AHCI mode

[claes]

Sorry but I still don’t understand. Did you remove the battery? Is it dead? Or did you manually make the change and the battery question is a herring that you just want to be prepared for in the unlikely scenario?

In any case it seems like something fishy is going on here… You should definitely be able to boot back into AHCI if that’s how the OS was installed, even after switching modes in the BIOS. When you install windows in AHCI mode it installs a special driver to support it, and AHCI itself is backwards compatible IIRC. What shouldn’t work is trying to boot from a IDE device in AHCI mode.

 

[PerfectWave]

Since I had my own desktop computers from 2006 till now, I never replaced 1 CMOS battery...

lucky you i have asus maximus formula vi and to remove the cmos i had to disassemble almost the entire motherboard! The most retarde mobo in the world!

 

[Marcus L]

Redirecting

answers.microsoft.com

Had to use this registry edit a few times when trying to change from ide to ahci

 

[pavle]

Just buy a good quality new CR2032 battery and you can have your AHCI and eat it too.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Never had to replace a battery either. I personal know of 1 person who has so far.

oof. lucky. i've replaced multiple CR2032's

it's a real pain on headless servers or firewalls, because when the battery goes and BIOS settings are lost, the machines don't boot, but wait at console for user to respond to the error by F2 or whatever.

this issue might be machine specific, in that, other mainboards might ignore lost BIOS settings and just boot to defaults - however, my supermicros don't do that, and wait for user to confirm that boot to default is wanted.

 

[bug]

oof. lucky. i've replaced multiple CR2032's

it's a real pain on headless servers or firewalls, because when the battery goes and BIOS settings are lost, the machines don't boot, but wait at console for user to respond to the error by F2 or whatever.

this issue might be machine specific, in that, other mainboards might ignore lost BIOS settings and just boot to defaults - however, my supermicros don't do that, and wait for user to confirm that boot to default is wanted.

It makes sense, if you really think about it. On a server, booting with setting the user didn't dial in can lose you a lot of money. Think, for example, that for security reasons you need to turn off IME. Then the CMOS battery dies and IME turns itself on. You wouldn't even know about it if you're not actively monitoring (though chances are the reset date will raise a few red flags on its own).

 

[P4-630]

Never had to replace a battery either. I personal know of 1 person who has so far.

My dad had to replace one on his Asus P45 board that was running since 2010, he replaced the battery in 2020/21 or so....

 

[Shrek]

I imagine it makes a difference if the computer is left plugged in or not.

But I can't risk it on a main computer, I need to just keep working and at worst just change the battery and not worry about getting it back into AHCI mode.

 

[Shrek]

Found the cause:
Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia

"Some operating systems, notably Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, do not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot if the SATA controller was not in AHCI mode at the time the operating system was installed. Although this is an easily rectifiable condition, it remains an ongoing issue with the AHCI standard."

 

[bug]

Found the cause:
Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia

"Some operating systems, notably Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, do not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot if the SATA controller was not in AHCI mode at the time the operating system was installed. Although this is an easily rectifiable condition, it remains an ongoing issue with the AHCI standard."

That is a known Windows snafu. But I didn't realize it was still with us as recently as Win10.

 

[claes]

Found the cause:
Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia

"Some operating systems, notably Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, do not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot if the SATA controller was not in AHCI mode at the time the operating system was installed. Although this is an easily rectifiable condition, it remains an ongoing issue with the AHCI standard."

My friend, I told you a month ago

Sorry but I still don’t understand. Did you remove the battery? Is it dead? Or did you manually make the change and the battery question is a herring that you just want to be prepared for in the unlikely scenario?

In any case it seems like something fishy is going on here… You should definitely be able to boot back into AHCI if that’s how the OS was installed, even after switching modes in the BIOS. When you install windows in AHCI mode it installs a special driver to support it, and AHCI itself is backwards compatible IIRC. What shouldn’t work is trying to boot from a IDE device in AHCI mode.

 

[Shrek]

So I tried an experiment; I installed Windows 11 and then turned on AHCI mode... same blue screen as in Windows 10; back to IDE.

And here was me hoping things were fixed in Windows 11 after having read:

Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Some operating systems, notably Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, do not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot if the SATA controller was not in AHCI mode at the time the operating system was installed. Although this is an easily rectifiable condition, it remains an ongoing issue with the AHCI standard."

The good news is that these experiments are on a spare machine.

 

[Ruru]

I thought the batteries lasted about 5 years.

My fat PS2 has still its original battery working even after 20+ years. A normal CR2032 like motherboards have.

So I tried an experiment; I installed Windows 11 and then turned on AHCI mode... same blue screen as in Windows 10; back to IDE.

And here was me hoping things were fixed in Windows 11 after having read:

Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Some operating systems, notably Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, do not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot if the SATA controller was not in AHCI mode at the time the operating system was installed. Although this is an easily rectifiable condition, it remains an ongoing issue with the AHCI standard."

The good news is that these experiments are on a spare machine.

Why? Just put it on AHCI and keep it as AHCI. IDE is more for compatibility with older OS.

 

[Shrek]

I moved it to AHCI, it blue screened (on Windows 11)

 

[Ruru]

I moved it to AHCI, it blue screened (on Windows 11)

You didn't install it with AHCI on?

 

[Shrek]

Correct; I assumed Windows 11 was carrying the drivers. Bad assumption.

 

[theFOoL]

Like I said earlier... AHCI and IDE to me is just all about reliability. IDE is slower yes but less stress? On the hardware. AHCI is Faster

 

[Ruru]

Like I said earlier... AHCI and IDE to me is just all about reliability. IDE is slower yes but less stress? On the hardware. AHCI is Faster

IIRC IDE is just for compatibility as WinXP for example doesn't support AHCI by default; you need to load the AHCI drivers during the install progress. But as even a modified XP install media usually supports AHCI, I don't see any reason to use the IDE mode especially with never OSes.

 

[Shrek]

It's been an education and I can only thank all here.

 

[PerfectWave]

this problem really sucks as the ahci-raid same problem

 

[A Computer Guy]

Never had to replace a battery either. I personal know of 1 person who has so far.

Nah they last way longer than 5 years. More like 15 years or more. Among the PCs I still own, I've only had to replace the one on a 20 year old Socket 478 board.

They're like....Game Boy carts.

Earlier in the year I noticed the battery ran out on my Asus 775 P5E-WS and needed to be replaced. 14yr battery life seems kinda amazing.

I imagine it makes a difference if the computer is left plugged in or not.

But I can't risk it on a main computer, I need to just keep working and at worst just change the battery and not worry about getting it back into AHCI mode.

Yet another reason to get that wizbang PC (referring to your other thread on the topic)

 

[Shrek]

Yet another reason to get that wizbang PC (referring to your other thread on the topic)

I can hardly wait; on the other hand it gets superceeded so quickly. Not an issue with what I run now

I have a 5 year old iMac at work, and it doesn't feel any faster.

End of support for Windows 10 happens in 2 years, so might as well wait for then; I am hoping for cooler running CPUs.