Will Toolbox work without AHCI?

[idata]

I've just installed an X-25V (FW: 02HB) with Win7x64 on a system with an Nvidia 680i SLI MoBo Chipset. This is an older Dell XPS 720 with the awful Dell BIOS which won't let me set AHCI/IDE within BIOS.

The Nvidia Nforce Storage Controller takes over as the default Storage Controllers for all of the SATA connections (SSD is on SATA-0, two DVD Roms are on SATA-1 and SATA-2, and Storage HDD is on SATA-4. SATA-3 and SATA-5 are empty.) When I try to uninstall the Nvidia Storage Controller so I can have the default Windows 7 driver take over, it auto-installs the NVIDIA controller on reboot. So the first question: is there a way to override the Nvidia Storage Controller and have Windows use it's driver (with AHCI support) instead. EDIT: or can I install the Intel RST driver that has shown up in a few threads? Can I just use that Driver in place of the Nvidia driver?

Figuring that I wouldn't be able to get TRIM running since I couldn't get AHCI turned on, I decided to try the Toolbox instead. When I open up the ToolBox it shows me the SSD on the list at the top (as well as the 2 Partitions of my HDD) and all the buttons in the lower section are there, but I can't click on any of them. I thought it was a .NET 3.5 Framework thing, and installed the latest, but that doesn't seem to be it? This is a brand new Win7 install...is there something else I'm missing for the ToolBox buttons to work? (Java, Flash...??) or does the Toolbox need AHCI to work too?

Related to all of this, I did try to do the FW update before installing everything and when I ran the CD installer it told me that no SSD was found on my system - even though it shows up in BIOS under SATA-0. So for now I appear to be stuck with FW 02HB.

Regardless of these difficulties, the drive is running really well - but I'd like to either get TRIM up and running or at least have access to the Toolbox to be able to avoid longer term R/W degradation.

[DZand]

1. nForce 680i chipsets do not fully support AHCI. Are you sure, that your Dell XPS 720 has an nForce 680i chipset?

2. If you are sure, that you don't have any RAID Controller within the "Storage Controllers" section, you should be able to replace the "NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller" by the "Standard Dual Channell PCI IDE Controller" from within the Device Manager, because both are compatible.

3. The Intel SSD Toolbox works with and without AHCI, but it will not work, if your SSD is connected to a SATA Controller, which has been set to "RAID" Mode.

[idata]

Fernando - Thanks for the pointers - as for your questions:

1- Definitely sure I'm running the 680i chipset (I purchased the Dell XPS 700 originally, then Dell made a big deal about upgrading all of the early adopters who ended up with the low end Nvidia 500 series chipset in the XPS 700. Free motherboards were shipped and now I'm running the 680 - see PC Wizard Screen Cap (processor should say Q9650 - its not supported by BIOS so it doesn't read properly):

As for the 680i chipset itself, PC Wizard says that there are 4 controllers - 1 IDE and 3 SATA. Screen Cap (Controller 4 is cropped from the image, its the same as # 3):

2. Even though PC Wizard says "Mode: RAID", I'm definitely not running anything in RAID mode - have double checked BIOS which lets you turn on SATA drives in regular or RAID...everything is in regular mode.

I thought that maybe the SSD is hanging off the IDE Controller, but when I look at the controller list in Device Manager

it shows the following for the first of those 3 SATA Controllers:

I can't edit the Transfer Mode - the only thing I can toggle is the command queuing - which I've turned off (another forum member's suggestion)

So as for # 3 - I'm not sure what's going on with the Toolbox - RAID is definitely not enabled, but whenever I run the ToolBox it doesn't let me select any of the items in the list.

Let me know if you think of anything else,

[DZand]

Your screenshots show some informations, which I do not really believe:

1. It is a fact, that NVIDIA's MCP55 chips do not support the AHCI standard features. So it seems impossible for me, that you will be able to run your SSD in "AHCI" mode.

2. The PC Wizard shows your NVIDIA MCP55 SATA ports as running in "RAID" mode. If this would be true, it would explain why you are not able to use the Intel SSD Toolbox (doesn't work with SSD's being in a RAID.

On the other hand I cannot see any NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller within your Device Manager, but this Controller is absolutely necessary for any drive, which is running in "RAID" mode.

3. What you may try is the following:

Open the Device Manager, do a right click onto any of the listed NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controllers, choose the "Update driver softwsre" option and look for devices, which are shown as compatible.

If the device named "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" should be listed as compatible, take it.

Attention: You have to replace all listed "NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controllers" by the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller", before you are going to reboot.

After a reboot Trim will be supported automaticly by the MS IDE driver named PCIIDE.SYS. Furthermore you will be able to use Intel's SSD Toolbox.

Good luck!

Fernando

[idata]

Thanks again for taking a look.

It gets even more strange! Apparently I'm already running the Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller! That's in addition to the 3 SATA Controllers. I now have the cables configured so that the SSD is on the first (which controls SATA-0 and SATA-1) The two DVD-Rs are on the second (SATA-1 & 2) and the storage drive is on the third). The Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller doesn't show up anywhere on the list of devices to replace the Nvidia controller with.

As for the RAID, I'm still scratching my head about that one... I checked BIOS *again* last night and its definitely not turned on in BIOS.