Hot Swap Problems

[Ramaddil]

I have Windows 7 Installed and recently bought some hot swap bays for my computer. I installed the bays and ran the necessary cords to them but It will not recognize the drive unless i restart the computer.

From what I read it has something to do with AHCI in the Bios.. I am Running Windows 7 on this machine and have tried to enable it in the bios, and also manually change the registry key to no avail..

When I enable AHCI in my Bios on my GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H mother board it gets to Verifying DMI data and hangs at this point and will not do anything else. I have to restart this and disable AHCI in order to boot to windows again.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be most appreciated. From what I read some people tend to think that you have to do a fresh install in order for this to be accomplished but I do not want to do that if it is not needed.

The Registry Key that I read that needed to be changed is \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentcontrolSet\services\msahci\ then modify the start key from "3" to "0".

Again if anyone could shed some light on this I would appreciate it.

 

[imomonkey]

Does going into drive management and rescanning the drives make the hotswap show up without a reboot?

 

[Nelius]

AFAIK you need to reinstall windows to enable AHCI support in windows.

 

[Ramaddil]

Have not tried that yet, like I said I changed the registry before the reboot then on the reboot I go in bios where it shows that it is set to native IDE and I change it to achi, save exit then upon boot it shows the achi interface come up before going to pci componet screen and it finally stoping after showing " verifying DMI data it hangs in order to get back in to windows i have to re start and change bios back to native IDE.

I am not able to check what you asked about I will check it soon and report back.

 

[Ramaddil]

Nelius I read there is a way to do it with out re installing. Just something I am missing I am sure.

 

[Old Hippie]

Here's the deal.....

1.) You have an AMD chipset and I'm not familiar with them BUT you must have the AHCI drivers for your chipset installed to use the registry trick.

2.) If you installed in AHCI mode than the drivers will already be there but you can't change to any mode unless the drivers have been installed.

3.) Like I said before, you have an AMD chipset and they are pretty flakey with half-assed AHCI support but I know it can be done.....just not as easy as with Intel chipsets.

4.) Have you tried this MS fix? You probably need specific AMD drivers.

5.) Look for the current drivers for your chipset and you might wanna Google about installing the drivers.

Hopefully someone familiar with this issue will come along and give you specific information.

 

[Ramaddil]

I tried the ms fix no help... I think your on to something on the drivers.. I looked in my device manager and saw after showing the hidden items there were two items one said
Achi power button, and the other was achi fixed feature or something like that. I looked and it said the drivers were up to date, but I haven't installed any drivers for it. So maybe I need to look for drivers specific for the motherboard.

 

[Old Hippie]

So maybe I need to look for drivers specific for the motherboard.

You need the latest AMD chipset drivers that include AHCI.

There's no way to change to AHCI unless the drivers are installed.

I tried the ms fix no help

What did it say when you ran the "Microsoft Fix it 50470" program?

 

[Ramaddil]

I don't remember but I think it ran successfully. I will give it another try when I return home.

So for the drivers I just need to do a search for AMD chipset drivers with achi?

 

[Ramaddil]

I just re Ran it and it says The Microsoft Fix has been Processed.

 

[gimp]

the thing is, if POST is stalling/freezing when AHCI is enabled, that's a motherboard/BIOS issue and has absolutely nothing at all to do with Windows.

 

[Ramaddil]

It is stoping right before windows starts. The only other thing short of drivers is maybe updating the bios ?

 

[gimp]

It is stoping right before windows starts. The only other thing short of drivers is maybe updating the bios ?

try BIOS update.

Could also try booting off the Win7 disc and doing a startup repair after you've set the BIOS to AHCI.

 

[Ramaddil]

try BIOS update.

Could also try booting off the Win7 disc and doing a startup repair after you've set the BIOS to AHCI.

Already Attempted this no dice..of course in the repair console it is not showing my operating system currently i am downloading achi drivers from amd

 

[Ramaddil]

Got it Fixed Installed the AMD ACHI Drivers from the AMD website then went into BIOS enabled ACHI then saved to CMOS and restarted it booted with no issues..

Thanks for the the help again.

 

[Old Hippie]

Got it Fixed Installed the AMD ACHI Drivers from the AMD website then went into BIOS enabled ACHI then saved to CMOS and restarted it booted with no issues..

Thanks for the the help again.

Are you saying that the MS "Fix It" program told you what to do or did the program automatically download and install the drivers?

 

[gimp]

Are you saying that the MS "Fix It" program told you what to do or did the program automatically download and install the drivers?

it looks like a run-on sentence to me

 

[Old Hippie]

it looks like a run-on sentence to me

That's what I'm thinkin.

I appreciate that he came back and gave the results but I'd like to get a little clarity on the repair procedure.

This may be an easy fix for those with AMD chipsets but I'd like to know what to expect before recommending it.

that's a motherboard/BIOS issue and has absolutely nothing at all to do with Windows.

Maybe but it looks like you can find a solution in the most unlikely places.

 

[Ramaddil]

My solution was to go to AMD's website search in the downloads section for achi driver download , and install it. I then went to registry and applied the fix to the start key from "3" to "0", then i restarted and went to bios and changed it from native IDE to ACHI. Then saved it to CMOS and restarted and it bootedup fine and I was able to utilize Hot Swap.

I am currently trying to get Hot Swap to work on my secondary desktop which will soon be my new WHS. This computer has a A8N32-SLI deluxe ASUS motherboard which has nvdia drivers on if, and no achi toggle in the bios. It is running curently windows 7. I just installed a syba controller card which has hot plug support but at a dead end. I have read that there are nvidia drivers I could install but it would require a reinstall of windows. Since I am going to put WHS on it i will just wait to mess with it then.

 

[Old Hippie]

My solution was to go to AMD's website search in the downloads section for achi driver download , and install it.

Cool! Did the program tell you the steps to take or did it get the drivers all by itself? What did the program do?

This computer has a A8N32-SLI deluxe ASUS motherboard which has nvdia drivers on if, and no achi toggle in the bios

I had an A8N-SLI deluxe and had to use hacked drivers for the nVidia chipset. Enabling AHCI actually decreased performance so I uninstalled the drivers.

I just installed a syba controller card which has hot plug support but at a dead end.

The card's probably got it's own set of drivers and one version probably supports AHCI regardless of the MB's capabilities.

Check the manfg of the chipset and look for the driver updates.

 

[Ramaddil]

The driver program did all of the work, once installed the computer recognized the drivers and enabled ACHI. The downloads section under chipsets has optional downloads and one of those is ACHI. But like I said the program self initialized the instalation of the drivers on windows, I did not have to add hardware or anything like that.

About those hacked drivers how much performance did you loose and do you remember where you got the drivers.

 

[Old Hippie]

But like I said the program self initialized the instalation of the drivers on windows

Cool!

I can't remember where I got the drivers but they were for XP.