Trying AHCI Mode (XPS 15 9550)

Hey gonzo now I am getting errors such as 0xc0000454... Am I better off just clean installing the system or could this potentially be a hardware issue?

 

Trouble is I answer so many questions I lose track of who said what and don't have the time to go back through all the posts.

Did you manage to get it into AHCI mode or is it still in raid as you couldn't get it to boot?

 

Yes right now i am currently in Ahci and have the samsung drivers installed at 2.0. No bsod. The problem is whenever i reboot I get a no harddrive installed error and then I have to constantly restart it and hope to get lucky and break into windows. While restarting multiple times I may get an error such as 0xc0000454 and it says i should do use a disk/usb to repair it? Do you think this has to do with my ssd?

Thank you so much for your help

 

It should be stable with that driver, is your BIOS up to date?
Can you set the BIOS back to factory defaults then set it to AHCI before you boot to see if that clears it? (do both options to clear the BIOS as I can't remember what one to do)

 

Yea the bios is at the latest version.
I factory reset it and change it to ahci and I got error code 0xc0000454 again. Does this get fixed by reinstalling windows 10? Or do I have to send my unit to get repaired?

 

Send it in to be broken more like!

open an admin command prompt, copy and paste the individual lines below and let each one run. This will check the install isn't corrupted.
Let me know the results. A reinstall should always be the last option

sfc /scannow

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

 

Ok right now the problem is that even if I do get into windows, it will freeze and I am unable to run the cmd... I will try to reset it raid and get it to run.

This computer has been running fine for months and recently has been experiencing too many issues (

 

You can do it from the boot disk, you will need to change the directory to the windows drive though. http://www.download3k.com/articles/How-to-Open-the-Command-Prompt-at-Boot-in-Windows-10-00885

You will probably find it is just a case of typing "C:" to swap to the windows drive, trying "dir" will show the folders to let you know you are in the right place.

this command will list the drives "wmic logicaldisk get name"

Once in the right drive do the commands I listed earlier.

 

Ok by luck i managed to get in and run everything. I've ran the restore Operation and it completed successfully. However now i am back in raid with the windows drivers. What should I do now?

 

Ok now I managed to get everything working again. Gonzo do you know where the pmei Samsung firmware is? Can you use the 960 evo firmware provided by samsung website or do you have to use something else? Is there any other solution to the no harddrive installed problem?

I forgot to mention that the no harddrive installed problem only happens when the computer freezes. When that happens I turn it off by holding down the power button and when I click it again that problem will occur.

Thanks for you help )

 

You have the reboot bug where you have to force it off and on again to see the drive. That should have been fixed by BIOS release. The OEM drive you have has no firmware yet, you cannot force another on.

If it plays up again you have nothing to lose wiping the partitions and starting again. After that call Dell for a replacement drive.

 

Damn i guess i will reinstall windows. Hope there aren't any freezes anymore. Thanks for everything

 

I've been lurking around here recently, but haven't been following too closely. I got my 9550 with the PM951 drive back in November 2015 and spent a week or two the following month trying to get my machine stable using AHCI mode, but had no luck. I had the freezing and rebooting issue with the Samsung driver back then, and BSODs with other drivers. I even did clean installs between all the different options. I think the general consensus back then was to stick with RAID, so that's what I ended up doing. I did one last clean install using the latest Intel RST F6 driver at the time, but did not install the RST software. I have not had a single BSOD or any other issues since then.

Has that recommendation changed? I don't plan on trying to switch over again any time soon, but it seems like more users are saying to go with AHCI today. I know a lot can change in a year with new drivers, BIOS updates, etc. that might make AHCI more stable (yet some still are having issues), but I think RAID is still a perfectly viable option if you absolutely don't need to use AHCI.

 

Wow it seems tht you and me have the same issues. How did you clean install your computer? I downloaded the dell windows 10 boot usb program but I got the error there was a problem recovering your pc. Aside from that, i have a harddrive error 2000-0151. It really sucks but I think I'll have to send the unit in for repair :/

 

I'll give a high level overview. I did a clean install with a bootable USB stick created from a Windows 10 ISO downloaded from Microsoft. Microsoft has a media creation tool that does the same thing ( https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows10). I also downloaded the Intel RST driver (f6flpy-x64.zip option) and extracted them to a new folder on the USB stick ( https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...echnology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver?product=55005).

When you boot from the USB stick, the installer won't be able to see your hard drive when it is in RAID mode, but there will be a place for you to browse and select the driver that was extracted to the USB stick. After that, the drive and partitions should show. Delete all the partitions and install Windows. You'll obviously need to install any missing drivers afterwards (wifi, video, audio, etc.). I only used the drivers from Dell for my system.

Just in case it makes any difference, I reset my BIOS to its defaults (RAID, UEFI, Secure Boot enabled) before booting to my USB stick. Some have stated they needed to switch to Legacy mode, or disable secure boot, but you shouldn't have to do that. If you do, the USB stick probably wasn't prepared correctly for it to work in UEFI and secure boot enabled.

Also, Gonzo has an ISO with all the drivers baked in if you want to save a few steps after the install. I haven't used it, so I can't comment on that, but a lot of people here have had good luck with it.

 

Hey I reinstalled windows 10 in raid. I was getting BSOD critical process died, however I found a fix by disabling windows startup and superfetch in services. Right now everything seems to be working fine...I will probably send it to repair in the next month tho. Thanks for everyones help

 

Hi Gonzo. I've gone through this thread and I think the general consensus is to use the 2.0 Samsung NVMe drivers for PM951 (which I'm using) along which AHCI mode. Is this correct ?

Also, PM951 does NOT have firmware updates, right ? (Samsung's website doesn't mention anything about PM951 specifically)

 

If you have issues with 2.1 then use 2.0, simple as that m8

 

Hi Everyone,

I've read this entire thread and have come to believe that, in my particular situation, it might make sense to install the Samsung NVMe version 2 drivers. I have the Samsung PM951 running in AHCI mode.

Unfortunately, I run into some problems when trying to switch drivers.

When I run the installer for the Samsung v2, I get a dialogue box saying "The latest version is already installed." I then checked in device manager and noticed that I have the 'Standard NVM Express Controller' installed. I have tried uninstalling it from the Device Manager and succeeded. However, when I then try to install the Samsung driver immediately after, I get another dialogue box saying "Samsung NVM Express Device is not connected. Connect the device and try again."

How do you all manage to switch between the drivers?

Best regards,

HT

 

I'm on my phone with a poor signal so I can't grab a link. Search google for "winraid Samsung pure nvme driver" and the 1st Google hit will have them. You can manually install them via device manager.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

Hi GoNz0,

Thanks for your quickly reply! It's amazing how you helped all the people in this thread!

The tip regarding "installing from the device manager" is the one I needed! I didn't use the file under the link you provided because it was version 2.2 and my intention is to roll back to version 2 to see if my system stability improves.

Thanks again!

Regards.

Sebastian

 

If you need the pure driver you may be able to extract it with 7 zip, let me know if you can't get it. I will be back tomorrow.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

What are the advantages of the 'pure' drivers and when would you recommend using them?

 

The fact that you can manually install them.