing and AHCI has no performance benefit seen in HD Tach. This is compared to vista in IDE, XP in IDE, and XP in AHCI

If the user doesn't get any performance benefit by enabling the AHCI mode with Intel ICH8 chipset mainboards, why do you suggest nevertheless to do it and to load the modified AHCI drivers?

[jonathanckh]

what do you mean by textmode drivers? i downloaded the drivers from the intel website and there seems to be a system file which cannot be added onto nlite... there are only iaachi and isator...

[Fernando 1]

jonathanckh, on Jan 7 2008, 11:08 AM, said:

what do you mean by textmode drivers?

Mass storage controller drivers, which have to be loaded by F6/floppy or integrated into an OS CD, are TEXTMODE drivers, because they have to be present within the first (=textmode) part of the installation. Otherwise the OS Setup will not detect the storage devices (S-ATA hdd's, RAID partitions etc.).
If you are going to integrate such drivers by using nLite, you have to pay attention, that they will be integrated as TEXTMODE and not as PnP (=normal device) drivers. nLite normally detects a textmode driver (having a TXTSETUP.OEM file) and will set the driver integration popup window automaticly to TEXTMODE.

Quote

i downloaded the drivers from the intel website and there seems to be a system file which cannot be added onto nlite... there are only iaachi and isator...

The Intel Matrix Storage Controller textmode driver I have uploaded within my guide (first post of this thread) can easily be integrated by nLite. The IASTOR.SYS file is the driver itself, the TXTSETUP.OEM contains the informations for the textmode part of the installation, the 2 INF files (IAAHCI.INF and IASTOR.INF) contain the needed informations for the later hardware detection part of the Windows Setup and the CAT file contains the WHQL informations of the driver.
If you point nLite to any of the 2 INF files, nLite will integrate all files of the driver folder into the OS image. So there is nothing to be additionally done by you.

[jonathanckh]

alright, thanks... but now im having problems with the booting sequence. im using a MSI Neo2-FR motherboard. there is a mode where you can change the settings to either IDE, Raid or Achi. default settings was IDE and has no problems booting with the CD in drive. but when i switch to raid and place the first boot sequence to the CD, i was unable to do so. i entered the boot menu and all it showed up was the floppy and 2 hard disk.

[jonathanckh]

ok, i read that you have to create a raid array via ctrl + I? i've already create 1 at raid 0 and set my 1st boot sequence to the raid 0 volume. but the system says that please set a boot device etc. but i've already set the 1st boot sequence. what should i do?

[Fernando 1]

jonathanckh, on Jan 7 2008, 01:02 PM, said:

alright, thanks... but now im having problems with the booting sequence. im using a MSI Neo2-FR motherboard. there is a mode where you can change the settings to either IDE, Raid or Achi. default settings was IDE and has no problems booting with the CD in drive. but when i switch to raid and place the first boot sequence to the CD, i was unable to do so. i entered the boot menu and all it showed up was the floppy and 2 hard disk.

Is your CD/DVD-ROM device connected to an Intel S-ATA port?
If yes, you should either connect it to another non-Intel S-ATA port (for example of JMicron, if available) or you have to replace your built-in CD/DVD-ROM device by an IDE connected one just while installing the OS. After having the OS up, you will be able to replace it by the S-ATA connected optical drive.

EDIT:

jonathanckh, on Jan 7 2008, 01:17 PM, said:

ok, i read that you have to create a raid array via ctrl + I? i've already create 1 at raid 0 and set my 1st boot sequence to the raid 0 volume. but the system says that please set a boot device etc. but i've already set the 1st boot sequence. what should i do?

There are 2 different boot order settings within the BIOS:
1. the "normal" boot device order (CD/DVD-ROM at first, RAID at second etc.) and
2. the HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY settings (RAID disk at first, other non-Raid hdd's as second and third etc.).

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: 07 January 2008 - 06:25 AM

[jonathanckh]

is the marvell something counted as a non intel sata port?

and i've already created a raid array so there is only 2 options, the raid 0 volume and the floppy. there are only this 2 options.

[Fernando 1]

jonathanckh, on Jan 7 2008, 01:36 PM, said:

is the marvell something counted as a non intel sata port?

AFAIK Marvell is a manufacturer of Ethernet (LAN) chips. I have never heard about Marvell S-ATA Controllers.

Quote

and i've already created a raid array so there is only 2 options, the raid 0 volume and the floppy. there are only this 2 options.

Look where your CD/DVD-ROM drive is connected to the mainboard and try to set this S-ATA port to "IDE" mode. Then you will be able to boot off this optical device.

[Akkuma]

Fernando 1, on Jan 7 2008, 04:54 AM, said:

Quote

As a side note, I have done performance testing and AHCI has no performance benefit seen in HD Tach. This is compared to vista in IDE, XP in IDE, and XP in AHCI

If the user doesn't get any performance benefit by enabling the AHCI mode with Intel ICH8 chipset mainboards, why do you suggest nevertheless to do it and to load the modified AHCI drivers?

Actually, from everything I know and read, ACHI does not improve performance for anyone in lots of situations. At the same time, HD Tach is an old program that isn't even supported anymore. My testing was pretty informal and more software designed to really test the benefit of ACHI v IDE would be needed.

Here are a few reasons why you'd want ACHI, hot-plugging and native command queuing. http://en.wikipedia....Command_Queuing

Here is a reason why you wouldn't want NCQ:

"However, the current (as of 2004) technology actually slows down HD access in certain applications, like games and sequential reads & writes, because of the added latency induced by NCQ logic[1]."

From my understanding, NCQ is a nice feature for someone who doesn't want to worry about a fragmented hard drive or doesn't do that much sequential read/writing, especially on servers. At this stage in time, I believe NCQ does not really have much of a performance hit anymore (I currently sport a 7200.10 that is 3 generations later).

Additionally, in another 4 years I see XP as going the way of 98, most people will be running Vista with the remnants still running it. Vista natively supports ACHI, which means there would be very little reason to not use it.