[HOWTO] Boot Macs with Intel Chipset in AHCI Win7 Vista XP Linux

[jacoch]

Now that AHCI is working, it leads me to a great dilemma. Should I use AHCI to get better perfs and Trim or should I revert to IDE, relying on GC but with support of sleep. Does some SSD support correctly sleep on Windows in AHCI?

[Shade69]

Not for me (Apple SSD 128), i try it today. :/, like Rapidstorage drivers are not optimized for this function in mobile chipset.

 

For Parallel, i found the file (4 ko ? like the mbr modified code) in the VM but i don't know how to modify it...

"PhysicalMbr.hds" in /Windows 7.pvm/APPLE SSD TS128C (disk0).hdd

[jucytec]

IT WORKS!!! and it's Glorious.

now that this works, get the Switchable graphix turned on!!

 

One thing to note tho,

 

if you are running Ubuntu Live CD:

 

1. no need to unmount anything as it should already be on boot.

2. the commands are:

 

cd /medias/USBSTICKNAME

dd if=/dev/sda of=backup.bin bs=512 count=1

dd if=patchedcode.bin of=/dev/sda bs=440 count=1

reboot now

and to restore if it didn't work: dd if=backup.bin of=/dev/disk0 bs=440 count=1

 

Originally tried it on /dev/sda0 and it gave me a prompt with the letter I and a blinking cursor...

[.Ga]

Successfully worked for me too! !

 

Thank you very much :-)

 

My config : MBP 2011 2,2. / 6750 / c300 256

Perf are way better with ahci

 

Waiting for the intel graphics to be enabled now :-)

[jacoch]

I've tried yesterday latest Intel RST 10.5 stable drivers (buil 1026). Unfortunately, if a drive is connected in place of SuperDrive, it's ejected after some minutes when data are written. These drivers doesn't fix sleep issue. But is it a problem of driver or firmware? I would say drivers as sleep works fine in IDE and in Mac OS X.

[Euclid1]

I've tried yesterday latest Intel RST 10.5 stable drivers (buil 1026). Unfortunately, if a drive is connected in place of SuperDrive, it's ejected after some minutes when data are written. These drivers doesn't fix sleep issue. But is it a problem of driver or firmware? I would say drivers as sleep works fine in IDE and in Mac OS X.

 

I have the same issue with the disconnected drive. A Ultra DMA CRC Error is reported in SMART each time it happens. But now it also happens when data is just being read from the drive. So far I thought it is a cable/connector issue (cheap superdrive caddy etc).

 

>Sleep

It's a BIOS problem. A new driver will not fix it.

[jacoch]

>Sleep

It's a BIOS problem. A new driver will not fix it.

 

And as Apple does not support AHCI, they won't fix the BIOS that only wakes correctly in IDE. Hoped the BIOS would be fine if IDE works. Bad news to have to choose between perf and sleep. I want both, especially when paying so much for both laptop and SSD. Thinking about switching back to an hackintosh solution.

[Euclid1]

I was wondering if you anyone got a 2nd hard drive working in the superdrive slot with AHCI on MBP 2011? As soon as I write to the disk I get the following errors:

 

S.M.A.R.T logs:

Ultra DMA CRC Error

 

Windows System Log:

The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, is not ready for access yet.

 

Windows Application Log:

[ Name] IAStorDataMgrSvc

Disk on port 2: Removed.

 

My initial guess was a cable problem, but I have now tried it with two different superdrive enclosures. Maybe I broke the connection between the superdrive enclosure and the motherboard.

[skyrideruk]

Update 3

 

Windows Vista/7 MBR to enable AHCI. Tested on MBP 2011 17". If you do not have the exact same hardware configuration as the MBP 2011 17" it probably won't work.

