Avoid AMD AHCI driver at all costs

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Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
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you know if you just avoid AMD totally - 90% of the driver/chipset/etc issues go away. took me years to understand this from a bargain standpoint - especially with K7 - but at the end of the weekend of tweaking this or that and having issues - TIME IS $$. and that intel rig just works.

laptop to enterprise cluster/grid servers - amd is teh sux.
 
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perdomot

Golden Member
Dec 7, 2004
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Emulex said:
you know if you just avoid AMD totally - 90% of the driver/chipset/etc issues go away. took me years to understand this from a bargain standpoint - especially with K7 - but at the end of the weekend of tweaking this or that and having issues - TIME IS $$. and that intel rig just works.

laptop to enterprise cluster/grid servers - amd is teh sux.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I have to disagree with you there. I've been using AMD stuff for quite a while now and ever since they started the Spider platform concept where they make the cpu, mobo and vid card, I can't say I have had any real issues at all. It's true that Intel makes faster chips but their mobos don't sell like other makers and are quite plain by comparison.
 
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coolVariable

Diamond Member
May 18, 2001
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perdomot said:
It also appears that the type of file makes a difference. I got the choking effecting on an HD MKV file but an HD MP4 file played perfectly.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I did not notice that before.
You have an SSD?

Emulex said:
you know if you just avoid AMD totally - 90% of the driver/chipset/etc issues go away. took me years to understand this from a bargain standpoint - especially with K7 - but at the end of the weekend of tweaking this or that and having issues - TIME IS $$. and that intel rig just works.
Click to expand...

AMD really is the sux (and I have spent sooooo much money at this point trying to fix the stuttering: new GPU, more RAM ... and now an SSD)
If I had just bought the comparable intel system (which was $10 more expensive but had a slightly faster CPU), I probably would have saved ~$200+ at this point - hell, even my 4 year old P4 performed better/faster than my 1 year old AMD system!!! But I was an idiot and wanted to give AMD a chance.
 
richierich1212

richierich1212

Platinum Member
Jul 5, 2002
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And what's the advantage of AHCI over standard SATA install if you don't have a drive that supports TRIM?
 
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perdomot

Golden Member
Dec 7, 2004
1,390
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coolVariable said:
Interesting. I did not notice that before.
You have an SSD?



AMD really is the sux (and I have spent sooooo much money at this point trying to fix the stuttering: new GPU, more RAM ... and now an SSD)
If I had just bought the comparable intel system (which was $10 more expensive but had a slightly faster CPU), I probably would have saved ~$200+ at this point - hell, even my 4 year old P4 performed better/faster than my 1 year old AMD system!!! But I was an idiot and wanted to give AMD a chance.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm running a 60GB OCZ Agility SSD for OS and apps while keeping my music, pics and vids on a WD Caviar Black HDD.
 
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coolVariable

Diamond Member
May 18, 2001
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Vertex 30GB here.

Still hoping for an AT review to put some pressure on AMD for a driver fix.
BTW - the new drivers do NOT fix this problem (which has been known now for 1 1/2 to 2+ years!!!!!
 
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perdomot

Golden Member
Dec 7, 2004
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coolVariable said:
Vertex 30GB here.

Still hoping for an AT review to put some pressure on AMD for a driver fix.
BTW - the new drivers do NOT fix this problem (which has been known now for 1 1/2 to 2+ years!!!!!
Click to expand...

I have a Vertex 30GB as well and I'm going through the firmware reflash because I messed it up. It had the 1.10 firmware and was working fine but I flashed to the 1.4 when I needed to do 1.3 first. So now I had to flash to 1.10 and will be updating tonight when I get home. Plan on stopping at version 1.5 as that seems to be the best one including TRIM.
 
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coolVariable

Diamond Member
May 18, 2001
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perdomot said:
I have a Vertex 30GB as well and I'm going through the firmware reflash because I messed it up. It had the 1.10 firmware and was working fine but I flashed to the 1.4 when I needed to do 1.3 first. So now I had to flash to 1.10 and will be updating tonight when I get home. Plan on stopping at version 1.5 as that seems to be the best one including TRIM.
Click to expand...

I have 1.5 and am quite happy with it.
 
