REQ P5B-VM (ich8) enable "Configure SATA as" "AHCI" menu tree

[kocoman]

REQ P5B-VM (ich8) enable "Configure SATA as" "AHCI" menu tree

Bios link: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock...VM1004.zip

thanks

[Albo89]

With AMIBCP (in attached image)
Is present an AHCI section.
This suggests that AHCI can be activated, because on an old bios verson, seems to be present.
the south-bridge is a ICH8

What kind of Modding SW is necessary? because with AMIBCP I haven't found option for modding.

[maewiotr]

Can someone please take a look at this?

It would be very nice to have the AHCI option on this board.

The regular P5B has it.

Thanks

[maewiotr]

^bump

Anyone? All that needs to be added is the "Configure SATA As" string...

The P5B BIOS has the 2824 AHCI module, while the P5B-VM module has the 2822. The difference is that 2824 is ICH8 AHCI and 2822 is RAID. But that module can be replaced.

The P5B-VM DO does have AHCI in the BIOS, and the board is almost completely identical, except for the ICH8R southbridge instead of the ordinary ICH8 on the P5B-VM.

Might be worthwhile having a look at that BIOS too:

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock...S-1002.zip

[maewiotr]

I have been trying to hack the P5B-VM DO Bios to work on the P5B-VM.

The first hurdle was replacing the BIOS IC. The P5B-VM DO uses a 2MB chip whereas the P5B-VM uses 1MB. I swapped the chips and I've gotten it to post, but it will not boot.

I may have messed something up in MMTool...

The error it keeps giving has something to do with the GPNV and that the flash chip is not supported, but this is likely not the case, as I've tried it with both a Macronix chip and a Winbond chip which is what the P5B-VM DO would have used.

I've got a couple more ideas.  I'll report if I am successful.

[maewiotr]

Well,

The P5B-VM DO Bios was a total bust...  The boards are too dissimilar.  Eventhough the layouts are almost identical, apparently switching to the Q965 chipset requires a vastly different BIOS.

The good news however is that I have had very promising results with the P5B-V Bios.  There are some quirks though:

1)  The Intel VGA Bios always posts before the bios POST.  Not a big deal
2)  The two USB ports below the firewire port do not work
3)  The firewire port does not work
4)  The LAN is intermittent...  If you don't play with LAN settings in the BIOS, and as long as the PXE screen shows before Windows boots, the LAN will show up in Device Manager and work fine.  But if you disable PXE or touch the LAN settings, the LAN disappears from the system.  This has to do with the fact that the P5B-V hs a Marvell chip and the P5B-VM has a Realtek chip (yes, I changed the module to Realtek). EDIT:  The way the LAN is behaving is that it's ignoring the settings completely in the BIOS.  Even if the on-board LAN is set to disabled, it still works.  Now the good thing about the Realtek PXE is that if you hit Shift-F10, you can disable the prompt within the PXE settings and it won't try to boot from it each time you start the computer.  Now on to when it doesn't work:  If you shut the computer down and turn it back on, the LAN is totally dead.  There are no lights on the port and it doesn't show up in Device Manager.  If you turn the power supply switch off however, it works again when you turn the computer on.  So using a seperate LAN card might be wise.  Also take note that the BIOS (The P5B-V BIOS at least) specifies that the second PCI-E port can only run in conjunction with the first one if the second one is configured for 2X.  If you force it at 4X, it shuts off the first port.

But the best news is that AHCI works perfectly now!  And this BIOS is only 1MB, so there's no need to swap chips.

So it's definitely advantageous to use the modded BIOS if you want to use AHCI.  If anyone still requires it (Can't imagine that anyone would though, this board is almost 10 years old now) or has something else to contribute, please reply in this thread.

Thanks

P.S.  I am having some trouble with space constraints with this BIOS and inserting new CPU microcodes.  It's not that big of a deal...  I imagine that if there's a way to remove the Japanese language support module or the Asus EZ Flash, it would free up a lot of space.  Again, if you can contribute, please reply to this thread.

EDIT 2 P.P.S:  I managed to delete the Japanese language module from the BIOS, and I also removed some errant entries from the CPU Microcode section so I was able to add and replace all the new microcodes without compromising anything.  SLIC (Asus) has also been added and tested.

You will have to figure out how to force flash this on your own...  I initially used an SPI programmer to flash the P5B-V BIOS and then subsequently used EZ-Flash as was needed.


  V MODDED5_SLIC.ROM (Size: 1 MB / Downloads: 14)

If anyone figures out how to modify the BIOS to work properly with the LAN, then it would be much appreciated.

EDIT 3: Unfortunately, the E5430 771 CPU did not work, so it seems that this BIOS will not work with the 771 mod.

[LLC]

Anyone? All that needs to be added is the "Configure SATA As" string...

String is added in P5B-VM beta bios 1004, but it's function working or not, can you tested?

  ahci_p5bvm1004.zip (Size: 730.61 KB / Downloads: 45)

[darktime]

Anyone? All that needs to be added is the "Configure SATA As" string...

String is added in P5B-VM beta bios 1004, but it's function working or not, can you tested?

I tested, it's wOrking. It's great! Thanks!