AHCI Questions And A Few More

[Chromedome2000]

Recently I updated the video drivers for my ATI HD4870 video card and immediately upon rebooting I got the dreaded BSOD. Naturally, since I had just updated the drivers I thought that to be the problem and after finally getting the system to boot I rolled them back to no avail, I was still getting BSOD’s and random lockups. After doing some diagnosis I ran Windows memory diagnostics and discovered one of my Corsair Dominator 2GB memory modules had died, located which one (out of two), removed it and the problem was resolved. I tried the bad module in the system by itself and it wouldn’t pass POST. So now I have some questions and am also looking for advice. While diagnosing the system I noticed one of the plastic pins on the stock Intel CPU heatsink had backed out of the motherboard and the heatsink wasn’t making proper contact with the CPU heat spreader. After removing the heatsink it was obvious from the pattern left by the TIM on the heatsink and CPU heat spreader that the heatsink was only contacting about half the heat spreader. I cleaned off the old TIM, reapplied a new layer and reinstalled it. After fighting with this (admittedly poor design) I was finally able to get all four pins seated into the motherboard. After rebooting the computer with the good memory module I ran Asus Probe to assess the CPU temperature and was greeted with a series of error messages which I’ve listed below.

Enumerate Device Win32_BIOS Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_Processor Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_BaseBoard Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_DiskDrive Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_CDROMDrive Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_PhysicalMemory Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_NetworkAdapter Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_VideoController Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_DisplayConfiguration Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_SoundDevice Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_OperatingSystem Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_ComputerSystem Fail !!

Interestingly, after closing each error message, Asus Probe seemed to be operating OK and the CPU temperature seemed to be fine. I uninstalled Asus Probe, reinstalled it and continued to get the same error messages. I’ve also noticed that some other programs don’t operate properly anymore. I also noticed that the Dominator modules were designed for operation at 2.1 volts and I had been running them at only 1.8 volts and stock timings for the last year and a half. I’d had no problems running them at their rated 1066MHz speed for this period of time. So question number one is could running the modules at the reduced voltage have caused the module to fail? Question number two is if the dislodged heatsink could have damaged the CPU causing the Asus Probe error messages or (as I believe) has the hard drive been corrupted by the defective memory module or could the CPU actually be damaged? The system seems to be running fine other than the Asus Probe error messages and a couple of odd behaviors with some programs. I myself doubt the CPU is damaged but some advice from the community here would be appreciated. If the CPU could have been damaged would I be better off with a quad-core or faster dual-core CPU. I’ve ordered new memory modules and a Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB HDD to install into my system. The main use of this system is as a HTPC and for data backup purposes and I need more storage. My plan is to copy the data from my boot drive to the new WD drive, reformat the existing boot drive and reinstall the OS (64 Bit Windows 7 Home Premium). My next question is when I first built this system in March 2009 I didn’t enable AHCI in the BIOS as I was afraid the system wouldn’t read the existing drives which came from an older system without AHCI enabled. Will I be able to enable AHCI, reinstall the OS and still be able to access the data from the other drives or must I keep running the system in IDE mode? Will running in AHCI mode give me a noticeable performance increase? I’ve definitely noticed a decrease in performance running the system with just one 2GB memory module installed. Not only do I have half the memory capacity but now it’s also running in single-channel mode. In a few words just how does dual-channel memory mode work? Does anyone think the PSU will have insufficient output to run all this hardware? I hope this long post isn’t too long and annoying and hope for some answers to my questions. Searching the ‘net for information has really only confused me more! Listed below are the components in my system.

Motherboard: Asus P5Q (BIOS revision 2208)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 running at the stock 2.66GHz frequency
Memory: 4GB Corsair Dominator (two 2GB modules) CM2X2048-8500C5D PC2-8500 (TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF 4GB Kit) now running one module at 2.1 volts and stock timings (Will be replaced with a G. Skill F2-9600CL5D-4GBPI 4GB PC2 9600 kit (two 2GB modules) voltage, frequency and timings to be determined after installation). The Corsair memory will be RMA’d and installed in another system.
Video Card: Asus EAH4870 DK TOP/HTDI/512MD5 Radeon HD4870 512MB running DVI to a 19” HP LCD monitor and HDMI to a Samsung UN55B8000 55” LED backlit LCD flat panel TV
Audio: ATI HDMI audio and Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme sound card
HDD’s: Western Digital WD1001FALS 1TB SATA boot drive
Western Digital WD1001FALS 1TB SATA data drive
Western Digital WD10EACS 1TB SATA data drive
Western Digital WD10EACS 1TB SATA data drive
Western Digital WD10EACS 1TB SATA data drive
PSU: Antec Signature SG850 850 Watt
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech USB wireless
OS: Windows 7 64 Bit Home Premium

My main question is will I be able to read my old drives that were running under IDE with a new Windows 7 installation with AHCI enabled. I just cannot find a definitive post online. I have a lot of data stored and need to know if I'll still be able access it if I enable AHCI with a fresh installation. I hope I posted this in the proper forum!

