I have an major issue with a ASUS ET2203T AIO PC to get any SSD work stable. It seems a controller issue and therefor I tried several attempts to get the AHCI mode enabled in windows, but without success. The issue I experience is that windows will lock up occasionally and the hard disc light just blinks every 2 or 3 seconds. This can take up to several minutes before windows responds again. I have a Samsung EVO 840 installed now. With other SSD’s I tried (Kingston V300, Sandisk, OCZ agility 3, Intel 256Gb) I got the same lockups, but even worse, after installing a fresh copy of windows 7 (x64), the computer could be used for several days, weeks, and then suddenly the computer wouldn’t boot anymore, as the whole bootsector was missing… Restoring would not help at all anymore. The SSD’s had to be completely wiped from all partitions and reinstalled… With the Samsung this didn’t happened any longer, but still I get the freezes in windows.
The major issue I think is that ASUS did not add any AHCI support in the BIOS. The only option I can change in the stock bios for the SATA controller is Disabled, Normal, or Enhanced mode. As I read in several threads/forums Enhanced mode does not mean AHCI mode. Also windows does not see any difference if the option is set from normal to enhanced mode. I already tried to insert another option rom to the bios, but it makes no difference at all.
Every attempt to change the driver manually or inserting a modified reg file to the registry results in a blue screen when rebooting. The funny thing however is that changing the Start value of msahci, pciide and iastor to 0 (from 3) is possible, but without any change to the driver. Windows however will just boot. Is it at all possible to mod the bios so I would be able to choose real AHCI mode instead of the weird Enhanced mode? The controller Dev is 2928 (ICH9M/M-E 2)
I am afraid, that I cannot help you, because: a) your mainboard doesn’t fully support the "AHCI" mode and b) I don’t see any chance to implement the full AHCI support into the BIOS
The correct DeviceID for the Intel ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller is DEV_2929. Your on-board Intel SATA Controller is the "castrated" ICH9 one (without any letter behind it) with limited or no AHCI support.
I was afraid of that myself already. Is there no other way to fake a driver or similar making it appear as a 2929 device? As in the bios the enhanced option is available…
Any other thinkable reason or solution that you can think of why I experience the strange behavior with all the SSD’s, in almost all but samsung evo 840, causing a boot sector issue and the freezes?
The speed of the PC overall has much improved after placing any of the SSD’s and I don’t want to run to the store to buy a new computer and ditch this one, as it for fills all needs I have at the moment for this PC…except SSD support…
No. Your problem has nothing to do with the in-use AHCI driver and cannot be solved by modding it. It is either system BIOS or hardware related and in both cases nothing can be done by you or me. Only ASUS as the manufacturer may be able to add full AHCI support to your mainboard.
As you have already realized yourself: "Enhanced IDE" is not "Full AHCI".
The different behaviour of different SSD models may be caused by their different susceptibility to the "castrated" AHCI mode of your on-board Intel SATA Controller.
Here is an AHCI module for your 2928 ID. It is not offered by Intel per se, but the ID is present in the supported device list of some Intel released AHCI modules, I only changed the main ID and checksum. I believe you can find a guide in this forum on how to insert OROM modules. Don’t expect miracles, if your BIOS is not supporting AHCI properly.
I have this same issue as well, and from I can gather, the ASUS BIOS for ET2203 (ET2203T-ASUS-0808.ROM) does not have an OROM for 2928, just one for 282A i.e. Intel RAID. So based on this, I am assuming that the AHCI replacement is simply not possible. Have to find another use for my new SSD disk, then.
