Oh! One more question! 
Which drivers/software should I be using?
It is usually best to match the Drivers with the OROM version, for example driver v11.2.0.1006 with OROM v11.2.0.1527 and so on.
BIOS flash appears to have gone well! 
installing of the drivers failed! 
apparently the drivers I have installed are newer than the modded onesā¦ I continued anyway but near the completion of installation a fail window popped up
ideas?
ah crap! the driver appears to be unsigned! 
win8.1 pro x64 doesnāt allow unsigned drivers! :ā(
what now?
Did you use the modded drivers?
If so, modded drivers break WHQL, the untouched should be signed.
well I tried to install the modded ones
which drivers are you referring to when you say āuntouchedā?
probably a stupid question: do I need modded drivers to allow TRIM to pass thru to RAID 0?
Sorry, i had to leave the house for awhile.
I mean drivers from this page: Intel(R) RST/RSTe Drivers (newest: v13.5.0.1056/v4.1.0.1046 WHQL)
instead of the modded drivers, they just add support for unsupported HW in different versions.
As far as I understand you have oROM v11.2.0.1527 now (you can check by pressing Ctrl+I during POST). So you need the equivalent drivers (same branch) which are v11.2.0.1006. According to Fernando:
āTRIM in RAID0ā is supported (Precondition: An actual Intel RAID ROM or EFI RAID āSataDriverā from v11 up is present within the BIOS).
So, visit the Intel RST driver thread and download the official 11.2.0.1006 driver. You donāt require a modded version of the driver since you have supported hardware.
Although you are totally right regarding your advice, here is a warning:
According to my own experience the "downgrade" of the Intel RAID driver from within a running Windows 8/8.1/10 to any conventional Intel RST driver like the v11.2.0.1006 WHQL may end with a BSOD at next reboot. Even booting off the Win8/8.1/10 image media and using the "Repair" option may not help.
The reason for this Win8/8.1 behaviour seems to be the presence of the on-board Intel RST(e) RAID driver v12.0.1.1018 named iaStorAV.sys, which obviously prevents a successful installation of any Intel RAID driver with a lower version. By the way: Only Intel RAID drivers from v12.x.x.xxxx seem to be accepted as F6 driver at the beginning of the Win8/8.1/10 installation.
As a consequence I do not really recommend to choose the extremely performant Intel RAID driver/ROM combo v11.2.0.1006/v11.2.0.1527 for users, who are running or want to install Win8/8.1/10.
Thank you for the warning Fernando. However, in case of such a problem you should be able to boot via Safe Mode where no 3rd party drivers/services are loaded. Either way, the issue is that an old driver is left behind. You could prevent that by removing the old driver from DriverStore (where Windows stores these). Personally I use Driver Store Explorer which works great. The way I see it, if someone wants to downgrade to a v11 driver he/she should:
1) Uninstall the Intel v12,v13 etc driver via Control Panel
2) Open Driver Store Explorer, select IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and remove the ones from Intel that may cause problems.
3) Reboot and in theory Windows will install the generic MS AHCI driver
4) Now you can safely install a downgraded driver like v11
I will test this on my Z77 desktop later as Iām certain it should work. Iāll downgrade from v13 ā v11 and see if any issues occur after using Driver Store Explorer.
This is only valid, when the Intel SATA Controller has been set to "AHCI".
Only RAID users are affected by the problem I have described within my last post.
So Microsoft has no generic RAID driver? Didnāt know that. However, since it happened to me right know with the AHCI drivers, I can confirm that Safe Mode works like a charm. Boot in that and you can fix your driver problem easily in case of BSODās.
No, but all Windows Operating Systems since Vista have an on-board generic Intel MSM RAID driver named iaStorV.sys (latest version: v8.6.2.1019). The newest Windows editions since Win8 additionally have a generic on-board Intel RST(e) driver named iaStorAV.sys (latest version: v12.0.1.1018). Both generic Intel RAID drivers can be found in the folder Windows\System32\Drivers.
Although I am not yet 100% sure about it, I suspect, that the presence of the additional generic Win8/8.1 Intel RST(e) RAID driver v12.0.1.1018 prevents the successfull "downgrade" of the Intel RAID driver from an RST(e) type (named iaStorA.sys) to any conventional RST type (named iaStor.sys). When I am back home and have the needed time, I will do some additional tests to find out, which Intel Chipsets are affected by this Win8.1 Intel driver "downgrade" issue.
That is right, but according to my experiences with RAID systems the booting in safe mode will not solve the BSOD problem, when the system drive is a member of a RAID array.
It should be the same since both AHCI and RAID use the exact same drivers (iaStorA.sys & iaStorF.sys) but I have no RAID experience so I donāt know.
Have you tried installing the RST via the Intel setup (not Have Disk), and then uninstalling similarly? Maybe the setup uninstaller automatically fixes whatever is causing this downgrade problem by restoring the default MS driver etcā¦
Yes, I have installed the Intel RAID drivers & software pack very often (the RST Console is required, if the user wants to enable the write-back caching feature). Running the Control Panel function "add/remove programs" and uninstalling the listed program named "Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology" and doing a reboot are always the first steps, if you want to "downgrade" the running Intel RAID driver.
The OS will reboot without any problems and usually does not even change the latest running Intel RAID driver version (if it is a WHQL certified one), but when you then are trying to "downgrade" the in-use RAID driver manually, the BSOD may happen while rebooting.
I see. When you downgrade manually I suppose you mean Have Disk Method. I was thinking: Install v13 RST Setup RAID, Reboot, Uninstall via Setup, Reboot, Install v11 RST Setup RAID & Reboot. I know that the Intel setup detects that you are performing a downgrade and asks if you want to replace your newer driver. In that case, I canāt imagine that the BSOD will happen.
I read in your post at the top that the newer orom arenāt supposed to TRIM with anything prior to the P35 5-Series(ICH10/R). Now that I have tested that the Newest RSTe TRIM_MOD rom does Trim with the ICH8R in RAID-0 maybe you should update you post to reflect this new discovery of compatibility so otherās may give it a try if they wish .
@ lurch228:
Thank you for your post.
You are totally right - the start post and the thread title have to be updated, because you have verified, that TRIM in RAID0 support is even possible for P965/ICH8R chipset.
Meanwhile I have done it and hope, that it is ok now.
By the way: It would be a good idea, if you would update your last BIOS modding report (>link<) as well, because it is not easy to recognize, that you completely succeeded with the update of the Intel RAID ROM v13.5.0.2164 and now have TRIM in RAID0 support with your ICH8R Southbridge.
Hi.
I tried to read this thread a bit but I am still in doubt.
With thee drivers would TRIM work on my Sony vaio AW laptop which has ICH9M-E SATA RAID Controller and PM45 chipset if I raid 2 SSDs in Raid 0 ??
Than you
Fernando could probably answer better, but I know ICH9R would be a yes. Not sure about the ICH9M though. Fernando do you know?