After integrating drivers with nlite into xp install cd, everything works perfectly.
Thanks again, and please keep up your excellent work!
Hi Fernando,
I switched from IDE to Ahci on my Windows 7 64-bit OS some time ago, and my WEI (Windows Experience Index) went from 5.9, the highest a HDD can get using IDE, to a miraculous 7.8 for my hard drive. Mind you I do not have a SSD. All was great until a program I installed much later changed my settings, then after no matter what I did, my WEI went back to rating my PC 5.9.
So, I have tried updating Windows’ Standard AHCI Serial ATA Controller with AMD Sata Controller drivers. When I did find one that worked on my system, they did nothing to increase my system performance, so still I am a 5.9 to WEI, and also some programs I have installed say my hard drive is IDE, yet msahci in the registry reads as AHCI
What my problem is, and my main question is that I have two Amd Sata drivers running on my computer now, along with their cohorts amdxata. I think I am not supposed to have two amd sata drivers…one driver is called amdsata.sys and the second one is called amd_sata.sys. I am terrified of disabling one or the other or both, in case both are indeed necessary. I do not use RAID just so you know. I have researched to my best ability using the web, asking friends, and more but to no avail. I feel like I am the only one in the world with this trouble.
Please help me if you can. You seem extremely educated in this field, and that is why I finally decided to ask someone outside of my close location for help in this matter .
Thanks loads, Xeny
PS CPU is AMD FX 8150 8 Core Processor, and by the way, besides these two Amd Sata drivers, Windows’ AHCI ATA controller driver msahci is also running. TC
EDIT: PSS Hi again. I just read an article while researching the subject at hand, that the AMD PCI IDE Controller my PC is running as well as the ahci drivers mentioned, is not necessary, hinting that it should be uninstalled, but another article claims they attempted such, and Windows reinstalled the PCI drivers anyway. I am afraid of attempting any action that might make Windows fail to boot, for a while ago, I had been told to set Pciide in the registry to its default state of 3 for START value during the time I was trying to undo what that program had done to change my settings for ahci in the first place. When I did, I was unable to restore my system. Please if you will, guide me in this area as well? This may be the reason that Ahci is not working as it did when I first enabled it in the registry. Bless.
@ Xeny:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
I doubt, that the OS is using an IDE and AHCI driver or more than 1 IDE/AHCI driver at the same time for the same sort of SATA ports.
To find out, which driver the OS is really using, you should open the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and if applicable - the "Storage Controllers" section of the Device Manager, right click onto the listed Cotrollers (not onto the Channels) and then choose the options "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver Details". Now you can see the exact name of the driver(s), which is/are in use to manage the related SATA Controller.
Please post
a) the exact names of the Controller (not of the Channels), which are listed within the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and "Storage Controllers" sections and
b) the driver file names, which are listed under "Driver Details".
If possible, take a screenshot of the Device Manager after having opened the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and "Storage Controllers" sections.
BTW:
1. The Windows Experience Index (MEI) is very inaccurate and not the best way to check the performance.
2. All manual changes within the Windows registry are very risky, especially for newbees. A change of the IDE mode should better be done with a fresh install of the OS.
Regards
Fernando
Oh thank you so much for replying! I have been checking the properties of the drivers, just as you suggest for about 2 years or so, trying by myself to understand the goings on in my PC. Windows 7 drivers are complete hell to find, and always have been since I first had W7 in 2009. Vista and XP were much easier!
I want to be careful to follow your instructions, so I will begin on them now. I suppose also learn the rules of the correct manner in which to post a screen shot to your web site as well. Different forums, always different rules.
To update you as I have performed some actions in between the time I first wrote you, until I read your message, and so you are completely informed of the situation, I found the right explanation on the web in which helped to put some pieces together in my mind about Pciide, and ahci and Windows applying the settings made in the registry…which are, I set Pciide in the registry to Start value 3, which was previously set to 0 since my problem began until about 2ish hours ago, and then at the same time, I had Windows Driver Manager uninstall Amd PCI IDE Controller, and then rebooted. My PC booted okay, but took some time as I found out when the Windows screen showed so did the driver installation window saying my device was ready to use. It reinstalled the Amd PCI IDE Controller, however, pciide is still set to Start value 3, and is not running. So I am grateful for that.
