Driver Fix for NP8660 hot HD in Vista?

That warning isn't a windows warning, it's from some monitoring software he has installed

 

The warning is from HD Tune. As default it starts warning you over 55c. If you know your HD is rated higher than 55c you can just change the warning in the options.
I believe the WD Scorpio black I have is 60c

 

ever since i loaded this update yesterday ive noticed an icon on my task bar that is fixed. cant delete it or open it.running mouse over it it says
"Hotkey ver M2.0408". is this anything to do with the above update on the first page.

 

ahahaha...
No, it's the program that controls all the functions, like brightness, silent mode, volume, etc etc... That's what makes those little (quite ugly) images appear at the top when you press a Fn+x key.

How is your HDD temperature now MrDJayyyyyyyy?

 

oh is it, ok thanks milcs.
im on 49 at the moment we like that.
ill play a game for half an hour and then check.

ps. totally lost turbo memory. cant find it anywhere.

 

here you go milcs.
strange how there is 4 degrees difference even though ran together.
so which one should we go by.

 

Actually, those Fn keys work fine without that stupid hotkey program; it's just needed for the 3 buttons next to the power on button (launch browser, something else, silent mode... exciting). I uninstalled it fast.

 

Whevener i turn on my computer i get that M2.0408 isn't responding and needs to be closed.

DK

 

The fn keys work fine without the software, but you don't get any little pictures onscreen

 

No google results makes me think of viruses, to be honest :/

MrDJ: If the turbo memory's really gone, the actual ram might have gone bad. I have no idea if Memtest86 would test them, but that's what I would try.

 

Turbo memory is not ram, it is NAND flash storage, and I'm pretty sure memtest won't touch it. Call your vendor

 

Andrew from Kobalt said it could be a glitch with the finger print readed.
because i loaded the finger reader first it has done something with the turbo.

edit: just noticed im only showing 2.556gb ram even though ive got 4gb loaded. yes ive got vista 32bit but that should still show 3.1gb ram

 

hey guys just installed this
Before I was idling at 57 and max under load was 66
now idle and load seems to be 50....idle is webrowsing...ive just played games for 90 minutes and my hdd remains at 50 ! im using hwmonitor this fix just constantly keeps my hdd at 50 no matter what i do, its a wd scorpio black 320 7k rpm

 

Does this driver help in windows Xp ?

I tryed and it said does not meet system minimum recquirement

 

Yes it does, and it's essential, otherwise you're running in what is essentially emulated IDE mode (which runs hotter, or did on my system, by a lot - and the cdrom was also a bit slow). There are two ways to get this working in XP - one is to 1) reinstall XP, put the drivers (unzipped) on a *floppy* usb drive (if you have one), and press F6 during install, specify the location, and then do a *repair* of the install (not complete overwrite). The other is to slipstream (google "slipstreaming XP") a copy of XP (with the program nLite), add in the drivers (unzipped, point nLite to the path), might as well add in SP3 if you don't, save the image, and burn a new XP install cd and do a repair with that.

If you don't have a cooler, get one. The Zalman NC2000 is amazing on my system

 

I'm not sure to follow you, you mean that I have to reinstall my xp in both case??

 

Yep, a "repair" install, so it will keep your programs and some/most configurations, but the only way to get XP to recognize SATA drivers is during XP Setup (press F6 right as XP setup starts up) :/ Yeah, it's idiotic, and it's frustrating that XP3 didn't address this at all.

Supposedly you can install the Intel Matrix Storage manager (which is what the driver pack is called, and what's linked on page 1) within XP, delete your IDE drivers in driver manager, reboot, set bios to AHCI/SATA, and hope it works, but it didn't for me; only XP repair install + F6 + supply drivers worked.

 

well that's bull**** :|

I tryed installing matrix storage but it says "This computer does not meet the minumum requirements"

So I found here that :
"5. The 'Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility'
must be installed prior to installing the
Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager."

Which i installed althought none of them show support for pm45
chipset software installation utility

Then I retryed the matrix storage and still the same does not meet recquirement

 

Actually, did you install XP yourself? If you didn't, it should have already been set up for you.

(Reboot - press F2 - check BIOS -> is Vista mode/AHCI enabled? If so, it's running as a SATA drive and should be ok)

If not, it's probably easier for you to install Vista (which has SATA support), than to get XP to recognize SATA drivers, if you didn't understand how to do it above.

 

Yes I did install xp myslef and no, I am not interested in vista

And it's not that I did not understand how to do it, I just can't believe that I have to reinstall the system for a driver and also that it was no said anywhere in the user manual

I'm currently trying the nlite method but just to confirm, my driver is that one and I copy the .exe to the cd ?

Really cool software by the way, any goood tutorial explaining every option ??

