I am using winxp professional SP3 in my PC with the following configuration:
AMD 5000+ with 2G ram
Seagate 250G harddrive in my mobo ASUS M2A-VM HDMI bios 1501

I changed the setting in the southbridge from IDE to AHCI according to the
following link:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us

Everything is ok and the performance is improved except winxp stops for
about 10 second when booting up which is same as described as the following
link:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...oblems-booting

I have tried different version of ahcix86.sys (driver for AHCI), but without
improvement for the above scenario. At present, the version of my ahcix86
is 2.5.1540.39

Anyone has encountered the problem and any solution to solve it?

Thanks in advance.

Jerry Wong
http://www.geocities.com/jerrywong.geo
¦ý§Ú*Ì·Ó¥LªºÀ³³\¡B ¬ß±æ·s¤Ñ·s¦a¡A¦³¸q©~¦b¨ä¤¤¡C(©¼«á3:13)
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to
new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)

>I am using winxp professional SP3 in my PC with the following configuration:
>AMD 5000+ with 2G ram
>Seagate 250G harddrive in my mobo ASUS M2A-VM HDMI bios 1501
>
>I changed the setting in the southbridge from IDE to AHCI according to the
>following link:
>http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us
>
>Everything is ok and the performance is improved except winxp stops for
>about 10 second when booting up which is same as described as the following
>link:
>http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...oblems-booting
>
>I have tried different version of ahcix86.sys (driver for AHCI), but without
>improvement for the above scenario. At present, the version of my ahcix86
>is 2.5.1540.39
>
>Anyone has encountered the problem and any solution to solve it?
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Jerry Wong
>http://www.geocities.com/jerrywong.geo
>¦ý§Ú*Ì·Ó¥LªºÀ³³\¡B ¬ß±æ·s¤Ñ·s¦a¡A¦³¸q©~¦b¨ä¤¤¡C(©¼«á3:13)
>But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to
>new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)

As you've stated that when changing over to AHCI from IDE causes a
pause at boot, it could be BIOS related since that is the only thing
that changed when you experience the issue. I see no reason that you
shouldn't be at the current BIOS (2101) to see if it helps you any or
decreases this pause.

Sadly, it seems you have the current AHCI driver so until Asus or AMD
releases something newer, you're stuck with it.

Check in your event viewer for any yellow or red flags.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

"Jerry" wrote:

> I am using winxp professional SP3 in my PC with the following configuration:
> AMD 5000+ with 2G ram
> Seagate 250G harddrive in my mobo ASUS M2A-VM HDMI bios 1501
>
> I changed the setting in the southbridge from IDE to AHCI according to the
> following link:
> http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us
>
> Everything is ok and the performance is improved except winxp stops for
> about 10 second when booting up which is same as described as the following
> link:
> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...oblems-booting
>
> I have tried different version of ahcix86.sys (driver for AHCI), but without
> improvement for the above scenario. At present, the version of my ahcix86
> is 2.5.1540.39
>
> Anyone has encountered the problem and any solution to solve it?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Jerry Wong
> http://www.geocities.com/jerrywong.geo
> ¦ý§ÚÂ*Ì·Ó¥LªºÀ³³\¡B ¬ß±æ·s¤Ñ·s¦a¡A¦³¸q©~¦b¨ä¤¤¡C(©¼«á3:13)
> But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to
> new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)
>
>
> Jerry,

I have virtually the same system (same MB, Athlon X2 4800+, 320GB HD,
2GB RAM, WIN XP home) and recently I changed from IDE to AHCI. I too noticed
the same delay on boot-up, but don't think much of it since the overall
system speed has not been affected. I've been wondering why the disk
performance hasn't increased over IDE mode, since I have noticed little to no
increase in speed since I changed modes. I'm wondering if the core speed of
our processors (200 MHz, or is this system speed?) has anything to do with
it. If anyone can shine some light on this, I would appreciate it as well.

Thanks, Brian

I have checked the performance between in IDE and AHCI by the PC Wizard 2008
and HD Tune 2.55. The results in AHCI are even poor than that of IDE. In
the HD Tune 2.55, the seagate 250G even cannot properly display its disk
infos.

I have changed back to IDE mode already.

As I installed the windows in IDE mode, is there something need in the XP
professional that will add during installation? If yes, how?



