ASRock 990FX Extereme 9 Cold Boot SSD Issues

[Ro-Tang Clan]

Specs:
CPU: AMD FX8320
Mobo: ASRock 990FX Extreme 9
GPU: MSI GTX 770 Lightning
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Avexir White Core series 2100MHz
Storage: Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD as primary
Sandisk 32GB SSD used as storage
1TB WD Blue series used as storage
PSU: Cooler Master V850 (850watts, 70A single rail)

Hi,

I have an issue whereby Windows will not recognise my SSD in AHCI mode after a cold boot. I can tell this because it boots up without Windows Aero mode enabled (trying to enable it doesn't work), things do not display correctly, but the main giveaway is when running a Windows Experience Index test the "Primary Hard Disk" rating drops from 7.9 to 5.9.

Previously I had an MSI 990FX-GD80 board and after purchasing the ASRock board I just quick swapped this and didn't change anything. So initially I put it down to lack of drivers etc. Just to confirm, this wasn't an issue on the MSI board.

Diagnostics:
However, since then I have installed a clean version of Windows 7 Home Edition onto my SSD (with storage configuration settings set to ACHI mode) whilst every other hard drive disconnected leaving JUST the SSD connected. Even during the Windows installation I made sure to format the drive before installing.

After installing a clean copy of Windows, WIE reports a rating of 7.9 on my Kingston SSD as a primary hard drive so it's all fine and dandy. OH I should point out I did download the latest drivers including the SATA3 driver from ASRock's website for this board. This works, although again, from a cold boot it is STILL booting without Windows Aero mode that can't be enabled AND a WIE rating of 5.9

The strange thing is, by changing nothing in the BIOS and purely by doing a reboot the machine boots into Windows with areo, things display correctly although the WEI rating is still only 7.8. I have also made sure every other hardware component has the correct up to date drivers.

I haven't tried a BIOS update yet, although I have taken this into consideration and unfortunately do not have the BIOS version to hand. Apart from this, any ideas guys?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[saint19]

Hi and welcome to Tom's forum.

Do you see any performance change when the rating is 5.9 compared to the 7.8 rating?

 

[Ro-Tang Clan]

Hi and welcome to Tom's forum.

Do you see any performance change when the rating is 5.9 compared to the 7.8 rating?

Only with boot times. I can usually tell if it's recognising AHCI or IDE mode by the amount of time it takes to boot the PC. Apart from that I can't tell probably because I don't use the PC for anything you would notice a great deal of difference for (video editing etc).

Although when playing Borderlands 2 (which I installed on the SSD) I did notice my load times to be the same as a friend of mine (who doesn't use an SSD), whereas when I was using the MSI board my load times would be about 5 seconds quicker than him.

IMO it's either something I've configured wrong or this board is faulty (which doesn't seem likely at this stage). I will try and get some pictures of the BIOS up so someone can check it over just to make sure I'm doing something wrong.

 

[saint19]

Excellent, try to get the BIOS pictures for help you to figure out the problem.

 

[Ro-Tang Clan]

Excellent, try to get the BIOS pictures for help you to figure out the problem.

Pictures as promised:

http://s4.postimg.org/ytsl829kt/DSC_0421_1.jpg
http://s14.postimg.org/w3fcw571d/DSC_0422_1.jpg
http://s14.postimg.org/nnpsen469/DSC_0423_1.jpg
http://s27.postimg.org/hrl6kat9v/DSC_0424_1.jpg

The only thing I can see wrong is that the Western Digital 1TB HDD is physically plugged into what the mobo classes as the 1st SATA slot. Although I don't see how this should make a difference as long as the SSD is chosen as the primary boot device as shown in the 3rd photo.

Can you see anything I've done wrong in the configuration?

Kind Regards