SparkyJJO

SparkyJJO

Lifer
May 16, 2002
13,357
7
81
Emulex said:
you know if you just avoid AMD totally - 90% of the driver/chipset/etc issues go away. took me years to understand this from a bargain standpoint - especially with K7 - but at the end of the weekend of tweaking this or that and having issues - TIME IS $$. and that intel rig just works.

laptop to enterprise cluster/grid servers - amd is teh sux.
Click to expand...

.................okay.

I've built mostly AMD systems and some Intel systems, and not had driver issues in general from either platform.
 
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perdomot

Golden Member
Dec 7, 2004
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SparkyJJO said:
.................okay.

I've built mostly AMD systems and some Intel systems, and not had driver issues in general from either platform.
Click to expand...

I think that ever since AMD started bringing together the cpu, mobo and vid card, things have been at their best. The Southbridge issues with drives has been going on at least since the SB600 and their drivers make performance worse. I was surprised to see my WD Caviar black have such bad scores with the AMD driver compared to the 4 year old MS driver. Given how fast SSDs are being accepted in the market, they really need to address this issue soon.
 
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coolVariable

Diamond Member
May 18, 2001
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perdomot said:
I think that ever since AMD started bringing together the cpu, mobo and vid card, things have been at their best. The Southbridge issues with drives has been going on at least since the SB600 and their drivers make performance worse. I was surprised to see my WD Caviar black have such bad scores with the AMD driver compared to the 4 year old MS driver. Given how fast SSDs are being accepted in the market, they really need to address this issue soon.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. And AFAIK there is not a single motherboard/chipset since then that is not affected.
AHCI drive performance on AMD chipsets svcks!
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
Emulex said:
you know if you just avoid AMD totally - 90% of the driver/chipset/etc issues go away. took me years to understand this from a bargain standpoint - especially with K7 - but at the end of the weekend of tweaking this or that and having issues - TIME IS $$. and that intel rig just works.
Click to expand...
I have no issues with AMD per se. My problem is with the support chipsets and drivers. Over the years, the only motherboards I've had problems with have been those with non-Intel chipsets. If you could get an AMD processor with an Intel chipset, I'd be all over it.
 
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darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
I've been trying to diagnose problems on my new build lately and this seems relevant. Basically I installed Windows7 on my Intel X25-M 160GB SSD with AHCI enabled in the BIOS and when I reached the part of the install where you select to "Load Driver" I install the AMD AHCI Win7 x64 driver that came on the mobo's driver disc, as instructed. That goes fine.

The problem is once Win7 is installed, if I boot with AHCI enabled I get a startup error from Windows very regularly and am sent to the "Repair windows" / "Boot normally" screen. If I switch to IDE mode, the problem seems to disappear.

Should I be doing something differently? When I select the AHCI driver during the Win7 install, do I then need to follow up with installing the executable AHCI driver from the AMD site? Or should I not select a driver during the install and then the executable later? Or some other combination of? ><

Thanks if anyone's got any advice, original problem thread here; last post for newest happenings http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=30113454

Mobo: Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5
Processor: AMD Phenom II 965
SSD: Intel X25-M 160GB
 
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perdomot

Golden Member
Dec 7, 2004
1,390
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darkewaffle,
I would install Win 7 without loading a driver from AMD. The video driver suite from AMD also has the AMD AHCI driver included so if you are using an ATI video card, choose custom install and make sure the AHCI driver box is unchecked.
 
lopri

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,310
687
126
perdomot said:
darkewaffle,
I would install Win 7 without loading a driver from AMD.
Click to expand...
Me, too. And I usually disconnect all other drives except the ones which the OS is being installed. I've built quite a few AMD/Intel boxes this year with Win7 and simply let Windows took care of things. Maybe that's why I haven't heard of any issue from those who use the systems? (Including X25-M installation on 780G/SB710)

Performance was where they should be, too, when I ran benches. Though I don't go crazy with HD benchmarking. I simply run Everest and see if it's in the ballpark.
 
lopri

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,310
687
126
Found one screenshot. I believe this was an 80GB X25-M on a 780G/SB710 board, with an X3 435 (or 430? Not sure the exact number but it was an X3).

 
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darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
My god I can't believe it was that one little thing causing me that much headache. I just wiped the SSD with HDDErase again, proceeded to install it exactly as I have before but I didn't load the driver. And now multiple restarts later, no boot error. I'm gonna test it a little longer, but I think it might finally be in order.

Thanks very much folks.
 
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