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Why is AHCI required?


wattie

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I am using old Asus P5B-VM motherboard. There are two ways for me to connect the drive - one is directly on the SATA ports (this makes them work on ATA100/133 interface) and second on the JMicron RAID controller port (which should have AHCI enabled according to bios).

 

When I connect to the regular SATA port the 2.0 firmware update software DO recognize the drive. It even starts firmware update with normal administrator user (I don't have to do "run as...")... however fails - unable to flash good. I guess it is related to the lack of AHCI.

 

When I connect through the JMicron interface the drive is not recognized by the firmware update software at all. Not in Windows, not on liveCD, anywhere.

 

P.S. By default I am on Windows XP x64. I guess the recognition of the drive is related to where the drive is connected and what is the interface.

 

P.S.2. Why AHCI is required for firmware flashing? This is very restrictive and hard to accomplish for many users with older computers, which of course did buy SSD to speed up their systems and skip pending upgrades.

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P.S.2. Why AHCI is required for firmware flashing? This is very restrictive and hard to accomplish for many users with older computers, which of course did buy SSD to speed up their systems and skip pending upgrades.
You would need to ask SandForce this question. They develop the updates for their controller.
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Sounds good. I wont :)

 

btw in my report please note that AHCI IS enabled (tough challenge on ICH8 with Windows XP - Intel are not friendly at all!):

 

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/7226/ahci.png

 

but still... not recognized through this interface. The firmware update tool is able to "see" the drive only through the ATA100 interface, which obviously makes no good. I have to update on another system.

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AHCI is actually the de facto standard for SATA, it is not standard to use IDE for SATA and only very few systems with SATA ports do not have AHCI.

 

I'm a bit confused by the screenshot you've posted. You have an ICH8R which has AHCI capability yes? That is not the JMicron port. So you should be able to connect the drive to the ICH8R and use AHCI? What driver are you using for the ICH8R? You will need to use the microsoft AHCI driver or Intel 9.x series RST (rapid storage technology) driver. The 10.x series does have problems for some people.

 

If the update utility detects the drive, but the flash fails, have you tried the alternate firmware package?

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Uhhhhhh... OK that's my fault with the screenshot :) Of course it's not the JMicron port. That's another story (of me trying to enable AHCI on the regular port which it continues to not be supported by BIOS and of course don't work)... sorry.

 

The proper screenshot (with default drivers, the SSD is connected to the marked):

 

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6825/proper.png

 

This configuration do not recognize the drive. If I connect it to the IDE port - it does.

 

On the last question - the utility is able to start flashing only with the alternate package. The first one did not work at all.

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The story in screenshots:

 

1. The standard package fails:

 

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8364/76704423.png

 

2. The alternate package:

 

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1194/41691199.png

 

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5236/48951790.png

 

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3369/93780059.png

 

The drive is recognized as "Corsair CSSD-F60GB2", as you can see "Firmware 1.1".

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But please disregard my request. I am running Windows XP x64 and it is especially written that the update utility should work on Vista and 7 only.

 

Is that in the instruction manual? I thought the utility worked with XP as I used a XP live environment to flash it myself.

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Just checked - it is.

 

But please disregard my request. I am running Windows XP x64 and it is especially written that the update utility should work on Vista and 7 only.

 

This is incorrect. The guide states:

 

This update has been validated for use with Windows 7 and Windows Vista. It has not been validated with Windows XP. Users are encouraged to update the drives with either Windows 7 or Windows Vista when possible.

 

This simply says NOT VALIDATED, and does not state that it won't work.

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You are right. But that's it. My BIOS have no AHCI setting for the regular SATA port and even doing Windows hacks with the drivers will not make it work.

 

On the JMicron controller, where AHCI is enabled, the firmware update software do not see my drive.

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From the post containing the guide:

 

Please read the following before you attempt to update your firmware. Some systems are not capable of this update. Users that have this issue are encouraged to find an alternative system for updating the drive. Users that cannot manually update are encouraged to file an RMA. Note that an RMA for update to firmware 2.0 will result in complete erasure of the drive. RMA LINK.

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