I make sure you know this first because Windows takes a very long time to show new results of system changes at times, an example is… many times after using Disk Cleanup, having deleted a great deal of restore points, the Computer when I click to view the drives from Start Menu remains unchanged as to disk size, even after rebooting.
So, it does the same for when I have changed registry values such as with pciide and ahci, so in order to get Windows responding, I manually uninstall the driver in question at the same time as I have changed the registry Start value…I have had to for both the ahci, and pciide drivers, for if I do not, Windows acts like an idiot, and BSOD’s me!
I have been strongly considering a fresh install of W7, it won’t be the first time, however, even with making it easier with Windows Transfer concerning my installed programs, I wanted a fresh clean registry as well, to start anew without all the old useless files left and recorded, as you see I test A LOT of software/games. I mean A LOT, but even Revo Pro Uninstaller, jv16PowerTools don’t remove it all. So I’m looking for easier answers in doing a clean install of Windows 7 this time round.
I am going to take some screen shots for you, and give you the names as fast as my eyes can read, and fingers move on the keyboard…sorry I can’t be faster, but I’m doing it now.
Bless ya, and TC til later.
Xeny
It is rather easy:
1. Run the Device Manager and open the interesting sections by clicking onto the left hand + signs.
2. Hit "Alt"+"Print".
3. Run the Windows tool "Paint", click onto "Paste", then onto "Crop" and save the image as a .PNG or .JPG file.
4. Join the Forum, click the "Reply" button of the related thread and write your text
5. Hit the "Attach file" button beneath the right bottom corner of the text field.
6. Hit "Choose files" and navigate to the file you want to upload.
7. Hit the "Upload" button.
8. Navigate with the mouse and click to the place, where you want insert the picture.
9. Hit onto the "Insert" button, which is now shown in the attachment section (right bottom corner).
10. Hit "Insert Image".
11. Run the "Preview" option to check, if everything is ok.
LOL! Got the attachment thing right before clicking Submit. I used Snipping Tool and not Paint, its easier. I took a few pics, as your instruction though good, was not compatible with my system. There was no selection of Driver or anything else when clicking properties on the list of ATA controllers in Device Manager…first pic will show
Oh good PNG format works great. Now pic #2 will show you the Amd PCI IDE controller properties, and in researching these, as the resource settings I/0 Range is FF00-FF0F, this tells me that these settings are very low, the FF00 is what I understand to mean to allow ISA expansions? And they are a sorry example to PCI? I got this info from http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/i/isa.htm
I shall try am limit more pics after this last and explain the rest of the info, as I do not want to overwhelm anyone with my ugly pics! Though I have taken more if you need to see.
This next pic I was able to get driver details for Standard ahci 1.0 Serial ATA Controller msahci by clicking properties on it, then driver, then driver details, and got a short list, though it seems one must click on any of the 4 drivers listed in order to get its details, but for msahci the details only explain that its W7 SP1 rtm and that MickeyNotSosoft made the thing ugh. So on second thought my next pic will not be of that, but I think more important than the details is a pic of Serviwin which is a free and good software made by Nirsoft that shows drivers (and services) running on the PC, their status, start values and so much more. I have edited the columns list so as to make the evidence viewable to show that indeed two amdsata (amd_sata) drivers are both running along with msahci right now on my PC…I tried uninstalling one of them before, not in safe mode but by Device manager, and though DM showed it was uninstalled, I went to the log files and read the denial of the amd_sata file to be uninstalled, which ticked me off royally, so to double check with my own eyeballs, I went back into DM and sure enough, there sat amd_sata.sys proud as you please.
Here are msahci, amdsata, and amd_sata properties and status, but in 3 tiny pics:
Whew! I am glad they turned out so small in size. The last 3 look different because I turned off my theme so you could see them at the clearest level, text etc. I sure hope my reply gives you enough information. I have been researching this for nearly a year…almost. I’m not patient, just reserved and a bit leery, hence the length of time to ask a source with which I am unfamiliar, but I think perhaps I chose wisely.
Thanks for listening and reading me, Fernando. TC, Xeny OH! PS for the list of Storage Controllers, there is only one, Virtual Clone Drive, the last before it became no longer free, version 5.4 something.
@ Xeny:
Thanks for your efforts to get and post the pictures, but you obviously misunderstood parts of my second last post.
Anyway I now know, that within your system there are 2 different IDE Controllers active:
1. the “Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller” and
2. a “AMD PCI IDE Controller”.
The first one is an AHCI Controller, the second one an IDE one.
