The Acer Guy

You want comments? We got comments:

1. Evil Joel wrote, on June 23rd, 2008:

   

   This was just what I needed to get my Windows XP 64-bit installation working with SATA without slipstreaming and reinstalling. Thanks!

   I should note that you have to download the 64-bit version of the drivers with a 64-bit operating system.

2. Sparkion wrote, on July 12th, 2008:

   

   U r welcome Evil joe!

3. Vabole wrote, on July 13th, 2008:

   

   Sadly, that didn’t work for me. Got a blue screen at the 4th step, immediately after installing the AHCI drivers. Had to restore the system from the recovery point.
   Is there some more fiddling to get SATA working?

4. happnatious1 wrote, on July 16th, 2008:

   

   Worked for me. However there is a question mark in device manager next to “mass storage controller”.

   Acer Extensa 5620z

5. Walmir wrote, on July 17th, 2008:

   

   Worked just fine!!! Thank you so much, you saved my life!

6. resin wrote, on August 22nd, 2008:

   

   just installed winxp 64 on a Acer5920g and for some reason the iata85_cd.exe can not extract it self. massage: computer doesn’t meet minimum requirements appears and instalation will exit. did u install some of the acer stuff on it?

7. Morris Lee wrote, on August 23rd, 2008:

   

   resin, try downloading the driver from Acer or Intel, make sure it is the 64 package, but when I had 64 bit, i never had problem like yours, all I did was to make sure I have the corresponding driver in 64 bit, all installation went flawless, 32 bit software runs fine on 64 bit too.

8. resin wrote, on September 4th, 2008:

   

   Morris Lee..well got intel and acer,don’t know if it’s 32or64 but still the same,can u send me URL with the driver u r using ,,,cheers!

9. Marky wrote, on November 13th, 2008:

   

   Hi
   Didn´t work for me, got the blues screen of death and had to switch back to the IDE.
   Strange cos I followed you step by step and re-tried many times.
   Thanks anyway,

   Mark

10. kahless88 wrote, on November 18th, 2008:

    

    hey, any chance you could find those important intel files in AMD version. cause I have an acer with the same problems as above, but I have an amd chipset, and it’s veeery slow with this sata native mode…
    please, can anyone help…

11. Morris Lee wrote, on November 19th, 2008:

    

    go on acer’s website and look for your specific model and download the chipset driver there. if not present, try amd official site

12. Jon Marriott wrote, on November 19th, 2008:

    

    Acerguy you are a genius of the highest order.
    Works a treat. Thanks very much.

13. Aggelos poulopoulos wrote, on November 23rd, 2008:

    

    Well guys I had a Toshiba Satellite A300-1GN laptop and Got vista. But I saw that this good hardware got wasted cuz of vista. I Installed XP all was good till it was making years to Boot. I tried what this article says and all worked really well. Now I run XP SP3 With my Fast HDD.My Regards to Sparkion =)

14. Gryphone wrote, on November 23rd, 2008:

    

    Hey, Acer Guy . . .

    On the 4th step, there are a number of drivers to choose. Which one do I have to choose? Furthermore, how do I identify which one is compatible with my hardware?

15. Sparkion wrote, on December 3rd, 2008:

    

    Hi Guys,

    First of all I apologize for the poor follow-up. That I didn’t respond sooner to your questions people.

    So here it goes:

    (@ Jon Mariott): I was the one who wrote this. Not The Acer guy. He just put it on his blog at my request to share this.

    (@ happnatious1): Does it say under properties what is not working exactly? I need a bit more info from you, what you did and what is stated under the properties of that device (with the question mark).

    (@ Gryphone): If you are not using Raid, you choose the AHCI driver in the list. For which controller, that depends on your chipset.

    Check the chipset on your motherboard with google or in your motherboard manual. And when you know that, you can find on teh Intel website, which controller is used by this chipset. It sounds more complicated then it is. For example my Gigabyte motherboard uses the ICH 10 Controller.

    Also intel’s latest AHCI driver cover for the ICH8/9/10 in one driver. As i recall you should eb able to see this one also. This is very convenient because it covers most controllers of most Intel chipset.

    (@ kahless88): I didnt tested it with Amd drivers. In tehory it should work, but i supect you have to rewrite the REG-file a bit. According to the name of the driver-file. (probably the .SYS file)

    I’m not able to test it out for you because I don’t have a pc or laptop with and AMD chipset.
    Maybe Michael, the acer guy would be so nice to sedn me a new amd-chipsetted notebook.