Thanks in advance for any information that can be provided!

 

[Mr Alpha]

After rebooting the computer with the good memory module I ran Asus Probe to assess the CPU temperature and was greeted with a series of error messages which I’ve listed below.

Enumerate Device Win32_BIOS Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_Processor Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_BaseBoard Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_DiskDrive Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_CDROMDrive Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_PhysicalMemory Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_NetworkAdapter Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_VideoController Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_DisplayConfiguration Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_SoundDevice Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_OperatingSystem Fail !!
Enumerate Device Win32_ComputerSystem Fail !!

Interestingly, after closing each error message, Asus Probe seemed to be operating OK and the CPU temperature seemed to be fine. I uninstalled Asus Probe, reinstalled it and continued to get the same error messages. I’ve also noticed that some other programs don’t operate properly anymore.

I suspect the bad RAM has ended up corrupting your windows installation. Best solution probably is to reinstall.

I also noticed that the Dominator modules were designed for operation at 2.1 volts and I had been running them at only 1.8 volts and stock timings for the last year and a half. I’d had no problems running them at their rated 1066MHz speed for this period of time. So question number one is could running the modules at the reduced voltage have caused the module to fail?

Unlikely. Too much voltage kills, but too little usually only causes instability. Beside, RAM is usually designed to be able to run at normal, non-overclocked, non-overvolted, setting fine as well.

Question number two is if the dislodged heatsink could have damaged the CPU causing the Asus Probe error messages or (as I believe) has the hard drive been corrupted by the defective memory module or could the CPU actually be damaged? The system seems to be running fine other than the Asus Probe error messages and a couple of odd behaviors with some programs. I myself doubt the CPU is damaged but some advice from the community here would be appreciated.

Unless you see any physical damage on the CPU itself I should think it is ok. Modern CPUs have protections against damage from overheating.

If the CPU could have been damaged would I be better off with a quad-core or faster dual-core CPU.

Depends on what you do. For a media PC I would suspect a quad would fit you better.

My next question is when I first built this system in March 2009 I didn’t enable AHCI in the BIOS as I was afraid the system wouldn’t read the existing drives which came from an older system without AHCI enabled. Will I be able to enable AHCI, reinstall the OS and still be able to access the data from the other drives or must I keep running the system in IDE mode?

Yes, the IDE vs AHCI thing runs on a lower level that the data-IO. Swtiching from one to the other won't in any way change the data written to or read from the drive.

Will running in AHCI mode give me a noticeable performance increase?

Not with hard drives, no. But AHCI comes with some nice power savings features, which can be nice to have on a machine with lots of hard drives.

In a few words just how does dual-channel memory mode work?

The memory interface on a RAM module is 64 bits wide, but a memory channel on a dual-channel is 128 bits wide. This means you can hook up two memory sticks in parallel to the same memory channel and then the memory controller accesses it like it was one memory stick with a 128 bit interface. Loosing dual channel means you loose half you memory bandwidth, but unless you are doing something memory intensive it is more likely that the performance loss you've noticed comes from loosing the 2 GBs of RAM. Windows 7 is very aggressive in using available memory in order to speed up the system.

Does anyone think the PSU will have insufficient output to run all this hardware?

Nope, 850W is far more than you need. You could run two of those machines, with power to spare, of 850W.

I hope this long post isn’t too long and annoying and hope for some answers to my questions.

It is nice when somebody actually gives some gives context to the questions they ask.

My main question is will I be able to read my old drives that were running under IDE with a new Windows 7 installation with AHCI enabled. I just cannot find a definitive post online. I have a lot of data stored and need to know if I'll still be able access it if I enable AHCI with a fresh installation.

Here is a definitive answer for you: yes, in AHCI mode you can access the data on a drive that was written to it in IDE mode.

 

[Chromedome2000]

Thank you! That is exactly the information I was looking for! I'd posted these questions to a couple of other forums and nobody replied with any useful information. I'd suspected I could do this but when you have nearly 5TB's of information stored you don't want to take any chances. Again, thanks for your timely and very useful reply!

