Speed up BIOS w/ new SSD installed

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Yeastwood

n00b
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
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OK So after installing my new OCZ Vertex 2 120GB, I enabled AHCI in BIOS. Problem is there's an added screen in my BIOS now after doing this which delays the boot time considerably (well, by about 10 seconds). After the POST screen logo, it moves to a black screen which says "This version supports only Hard Disk and CDROM drives" and just sits there w/ a dot-dot-dot.

Is this a normal thing? Do I need to update my BIOS (iSrc 1.07 08042006)? Is there a way to remove this screen, or an alternate way to speed up my BIOS?

PS I did a Google for speeding up BIOS and saw a "Quick POST" feature. Any idea where to find this feature or how to enable it?

Spec's:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
BIOS iSrc 1.07 08042006
Windows 7 x64
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD
 
Yes it is normal, its the bios for the AHCI/RAID controller loading and detecting drives. As for speeding this up I have no clue. I also have a gigabyte p35 in AHCI mode but I don't notice it being up for 10 seconds.
 
quick boot works on the system bios not the AHCI controller, and does the pc stay at that screen or does it load into windows eventually?
 
OK so I just updated my BIOS (thx Solid). Loaded Optimized Defaults. By Default, it puts the BIOS SATA setting back to "Enabled" (or was it "Disabled?") as opposed to AHCI mode. Once done, that annoying and long message: "This Version supports only..." goes away, along w/ the counting dots!

So for now, AHCI is off. In the past I think I tried to put to just Enabled w/o AHCI mode, but it never boot up Windows (thus why I switched back). I also swore I read an article there was a way to enable AHCI in Regedit in Windows 7. Should I keep everything the way it is now? Or is it recommended to enable AHCI (in Windows or BIOS)?
 
Absolutely enable AHCI! you SSD will be way faster in AHCI mode, fuck those 10 sec.
 
Here's what I was talking about:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

When I booted up Win7 for the first time after updating BIOS and loading the Optimized setting, I rec'd an error msg. It allowed me to start Win7 normally, albeit it seemed to re-scan all of my devices and asked me to reboot. Currently everything is running fine. Sooo......would it be recommended to not touch anything at the moment? Should I use those regedit tweaks? Should I switch back to AHCI in BIOS? HELP!
 
Its the same with my ssd's, bios then raid controller then boot into windows, the bios/raid controller screens takes ages compared to the time it actually takes to boot into windows once the pc does start booting.

Maybe 40ish seconds on the bios/raid controller screens with quick boot enabled and it only takes about 20 seconds to boot once it actually does start booting.

A good feature of my mobo is, something similar to quick boot and it basically lets the mobo startup without any beeping or any searching for stuff, as it supposedly keeps in memory your previous config, but I find that sometimes certain plugged in items will go walkabout when that setting is enabled, it does drastically cut the post/raid controller screen time down, but sometimes at the cost of usb items not working/being seen.

I find 40 seconds to wait when i first turn my pc on when its been off for hours isnt too long to wait until the thing actually starts to boot, then its a matter of 15-20 seconds and everything in windows is loaded, if I do a reboot then you can cut the bios/raid screentime in half if not more, its only on a cold boot does it take its sweet ass time.

Also, you can do the reg tweaks to get ahci mode working in windows if you installed windows in ide mode and vice versa, but tbh I wouldnt do that, I would just format the drives and start over, as it takes seconds to reset the nand cells on a ssd and that is the drive totally formatted, 10 seconds tops and then install windows again in the mode you want to use as it only takes 10 minutes to install windows on a ssd give or take.

I just wouldnt trust the OS to be in tip top shape with a ahci/ide reg tweak and vice versa, fresh install is the best way to go IMHO.
 
Looks about right.

Just FYI, take it easy on the benchmarks, especially AS SSD. Run ATTO if you want to see where they get the advertised numbers from.

You can read more info at OCZ regarding compressible vs incompressible data, etc.
 
Yeah, AS SSD and CrystalDiskMark will push Sandforce drives into a degraded state if overdone, well, all benchmarks will I suppose, but any that use incompressible data will get there much faster.

Your ATTO bench looks good.

My 60GB, when it was about as new as yours is now:

atto.jpg
 
Oh and btw there is no way to speed up BIOS post, only Windows loading..as you adding more HDD/SSD or any hardware in your mobo, the post will be longer.
 
@ cerwinvega: Did you ever do a factory reset? Isn't that supposed to help?

Also, forgot to mention, even after re-enabling AHCI mode, the BIOS load is still 8 seconds faster. It will display the "This version supports only..." message, but a lot quicker, and the counting dots are long gone.

So I think this one is officially SOLVED. Thanks for the help and suggestions all!
 
Do you actually use the raid controller, or the extra ports it provides? If not, just disable it in the BIOS, along with any other seperate chips you're not using (eg pata controller) to speed up your boot.
 
Old Hippie said:
I see you're using the MS drivers.

Generally the Intel drivers are faster.

If you'd like to try them go to Intel's Update Utility page and download/run the utility.
Click to expand...

I just installed them. I opened up AS SSD and I still see it says MS drivers. How can I take advantage of these supposed superior intel drivers?

@Dan: I do use a separate, add-on RAID controller/SATA add-on card since I now have 5 SATA devices and, unfortunately, my MoBo only has 4 slots.
 
Wait. This is all saying for RAID. I only have one of these drives and, so, it's definitely NOT in RAID. I'm not understanding the full purpose or potential of these drivers, if any.
 
Yeastwood said:
Wait. This is all saying for RAID. I only have one of these drives and, so, it's definitely NOT in RAID. I'm not understanding the full purpose or potential of these drivers, if any.
Click to expand...
You don't have to use RAID to use the Intel driver. The driver itself may give you better performance than the generic ones from Windows.
 
Just tried installing when I got the follow error "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software." Um...what?!?
 
Yeastwood said:
Just tried installing when I got the follow error "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software." Um...what?!?
Click to expand...
I dunno.

Are you still in AHCI mode in the BIOS?

Maybe the storage manager won't install because you have an ICH9 not ICH9R?

Maybe you need to install the "Update Utility" first?

I dunno. :confused:
 
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