AHCI controller for 17-E049WM

[me101963]

Hi,

I am preparing to swap out my factory hard drive for an SSD. I have gone into the BIOS and see no option to change the drive controller. I have the most current BIOS and have tried under safe mode and UEFI as well.

1. Do I really need the AHCI controller? 

2. Where do I get a driver for AHCI that would work under Windows 10?

Thanks for any help

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The BIOS is set to AHCI by default and cannot be changed.

There is a quirk with the AMD SATA controller in that it is not labeled in the device manager as an AMD SATA AHCI controller, but if you explore the driver setup information file, you will see references to AHCI.

[amd_sata_inst]
CopyFiles=amd_sata_inst.CopyDrv
AddPowerSetting=AhciPowerSetting

[AhciPowerSetting]
Subgroup = {0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442}
Setting = {0b2d69d7-a2a1-449c-9680-f91c70521c60}, "AHCI Link Power Management - HIPM/DIPM", "Configures the LPM state.",,0x00000001

AMDSATA.DeviceDesc = "AMD SATA Controller"

Also if you buy a Samsung SSD and use their Magician software, it will report AHCI is not enabled which is a false report.

You may want to install the AMD chipset drivers for W10, which include the latest SATA AHCI driver.

2nd file listed on the webpage for W10 64 bit...

https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-8-series-chipsets/870

[me101963]

Thank you! So after all these days of assuming that I did not have AHCI, I did all along? LOL Typical of my hours and hours spent on these machines since the "80's!!

I wasn't sure how to explore the driver files so I will just take your word for it.

Downloading the chipset you sent me too as well.

Thanks again!

[me101963]

Also, I have an AMD 10 series on this model, right? as the chipset on the link was for an 8 series.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The processor in your notebook is an A10, but the chipset is an A76M FCH (Fusion Controller Hub) chipset.

The chipset driver I gave you is good for:

AMD 9-Series Chipset
AMD 8-Series Chipset
AMD 7-Series Chipset
AMD 6-Series Chipset

So, it will work for the chipset your notebook has.

All of my PC's have Intel processors and chipsets.

It would be an interesting experiment to go into that AMD chipset setup information file, rename the AMDSATA.DeviceDesc = "AMD SATA Controller" command line to "AMD SATA AHCI Controller"  and see if it changed the controller name in the device manager.

[me101963]

HI,

I went in and changed the information in the file and did a restart, but it still did not show AHCI. I believe I changed the right file. It was the one in the INF folder.

Hey, as long as I get the full benefit of the SSD drive when I put it in tomorrow, I'll be happy!

I REALLY appreciate all your help though.

Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Thanks for experimenting.

I was looking in the following directory...the second set of characters I can't type (that is the 64 bit file)>Packages>Drivers>SBDrv>hseries>AHCI_svr>WT64A>amd_sata

[me101963]

Oh..ok...I followed that path, made the change, and ran the driver setup again. It still didn't apply the change though showing AHCI.....weird thing is though is that my driver still shows a date of 4/15/2015.....but the revision date is 9/2018. Why is that you think?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

That's too bad the experiment was not successful.

I deleted the file, but I assume it applies whatever driver version the chipset will support.

In other words, a newer chipset may have gotten a newer driver from that package than yours did.

I know that is how Intel works.

[me101963]

No problem. Funny though is I can update the driver to a Standard AHCI Controller from 2006....lol