Intel 520 SSD with older motherboards.

[GCuth]

Just upgraded my XP PC with an Intel 520 SSD and windows 7. The machine is now unstable randomly freezing, the fresh instal went fine and the drivers installed OK. Could this be a hardwear compatibility problem or is it drivers and software? The bios is still set to IDE not AHCI, should this have been changed before installing win 7? Motherboard is MSI P6NGM with Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 and 4 GB RAM

[ASouz7]

Hello mecheng,

Yes, we recommend to set the BIOS to AHCI before installing Windows*, this would enable the smart features including TRIM. According to the support web page of your motherboard, the latest BIOS version is 3.7 and are also other updates for other components like SATA, so please ensure you are running the latest drivers. Please access the link below.

http://www.msi.com/support/mb/P6NGML.html# down-bios http://www.msi.com/support/mb/P6NGML.html# down-bios

Let us know if this information helped you to resolve the issue.

[GCuth]

Thanks for your quick reply. I will look again at the drivers and posible Bios upgrade tonight. Performance aside, could the use of IDE over AHCI make the OS unstable? A fresh install just to change to AHCI is a lot of work

[ASouz7]

Mecheng,

The only thing with IDE and this particular SSD is the some of its features will be available only on AHCI. TRIM is a smart feature that improves SSD performance and it is available only on AHCI.

Windows 7*, however, has this feature built-in to the system, in this case it is important that you contact Microsoft* to check this will work on IDE or not.

Let us know if you need any further assistance.

[GCuth]

OK managed to change the BIOS setting to AHCI following the Microsoft link below. We will use the machine for a day or two and report back. Current BIOS version V3.5 but I couldn't get the upgrade to run today.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976/en-us Error message occurs after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive