AHCI Issues - Samsung R505 (FA03)

Hi Everyone!

Hopefully someone could help.

I recently bought a Samsung R505 (FA03) laptop. Great laptop, but comes with Vista, and I'm still very much using XP especially with the programs I use and performance.

On this laptop, the BIOS allows you to set the AHCI controller to automatic (so when loading Vista, it switches AHCI on, but when loading XP it switches it off) or manual.

My XP installation refuses to work with AHCI on, regardless that I've slipstreemed the SB600 SATA AHCI drivers in.
I also tried doing a registry addition, as shown on some websites, where you can tell XP AFTER the installation to start to use the AHCI driver.
I even edited the driver's .inf file and matched up the Vendor/Device ID's so they matched perfectly between the driver and AHCI SATA controller (got the ID info from my Vista installation).

=BUT=
Alas, I simply cannot run XP as it blue screens (BSoD) with AHCI left on.

I appreciate that there's not too much performance gain, but when the bios is set to auto, if let's say I loaded up Vista then restarted and loaded up XP or vice versa, the bios HAS TO RESET as it starts loading an OS and go through another cycle to boot the correct OS with the correct AHCI setting. That's not a major problem, but it's annoying and in my eyes, not great for my laptop to keep doing.

Apologies for the long post, especially as it's my first, but does anybody have the same issue or any solutions?

I've read a lot that the SB600 is a problem, but why issue drivers for it if it's not possible?!?

So you know - I've tried both x86 & x64 versions of XP, with the latest service packs slipstreamed, and the appropriate drivers slipstreamed.
I also tried "RAID SLIPSTREAMER" which also failed to work.

I feel like giving up, but can't help but try to crack it!


Many thanks again and hello to everybody!!

Andie B

 

If you are not dual booting, best thing is to disable AHCI support and then install XP.

Keeping AHCI under XP is a moot point, since the OS is not taking advantages of this mode.

cheers ...

 

Thanks.
I just wanted to make life easier when switching OS's, as the BIOS has to catch up, reset and change the mode under "automatic".

Vista is not happy when booting it with AHCI disabled (not that I'd want to!)

Thanks for the reply!