X25-M + ICH9R + AHCI = No Post

[idata]

I have an Asus x38 Maximus Formula mboard, flashed to the latest bios (1403). With the X25-M plugged in, if I set it to AHCI in the BIOS, it hangs while detecting the SATA port. If I set it to RAID, it doesn't even POST. If I unplug it and then POST and set it to IDE, plug it back in, then works just fine (Win7 x64).

I'd love to have it in AHCI mode so I can hot-plug my external SATA drive for backups.

Is this a drive/firmware issue or a mboard BIOS (ie Intel controller ROM)?

Are other people seeing this?

Connected to the SATA ports:

1 X25-M 80GB

1 150GB Raptor

1 WD 1TB Green

1 DVD burner

1 internal SATA drive cage for backups (normally unplugged)

1 eSATA for external usage (OCZ Throttle, etc)

So, I have a cable plugged into every slot, although only 4 are powered up at all times.

[idata]

Well, Zipzoomfly got a new drive back to me, and this one (with no other changes than simply swapping the drive) is working perfectly. It's detected instantly in AHCI mode and is booting perfectly.

So, if you can't run your drive in AHCI mode without the BIOS HD detect hanging, RMA the drive and get another one. Defective drive.

[idata]

I had this exact same issue, but on an Asus Blitz Formula motherboard. It would not get past SATA detect during POST with either AHCI nor RAID mode, but would work in IDE mode. I had Intel RMA me a new drive and everything works again. Detected instantly in both modes and POST successfully.

If anybody else has this same issue, you have a defective drive and you need to RMA it.

[idata]

I had the same problem described in this tread; after installing Win7 with ACHI enable my bios won't recognize the drive. It is Intel aware of this problem? Is the only solution to RMA the drive?

Tks

[idata]

I too had the same problem. My first drive was shipped with firmware 02G9. I installed Win7 and everything was fine except the fact there wasn't any TRIM so far. After Intel released 02HA I tried to update to the new firmware pretty soon.

Note, Win7 was already installed and that was probably causing my new problems: After updating to 02HA the drive wasn't recognized anymore. I just couldn't boot with AHCI enabled anymore. I heard Intel was about to release a new firmware (02HD) so I just switched to my old HDD and hoped for a new firmware fixing everything.

Well. It took them almost a month to release 02HD but finally it was there. I tried to update to 02HD but had no success. The SSD seemed to be broken completely. So I did the last thing I could: RMA my drive.

14 days later I got a new SSD from Intel. The old one couldn't be fixed so they told me. Afraid of doing another firmware update - the new one was on 02HA only - I took my drive to a friend and we updated it to 02HD in his computer - just to make sure I don't have to RMA another drive.

Well, the update went fine (but the drive was still empty, so maybe this is why everything went smooth?!). I copied back my Win7 image and booted up. No problems so far. And I really hope it's going to stay like that...

Total amount of time wasted just because I tried to update my SSD: About 7 weeks.

Yay!

[idata]

This is insane!! So is no way to fix the SSD, but to send it back for RMA?

c'on Intel