AHCI and SSD 5.9 Windows Score

[Vision1280]

My question is, why cant my main SSD run in AHCI mode from my SATA 3 0-3 ports. As of now the SSD has 9 gigs free and scores 5.9 in Native IDE mode. When my older motherboard worked, the SSD that's now in my netbook was able to boot to the windows desktop and score 7.2 using AHCI. Even now my netbook boots to windows desktop in AHCI mode and still scores 7.2. When i change the setting and try booting into windows, i get as far as the loading desktop screen, then a BSOD. It will also BSOD in RAID mode. Why is my main computer's SSD only working with Native IDE mode and not AHCI?

ViewSonic VX2268WM Black 22" 1680x1050 5ms 120Hz 3D-Ready
GA-990FXA-UD5, F3 BIOS, REV 1.0
AMD 970 3.5 ghz 4 core, 1.35 volts
Corsair Hydro Series H60
EVGA GTX 560 Ti, 1024 Mb GDDR5
Corsair Force Series 3 60gb, 500mb read, 490mb write
2 x 4gigs DDR3 Mushkin 996776, 1.5 volts, 1333mhz, 9-9-9-24-33 1T
Asus Xonar DX Soundcard
Xigmatek Power supply
Windows 7 64bit

[absic]

Hi there,

I'm not sure why your SSD isn't working properly but have you tried the F4 BIOS?
Is the SSD attached to a Blue AMD SATA Port? If it is try using a WHITE Marvell port and see if that helps.
Is the firmware up-to-date on the SSD? There can been problems due to this and it is worth checking to see if there is an update.

If you installed the OS in Native IDE mode you can't just switch to AHCI Mode in BIOS without either tweaking the registry first or reinstalling the OS. If you want to change the registry settings then follow these steps.

You have to enable the AHCI driver in the registry before you change the SATA mode to AHCI in BIOS.
Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

Once you have made the changes restart the PC go into BIOS and change the SATA controller to AHCI. Press F10 to save the changes and restart the PC. The PC will start and the Microsoft AHCI Drivers will automatically be loaded. Restart the PC and you can then load the AMD AHCI Drivers.

[Vision1280]

Sweet, that did it. I changed the the value for "Start" in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV to 0... then changed it back to 3 after it was not successful. Changing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci "Start" to value 0 did get me to the desktop in AHCI mode but still with a 5.9 windows score until i freed up space on the SSD. The SSD now has 20 gigs free and my score is 7.4. Thanks for the help.

[agros]

7.4 is not a big deal. Mine has 7.8 

[Dark Mantis]

Only 7.8 ? Shame but mine is the full 7.9

[agros]

Really?.. I d like to see it, give us an image.

[Dark Mantis]

Really?.. I d like to see it, give us an image.

I take it that you don't believe me?

By all means I will post an image but it will have to wait for a few days as the system that it is on is half stripped down for review at the moment.

[agros]

Which ssd is this? I see that its 256GB and mine is 160GB with less write speed so maybe thats why, but we all know that Intel is the best

[Dark Mantis]

No the one you are referring to is my 256GB Performance from Corsair in my main machine but the one I am referring to is in another machine I use for reviews and testing etc. That is a OCZ Revo X2 that is four Sandforce controlled SSDs RAIDed together and I get 720MB/s Read and 640 Write. It wil boot up from hitting the power switch to a usable Windows desktop in about 15 seconds.

[absic]

Don't you just hate those people that have deep pockets and that like to show off! 

[Dark Mantis]

Hey absic, if I had deep pockets I wouldn't have had to limit myself to the 100GB version. The larger drives were looking very tempting but just too much money to be able to justify them.

[agros]

Dear absic, as u see my system is not expensive, is mainly quiet. SSD=1/3 of the total prize.

Dear Mantis, so u r talking about RAID. Capacity?
I ll check my starting time too and I ll tell u later how many seconds.
How much time do u have those disks? Mine is 2 years already. How would be yours after 2 years, I wonder...

[Dark Mantis]

No, my card is new only bought it a few weeks ago and now they have dropped the price by £50, typical! Doesn't it always happen that way.

The card is basically four 25GB Sandforce controlled drives RAIDed to make a 100GB partition. There is a  new version on the sidelines now the Revo X3 that is somewhat faster again and has speeds of around the 1GB/s throughput.

[agros]

What card? I thought we were talking about disks.

So, u have 4 ssd in raid, 25GB each. Link of the product?

Well, I need 13 sec to see the "Starting Windows" screen. Those POST messages(like the ahci devices detection) cant be avoided. Then another 12 sec to get the "Welcome" blue screen. Now, in order to get usable Windows desktop this has to do with possible tasks, some existing issues, the startup programs etc.
What is your time in "starting windows" and "welcome" screens?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

Here is the link to the product on Ebuyer where I purchased it. As I said the price has dropped roughly £50 since then:

http://www.ebuyer.com/258813-ocz-100gb-revo-x2-pci-express-ssd-read-740mb-s-write-690mb-s-100k-oczssdpx-1rvdx0100

I havent actually timed the "Welcome" screen and I can't check it now but it would have been roughly 12 - 13 seconds I reckon.  Bare in mind that this was a clean Windows installation with very little extra programs loaded.