Conclusion:
Within your system are SATA ports, which are running in AHCI mode (managed by the Win7-own MS AHCI driver named MSAHCI.SYS) and SATA ports, which are running in IDE mode (probably managed by the Win7-own MS IDE driver named PCIIDE.SYS, but renamed by an AMD inf file).
This verifies, that none of your SATA drives is managed by an AMD AHCI driver.
Unfortunately you didn’t post what you see after doing a right click onto both Controllers and choosing the options “Properties” > “Driver” > “Driver Details”, but I doubt, that you will see there any AMD driver like “amd_sata.sys” or “amd_xata.sys”.
If you want to get an AMD AHCI installed instead of the MS AHCI driver, you have to right click onto the listed “Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller” and to choose the options “Update Driver Software” > “Browse my Computer…” > “Let me pick…” “Have Disk”, then to navigate to the suitable AMD AHCI driver and to accept the installation.
The other listed “AMD PCI IDE Controller” cannot be updated or replaced unless you are able to set this Controller to “AHCI” within the BIOS, but I doubt, that this is possible. I suspect, that the mainboard of your system has 2 different sorts of SATA Controllers, but only one of them can be set to “AHCI” resp. “RAID”.
No, I did not misunderstand what you asked, and I explained that nothing shows as you described, and even showed you a pic. Of the nothing that gets listed in the window when I chose properties after I right clicked on the ATA Controllers Title Bar. The only options given were in a tiny box that said properties, and Scan for Hardware Changes. I see the pics I took are missing, so I am supposing the manner in which they were uploaded needs that I keep the pics where I uploaded them from in order to show on this site? But indeed, I took them exactly as requested, they had been showing, but now are not. I deleted them off of my desktop. I am used to web sites retaining copies of uploaded content, and not needing to continually read said content from the providing source.
Fernando, I have already done what you suggest in your latest reply. I have done it more than a few times, but naught of these actions has solved my issue. Everything the pics showed is explained in my words as well. Perhaps some of what you say is true concerning the driver mess I am in, but you can blame Catalyst Install Manager, and AMD/ATI for that themselves for it is they that brought me to this stage, and they that installed these amdsata and amd_sata.sys drivers and they that make finding the correct drivers and then installing them a living nightmare for their customers! I refuse to purchase an ATI graphics card for any reason due to the nightmare of driver service AMD/ATI provides their customers overly often! While nVidia rarely fails, if at all, but now I am rather stuck with their CPU so I must figure out what to do, but only a fresh reinstall of W7 seems to be the answer.
So you know, every time I have attempted to update msahci always selecting your mentioned method, Windows shows me the same damn drivers that I am telling you about, same data, same install state, as I have studied the detail given in device manager in properties.
I am not as Newbie as you seem to think, I have been struggling to understand the concepts of much of the computer since I first typed on a keyboard many years ago, and on my own. It grows difficult when researching something when many a web site article conflicts in many ways with the others, and after some time one article creeps into another, and then all becomes a blur.
It seems at this date, that it is I alone who must repair the issue. I do appreciate the time, and speedy attempts to help me, a stranger to you. You have been gracious for the most part, and its a delight to see another who cares for other people’s troubles.
Thank you for that, and your dedication.
Xeny
Mmmm. Finally the pics showed up. Took so much time I am certain due that I did a thorough cleaning, and prefetch was cleaned away.
I didn’t ask you to show me the "Properties" of the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section. What I wanted to see were the "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver Details" of the 2 listed Controllers. Why didn’t you hit the tab "Driver" after having opened the "Properties" of the "AMD PCI IDE Controller" (pic 1 and 2)?
I can still see them…
A fresh OS install would be a good idea.
By the way: You can avoid the installation of unwanted or bad AMD drivers and software by unzipping the AMD package and doing a manual installation of the desired drivers (especially the graphics driver) from within the Device Manager.
You are welcome and good luck!
I recently got this ASMedia 1061 PCIe-SATA adaptor to use it with my SSD (because my MoBo based on nForce 750i doesn’t support TRIM natively). Firmware on the adaptor is 0.951.
I have used four of the five drivers that I found on line, on my Windows 7 x64 system.
1.4.1.0 dated 12/26/2012 - this one is adding a SATA controller under the “IDE/ATAPI” section of Device Manager. It does pass TRIM to SSD, based on the tests done with trimcheck . I got a WinSAT score of 7.4.