"Brian" <(E-Mail Removed)> ¼¶¼g©ó¶l¥ó·s»D:BD89C8A5-D128-4DF6-9B73-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> "Jerry" wrote:
>
>> I am using winxp professional SP3 in my PC with the following
>> configuration:
>> AMD 5000+ with 2G ram
>> Seagate 250G harddrive in my mobo ASUS M2A-VM HDMI bios 1501
>>
>> I changed the setting in the southbridge from IDE to AHCI according to
>> the
>> following link:
>> http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us
>>
>> Everything is ok and the performance is improved except winxp stops for
>> about 10 second when booting up which is same as described as the
>> following
>> link:
>> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...oblems-booting
>>
>> I have tried different version of ahcix86.sys (driver for AHCI), but
>> without
>> improvement for the above scenario. At present, the version of my
>> ahcix86
>> is 2.5.1540.39
>>
>> Anyone has encountered the problem and any solution to solve it?
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>> Jerry Wong
>> http://www.geocities.com/jerrywong.geo
>> |y¡±U-I¡Pˆ_¢DLaoˆY33\!B ?s¡Óa¡Ps?N¡Ps|a!A|3¡Mqc~|bÆØa??!C(c??ˆh3:13)
>> But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to
>> new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)
>>
>>
>> Jerry,
>
> I have virtually the same system (same MB, Athlon X2 4800+, 320GB HD,
> 2GB RAM, WIN XP home) and recently I changed from IDE to AHCI. I too
> noticed
> the same delay on boot-up, but don't think much of it since the overall
> system speed has not been affected. I've been wondering why the disk
> performance hasn't increased over IDE mode, since I have noticed little to
> no
> increase in speed since I changed modes. I'm wondering if the core speed
> of
> our processors (200 MHz, or is this system speed?) has anything to do with
> it. If anyone can shine some light on this, I would appreciate it as
> well.
>
> Thanks, Brian

>I have checked the performance between in IDE and AHCI by the PC Wizard 2008
>and HD Tune 2.55. The results in AHCI are even poor than that of IDE. In
>the HD Tune 2.55, the seagate 250G even cannot properly display its disk
>infos.
>
>I have changed back to IDE mode already.
>
>As I installed the windows in IDE mode, is there something need in the XP
>professional that will add during installation? If yes, how?

Well, for what I understand, you'd have to slipstream the AHCI driver
into XP when installing it in AHCI mode since XP does not recognize or
support SATA / AHCI stuff natively. So if you're getting good
performance with IDE, I would leave it.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

Basically the benefit to AHCI is Native Command Queuing. This is a
feature where disk commands are re-order to enhance performance
of the drive. I just recently upgraded my drives to the latest Seagate
family with 32-Megabyte Cache. On average, the disks are running
at or near 117 Megabytes-per-Second without AHCI.

"Thee Chicago Wolf" <.@.> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I have checked the performance between in IDE and AHCI by the PC Wizard
> >2008
>>and HD Tune 2.55. The results in AHCI are even poor than that of IDE. In
>>the HD Tune 2.55, the Seagate 250G even cannot properly display its disk
>>infos.
>>
>>I have changed back to IDE mode already.
>>
>>As I installed the windows in IDE mode, is there something need in the XP
>>professional that will add during installation? If yes, how?
>
> Well, for what I understand, you'd have to slipstream the AHCI driver
> into XP when installing it in AHCI mode since XP does not recognize or
> support SATA / AHCI stuff natively. So if you're getting good
> performance with IDE, I would leave it.
>
> - Thee Chicago Wolf

>Basically the benefit to AHCI is Native Command Queuing. This is a
>feature where disk commands are re-order to enhance performance
>of the drive. I just recently upgraded my drives to the latest Seagate
>family with 32-Megabyte Cache. On average, the disks are running
>at or near 117 Megabytes-per-Second without AHCI.

Watch out for the 7200.11, they have an obscenely high failure rate.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

I've have installed the same AHCI driver version (AMD RAID/AHCI Controller
Driver V2.5.1540.39, is the last updated version on Asus site).
I've an M3A Asus motherboard and I've notice a lack of performance during
WinXp boot and I've 2 MAXTOR SATA II disk (without RAID configuration). Why?
It seems better IDE instead AHCI mode (!!!!!).

It would help in diagnosing if you did some benchmark tests on the
drives/controller. AHCI isn't itself faster than standard SATA type
controllers - it provides hot swapping and native command queuing.
Unless you need those features it's best to set the controller to work
as Legacy type controllers.
Generally a recent SATA II drive should deliver an average speed
of 80+ Meg and an access time of 11-13 mSeconds.

"SMDB" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:39E2B0EE-9E97-4A88-8EDB-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've have installed the same AHCI driver version (AMD RAID/AHCI Controller
> Driver V2.5.1540.39, is the last updated version on Asus site).
> I've an M3A Asus motherboard and I've notice a lack of performance during
> WinXp boot and I've 2 MAXTOR SATA II disk (without RAID configuration).
> Why?
> It seems better IDE instead AHCI mode (!!!!!).
>
>

One thing to check is the controller properties in Device Manager. While
SATA is a single Channel host, the properties still show as Primary and
Secondary with Auto detection. Toggle any unused channels to None.

Also many vendors ship SATA II tech drives with a micro-jumper that
limits them to SATA I performance levels - make sure the jumper has
been removed ( if installed ).

"SMDB" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:84A68D71-FEB8-4542-A37C-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've tried HDTune 3.10 PRO, with 2 HD Maxtor SATA II (500 & 160 GB) and
> the
> results are the same in IDE mode or AHCI.
>
> Only during Win XP (32 bit) startup is much slower in AHCI mode than IDE
> mode.
>
> I'm very interested to enable and use NCQ (so I've switched in AHCI) but
> I've seen that this feature doesn't give me no performances encrease.
>
> thanks for yours support