Switching to AHCI causes random BSOD

[jlight13]

I have a Windows 7 system I built that has been running without issues for several years. I have an SSD drive from a laptop that I no longer need that I'd like to install in this system. Based on a number of recommendations I found on this forum, prior to installing the SSD I tried to switch to AHCI mode but I started getting random blue screens. I ran the wizard found at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/922976 and switched the SATA mode in the bios from Disabled to AHCI, but now I'm getting random blue screens with irql_not_less_or_equal. When I switched the SATA mode back to Disabled the blue screens stopped.

Here are my specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-DS3R Bios F10
Hard Drive: WDC WD1001FALS
Display adapter: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
Processor: Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo
4GB RAM

I tried analyzing the minidump file but I didn't see anything that seemed to point to a specific driver or issue.

Any suggestions on what will stop the blue screens other than not using AHCI?

 

[unksol]

You can't switch to AHCI without manually modifying the registry or reinstalling

 

[jlight13]

You can't switch to AHCI without manually modifying the registry or reinstalling

The wizard I ran automatically updated the registry so the AHCI drivers will load. The machine booted just fine and Windows detected the change, installed the drivers, and rebooted. Under AHCI the machine boots up just fine and appears to be working correctly, but then will randomly blue screen, sometimes minutes after booting, sometimes an hour or two later. I figure it's either a driver problem or a hardware problem, but as far as I know I have the latest drivers and if it were a hardware issue it seems odd that this only happens when in AHCI mode.

 

[drtweak]

Their should be a stop code. At the bottom of the BSOD or if you look in your Event Manager you can find it or download Blue Screen View and look it up. It is usually like 0x000000XX where XX is a letter number combo

 

[jlight13]

Their should be a stop code. At the bottom of the BSOD or if you look in your Event Manager you can find it or download Blue Screen View and look it up. It is usually like 0x000000XX where XX is a letter number combo

The stop code was 0x0000000A (0x00..48, 0x00..02, 0x00..01, 0xFFFFF800036AA029)

 

[drtweak]

Try this. Boot into Safe mode and run it there for a while (Mash on the F8 key when you start up the PC to get the menu if you don't know how). See if it crashes or note while the SSD is set to AHCI. If it crashes still it may be something else going on but more than likely this issue is driver related.

If you have the old hard drive for this system still or if you can clone your OS as it is now to a HDD and then do a fresh install of windows with AHCI enabled from the begining and see if it crashes. If it doesn't we know there is some kind of driver/software issue for sure on your current install of windows.

 

[jlight13]

Try this. Boot into Safe mode and run it there for a while (Mash on the F8 key when you start up the PC to get the menu if you don't know how). See if it crashes or note while the SSD is set to AHCI. If it crashes still it may be something else going on but more than likely this issue is driver related.

If you have the old hard drive for this system still or if you can clone your OS as it is now to a HDD and then do a fresh install of windows with AHCI enabled from the begining and see if it crashes. If it doesn't we know there is some kind of driver/software issue for sure on your current install of windows.

Actually I haven't installed the SSD yet, this problem is with the current HD, but I'll give your suggestions a try and see what happens. Thanks.

 

[drtweak]

Ah ok. In that case yea try install a fresh install of windows on the SSD and see if it gives you any issues.

 

[jlight13]

Ah ok. In that case yea try install a fresh install of windows on the SSD and see if it gives you any issues.

Didn't have much luck. I disconnected my HD and connected the SSD to a different SATA cable, I updated the BIOS to use AHCI, and tried doing a clean install of Windows 10 from a thumb drive. I deleted all the partitions on the SSD and let Windows create a new system partition and primary partition. It got through coping files and was about 60% through the second step when it blue screened. "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collecting some error info, and then we'll restart for you. If you'd like to know more you can search online later for this error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (Ntfs.sys)"

 

[drtweak]

Hmmm and if you try the install again but turning off AHCI?

 

[jlight13]

Hmmm and if you try the install again but turning off AHCI?

I guess this machine just doesn't want an SSD. There must be some kind of hardware compatibility issue. I tried doing a clean install of Windows 10 to the SSD with AHCI turned off, but the system refused to boot from the thumb drive with the SSD attached. If I disconnected the SSD then it booted from the thumb drive, but it's kind of hard to install an operating system when there's no drive attached to install it on.

As a final straw I booted the system with my primary HD and the SSD attached using my normal BIOS settings of AHCI disabled and tried to clone my primary partition to the SSD. After running the clone process for a few minutes the whole system locked up.

At this point I'm throwing in the towel. I thought adding a SSD to this machine and moving the primary partition to it would speed up the machine a bit and push off the need to replace it for a few more years, but this machine just doesn't like AHCI or that drive. I guess I'll just have to wait until the next machine for an SSD.

 

[drtweak]

it is an old motherboard so their might be some issues there. I have tossed SSD's in older Socket 775 boards but most of them are OEM's, mainly Dell PC's without issue.

 

[charliewhiskey]

How much voltage is the SSD drawing compared to your old HDD? This could be triggering a shutdown if the voltage is higher.

 

[jlight13]

I finally found the solution to the problem with my system. After giving up on the SSD and the upgrade Windows 10 I found my Windows 7 system was continuing to freeze up while I was using it. Prior to attempting to install the SSD I had updated the BIOS to the latest version, F10. Using the backup of the BIOS I had made before the upgrade, I rolled the BIOS back to F7 and the system stopped freezing up. Last night I had some free time so I decided to try messing around with the SSD again. I disconnected my HD and connected the SSD and did a clean install of Windows 10 without a single issue. I then decided to try again with all the BIOS features I wanted enabled including AHCI and again was able to do a clean install of Windows 10 without a single issue.

So much for upgrading to the latest BIOS version before installing new hardware. In my case the old version I was using works just fine.

 

[drtweak]

Yea I only upgrade my BIOS is there is ever a new feature or something that I need. Glad you got it fixed though. I honestly would have spent forever on that issue as well.