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    Enabling AHCI?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by venom1221, Oct 16, 2008.

  1. venom1221

    venom1221 Newbie

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    Hey everyone,

    Yesterday, I reformatted my inspiron 1520 but didnt load ahci drivers (vista didn't find them). When I try and enable ahci in the bios, i get a bsod when vista is booting. How do I get ahci enabled?
     
  2. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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  3. redmop

    redmop Notebook Consultant

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    Enable AHCI, and reinstall.
     
  4. sc32valve

    sc32valve Notebook Guru

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    I'm having the same problem here with Vista x64. No matter what I do, it won't load the AHCI drivers and I get a BSOD error. I installed with the drive in AHCI mode and it installed fine, but it never makes it through the first boot after install.

    Makes me think that the instructions MSFT is giving should have you change it to 1 not 0? That's what I'm going to try next.
     
  5. venom1221

    venom1221 Newbie

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    I already tried changing the start value to 0. It worked yesterday after a boot but when i rebooted again, i got the bsod. Also where do I find the ahci drivers? When I clicked load drivers and scanned the dell drivers disc for it, it couldnt find any drivers.
     
  6. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    See if it is still at 0.

    Enable AHCI in the BIOS, and install Vista.
     
  7. venom1221

    venom1221 Newbie

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    Wait... So reinstall vista over the original? or reformat and then install it?
    Its still at 0.
     
  8. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    You get a BSOD, with AHCI enabled and the DWORD value at 0 ?

    You login to windows by changing the HDD mode to IDE, with the DWORD value still at 0 ?
     
  9. venom1221

    venom1221 Newbie

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    yea its on ATA mode and the start value is 0
     
  10. sc32valve

    sc32valve Notebook Guru

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    Yes, I get BSOD with DWORD 0 and AHCI enabled in the bios.

    Then I switch the BIOS to SATA mode and it boots up normally. I installed vista with the computer in AHCI mode however.
     
  11. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Ok, change the DWORD value to 4, and restart.
    Then change the DWORD value back to 0, and enable AHCI in BIOS, and boot. If it doesn't boot, go back to ATA, login, delete that registry value, and make a new one with the same, with the DWORD value 0, and then boot with AHCI on.

    If you are able to boot with AHCI on, confirm in Device Manager, that you see the Intel SATA AHCI driver installed in IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. If not either install that driver manually or reinstall the Chipset Driver the 965GM/PM.

    Did you get Vista pre-installed from Dell ?
     
  12. sc32valve

    sc32valve Notebook Guru

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    I received 32-bit Vista installed, but upgraded to 64-bit and haven't been able to boot since.