Asrock ahci: Reddit — Dive into anything

AsRock G41M-VS3 R2.0 — Add AHCI or real SATA support — BIOS Modding Requests

RaskaipikaFWR

#1

Hi forum:

A friend of mine tell me to take a look to his computer to see if it’s possible to add AHCI support to the motherboard of his old PC. The PC has a Northbridge G41 and a Southbridge ICH7, the Option ROM present in the BIOS that controls the storage is a VID 8086 / DEV 27C3, the mainboard has an IDE connector and 4 SATA ports (The storage controller DEV ID is 27C0 at the device manager, not the 27C3).

The SATA ports 1 and 2 are the IDE primary channel, the SATA ports 3 and 4 are the IDE secondary channel and finally, the IDE connector is the IDE third channel.

I don’t know if is possible to add AHCI support to this motherboard or at least, unlock hidden menus to see if the AHCI support is hiden and / or present, I say this because I’ve been taken a look to other motherboards BIOS with the same chipsets, and in those BIOS, there isn’t a PCI Option ROM for the storage controller, but in this, yes, there is one, with the next parameters: VID 8086 / DEV 27C3.

Thanks in advance, I hope that, at least, you can tell me if this is possible, and if it’s possible, how to do it.

Kind regards.

boombastik

#2

The ICH7 (Base) chip do not support AHCI. But he can use an ssd and the trim works as intended.

RaskaipikaFWR

#3

Thanks for the tip @boombastik about the TRIM working with SSDs without AHCI support at the storage controller.

I’ve checked if the TRIM works and it works without problem and with a SSD ADATA SU-800 the read and write performance are great for a SATA II controller, both of them are 230 — 240 MB/s.

But, I don’t understand why the BIOS include a MSM PCI OPROM (8086-27C3) but the BIOS doesn’t use it, it’s more, if I remove that PCI OPROM from the BIOS, the PC works without problems.

Is there any way to make use of the MSM PCI OPROM (8086-27C3) for make use of the AHCI feature that the MSM module include. Now I know that the SSDs work with TRIM support but I prefer use them at “100%”.

boombastik

#4

@RaskaipikaFWR I believe that it is included because they use universal bios for a lot motherboards so a similar model motherboard that have ich7r can use ahci . In your situation it does not mater. So don’t search for over complicated solutions.
Trim works and 230 MB/s is maximum that a sata 2 can provide.
Also from that era 2006 usually the ahci was buggy. Ich6-7 was the first chips that implemented ahci.

RaskaipikaFWR

#5

@boombastik thanks again for your answer and support, you’re right, if the ICH7 doesn’t have the AHCI feature and with SSDs drives works well (for a SATA II storage controller, it depends directly from the SSD drive used in terms of velocity) with TRIM working on windows 10, there isn’t reason to “search for over complicated solutions”.

Well, I will say to my friend that his old PC is able to work with windows 10 and a SSD drive without problems, at least, 4 years more for this old PC.

Thanks again.

How to enable AHCI mode in BIOS for a PC

  1. Home
  3. Navigate to this key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorAV\StartOverride. If this key is not present, look for this key instead:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorAVC.
  4. Select the StartOveride key.
  5. Change the value of the 0 value to 0 if you have the iaStorAV key. Set its value to 3 if you have the iaStorAVC key.
  1. Navigate to this key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci
  2. Double-click the Start key, and set its value to 0.
  1. Navigate to this key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\StartOverride. This key may not be present on your system. If it isn’t, skip this step and the next one.
  2. Double-click the value named 0 and set its value to 0.
  3. Boot to your BIOS.
  4. Enable AHCI in it.

Conclusion

SATA tech isn’t new so it should be on your system even if it’s a few years old. Enabling ACHI is a good idea to get the best speed from your SSD however, even if you’re stuck using IDE, your SSD may still work. The performance may not be the same but in most cases, the storage device will work.

AsRock H510 Pro BTC+ does not see (does not start) from HDD, but only from flash drive

VadymO
Own person