 

[bing]

Btw, since this is you're new here, welcome to OcF !

 

[Chromedome2000]

I'm still waiting on my new hardware to arrive. It's been stuck in a warehouse (I presume) just 30 miles from where I live for three days now! If I knew where it was at I'd just drive there and pick it up though they probably wouldn't let me. Anyway, after it arrives and I get it all put back together, I'll post here again with the results. I think I'm going to hang out here at this forum more often as this is the only forum that could provide me with the info I needed. Mr Alpha, you d'man! And, bing, thanks for the greeting!

 

[deadlysyn]

I think I'm going to hang out here at this forum more often as this is the only forum that could provide me with the info I needed.

Enjoy yourself while you are here. You will find that we tend to be a pretty friendly bunch, for the most part. There are a few members that we keep chained up in the corner, but they are harmless, unless they get off the chains.

 

[Chromedome2000]

Enjoy yourself while you are here. You will find that we tend to be a pretty friendly bunch, for the most part. There are a few members that we keep chained up in the corner, but they are harmless, unless they get off the chains.

LOL! Enjoying it here already!

 

[Chromedome2000]

Okay, so I finally got my hardware and put it all back together again. What a nightmare! Also, a learning process, I guess! I backed up my data to the new 2TB drive, disconnected all the drives except the boot drive, enabled AHCI in the BIOS, reformatted the boot drive and reinstalled the OS using the newest drivers from Intel and Asus and installing all the updates from Windows Update when setting up the system. Everything seemed to be going well until I reconnected the rest of the drives. The system found all the drives and I was able to read data off all of them but when I went into Device Manager and checked the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers something odd was going on. Two of the six HDD's were operating in Multi-Word DMA Mode 2, while the other four were operating in Ultra DMA Mode 6 as they should be. Even the ATAPI CD-ROM was operating in Ultra DMA Mode 2 as it should be. On the two drives operating in Multi-Word DMA Mode 2 the checkbox for Enable DMA was checked. I tried re-booting a couple of times but the two drives continued to run in Multi-Word DMA Mode 2. I unchecked the Enable DMA box, re-booted the system and as expected the two drives were now running in PIO mode. I re-checked the Enable DMA box, re-booted the system, and guess what? The same two drives were still operating in Multi-Word DMA Mode 2. The system seemed to be operating normally and responsively so I downloaded the trial copy of HD Tune Pro 4.60 and checked read speeds of all the drives, the results of which I've listed below.

WD2001FASS-00W2B0: Min: 73.4 Max: 150.7 Average: 117.9 Access Time: 11.5 Burst Rate: 203.3 CPU: 2.9
WD1001FALS-00U9B0: Min: 40.1 Max: 103.8 Average: 84.6 Access Time: 12.2 Burst Rate: 187.0 CPU: 1.9
WD1001FALS-00J7B1: Min: 51.3 Max: 106.2 Average: 85.9 Access Time: 12.0 Burst Rate: 187.1 CPU: 2.0
WD10EACS-00ZJB0: Min: 39.1 Max: 82.1 Average: 63.7 Access Time: 14.9 Burst Rate: 164.1 CPU: 1.4
WD10EACS-00D6B0: Min: 43.5 Max: 96.5 Average: 75.4 Access Time: 14.7 Burst Rate: 190.2 CPU: 1.9
WD10EACS-32ZJB0: Min: 37.6 Max: 82.8 Average: 64.6 Access Time: 15.1 Burst Rate: 162.9 CPU: 1.3

