Trouble AHCI controller - OCZ SSD for HP DM1Z

[life_is_gr8t]

Consistently it is suggested to change bios settings to AHCI prior to installing Windows after installing the 120gb SATA 3 OCZ SSD, however, that setting is not available in the bios for the HP DM1Z so I didn't do it. Now in the device manager under the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers it has 2 controllers listed: ATA Channel 0 and a Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA controller. With the new drive my computer is constantly freezing and I believe that is the cause but I don't know how to fix it. Any help would be appreciated. Theoretically shouldn't the standard AHCI controller I have listed under the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers be adequate or should it not even say IDE ATA/ATAPI in the device manager but AHCI instead (if I was able to make that change in the bios)? I have already checked to see if the drive has the latest firmware and it has.

 

[KSoD]

If the BIOS had the option for you to use AHCI then yes you are right, the IDE aspect should not be seen in the Device Manager unless you had another device connected using IDE such as a DVD Drive or another hard drive. But since you dont have that option to select AHCI, then the system has to show those options. Since it is showing that there is AHCI controllers, then it is HP that has removed that ability within their BIOS to select it, not a good choice in my opinion. As AHCI will allow the drive to operate better than IDE mode. You are actually hampering your SSD by using IDE Mode over AHCI.

I would check the HP website and see if there is a BIOS update or contact them directly to see if there is a way to get this ability added. With it you would be able to hot swap drives and so much more.

 

[life_is_gr8t]

Thank you for the quick response. Although I haven't contacted HP directly I read online that the people who did contact them didn't have any luck in finding a way to add that option to the bios. Also, I had already downloaded the most current bios update which unfortunately didn't help.

To anyone out there who was upgraded their DM1Z to an SSD how did you successfully do it without the option to change your bios setting to AHCI? I have spent several hours researching and several more experimenting with no luck. It is my understanding that the SSD won't properly work with an IDE controller (which is partially confirmed by my system locking up) yet people have successfully upgraded their HP DM1Z to a SSD. How?