achi ide sata drives not showing in bios

[Gejodi]

Hi all:

New to this forum and can use some help.  I built a new system and am still in bios setup...I have not installed an os yet.  I have an x58a-ud5 mb with an i7-950 and 3 1tb sata hdd which I do not intend to raid.  I will be installing win7 64bit.  I believe im going to go with IDE mode for my hdd's.  But I have a question that relates to the board being defective.  If I set the mode to IDE the three drive show up in the Bios.  If I change the mode to ahci I dont see the drives in the bios!  Is this normal and will only be seen when the os/driver is installed or is there a problem/defect in the MB??  I am using the onboard intel southbridge controller in sata0, 1 and 2.  Also do you need a driver disk for ahci non raid or does win7 have the driver built in for this controller?

Thanks much
Gejodi

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

What you have put is correct and there is nothing wrong(hopefully) with the board this is just a normal situation. Gigabyte deals with the drives differently to most other motherboard manufacturers in the way it shows IDE and SATA drives in the BIOS. They are there though and as you summised they will show up in Windows when you look. You do not need to load special drivers for AHCI if you decide to use that mode as they are already there.

Hope that all makes sense.

[jdvoracek]

If I set the mode to IDE the three drive show up in the Bios.

The AHCI drives do not show up in the BIOS setup screen but you will see them being detected as BIOS boots.  You can install Windows 7 with the SATA drives in the AHCI mode.  If you install Windows in the IDE mode however, you will need to do a small registry edit to use them later in AHCI mode.

[Gejodi]

Hi

I am using this build for music recording/production and as DM has stated I probably will not notice a great difference in performance.  IM gonna go with the ide setup because Im told its more stable?  I also think that besides backup I wont get that much from Raid1 or 0.  With 6gb of ram and 3.0 gb hdd I should be fine.  Thanks for your help this is a new build and didnt want to go further if there was a problem with the mb ....or....maybe im just paranoid!!!    Thanks all

Gejodi

[Dark Mantis]

No problem Gejodi. It always pays to be careful and do plenty of research first. I agree with you about the RAID it would probably be more problem to you than it's worth. Just make sure that you carry out a good backup regime if your music is important.

[Gejodi]

DM:

Ok so here is an update with more questions    To recap I am running the UD5 with an intel i7-950, sbo730, asus 8800gtx, 2 lite on dvd drives, one floppy, and three seagate 1 tb sata drives. I am using  win7-64bit as an OS.  I am configured for ide mode and have native 0-3 disabled.  I made a few changes in Bios but not many and did not and dont think im going to oc....maybe a few tweaks for performance if needed.  All is up and running  but............upon boot the screen after the logo comes up with verifying dmi pool data....it doesnt hang but it almost looks like its an error but continues to boot.  Is this normal?  If I use quick boot will this help?   Also and this is a biggy for me at least.  I have no conflicts but when I go to device manage my IEEE 1394 port, which is the main point of transmision for my music equipment, is sharing an irq with 3 usb controllers.  Is it possible to get the 1394 on a dedicated irq?  Maybe by disabling items in bios?  I havent tried the equipment yet but I think this may be a problem when I record.  I tried resources but it doesnt give me the option to uncheck use automatic settings.  At a loss other than just trying the equipment

Thx ....Gejodi  ps  the 1394 port is on the mb and not an addon card.

[Dark Mantis]

There could be several reasons for the"verifying DMI pool data" message.
First check that your two BIOS chips have the same  BIOS version on them. If they don't update the backup BIOS.
Secondly if you updated the main BIOS did you keep the DMI data from previously?
Did you clear the CMOS properly first?

The questions about the audio are not my subject really so I will see if my collegue can have a look and help as he is an audio wizard( and superstar).

[Lsdmeasap]

It will always say Verifying DMI Pool.........................

Unless it says Updating DMI Pool 

As long as it does not hang there you are fine

[Dark Mantis]

Yes of course you are right Lsdmeasap. I was thinking it was hanging there.

[Wonderwrench]

DM:

Ok so here is an update with more questions    To recap I am running the UD5 with an intel i7-950, sbo730, asus 8800gtx, 2 lite on dvd drives, one floppy, and three seagate 1 tb sata drives. I am using  win7-64bit as an OS.  I am configured for ide mode and have native 0-3 disabled.  I made a few changes in Bios but not many and did not and dont think im going to oc....maybe a few tweaks for performance if needed.  All is up and running  but............upon boot the screen after the logo comes up with verifying dmi pool data....it doesnt hang but it almost looks like its an error but continues to boot.  Is this normal?  If I use quick boot will this help?   Also and this is a biggy for me at least.  I have no conflicts but when I go to device manage my IEEE 1394 port, which is the main point of transmision for my music equipment, is sharing an irq with 3 usb controllers.  Is it possible to get the 1394 on a dedicated irq?  Maybe by disabling items in bios?  I havent tried the equipment yet but I think this may be a problem when I record.  I tried resources but it doesnt give me the option to uncheck use automatic settings.  At a loss other than just trying the equipment

