Help: SSD issues with Dell XPS 630i

[xjjeepman]

Hello All, new here;
I just upgraded to a Samsung 840EVO 500GB SSD and am unable to change BIOS to AHCI. Shouldnt I be able to do this? I have BIOS version 1.0.13 (latest for my PC i believe) and it does not give me an option. Stock motherboard. Any ideas? Samsung Magician throws an error stating "Magician cannot communicate with the Samsung SSD" it can however tell me the used space etc of the drive just no health specifics and system info. My PC seems to be faster but I definitely think it can be better. Any ideas?Thanks for the input!

Specs of PC:
Dell XPS 630i
Intel Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz
Kingston HyperX 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad Kit
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB
2 More 500 GB Drives
Crappy Nvidia Galaxy Geforce GT 610 2GB DDR3 PCI Graphics card
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit

 

[Palorim12]

Hello All, new here;
I just upgraded to a Samsung 840EVO 500GB SSD and am unable to change BIOS to AHCI. Shouldnt I be able to do this? I have BIOS version 1.0.13 (latest for my PC i believe) and it does not give me an option. Stock motherboard. Any ideas? Samsung Magician throws an error stating "Magician cannot communicate with the Samsung SSD" it can however tell me the used space etc of the drive just no health specifics and system info. My PC seems to be faster but I definitely think it can be better. Any ideas?Thanks for the input!

Specs of PC:
Dell XPS 630i
Intel Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz
Kingston HyperX 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad Kit
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB
2 More 500 GB Drives
Crappy Nvidia Galaxy Geforce GT 610 2GB DDR3 PCI Graphics card
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit

For the Magician error, check the device manager. Is your computer giving the SSD an SCSI driver? If it is then Magician won't be able to see the SSD.

 

[xjjeepman]

How can I tell which drive it is under Device Manager? I assume I look under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers? I have 3 HD's and only one is an SSD. My list is as follows;
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Please let me know, thx

 

[Palorim12]

How can I tell which drive it is under Device Manager? I assume I look under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers? I have 3 HD's and only one is an SSD. My list is as follows;
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Please let me know, thx

Under the Disk Drives drop down it will list the SSD, what does it list it as?

 

[Dereck47]

I have BIOS version 1.0.13 (latest for my PC i believe) and it does not give me an option

SATA ports can have 3 settings (modes): IDE, AHCI, & RAID.
If your BIOS doesn't give you an option then that means it does not support AHCI mode.

See if you are able to enable RAPID mode in Samsung Magician.
That is probably your only option to increase performance of the SSD other than buying a current generation motherboard.

 

[Palorim12]

I have BIOS version 1.0.13 (latest for my PC i believe) and it does not give me an option

SATA ports can have 3 settings (modes): IDE, AHCI, & RAID.
If your BIOS doesn't give you an option then that means it does not support AHCI mode.

See if you are able to enable RAPID mode in Samsung Magician.
That is probably your only option to increase performance of the SSD other than buying a current generation motherboard.

He won't be able to enable it since Magician isn't "seeing" the SSD

 

[Dereck47]

He won't be able to enable it since Magician isn't "seeing" the SSD

I have an AMD motherboard with 2 HDDs in RAID-0. I have a Samsung 840 EVO 120GB as my O/S drive. I can't change the SATA modes of the individual ports, so all of my ports are in RAID mode.
I receive the same error message as the OP, but yet I can still enable RAPID mode.

This is my error message: "Magician cannot communicate with the below Samsung SSD(s). Please check with other compatible storage drivers and try again."

 

[xjjeepman]

I have BIOS version 1.0.13 (latest for my PC i believe) and it does not give me an option

SATA ports can have 3 settings (modes): IDE, AHCI, & RAID.
If your BIOS doesn't give you an option then that means it does not support AHCI mode.

See if you are able to enable RAPID mode in Samsung Magician.
That is probably your only option to increase performance of the SSD other than buying a current generation motherboard.

So is there anything else I can do? Maybe a later BIOS version or? Is the only place to check the BIOS for these options during start up? (Stupid question im sure)

 

[Dereck47]

BIOS version 1.0.13 dated May 2009 is the latest and last version. Yes, the BIOS is the only place to change SATA port modes.