Change from IDE to AHCI

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

I wanted to show you my AS SSD bench on the HD193SJ but I was posting from my wife's laptop which didn't have the pic.




My Samsung 840 which is not the greatest thing, has a benchmark of 549. Others report more, like 600-650 but for me it is good enough compared to using the HD103SJ for the OS. My boots are down to 20-25 sec. among other things which I'm sure you know.

The 2 points I mentioned both mark OK. It shows I am using the asahci64 Asmedia 64bit AHCI driver which you should have installed and it shows it is aligned too. I once did not have it "aligned" because I cloned my OS inorder to recuperate from some nasty problems that would not let it boot. It appeared to be OK, but was not aligned. I used one of the free utilities offered on the net to do this-MiniTool Partition Wizard and all is cool.

MSAHCI is the old Windows generic AHCI driver being replaced with STORAHCI for Win 8 on. It is not supposed to improve performance but is the driver to look for in the future. Once you change your HD103SJ to one of the Asmedia connectors, AS SSD will now report asahci64 and it should show in the benchmarks the improvement, maybe 33 to 37 but hey, its free! Once you get your SSD, if you still have this mobo, there are no 2 says about it, its has to go with the Asmedia controller.

Thnx for your temp response.

Cheers.

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Hmm, now the onboard NIC has gone funny and says there's no network cable attached. I had the same problem before when I had my CF Card IDE adapter plugged in but never with the IDE HDD or ODD. I've disconnected all IDE devices anyway and it still doesn't work, so it looks like I might have to replace the motherboard yet again (this is the third one I've been through on this build, which was meant to be a present for my brother about 2 years ago!).

[Shiari]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

it looks like I might have to replace the motherboard yet again (this is the third one I've been through on this build, which was meant to be a present for my brother about 2 years ago!).

Glancing through your post history I don't see any mention of the power supply you're using ... if it's a bad/cheap one it's quite possible the PSU has been killing off hardware with power surges.

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

I'm using a Seasonic G-360 which is a very high quality one, so that shouldn't be an issue. I ran memtest earlier and it did two full passes without error, so the RAM seems fine too.

The motherboard before this one developed a broken onboard reset button and it turned out the other problems I had were due to a faulty OCZ PSU but it didn't damage any other hardware thankfully.

I can't even remember what board I had before that, it was so long ago ;)

Someone analysed my crash dump on the Plex forums for me, regarding the BSOD I was getting when running Plex and said

This is memory corruption in kernel mode. Nothing to do with Plex.

DRIVER_CORRUPTED_EXPOOL (c5)
An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at an
interrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high.  This is
caused by drivers that have corrupted the system pool.  Run the driver
verifier against any new (or suspect) drivers, and if that doesn't turn up
the culprit, then use gflags to enable special pool.The crash appears to be a null dereference, which suggest a software bug rather than bad memory. But I'd suggest running memtest anyway.
FAULTING_IP:
nt!ExDeferredFreePool+249
fffff800`033c2b05 4c395808        cmp     qword ptr [rax+8],r11

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME:  System

TRAP_FRAME:  fffff880031857d0 -- (.trap 0xfffff880031857d0)
NOTE: The trap frame does not contain all registers.
Some register values may be zeroed or incorrect.
rax=0000000000000000 rbx=0000000000000000 rcx=fffff8000341da50
rdx=fffff88009841450 rsi=0000000000000000 rdi=0000000000000000
rip=fffff800033c2b05 rsp=fffff88003185960 rbp=0000000000000000
 r8=0000000000000000  r9=fffff88009841c90 r10=0000000000000001
r11=fffff88009841ca0 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000
r14=0000000000000000 r15=0000000000000000
iopl=0         nv up ei ng nz ac po cy
nt!ExDeferredFreePool+0x249:
fffff800`033c2b05 4c395808        cmp     qword ptr [rax+8],r11 ds:00000000`00000008=????????????????

Unfortunately, these tend to be fairly hard to track back to a specific driver. You can use the driver verifier to pinpoint the issue further (at the risk of exposing new issues). My general suggestion is to revert to inbox or WU drivers, as those tend to be more tested/stable.

so I'll have to see if someone on another forum I use has any ideas about that. It's going to be hard doing much without a working NIC though but I might have a spare PCI card lying around that I can try.

[Shiari]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Also try a different network cable, if you haven't already. And perhaps a different port at the other end if possible?

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Yeah, did all that before when I had the problem with the CF adapter plugged in and only removing that got it working again. The switch on the other end shows the cable is connected anyway, which it doesn't if I unplug the cable from the NIC, so it seems sound.

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Well that is the pits! How old is the mobo anyway? To my good luck or fortune, I have never had a problem with a NIC nor a couple of wifi adapters. If you've had Win 7 for a couple years and it is what appears to be a driver/software issue, either a format or clone from a backup might help because all the simple solutions have have been carried out. You did mention if you reinstalled your lan drivers, no? A lot of times, clearing the CMOS does the trick when things start acting up. I do it frequently. Congrats on the Seasonic, almost as good as my FSP, hehe.

