P5Q PRO & AHCI

Okay, just got all my goodies in this week and put my rig together today, but Im having a problem with AHCI. All new equipment.

Lian Li PC-V1010B
P5Q PRO
E8400
G.SKILL DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) 4 GB (2x2GB)
WD Raptors 150GB x 2
WD Caviar 500GB x 1
ASUS CD/DVD Burner (SATA)
Diamond Viper HD 3870
Corsair 750TX PSU

When I select AHCI, the system dies when trying to start Windows XP PRO for install. It basically says:

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage ...

Check for viruses ... Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers ... yada, yada, yada."

So I played around trying to eliminate the hard drives as the problem. I get the same result with any single HD.

Then I tried with the SATA Configuration set to IDE and Windows will start the install.

Now I noticed something weird. When I have it set to AHCI and bring up the AHCI Configuration in BIOS, I can select any SATA port (1-6) and set it for either Auto or Not Installed.

When I set it to IDE and look at SATA 1-6 on the Main Menu, when I select 1-4 & 6, TYPE is the first selection, and again I can pick either Auto of Not Installed. When I select SATA 5, Type is not there! The first entry is LBA/Large Mode! No Type!

Here's what 1-4 & 6 look like:

Type
LBA/Large Mode
Block (Multi-Sector Transfer) M
PIO Mode
DMA Mode
Smart Monitoring
32Bit Data Transfer

SATA 5 looks almost the same, just no Type entry.

So I played around a little further and in IDE I can use SATA 5 and Windows will start install. In AHCI I can't. Doesn't matter what drives I use and what SATA ports I use. The darned thing posts okay, Windows downloads from the CD, but it dies when it tries to start for the install.

The one thing I didn't try is RAID, but I bet that gets the same result as AHCI, because AHCI is defualt for RAID, correct?

Guess I'll give it one more try using RAID, and I probably should do that anyway in case I do decide to go with RAID. But if that doesn't work I guess I'm looking at an RMA unless anyone has any suggestions.

ok well your going to need a floopy drive to load the drivers for AHCI to be used, same thing with raid. either that or slipstream the drivers into windows...

had same prob. used f6 at xp install with floppy drivers still a no go. had to use ide mode.
but from what ive heard, not a real performace loss

I beat my head on the table when I ran into this problem trying to install Vista. I am not sure this works in XP though:

Others have mentioned problems booting in AHCI mode. This is because Microsoft has disabled the AHCI driver by default. Read MS article 922976, or do the following: 1) Install Windows with IDE mode enabled in the BIOS 2) Exit all Windows-based programs 3) Enter Regedit 4) Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci 5) In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify 6) In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK 7) On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor. 8) Reboot and enter the BIOS before the system enters Windows 9) Change modes to AHCI, save and reboot 10) Windows will install drivers upon reboot

if the above doesn't work, try this http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831

Thanks all for replying. Heheh, I don't have a floppy drive, just a CD/DVD R+RW.

And especially thanks to Evilsizer for pointing me to the slipstream solution!!

Anyway, I found what I needed to do. Slipstream the Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers onto my Windows XP CD. Took me 3 tries to get it right, because I had to combine the info on several different sites to get it all. For instance, one site mentioned the [unattended install] entries I needed to put in the WINNT.SIF, but made no mention whastsoever of the [data] entries!

I was able to bypass the F6 and set the iaStor (AHCI) driver up as an unattended install. Had to make several entries in the TXTSETUP.SIF file as well as create a WINNT.SIF file, compress the driver to a CAB, extract the Microsoft Corporation boot image off the Windows XP CD, then put it all together and create a bootable CD ROM with the modified XP Install using NERO.

It was actually a cool learning experience. Now I know enough to be dangerous! But if anyone needs the info, I'll gladly post it as I have all the steps saved in a notepad doc on my other PC.