EX58-UD5, Core i7 920 AHCI and install issues

[rlanthony]

First, the hardware:

MB: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5
CPU: Core i7 920 Nehalem
SDD: Intel X25-E SLC SATA 32GB
RAM: 12GB (6x2GB) GeIL DDR3 1333
PSU: Fortron Everest 80Plus 700w
GPU: eVGA GTX 295

Never in 20 years of building computers have I ever encountered problems as I have on this system. Regardless of what OS I've tried (XP, Vista, Win7, Server 2008) and regardless of what flavor (Business, Pro, Ultimate, Home) in both x86 & x64 flavors I just can't seem to get an OS installed.

When I install the OS and load the drivers for the ICH10R SATA (first Gigabyte's off the CD, then Gigabyte's off their site and finally the Intel drivers off their site) during the install, the OS will install and it will startup after boot only to hard reset itself and go into reboot again. When I boot in safe mode it hangs on disk.sys in Win7 (crcdisks.sys in Vista.)

Of course, if I fail to load the drivers for the SATA during install, I get the lovely "BOOTMGR is missing" error on reboot.

I'm at my wits end here and from what I can tall, it has something to do with AHCI, but can't really figure out what the deal is. Can someone describe the difference between AHCI and IDE mode? Other than the NCQ and hot-swappable functions? Also, there's an option in my system to enable Native or Legacy more on the SATA chip. Neither seems to work different than the other.

I've tried every suggestion I've found on teh internet but nothing seems to help.

 

[lopri]

Did you try a different HDD? For a trouble-shooting purpose.

 

[anindrew]

I have the same motherboard as you. I'm using Vista x64 Home Premium on my main drive. I put Win7 RC1 on a spare drive. I didn't have to install any drivers for SATA during Win7's install. I did it with Vista because I thought it was required. In my BIOS, I enabled Native Mode and AHCI for all SATA ports. Are you sure your hard drive is hooked up to a blue SATA port and not a white one? Have you tried a different SATA hard drive to make sure it's not an issue with the Intel SSD? A different SATA port? Did you select the correct Hard Drive Boot Priority in the BIOS? Have you updated the BIOS?

I've even heard that some X58 boards don't like it if all the memory slots are full during OS install. Maybe you could try it using only 6GB of RAM. And try running the memory at 1066 at first. It can't hurt.

I hope you can get your system up and running!

 

[rlanthony]

Anindrew, which drivers did you install at boot? I've tried the ICH10R drivers that came on the MB disk, the latest version downloaded off of GB's website and the ones from Intel's site as well (I think they called it the Intel Storage Matrix.)

The only OS I got to install was Vista Business x64 with no SP, but the Intel Storage Matrix drivers said there was a compatibility issue and it blew up during the SP1 install.

 

[anindrew]

Hi rlanthony, I recall installing two drivers off of the Gigabyte DVD during Vista's setup. For the Intel Storage Matrix SATA/RAID driver browse to the BootDrv, then the iMSM folder. You will find a 32-bit and 64-bit folder in the iMSM folder. Also in the BootDrv folder is a GSATA folder which contains the SATA/RAID drivers for Gigabyte's SATA ports (the white ones). There is a 32-bit and 64-bit folder in the GSATA directory, too. I installed the 64-bit Intel and Gigabyte drivers during Vista Home Premium x64's install just to be safe. I hope this helps!

Another place to receive help is at the tweaktown forums. They have a specific part of their forum for Gigabyte products (mostly motherboards). Check it out here! They are quite helpful.

 

[Elganja]

i second the RAM thing... go down to 3 sticks. I had MANY issues that all seemed random when trying to use 12gb of ram over 6gb of ram.

 

[rlanthony]

I grabbed an old WD 80GB drive and started working on it this morning. Everything I would try would give me a "could not determine system partition" in Vista and "setup was unable to create new system partition" in Win7.

I had the drive installed in SATA0 and out of pure frustration and hope, I swapped it over to SATA1 port. Viola! Vista x86 installed like a champ. Of course, it's only with 2GB of RAM, it's 32-bit, and an old HDD instead of my new SSD, but it did install.

Gonna yank the HDD and try installing on the SSD. Then start sapping stuff back in. I'll give an update when finished.

Thanks for the input guys...

 

[rlanthony]

I finally had some cycles to dedicate to this yesterday and this morning and *mostly* have it figured out.

First, and possibly my biggest, problem was figuring out that the SATA0 port just doesn't want to work right. Slapped the drives in SATA1 and it took off from there.

I pulled everything I possibly could and still have it POST. I slapped in an old 80GB SATAII drive and along with that and an old Radeon X300 video card and one 2GB stick of DDR3-1333, I began to install Vista x86. After loading the ICHR10R drivers (Intel storage matrix) from Intel's site, everything went like a champ. Vista initially complained that there were issues with that version of driver with Vista, but after installing all the updates, it went away.

So then I pulled the 80GB and tried to install Vista Ultimate x64 on it and after following the same steps, it installed without a hitch. I'm installing all the updates now and will soon be connecting the scanner, printer, etc. up to it. i don't foresee any issues.

Between the 80GB HDD (Vista Ultimate x86) and the 500GB HDD (Vista Ultimate x64) I tried to install x64 on the Intel X25-E SSD but it crapped out on me. I slapped it in my laptop (Inspiron 1501) and it installed w/out a problem so I need to troubleshoot what's going on with that. But other than that, I'm golden.


anindrew - I tried to install the drivers from the GB disk, but every time I did it made the drive disappear in setup. That's when I swapped over to the Intel Storage Matrix drivers and it fired right up.

 

[anindrew]

Hi rlanthony,

I'm glad you got your system up and running. I wonder what's up with your SSD, though. That is odd that it won't let you install an OS on it. I wouldn't think you'd need a BIOS update to support an SSD, but you never know. Any chance it requires some oddball driver of its own during install? Tried it on a different SATA port?

Hopefully you can get to the bottom of this! Still, I bet your system is quite fast even with a standard HDD. I'll love it when SSD prices aren't prohibitively high. I bet the performance increase is awesome.