All of these results seem reasonable to me, with the Green drives (WD10EACS) falling behind the Black drives (WD2001FASS and WD1001FALS) as expected. I have to admit I'm pleased with the WD2001FASS drive's performance, it's really quick! Searching around on the 'net, I found that I'm not the only one having this problem but a solution was not to be found. I learned that reverting to IDE operation entailed only re-booting the system and disabling AHCI in BIOS. I re-ran the tests in HD Tune Pro 4.60 and results were close enough in IDE as opposed to AHCI that I won't bother listing them. I bit the bullet and finished setting up the system in IDE mode. Also, when using HD Tune Pro 4.60, I noticed the WD10EACS-00D6B0 drive had a (C4) Reallocated Event Count warning with a data value of 1. I then downloaded Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows from the Western Digital site and did an extended test on the WD10EACS-00D6B0 drive and after about three and half hours it returned a passing result. I know modern drives have spare sectors just for this problem and hope it doesn't cause me any problems down the line. So, what the heck is going on? I believe I'll just leave the system in IDE mode as the difference in performance was minimal. Should I be concerned about the (C4) Reallocated Event Count warning on the WD10EACS-00D6B0 drive even though Data Lifeguard Diagnostic returned a passing result? Also, should a solution to the Multi-Word DMA Mode 2 problem be found, is re-enabling AHCI as simple as changing back to AHCI in BIOS and re-booting the system as the AHCI drivers are already installed on the system (I presume)? Call me confused! Reinstalling the OS cured all the problems I was having due to the defective memory module, so at least that went well.
Again, sorry for such a lengthy post! I'm just looking for some answers. I'm happy with the performance of the system as it is but am curious as to what is going on. One other bit of information, even though the G. Skill memory is rated at 1200MHz at 2.1v, I'm only running it at 1066MHz at 2.1v as reliability is my major concern with this system as opposed to raw performance. I'm sure this has no bearing on the other problems but thought I'd throw it in as the more information available, in my opinion, always helps with any troubleshooting. Thanks in advance for any information that can be provided!

 

[Chromedome2000]

I omitted a little information from my previous (lengthy) post. Under IDE mode the hard drives report they or now operating in Ultra DMA Mode 5. Is this correct? And why would they report Ultra DMA Mode 6 when operating under AHCI? I feel I'm wearing out my welcome here so please don't get too aggravated with me! Just looking for some information! Thanks again.

 

[Mr Alpha]

Those DMA modes are for PATA drives. SATA drives just emulate it for compatibility reasons. As you noticed you aren't limited to 16.7MB/s even though it says it is in Multi-Word DMA Mode 2.

 

[Chromedome2000]

Thanks for the quick reply Mr. Alpha! I'm still confused as to why only two out of the six drives were reporting Multi-Word DMA Mode 2. It certainly didn't seem to affect performance, computers can be so infuriating at times. So, is this just a bug in Windows and can be safely ignored? Any answers to my other questions? Is re-enabling AHCI as simple as changing back to AHCI in BIOS as I believe? Sorry for sounding like a dimwit but sometimes asking stupid questions is the only way to get the information one needs!

 

[Mr Alpha]

Should I be concerned about the (C4) Reallocated Event Count warning on the WD10EACS-00D6B0 drive even though Data Lifeguard Diagnostic returned a passing result?

This is a count of how many sectors have been reallocated. A count of 1 is nothing to worry about. If that number starts to get big, then you would want to replace the drive.

Thanks for the quick reply Mr. Alpha! I'm still confused as to why only two out of the six drives were reporting Multi-Word DMA Mode 2. It certainly didn't seem to affect performance, computers can be so infuriating at times. So, is this just a bug in Windows and can be safely ignored?

Either a bug or a feature. Unless it is affecting performance, I would just ignore it.

Is re-enabling AHCI as simple as changing back to AHCI in BIOS as I believe?

Unless you've uninstalled the AHCI drivers it should be just to re-enable it.

 

[Chromedome2000]

"Either a bug or a feature." LOL! In the case of Windows, it probably is a "feature"! Love this site! Again, thanks for the quick reply Mr. Alpha! I guess I'll just have to keep experimenting with this "feature". I'm away from the system for a little while (work you know) but I'll post again in the future. And, I'll keep an eye on that drive to see if that error increases. One other question (I sure seem to have a lot of them, don't I?), is there a freeware program to monitor drive health, HD Tune Pro 4.60 only has a trial period of fifteen days and I'll want to monitor that drive over the long haul. Thanks again!

 

[Mr Alpha]

"Either a bug or a feature." LOL! In the case of Windows, it probably is a "feature"! Love this site! Again, thanks for the quick reply Mr. Alpha! I guess I'll just have to keep experimenting with this "feature". I'm away from the system for a little while (work you know) but I'll post again in the future. And, I'll keep an eye on that drive to see if that error increases. One other question (I sure seem to have a lot of them, don't I?), is there a freeware program to monitor drive health, HD Tune Pro 4.60 only has a trial period of fifteen days and I'll want to monitor that drive over the long haul. Thanks again!

Lots of 'em. I use SIW, which is free for non-commercial use, for most of my system information needs.

 

[Chromedome2000]

Thanks again for the quick reply! I'll try out SIW when I get the chance, looks like a good program.