Thx ....Gejodi

Normally sharing IRQ's causes no problems on newer OS's. In the old days this was not the case. I would give it a shot the way it is and see what happens.  Other thoughts: It seems that Gigabytes X58 boards bios post is slow compared to other boards I have owned. I have a GA-X58A-UD3R and see the verifying dmi pool data on post also. This is normal as far as I know. One thing I do is disable hardware in the bios I know I will not be using. This speeds bios post and opens up more IRQ's. I'm only using SATA drives connected to the Intel storage controller so I disabled the Gigabyte SATA2 controller and the Marvell SATA3 controller. This cuts bios post time in half or more. Not a big deal but I find AHCI mode works perfectly on newer hardware when running Vista or Windows 7. Also having SATA port 0-3 native mode disabled forces windows 7 to use certain IRQ's for those ports. This may or may not cause problems. I prefer to give windows full control of hardware IRQ assignments so I enable SATA port 0-3 native mode. So just a heads up, don't change anything and see how it goes. Once you see how the new system acts you may or may not want to play around with some stuff.

Bill

[Gejodi]

Hello Again!

Ok so I installed all music software...Cubase 5, Halion 3 and the mr816csx audio interface.  All with no tweaks to the win 7 system.  It worked fine for a while and then I had some audio dropouts.  I changed the utility buffer in the yamaha driver as recommended for the MR816 and it seems to have worked but im not sure it wont return.  I didnt want to do any tweaks to win 7 and im not sure if it will help.  So getting back to my question...I am using the onboard fire wire port , which is a TI chipset, but its IRQ is shared with 3 usb controllers.  Does anyone know If I can place the 1394 controller on its own dedicated IRQ?  I know I can buy a pci board ...but the reason I got this board was because it had an integrated 1394 with a TI chipset.  Why this is important is that Yamaha tells me that it must be a TI chipset and dedicated IRQ to work with the Audio Interface.   Anyone help?
Im not even sure this will work my gut is that it is a Yamaha driver problem.

Gejodi

[Dark Mantis]

I don't think that what you want to do is possible but it is definitely possible to disable the USB3 ports which would have the same effect. Only downside is you lose the USB3 capability.

[Gejodi]

DM:

First let me again thank you for your quick response and help!!!!!

I spoke to Yamaha today and was told to install a separate 1394 card in a pci 2 slot as some problems may occur with onboard chipset config??  I am still having problems with audio dropouts.   Im thinking its a driver fault or audio interface problem but I need to prove them wrong to get the unit replaced/refunded.  Do you think if I get a separate addon card that I will be able to get it on  a dedicated IRQ?  Also it has been recommended that I should disable EIST,C1E, and Turbo Boost...with the idea for keeping the system stable which is important in audio production.  I dont like to tweak these things for one because I dont know enough about them and two because the system is designed to work as specced...however if I try these tweaks..Is there any other things I need to change and do you think I will screw anything up by changing them?

Thanks for you help again

Gejodi

[absic]

Hi, DM has asked me to look in and see if I can help at all.

I'm running Cubase5 on my AMD System along with an M-Audio Delta1010 Audio Device. I also have an M-Audio 2X2 Anniversary USB Midi Interface linked to a Roland XV5050 and Yamaha CS6R and an Axiom49 USB Keyboard.

The issue of shared IRQ's is not something that has caused me a problem and My Delta1010 is using a shared IRQ quite happily. However, initially setting the Audio buffer size incorrectly did cause a problem with drop-outs and crackling.

Have you disabled the on-board audio chip? Experience has taught me that this is a good option as it removes the chance of audio conflicts.
The advice to disable the Energy Saving features, in BIOS, is also good and is something I do as a matter of course.
Do not even think about Overclocking your system, unless you want to have a lot more grief.
If you are not actually using the Floppy Drive this is another thing you could safely disable.

It would be better if DM or someone else advised you on the features you can safely disable in BIOS, as I'm not familiar with the Intel Platform but the more things that you can disable the better, especially if you are using this PC as a DAW.

[Dark Mantis]

Thanks a lot for your input absic, much appreciated by us both I am sure, but please keep an eye on this thread as there will probably be more audio queries that you are better qualified to handle.

As far as disabling the power saving modes as long as you keep an eye on the temperatures especially the CPU then you can disable the C1E, C3, C6, C7 support and  EIST at least. There may be more but I would have to check through the BIOS manual.

The other thing I would recommend as you are making everything run at full speed in effect is to run your fans all off the PSU for maximum efficiency.