    (@ Vabole): First of all, are you really sure you pasted only what was between the dotted line in the reg file and after executed it so that is put in your registry?
    Second: Are you sure you have an Intel chipset?
    Third: Did you enabled AHCI mode in your bios?

    I’m just checking, to eliminate the obvious causes for your BSOD!
    And I’m suprised because you are the first person i met who reported this ‘method’ not to work.

    (@ Resin AND all other 64 bit users): No, sorry i cannot give you the 64-bit driver-link. But it should be very easy to find at the Intelsite. just search a little, you might have to click trough some links. Intel tends to have sort of a too unlogical organised website, when it comes to teh ’support’/and download section.
    but if you search for it and type the name in teh search field on their site, i’m sure you will be able to find the 64 bit driver.

    Ass Evil Joe mentioned of course: for the 64 bit-driver, of course do the same but replace the drive and name etc. with the 64 bit version.

    Disclaimer: sorry for typo’s. It’s 3 AM here at, so I’m too lazy to check my spelling thoroughly.
    And sorry for the spelling AND the few grammer errors in the main article. My english is in fact better then it showed there.

16. Michael Walsh wrote, on December 3rd, 2008:

    

    Hey Sparkion,

    Thanks for coming back! Guys… I think we’ve found another candidate for the “Expert Voices” section… Sparkion, you up for it?

17. shan wrote, on December 6th, 2008:

    

    Thanks a lot! Worked for me. I just bought a Dell XPS M1530, and forgot to slipstream the AHCI into the XP setup file. Now I can set sata to AHCI mode without bluescreen. Btw, I am using Windows XP Pro. x64.

    Small correction: the IaStor.sys file should be placed in system32/drivers instead of system32/.

18. arcanoid wrote, on December 7th, 2008:

    

    big thanks to Sparkion

    it’s just works

    to resin: try to extract drivers from .exe file using /s /e keys combination. or try to read recommendations anaother time or use files contained in fd****.zip archive

    to gryphone: check southbridge model for your motherboard (laptop) and select appropriate ahci driver from list

19. philip wrote, on December 16th, 2008:

    

    hi there dont know if this is n e help to n e one but i had probs with my acer 5920g getting the sata ahci driver working on xp windows tried many driver packs all of them was saying that my computer does not meet requirments also in device manager there was no ahci drivers under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers i read a few intructions from the internet wat i did that worked was copied my ahci sata driver to normal cd rom disc then stuck it into the cd drive went into device manager and clicked on ide ata/atapi controllers and then on the first driver underneath i think it read something like ide ata ultra storage controller i click on twice and click on the driver tab at top of window then update drivers then click on , no, not this time on update wizard window then i clicked on install from list or specific location(advanced) then on “dont search i will choose driver to install” i clicked next and then clicked on have disc then click on display adapters and found the driver intel(R)82801 HEM/HBM sata ahci contoller (this is the one that worked for me anyway) i clicked on that and it then warns you that installing that driver may damage computer if its the wrong driver or something like that then when you look in device manager you should see the driver HEM/HBM sata ahci controller i think you then update again and then restart first thing i noticed though was that computer would not start up in ide mode anymore was getting blue screen but changed bios settings back to ahci and it worked!please bear in mind im no expert on computers ive just noticed a lot people having probs with ahci drivers i thought i would tell everyone how i managed to do it i dont know if this was right or not but my laptop is running much better now in ahci mode

20. Morris Lee wrote, on December 16th, 2008:

    

    @philip,

    wow, uh my eyes, please, can you put it in a more organized form?

21. razvan wrote, on December 26th, 2008:

    

    I did it from the second try and it’s o.k. now , but what’s the deal? Is this helps me in any way ? I see no difference , do you ?

22. razvan wrote, on December 28th, 2008:

    

    I forgot what was most important, thank you!!!

23. Harvinder wrote, on January 7th, 2009:

    

    Brilliant! I just tried this on my Dell e6500. Worked very easily

24. George Laz wrote, on January 18th, 2009:

    

    i have an acer 5920g and l have the same problem with sata drivers.
    i cannot create the reg file that you wrote above.i try to save it with notepad in Unicode mode and when i click on it ,appears the msg “you can only insert only binary files to the registry”.
    So i follow all the others steps and unfortunally it didn’t work.
    Can you tell me again which are the lines that should be included in the ahci.reg file?
    i wrote all these lines:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2922&cc_0106]
    “Service”=”iaStor”
    “ClassGUID”=”{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}”
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor]
    “Type”=dword:00000001
    “Start”=dword:00000000
    “Group”=”SCSI miniport”
    “ErrorControl”=dword:00000001
    “ImagePath”=”system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys”
    “tag”=dword:00000019
    “DisplayName”=”Intel AHCI Controller”
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters]
    “queuePriorityEnable”=dword:00000000
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum]
    “0?=”PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA”
    “Count”=dword:00000001
    “NextInstance”=dword:00000001

