SSD and AHCI Issue

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swingking03

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Mar 6, 2009
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So I just installed Windows 7 on a new OCZ Vertex 2 SSD and think I may have done something wrong. First, I did not switch the bios to ahci before installing and now when I try to switch it will not boot. Second, I did not unplug my HDDs while installing (is this an issue?). Also, I did not update SSD driver during install and when I go to OCZ webiste and use thier update tool, my drive does not appear. Does it matter which IDE drive number and master/slave the SSD appears on in teh bios? Can the AHCI issue be corrected? Given all of these issues, if I need to reinstall I could really use a step-by step. Thanks. PS - I am an idiot when it comes to this stuff.
 
Solution
RetiredChief
You said " After that update the SSD driver. " - no driver to update. The driver is the uSoft AHCI driver.

You should not have to switch from IDE mode to AHCI mode. With AHCI enabled in bios PRIOR to installing win 7, Win 7 should automatically set AHCI mode.

For the tweaks, That link to the OCZ formum as a pretty good set. Just pick and choose basted on your usage.
Should at a min.
.. Set your page file min/max to same vaule
.. Disable hibernation
.. disable superfetch
.. disable disk indexing.

On pagefile. I would set min/max to same value and leave on SSD. Leave for a couple of weeks, then switch to put on HDD. if you do not see any performance difference then leave on HDD. If you notice a performance decrease, then your...
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If it were me, I would try Shawdows method first (EXcluding the Installing of the Intel drivers.) You have noting to loose. If that does not work, then do the "Wipe" and reinstall. I notice that in the Gskill formum, gkill leans toward the "wipe, and re-install, but that may be for a "play it safe".

I looked at the link "Some seem to have had success using the Intel driver on AMD system" I would take this with a big grain of salt - the driver package should not install as it checks the system for compatability.
 
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So i followed shadow's suggestion and it actually increased my boot time by at least 20 seconds! Any ideas? Trying to determine if I need to update motherboard or bios, not sure if I need to or not. Currently have GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4 AM2+/AM2
 
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Hopefully a newer firware will correct this. I cann't see Gskill will like the bad press.

I Just finished redoing mine. My WEI went from 7.3 -> 7.8. Ran AS SSD Benchmark and the overall score Jumped from around 270 to 473 (have to wait till I reload Office to see what it was). Only think I've done is load the RST driver and ATI Cat (Also have the 5770 GPU.

Only problem I had was with the HDDErease program. I did not show any progress, and there was no HDD lite activity, I finally bombed out of it after 30 Min. Which is not a good thing to do.

Tomarrow I'll have to reload all my programs - UGH. Means I have to find all, some are downloads and I think I have all the Keys.
 
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So i did a fresh install of windows 7 and everything went good. I am now trying to make sure I have most revent drivers and I dont want to F**K this up.

First, where do I find my currently installed chipset driver?

Second, my bios version is F2. Do I need to update this to F5 since I am running Phenom II?
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3002&dl=1#bios

I have seem mixed advice...am I enabling or disabling write caching?
 
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(1) On write cache, I normal leave enabled. If you have an occasion power dropout then disable. (I have my computer on an UPS)

(2) When ever I redo things on my computer, I'll normally install the latest MB firmware (in your case F6 (looking at your Link)

(3) Looking at your link
Northbridge is 790x (controlls Ram and GPU) and southbridge is SB750 Controlls Sata/USB/lan ports)

On Gigabyte website, Chipset driver is dtd 08/14/09 (V8.641) and AMD SATA AHCI Driver (Preinstall driver, press F6) is dtd 05/11/09 (V1.2.0.125)
BUT on AMD web site:
http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/integrated_win7-64.aspx#3
They Show a southbridge driver 10.1 dated (10/10/10) and a AHCI driver Ver 10.10 dtd 10/22/10 THIS IS WHAT the other AMD poster used). Are this what you need, Are they for your MB chipset - I Think so - BUT YOU will need to verify. Not that knowledgable with AMD, been quite some time since I used a AMD MB.

 
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You should not use the AMD AHCI drivers (v10.10 dated 10/22/10). AMD's AHCI does not support TRIM. For the time being in order to preserve the health of your SSD you have to use Microsoft's default AHCI drivers.

I currently have a GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD AM3 paired with a Phenom II X4 945 3.0 ghz quad-core and have always been a fan of AMD but this recent clusterf**k has persuaded me to finally break down and order that i7-870 and an ASUS P55 LGA 1156 sata3/usb3 I've had my eyes on.