[EDIT] I found the .zip one but when I try to add it in nlite I have the choice between regular pnp driver or textmode driver and if it's texte mode I think the m860tu one is ICH9M-E/M

Also would it be plausible to integrate every m860tu driver ?
And when you add driver does it install automaticaly at windows xp install or ...

 

I followed that guide and did everything as he said but after repair I get a BSoD

Could it be the cause?

 

Yeah, I hear you. I think it's bogus too But that's the only way I found that worked; trying to do it from within the OS is like trying to change the tire on your car while sitting inside the car, I guess I can't believe that Service Pack 3 didn't fix this - unless Microsoft's intent is for people to force users to switch to Vista (which I can totally believe might be the case).

Yes, correct - unzipped drivers, add it in nLite as a textmode driver (doesn't work as the other, btw), and that's the correct SATA controller (ICH9M-E/M).

And yes, nLite's awesome! You can add any drivers and make a custom XP disc for your system, as well as removing XP stuff you don't want, etc.

Once you repair -> finish XP repair install, it'll reboot. Upon this reboot you need to switch the BIOS back to Vista/ACHI mode, and remove your install disc. Try that?

I've never seen that error message; I assume the CD that you burned worked and XP installed correctly? The optical drive is the second device on the SATA controller, so ACHI/SATA mode *SHOULD* work fine and it should be recognized automatically, by the way. Alternatively, switch the boot order back to HDD first, and see if it boots correctly/ignores the nLite burned disc in the drive.

 

Thanks for your help

Should I be in ahci or xp mode while repairing

It is not a error message, it is a recommandation from the guide I followed , yes the repair went well, the matrix driver installed
But when I booted but a few second after windows loading screen, I get BSoD and a reboot.

Also I've got a ghost of my partition so don't worry I'm ready to make trial and error although I would prefer trial and success

What do you think of this is heat or incessant head move worst for hard drive lifespan

 

I'm pretty sure that I was in XP mode during the entire repair process and only switched to AHCI mode once the repair process finished (that is, reboot, finished repair, rebooted again, switched to AHCI, removed CD, tried to boot into install). The CD/DVD drive also runs on the SATA controller, so switching to AHCI mode during the install, or before it might render the CD unreadable or something similar (but I'm guessing here, as to why you bluescreened even though it read the SATA drivers, and you picked the right SATA controller driver).

After you finish the repair (reboot + finish install + reboot again), there *should* be no problem running in either mode, as at that point you should have support for both. The only blue screens that I've gotten were during the initial "running in AHCI mode, XP install CD doesn't know how to read anything because it can't find SATA drivers" install I tried when I first got my notebook.

That's interesting, and I guess it makes sense. I think Seagates do a lot more idle seeking/driver head rearrangement than other drivers. I probably wouldn't install a script to mess with idle seeking unless I noticed a lot of hard drive seek noise (try the various XP optimization guides posted on this forum, like this one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=305223 first, most of that really helps with boot/run speed + hard drive heat/seeking).

Glad you have a backup; I can't see how any of this would mess up your install, but it's better to be safe

 

Thanks again for youy help

I will retry repairing in xp mode this time

Nice guide, I was actually searching something like that to remove useless service and process.

And actually my first repair ended with a BSoD so I restored my whole windows xp partition with my ghost in about 15min

 

Second try, same god**** BSoD

But after restoring my ghost for the second time I found a much easier way :

Go in Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device>Then in IDE cotroller I right clicked ich9m>update driver>I pointed the .inf from intel

Then it installed and rebooted, during reboot I selected ahci and now everything is working fine.

 

That worked for you?! I tried that (I actually had like 6 or so IDE controllers listed), tried deleting them, tried updating, nothing, so I had to resort to the F6 method. Cool, glad it worked. Now why would it be different between us? :/

 

I have no idea why it did not work for you but I'm quite happy it worked and it lowered iddle and load by about 10degre + the fact that there is not 65degree radiating through the notebook seams to have lowered gpu temp by a few degree too which make my idle temp

TZ0 38C, Cpu 35C, Gpu 36C, HD 45C room temp is about 17C (65F)
That is while doing nothing and after following the guide you posted above about the tweak

Finaly after one month every temp satisphy me

 

Awesome! Yeah it lowered my temps too, by 4-5C, which I counted as 'great' - but wow, 10 degrees! Yeah, running the HDD in IDE emulated mode really heats up the motherboard/HDD connections I guess This should be stickied on top somewhere!

 

This HD Driver update fix via vista worked for my notebook as well very happy with the results. Before update my HDD would reach 62-63c and idle at 55-58c. Left my antivirus software on to scan everytime it completed glad to say the results were more then favorable. idle is at 50-52c with highest temps reaching 57-58. More then satisfied thanx JagerQ