 

https://www.rapidshare.com/#!download|4...edcode.bin|0.44

 

To patch the MBR:

 

1. Copy the patchedcode.bin to a USB stick
   
2. Boot with MacOSX Setup CD (or Ubuntu Live CD or anything else where you can write the MBR to the disk)
   
3. In the first screen select your language, in the 2nd screen, open a Terminal through the menu at the top.
   
4. Go to your USB stick: cd /Volumes/USBSTICKNAME
   
5. IMPORTANT: Make a backup of your mbr first: dd if=/dev/disk0 of=backup.bin bs=512 count=1
   
6. Unmount all mapped drives from your disk0: umount /dev/disk0s1, umount /dev/disk0s2, etc.
   
7. Write the new mbr: dd if=patchedcode.bin of=/dev/disk0 bs=440 count=1
   
8. Type: reboot now
   

If for some reason it should not work for you, you can restore the MBR as following:

dd if=backup.bin of=/dev/disk0 bs=440 count=1

 

It is assumed that you already have set the msahci service start type to 0 in the Windows operating system.

 

I will post a detailed writeup later.

 

Just wanted to add my thanks for this hack: works perfectly in my 2011 MBP

 

Could I mention that one side effect of this seems to be that it breaks the Boot Camp applet in the Windows Control Panel: when trying to run BC here it generates an error message along the lines of "you don't have permission to access the startup disk" & refuses to run.

 

I have tried repairing the permissions in OS X & tried adjusting the file permission in Windows but I am unable to fix this. (Have also tried repairing/reinstalling BC). Whilst it is a small price to pay for having AHCI enabled it would be nice to have this working if possible. Any ideas please?

 

Also, as I am about to acquire a new 2011 iMac I am wondering if there is a similar mod available to enable AHCI in this machine?

[jucytec]

And as Apple does not support AHCI, they won't fix the BIOS that only wakes correctly in IDE. Hoped the BIOS would be fine if IDE works. Bad news to have to choose between perf and sleep. I want both, especially when paying so much for both laptop and SSD. Thinking about switching back to an hackintosh solution.

 

Just Hibernate instead of Standby.

Hibernate mode doesn't take too long to boot back up (SSD or HDD) and uses zero battery once shut off

[jacoch]

Shutting down and powering up is much quicker than hibernate, as my memory does not need to be written to disk. It's a solution if I really need to recover opened applications. But I prefer having some percent less in perf than loosing time each time I need to move with my laptop. As I have a lot of meetings, it's several times a day. So I'm stuck in IDE for the moment.

 

@skyrideruk: it's a known issue when AHCI is enabled.

[skyrideruk]

@skyrideruk: it's a known issue when AHCI is enabled.

 

Okay, thanks for the info.

[Shade69]

I was wondering if you anyone got a 2nd hard drive working in the superdrive slot with AHCI on MBP 2011? As soon as I write to the disk I get the following errors:

 

S.M.A.R.T logs:

Ultra DMA CRC Error

 

Windows System Log:

The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, is not ready for access yet.

 

Windows Application Log:

[ Name] IAStorDataMgrSvc

Disk on port 2: Removed.

 

My initial guess was a cable problem, but I have now tried it with two different superdrive enclosures. Maybe I broke the connection between the superdrive enclosure and the motherboard.

 

I think you've broken it too but have you test with another hdd ?, mine works fine (Win 7 AHCI RST 10.5.1027), i've followed this thread who mentionned you as well for your tweak, you've to desactivate Intel LPM technology to reduce win7 errors. I currently use a Apple 128GO SSD in the bay.

Users who wants to use a optibay drive with Bootcamp in Parallel, i found the solution to keep the same MBR (Parallel uses his own when he emulates the bios for AHCI). So backup your MBR in .bin :

 

dd if=/dev/disk0 of=backup.bin bs=512 count=1

 

rename it "PhysicalMbr.hds"

and copy this file in your VM image "Windows 7.pvm/Name of your hard drive.hdd"

 

Then the first time you launch parallel with bootcamp it'll desactivate the bootcamp manager, repair it with in your native windows 7, the second time Parallel won't touch it..

I hope it will help some Parallel users !

[jucytec]

Shutting down and powering up is much quicker than hibernate, as my memory does not need to be written to disk. It's a solution if I really need to recover opened applications. But I prefer having some percent less in perf than loosing time each time I need to move with my laptop. As I have a lot of meetings, it's several times a day. So I'm stuck in IDE for the moment.

 

@skyrideruk: it's a known issue when AHCI is enabled.

