Crucial MX500 250Gb SSD IDE/AHCI problem

[JohnnnnnY]

Hi!

Recently i bought a crucial mx500 250gb ssd, to use it in my notebook. Later i found out i can't use it in ahci, because my notebook is 10+ years old, an the mobo does not support the feature. So i used it with ide configuration for a while. In my desktop pc i use a Kingston HyperX Fury 120 Gb ssd with AHCI enabled, and was quite satisfied with the speeds, and stability, but the 120 Gb storage fell short for me. It got full quickly. So I decided, to switch the two drives, because I would not use this much space in my notebook, and I read that the crucial performs better, than my kingston in general. 

My problem started, when i switched the 2 drives. In the desktop pc i could easily install Windows 10 Pro with BIOS set to AHCI, than go to reboot. At this point the installation didn't continue, because it was stuck on an infinite loop of PNP Watchdog BSOD error, and reboot. 

If i switched back to IDE it would start up alright, but the speeds are not nearly satisfactory. I tried nearly every guide i could to set it back to AHCI, but nothing worked. (reinstalled like 7 times, different MBR/GBP CMS/no CMS win installer, restarting into safe mode with registry editing, or no editing, but i can't even get into safe mode with AHCI BIOS mode, so no driver installation could take place.)

At this point i was forced to use it in IDE, but maybe you could help me out with this situation. 

Oh yes, i almost forgot, in the process i updated the drive, to latest firmware, and my BIOS also has the latest firmware, P 1.80.

My specs:

MOBO: Asrock M3N78D

MEM: 2*4 GB Kindston HyperX blue 1866Mhz

CPU: AMD 965 Black Phenom II, ~3500Mhz(running at)

GPU: Gainward Phantom GTX 760 2Gb

Thanks in advance!

[targetbsp]

Are you familar with slipstreaming Windows ISO's?  You could perhaps try slipstreaming the AMD sata drivers into your WIndows ISO

I'm not sure if it's relevant for AMD but can you get modded BIOS' with updated RAID ROM's?  This is a thing on older Intel boards to tackle AHCI compatibility issues with SSD's. Warning: such an action is not without risk!

[bogdan · Accepted solution]

I think this motherboard has NVIDIA nForce chipset rather than AMD chipset. 

What I would try would be to install AHCI driver during (at the begining of Windows install) - you can do it wit 'Load driver' button at the destination drive selection window.

The drivers that should work with your mobo are here:

- link for 64bit Wondows

- link for 32bit Windows

You can give them a try, I am not sure however if those drivers support TRIM. 

Are your speeds (I mean overall user experience rather than benchmark results) in IDE mode are really that unsatisfactory?

[targetbsp]

Ah, if you are Nvidia then AHCI is the least of your worries!  Nvidia will greatly affect what speed you can expect.  Note that AHCI will only affect the multithreaded 4k speed tests.  If the speed you're describing as unsatisfactory is the sqequential speeds then this is because the Nvidia chipset has a bug in it that prevents it successfully negotiating with a a sata 3 drive and it will fall back to sata 1 with a max speed of approx 130MB/sec rather than the sata 2 it should for ~260 MB/sec

[JohnnnnnY]

Thx for the answer, I did not try modded BIOS yet, and i would keep that a very last resort if possible xp

[JohnnnnnY]

I will take a chance first with bogdans solution, maybe it will work. The curious thing about the nvidia sata bug you mention is that i used to have an ssd prior to this, and that didn't have these issues.
And yes, it feels more sluggish than the Kingston, even though this supposed to be some what better in performance. I wouldn't make a fuss about it otherwise

[targetbsp]

Sata 2 SSD's wouldn't have the problem.  Some older Sata 3 SSD's have the option of having their firmware flashed to sata 2 to work around this problem.  Crucial have never offered that.

I don't know if it would be possible for a drive manufacturer to code a non standard sata negotiation routine to work around the Nvidia bug. But if it is, again, Crucial don't.

Bogdans solution is considerably easier than slipstreaming.  I forgot this was even an option since I've not had to do it since XP days.   Skip the slipstreaming idea.  If Bogdans idea doesn't work - slipstreaming won't.

[JohnnnnnY]

Well, in the end Bogdans solution somewhat worked out. I managed to install the driver in AHCI mode. Though the drive is still shown as IDE in windows The sluggish feel to it is vanished tho. I guess apart from this, the only thing is buying a new mobo, i plan to anyway later this year. 

Thx for the help guys.

Have a nice day!