    I have xp and now im working with ide.
    in vista i had selected in bios AHCI MODE and was working OK

25. Andreas wrote, on February 8th, 2009:

    

    Add REGEDIT at the top of the file, and at least the reg update will work. I am about to find out about the rest… Good luck:

    REGEDIT
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2922&cc_0106]
    “Service”=”iaStor”
    “ClassGUID”=”{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}”
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor]
    “Type”=dword:00000001
    “Start”=dword:00000000
    “Group”=”SCSI miniport”
    “ErrorControl”=dword:00000001
    “ImagePath”=”system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys”
    “tag”=dword:00000019
    “DisplayName”=”Intel AHCI Controller”
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters]
    “queuePriorityEnable”=dword:00000000
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum]
    “0″=”PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA”
    “Count”=dword:00000001
    “NextInstance”=dword:00000001

26. Toshiba buyer wrote, on March 1st, 2009:

    

    Worked like a charm on my Toshiba Satelitte A300. It was terribly slow in compatiblity (IDE) mode, and changing the BIOS to AHCI would only result in BSODS. With this all runs fine.

27. ACER6920g wrote, on March 13th, 2009:

    

    My model is ACER6920g and it didn’t work. Got BSOD after reboot, had to use recovery point, cause IDE mode was busted too. WinXP sp3 x86.

28. Sparkion wrote, on March 18th, 2009:

    

    Too Bad ACER6920G,

    Did you make sure you donwloaded and installed the apropriate controller for your model laptop?

    Because that might be the issue. Mayeb the INTEL-controller whihc i mentioned isnt the right driver for your laptop. Make sure you have the right one.

    I suggest that this might be your problem, becasue you said your IDE mode was busted.

    The method should work.

    Hope you can figure it out.

29. Sparkion wrote, on March 18th, 2009:

    

    Hi George,

    It is as Andreas says: The lines are correct but at the top you also have to add:
    “Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00″

    And save it as .reg file of course.

    This should do the trick.

    I trust this will work.

30. Hersch wrote, on March 24th, 2009:

    

    Thanks a lot for the fantastic advice. The solution worked like a charm first time; no problems at all. Please pass on my gratitude to the author of this technical piece.

31. selcuk wrote, on March 25th, 2009:

    

    hi ..ı have acer 5920g t7500 and ı have done all steps you written but when ı restart pc ı got blue screen…please help

    MainBoadrd Chipset :Intel Crestline-PM PM965
    IDE controller Intel(R) ICH8M 3 port Serial ATA Storage Controller – 2828
    IDE controller :Intel(R) ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers – 2850
    IDE controller :Ricoh Memory Stick Controller
    IDE controller :Ricoh SD/MMC Host Controller
    IDE controller :Ricoh xD-Picture Card Controller
    Disk Sürücüsü Hitachi HTS542516K9SA00 (160 GB, 5400 RPM, SATA)

32. selcuk wrote, on March 26th, 2009:

    

    and last question am ı downloaded wrong sata driver?
    when ı setup matrix storage manager it gives error about minimun requirements…and how can ı learn my sata drivers version and name?
    thanks

33. Mihai wrote, on April 16th, 2009:

    

    Good job Sparkion! It worked from the first time on my Acer Aspire 7730G! Thank you very much!

34. bob ross wrote, on May 18th, 2009:

    

    very good info, BUT…..how do i find the file IaStor.sys or f6flpy32 ??? i cant find them on my xp install disc or in a windows directory…. you dont explain how to isolate these for use so i am stuck….

35. bob ross wrote, on May 19th, 2009:

    

    I am back again after figuring out how to uncompress the matrix manager……there is lots of advice to use the components of the intel matrix manager self extracting file…but precious little info about how to extract the files without installation..especially if you are constructing this on an AMD computer……i have found a site that tells how to obtain the driver components so you can place them where you want them to be… http://community.landesk.com/support/people/jan.buelens/blog/2009/05/05/how-to-build-a-generic-sata-ready-winpe-image
    this was the rosetta stone for me… hope it helps others.

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