 

I think you are mistaken there...

 

recovering from hibernate bypass all driver loading that happens on a normal startup.

 

I just timed it and hibernate recover took 32 seconds.

normal startup is WAY longer.

 

I do not have a SSD.

 

In terms of time,

 

Stanby < Hibernate < Cold Boot.

[jacoch]

Sure it bypass this. But in my case, it has to restore 8 GB of memory. And it takes a looooong time. Booting Windows, from the time I press the power button to the login screen takes 34s. That's the advantage of SSD :-) So I confirm, when you have a lot of memory and an SSD, powering up is quicker than restoring from hibernate.

 

 

I think you are mistaken there...

 

recovering from hibernate bypass all driver loading that happens on a normal startup.

 

I just timed it and hibernate recover took 32 seconds.

normal startup is WAY longer.

 

I do not have a SSD.

 

In terms of time,

 

Stanby < Hibernate < Cold Boot.

[dA_KiDMaN]

Sorry there is my situation.

 

I've opened this topic for invite all users of Apple Bootcamp to discuss about Nvidia MCP/79 an its implementation over Windows in Dual Boot with MacOS X. Nvidia MCP79 is present in some MacBook Air, MacPro, and Macbook late 2009 and there aren´t enought support for Mac users all over the web.The nVidia support website doesnt give a concrete answer.

 

The MCP79 belongs to the Nvidia Geforce 9400 Motherboard series as for Notebooks mobo chipset as for Desktop Chipset. On this forum, there are some topics where users are stuck trying to enable Nvidia chipsets fully compatibility with AHCI mode over bootcamp. I'm grateful for the hard work that ludacrisvp and johnsock had been made about this cuestion.

 

I tell us my situation, based on this post.Improving AHCI on Bootcamp with Mac Pro with Intel chipset

 

System: MacBook Pro 5.5 (15") - Leopard Snow 10.6.4 . MBR Partition in Mat{censored}a HDD (250 gb) in dual boot with Bootcamp 3 for Windows Se7en 64bit (update 3)

 

0. My principal objective is to make correctly a installation of nForce drivers over BootCamp with the Ultimate common 64-bit version.

 

1. "AHCI Mode" in Sata Drive is basic for correct installation of nVidia storage drivers. So I have forced the regedit to manual override the msahci startup. (Changing in regedit values 1 to 0)

 

2. Then I've forcing Device Manager to load AHCI 1.0 under standard microsoft driver. Succes like other members in this forum.

 

3. I´ve restarted on MacOS and I succes trying to hack MBR with johnshock's script, then I've extracted MBR using the method here related (url="http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/9819-AHCI-compliance-on-Macs-running-Windows-and-Linux") to check that modifies has been done. It seems that moddifications on Hexadecimal code are correct and MBR is able to start AHCI support.

 

4. I restarted on Win7 and no BSOD typical problems and Standard AHCI 1.0 driver provided by Microsoft works.

 

5. I´ve found a Optimized nForce PACk (http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/win7-vista...cks-t70915.html) that add more compatible hardware to the nForce and becomes more suitable than the distributed by nVidia. The pach contains Ethernet, SMU Controller and Storage Drivers. But last one never is installed on my MBP. I try to manually add Hardware ID [DEV-0AB5] to the nvstor64.inf but Win rebots with a BSOD when tries to load that driver.

 

 

 

I'm full disoriented at this point and maybe is possible that my Macbook under Snow Leopard OSX does not enter in normal sleep mode due to this changes. I hope this method helps users in the same situation.

 

Sorry for my bad Eng. Regards from Spain. dA_KiDMaN

 

 

Still NO full SUPPORT under bootcamp for nVidia MCP79 mobo's users?

 

I hope it can be constructive for nvidia users and the driver development under bootcamp. Here is the link for the topic, I'll be waiting your solutions.

 

Congratulations for create this wonderful database!

[ludacrisvp]

So I'm considering picking up a new MBP but not sure on what to get. Considering mid 2010 i7 vs sandy bridge i7. The clock speeds are so low on the new i7 but I read the chipset is faster. What's the right way to go? The older cheaper ones with higher clocks or the newer ones with slower clocks?