Since internet is so important for me, I have the wifi adapters as a back up. If none of the above works, I use an old tech trick, I take the mobo out and place it on the table with the minimum connected and if lucky and all works, start adding components till I bump into the culprit. When all the "weeds" are pulled out, all goes back into the case--that is why I have the techbench ;)

Best of luck but I figure you will find what was going on. You sound almost as stubborn as me.

Cheers

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

I'm not sure how old it is as I bought it from e-bay to replace the previous dodgy motherboard (which turned out not to be that dodgy as it was the OCZ PSU but hey, it was DDR2 anyway, the upgrade was probably worthwhile). I've only recently freshly installed Windows 7 x64 but I'll try clearing the CMOS.

The funny thing is my own two PCs, one of which I've had for about 10 years probably, have never had any problems, other than maybe the odd cable failing. It's just this one I'm trying to build for my brother that seems jinxed!

The NIC seems to have started working again this morning anyway but obviously I need to work out what's going on and if it's going to be reliable before I can send it to my brother, as he's completely non-technical and it would be very hard explaining things to him over the phone (I use TeamViewer to fix his software problems but that's not much use for the BIOS or hardware!)

Anyway, worse comes to worse I'll just have to buy a new board. I particularly bought this one as I wanted to be able to use the IDE HDD and ODD and not many boards had an IDE connector and adequate PCI slots but if I have to replace it, I'll give up on the idea of using the IDE devices as it's very hard (if not impossible) to find a new board that supports IDE nowadays.

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Well it's looking up :) After uninstalling Networx and SoftPerfect RAMDisk in safemode, I can boot into normal mode again and it's working OK. I've been told that Networx and Comodo together can cause problems with the NIC, so that might be the reason. My brother will just have to do without Networx and keep an eye on his download usage another way.

parsec also told me here to avoid using that Aggressive Link Power Management BIOS option like the plague, so hopefully having that disabled will make things more reliable.

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Ahh I get it now. Used mobo but with a new OS install. Yeah, I was wondering why you were trying to use all that legacy HW, it is for someone else, maybe a hand-me-down? I've done that too, the latest for my father in law who ended up giving everything back. Just too old to learn computing. Now I have the whole system jamming a corner of my studio, and everything works except the HW was so old, I installed XP for him. Oh well....

parsec has been helping me out with my things too. Real stand up guy and he says he is not really an AMD guy. Fooled me. If your brother is not so into this, like my father in law, just the basics are needed. Comodo is great (used it once upon a time till it blew up into a suite) but maybe Tiny Firewall, which uses Windows own firewall but more with more control. You haven't mentioned the proc you are using on this. Networx is pretty heady stuff, I probably wouldn't install it, and what the heck is Aggresive Link Power Management? My bios doesn't have it either so there is another difference between our chipsets and bioses.

Not true about there not existing mobos that can use IDE stuff....my 960gm/U3S3 FX does. Remember I connected an IDE HDD to use my old scanner? It works altho it heats up my SB somewhat. IDE is old tech so not as efficient as the newer drives which now claim to be "green", not including the ODD which is on only at times. It only cost me $55 usd new and it is still being sold world wide or should be in the UK. As you might know, it only has a hot NB HS but I am working on it with a lot of advice from parsec and we might just solve it too.

The thing with used mobos is that you never really know how the previous user abused it: a bad air circulating case, OCing and other foolishness. I've bought used stuff from my brother but I know exactly how he uses it so I have a pretty good idea what I am getting and how long it will last. The good thing is that he is always updating HW so I have a lot to choose from and most dirt cheap, hehe.

Let us know how you revived your zombie ;)

Cheers

Cheers

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Yeah, originally I was going to give my brother my old Pentium 4 system (which is still better than his current P3 system he's struggling along with) but then the motherboard died on that. So then I upgraded my main system and was going to give him my Biostar board but then had the problems with the PSU and so I bought the Asrock board which I'm currently working on.

It seems to be fine now I've uninstalled SoftPerfect RAMDisk and Networx. I use SoftPerfect without any problems on my system but it was certainly implicated in the minidumps someone analysed for me.

Networx was just because my brother has a monthly download limit, so that he could keep an eye on his usage and get warnings but he'll just have to manage another way.

Tiny Firewall does greatly enhance Windows Firewall, which I find pretty much unusable without it but I still prefer Comodo. It doesn't appear to be causing any problems but I'll keep my options open ;)

The 960gm/U3S3 FX is no good for me as I need at least two PCI slots. It only has two RAM slots as well and I wanted to give my brother something with room for expansion in the future, although he might not need it. The onboard HD3000 is a step down from the HD4250 on the 880GMH/U3S3 as well. He's not a gamer, so I don't want to get a graphics card he doesn't need and the HD4250 is ideal as it can offload the decoding of video for a lot of formats and audio/video is what he uses the PC for a lot. So you see, it is quite tricky to find a board that's suitable but fingers crossed this one seems OK and it was just the software causing problems.