You would think for as long as SSDs have been around now that AMD would have taken the time to make a driver with TRIM. No wonder Intel has gained so much support http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intc-q3-revenue-atom-sandy-bridge,11456.html
 
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RC,

When you helped me out a few days ago I did everything above ^ except using HDDerase. Do you think that TRIM will clean up the rest? Because I have heard conflicting things about how it works.

By the way, to those that have no frame of reference, my WEI went from a 7.3 to 7.7 in following the above directions and moving to the IRST drivers. (Also, had my SSD plugged into the wrong SATA controller- doh!)
 
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Second, my bios version is F2. Do I need to update this to F5 since I am running Phenom II?
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/pr [...] &dl=1#bios
Click to expand...
I would personally update it. It may help with the AHCI issue.

They Show a southbridge driver 10.1 dated (10/10/10) and a AHCI driver Ver 10.10 dtd 10/22/10 THIS IS WHAT the other AMD poster used). Are this what you need, Are they for your MB chipset - I Think so - BUT YOU will need to verify. Not that knowledgable with AMD, been quite some time since I used a AMD MB.
Click to expand...
+1. Yeah, I haven't built my "personal" systems on AMD since the 939 days. C2D/i7 and by the looks of it, probably may go with SB depending on if AMD can deliver with Bulldozer.
 
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At nativeson
I would not worry about not having done the HDDErease, Between trim and internal "garbage collection" you should be OK.

On HDDerase, I had a problem on mine. It hung up, at least it appeared to, No progress status (Found out that was normall) but I at least expected to see the HDD activity Lite flash. After a 1/2 Hour I bombed out. SDD is working, have had no problems with install and installing programs. WEI went from 7.3 -> 7.8 and AS benchmark was much improved. CrystalDiskifo indicates status as Good. BUT I now get an error message during POST that it failed SMART test.
 
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How do I verify is the bios update and SB driver are for my board? They look like they are but how can I make sure?

Update: After a weekend of computing and reinstalling all my programs, I have the following to report:

Before reinstalling Windows and switching to AHCI


After reinstalling and with AHCI enabled

P.S. How do I make it in English?

Not quite what I was expecting when I spent $200+ on Windows 7 and an decent SSD 🙁

Very pissed I chose to go with AMD a few years ago.

Any thoughts on how to improve performance?

 
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spend the 300 now and get an intel i5 760 + any decent 1156 mobo or wait 4 months and get a sandy bridge

amd used to reign supreme but intel has surpassed them in almost every market imo
Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't specify the contraints. Any thoughts on how to improve the performance of my current SSD?
 
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+1 Lardacus
My last 5 builds have been INTEL (did do 2 AMD prior to that). AMD makes a good product esp for the average consumer (normally at a slightly lower cost).
Me, I do not need the MAX performance, and a do not care about a 10->20% cost differential for the MB/CPU. When everything is all said and done the cost diff is less than 5% factoring in Memory, GPU, PSU, Case, and PSU which are the same for either amd or intel system. I look more at compatibility with hardware.

My rational is market share, Intel has a large advantage and 3rd party developers know this and that is where they put their emphasis. This is really highlighted in regards to the SSD problem - AMD has known this for over a year and for one reason or another has failed to correct it. It has become a larger issue as more and more mainstream user are moving to SSDs - AND still no word from AMD!

Swingking - Lardacus will be able to help you more than I can at this point as he has a simular set-up.
Which AHCI driver did you end up using. From what I see, the AMD driver provides beter Performance, BUT no Trim. Which is what he stated earlier. In his post on GSKILL he indicated using the AMD driver and ended up with a overall score of 381 Vs your 348 ( only 9.5% better than your score) to me this means that in normal usage you would not notice any performance diff (for SSD) between his and yours. BUT the Diff between the AMD and INTEL setup should be noticable (ballpark 30%)
 
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^ Right, I have been reading a lot about it recently and it seems that AMD is not stepping up, and won't even comment on the issue. They seem to be using the old "If I dont talk about it, it will go away" approach. Makes me feel good to be an AMD consumer!

Edit: I beleive I have the MS AHCI driver installed, however I am not sure and don't know how to check. I read somewhere that the ATI Catalyst Pack may install the AMD AHCI driver and that is what I used when I installed my new video card. I still have not determined if I need to update my bios and I believe that a new ATI video driver came out on Friday so I need to make sure I have the most current version there.

Does AMD or Gigabyte have a tool that tells you if you need to update bios/chipset drivers?
 
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