[jucytec]

So I'm considering picking up a new MBP but not sure on what to get. Considering mid 2010 i7 vs sandy bridge i7. The clock speeds are so low on the new i7 but I read the chipset is faster. What's the right way to go? The older cheaper ones with higher clocks or the newer ones with slower clocks?

 

the newer is faster.

i'm not sure how old you are talking about, keep in mind that some of the higher clocked i7's were only dual core.

 

Sure it bypass this. But in my case, it has to restore 8 GB of memory. And it takes a looooong time. Booting Windows, from the time I press the power button to the login screen takes 34s. That's the advantage of SSD :-) So I confirm, when you have a lot of memory and an SSD, powering up is quicker than restoring from hibernate.

 

ah, you got 8 gigs of ram, that must take a few min... 8 gig's is a bit of a overkill in my opinion.

 

my desktop has 12gigs, and even under heavy use i couldn't go over 50% usage out of it.

i really had to load all my graphical apps with gigantic(unreal and unpractical size) canvas just to do this.

[jacoch]

Well most of the time I'm between 4 and 5 GB of used memory. It goes a bit higher when running VMWare. So 8 GB let me run all my apps keeping swap disabled. It's useful when running on a SSD.

[cgaspard]

If you drive is freezing or disconnecting, try this. It seems to have worked for me

 

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Dr...r-me/td-p/38766

 

It Disables the LPM.

 

I attached a reg file with the settings already in it from the link. Wouldn't let me attache a .reg file so I added .txt extension.

 

IntelLPMDisable.reg.txt

 

Good luck!

 

CG

[Danxter]

Hi guys,

 

First of all, thanks for the great utility AHCI Enabler, my SSD works great now!

 

I only have one problem : the bootcamp control panel that crash... It could be nice with the tab key if MobileMe crashed not too! Yes, the crash of the control panel seems to make the MobileMe panel crashing too...

 

 

Some could have a solution please?

 

 

 

Information :

-MacPro 2008 2-xeon, SSD GSkill Falcon 256, ATI HD5870

-Lion

-7 ultimate 64

[Deefa]

I didn't realise Win 7 was not using AHCI...

 

I can't seem to download the patched MBR from RS, I tried usual way and also transferring to my RS account.

 

Is there another link to the 2011 MBP patched MBR?

 

Also: How does the efi/bios emulation stop the Intel HD 3000 from being allocated resources? If you suspend/resume win7 on a 2011 15/17" MBP, the Intel HD 3000 device is found, drivers installed but the device cannot be initialised as there are not sufficient resources. The device does not persist after reboot.

 

It would be nice to enable resource allocation for the Intel GPU to be able to use its quicksync features (I'm not bothered about switching b/w the AMD & Intel GPU).

[PeterHolbrook]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but I've noticed Intel have upgraded the Rapid Storage Technology drivers to version 10.6.0.1022. Sadly, the non-F6 installer doesn't seem to work on my Mac Pro 1.1. Oddly enough, the instructions state that "F6 and RAID BIOS configurations need to be performed prior to installation of this driver for proper operation", which seems to mean that for this F6-not-required installer to work, you need to reinstall Windows (7 or whatever) from scratch using the F6 diskette/USB, etc.! What gives? Am I missing something?

[Elias4444]

I just barely went through this process as well with my MacPro 1,1 and am having the same issue at PeterHolbrook. The Intel drivers won't install, saying I don't meet the minimum requirements. Though, I have verified that I am in fact booting up into Windows 7 64-bit with AHCI enabled (I tested it with the two ODD SATA ports). I also tried both the .sh script and the GUI for editing the MBR (the GUI stated that the patch was already installed).

 

Not sure what to do at this point. Anyway to force install those crazy Intel drivers?

[playpiano]

Mac Pro Early 2009.

OS X Lion Installed.

WINDOWS 7 installed on a dedicated second hard disk (WD 300GB 10000 RPM)

AHCI activated and all working well

BUT

very long shutdown time (1 to 2 minutes)

No shutdown time problem with AHCI not enabled

try everything but no solution found

 

help