If you want a challenge, you should download LatencyMon Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks to check if you have any latency problems with your system. High latency can cause audio/video glitches (in games as well) so it's important. I had a problem on my main PC which was fixed by plugging the mouse directly into the motherboard, rather than a hub, so sometimes it's easy to fix. However, I'm having problems with it on both my own system and my brothers now and it seems to be related to HDD activity, as it spikes when opening Iron with a number of tabs open, or scanning my media libraries with Plex, or defragging, so if you do give it a go, try those sort of activities and see what happens. The person who's analysed the traces for me tells me it's related to a large Disk Queue and that it would be fixed by getting an SSD but it's not practical to run everything from a SSD and I didn't have a problem before, so I don't know what's changed. Obviously you shouldn't defrag an SSD but maybe doing a scan for errors on it would be a suitable test to see if it triggers latency spikes and then compare what happens with disk activity on your HDD.

EDIT: Seems I spoke to soon. I ran HwInfo and the screen went off and I had to hard reset again. After rebooting, the Sidebar gadgets haven't appeared and the mouse icon is stuck on busy so I can't do anything! I'll try connecting the HDD back to the SATAII port.

[Papang]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Oh my! About Networx alternatives from a 2010 post at Neowin, I saw a very complete list, I guess most are valid today:


If you are still uncomfortable with the program, here's a list of other bandwidth monitoring programs I put together a while ago:

AnalogX - NetStatLive
Antamedia - Bandwidth Manager
Bandwidth Meter Pro.Net - Bandwidth Meter Pro
BWMonitor.Com - BWMonitor (d/b/a Plimus?)
DeskSoft - BWMeter
DataOne Usage Finder - WatchWAN
EXPStudio - Bandwidth Monitor
Hagel Technologies - DU Meter
Helleseth, Sindre - Bandwidth Monitor Pro
Hoo Technologies - NetMeter
How2 Solutions - ISP Monitor
Leppie - .NET MyDUMeter
Locktime Software, s.r.o. - NetLimiter Pro
Mitec - Network Meter
NetUsage Project - NetUsage Item (Mozilla Firefox plugin)
PcWinTech - Simple Internet Meter Lite
ReadError - NetMeter
Rokario Software - Bandwidth Monitor 2
Rose City Software - DU Meter
Wizard Software - Bandwidth Meter

Perhaps one of them would be more to your liking.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

True, I didn't get the 960GM..for the igp which is pretty lame. It will stutter with Youtube on 1080 HD! Of course you must imagine I game on the side and use some demanding apps, but can still use legacy drives as you saw.

Thnx for the tip on LatencyMon . If I can uncover something out of whack, it will be well worth giving it a shot. Never used it before, not that deep into analyzing HW. I let suites like Win 8 Mgr, Tune Up or IObit Advanced Care fix things the lazy way, hehe. However, I never say no to learning altho I suspect it is not something I can learn in an evening. I'm not a power user but not a novice either (well, I think anyways).

About your board, to me it shows a lot of signs of instability due to overheating. That is also why I asked about your NB temps, SB too. Why don't you take the side cover off and point a good house fan at the mobo. If it stabilizes, that is the cause. In spite of the hot NB on mine, it is rock steady but I just got it at the beginning of June and started tackling the NB problem within a couple of weeks. You see, I can't return it that easily because my brother bought it in the USA (Amazon) and I'm in Mexico so if we don't travel, it is basically stuck here. He went back home after a couple of weeks visit until next year when it will be out of warranty.

Basically we are in the same boat, we make them work or we make them work, no 2 ways about it.

Cheers.

[doberman90]

Re: Change from IDE to AHCI

Thanks for the list. I think the main reason I chose Networx is it had a clever way to monitor only traffic on one NIC and I was going to put two in the PC, one for the Internet and one for the LAN but I'm not doing that now so any of those will probably do. I'll check them out and choose one :)

LatencyMon is easy to use but not necessarily easy to understand the results. There's some good advice on it's website though and here Tried of crackly PC audio? Diagnose with LatencyMon and MagicAndre1981 is great at helping to interpret the results in his thread here How to get the cause of high CPU usage by DPC / Interrupt - Windows Tips 'n' Tweaks - MSFN Forum

I don't think my board is overheating as I've got good airflow through the case with front and rear fans and the Xigmatek HDT-D1284 heatsink is a top-down cooler so blows some air down onto the NB heatsink as well. I'm not overclocking and not gaming either, so I don't think anything's getting stressed enough to overheat. I actually did have the side off with my house fan blowing towards it last night when it crashed, only because I was hot and it was next to me ;) If you're worried about your NB, it might be fairly easy to put a better/bigger heatsink on it. You'll have to check the positions of the pushpins holding it on to find a matching replacement (although you can just stick it on with a suitable thermal adhesive instead). This tends to be a great forum for advice on that sort of thing SPCR • Index page

EDIT: I had a reply from Asrock about the SATA IDE Combined Mode

"As far as I know, SATA IDE Combined Mode is to improve compatibility with some old OS (before XP)."

but he's going to check that with his colleagues in Taiwan. It doesn't really explain how the SATAII_5 port can get moved to the IDE controller from the AMD SATA AHCI controller, so hopefully some more information will be forthcoming.