2.0.8.0 dated 01/27/2014 - This one is adding a SATA controller under the “Storage Controllers” section. However it DOES NOT pass the TRIM to SSD. In WinSAT it didn’t get better numbers than previous driver.
2.0.8.1 dated 03/14/2014 - This one also fails to pass the TRIM command to SSD.
2.0.3.1 dated 11/19/2013 - I only saw this on this site (the one from the first post), I did test it. My PC freezes at start-up, after signing in - maybe a conflict with my existing system… had to start in “safe mode” to change it to something functional. I noticed that in safe mode, when the 2.0.3.1 works, my E-MU 1820m does not have the drivers loaded, so maybe that’s the offending software.
The other driver is the one provided with the card:
1.1.9.0 dated 01/30/2011 - I didn’t test it because the 1.4.1.0 worked perfectly.
So, for now, I am sticking with the 1.4.1.0 driver. I am attaching it here, just in case that anybody needs it.
ASM106x_1.4.1.zip (3.07 MB)
After having received SoNic67’s report (it is the post right above this one), I decided to offer the ASMedia AHCI drivers v1.4.1.0 WHQL within the start post and to remove the v2.0.3.1 ones.
Thanks to SoNic67 for having tested and compared the nearly 2 years old v1.4.1.0 with other(newer) ASMedia AHCI drivers.
Update of the start post
Changelog:
- new: 32/64bit ASMedia 106x SATA3 AHCI drivers v1.4.1.0 WHQL dated 12/27/2012 for Win8/8.1, Win7 and Vista (x86/x64)
- new: 32/64bit ASMedia 106x SATA3 AHCI drivers v1.4.1.0 WHQL dated 12/27/2012 for Windows XP (x86/x64)
- new: 32/64bit Intel RST(e) drivers v12.9.4.1000 WHQL dated 04/24/2014
- new: Intel RSTe Drivers & Software Set v12.9.4.1000 WHQL dated 04/24/2014
- new: modded 32/64bit Intel RST(e) drivers v12.9.4.1000
- new: Universal 32/64bit Intel RSTe Software vv12.9.4.1000
Have fun with these drivers!
Fernando
You are doing a great job maintain this site as a central point of information! I wouldn’t think that is so much variation in the world of AHCI drivers 
My journey involved going trough nForce 680i, 750i, ASMedia, even some Intel issues… and this site helped a lot.
I use W7 x64 SP1.
I have uninstalled ASM106 driver V 2.0.3.1 and replaced with V 1.4.1.0.
Seems to work on my P8Z77 mb.
However, the ASM106 controls the two e_SATA 6G ports of the board.
I have attached an external SSD to the e_SATA port to test the TRIM function.
Trimcheck report TRIM is not working…
I see also SMART infos are not reported.
May be the issue is due to the external dock station ?
Any idea ?
@ 100PIER:
Maybe your problem is caused by the fact, that I have offered this morning by mistake for half an hour an ASMedia AHCI driver v1.4.1.0 for "Win8/Win7/Vista/XP", which has been disigned especially for Windows XP.
I am sorry about that.
Please re-download the 64bit Win8Win7Vista ASMedia SATA3 AHCI driver from the start post and compare it with the one you have installed.
If you see a difference, please re-install the correct driver and report here, if you got TRIM and SMART support.
Don’t forget to run the trimcheck program saved on a location on the SSD that you want to test.
Example: If your SSD is "D:", that’s where the trimckeck should be saved (or on any folder on that drive).
@Fernando ,
I have re-downloaded the 64bit V 1.4.1.0 driver to be sure.
Manual installation has been done with the ‘have disk’ option. Reboot also done.
Driver seems well installed , up and running well.
However I don’t got TRIM and SMART support.
I don’t see why, except the fact I use e_SATA And a docking e_SATA station where the SATA 2 SSD is plugged in ?
Of course TRIMCHECK V 0.6 is well installed on the external SSD i use to do the test.
Even several retries or a reboot doesnt produce the ‘TRIM is working’ message.
Can you test it by using an internal ASMedia 106x SATA port?
@Fernando ,
It is not possible on this motherboard (ASUS P8Z77 V Deluxe), there is no internal ASM106x SATA port…
It is a pity, that you cannot test it yourself, but I am pretty sure, that the difference between your an SoNic67’s test results can be explained by the different sorts of the SSD SATA connection (eSATA vs. SATA).