Hi William,
Typically a BIOS doesn't "crash". It may become corrupt, but doesn't crash.
When you use the word crash, we assume you mean the computer stops, fails to respond or restarts when you are starting the system or using windows.
We see what you are talking about with SATA Operate Mode:
SATA Mode Selection
Enables or disables RAID for the SATA controllers integrated in the Intel Chipset or configures the SATA
controllers to AHCI mode.
IDE Configures the SATA controller to IDE mode. (Default)
AHCI Configures the SATA controller to AHCI mode. Advanced Host Controller Interface
(AHCI) is an interface specification that allows the storage driver to enable advanced
Serial ATA features such as Native Command Queuing and hot plug.
RAID Enables RAID for the SATA controller.
IDE mode is Default (this is included for a legacy OS such as windows XP), but would not be the mode I would select with any SATA device. You do want to use AHCI. Now, if you installed windows vista, 7, 8 or later OS, you can't just switch the operate mode from IDE to AHCI as the driver your controller is using will not be correct. You would probably see a blue screen with STOP error 0x0000007B [Inaccessible Boot Device] . Switching back to IDE mode would allow the system to start normally.
Why don't you give us more information about your install and one of us will assist you with next steps, changing operate mode/driver, etc.