Asus F3JP bios mod

[JJimmyJ]

Hello

I've feel like I've searched the entire internet.
The F3JP notebook has very limited bios options. The chipset is ICH7M, which does support AHCI

Can these bios be modded to include the option for AHCI? I have an SSD that's crying out for more speed.

Thanks

Bios 209 from Asus:

[camiloml]

Hi.

Have just made an experiment. Look in Advanced section, i replaced two mostly unsused settings with two interesting ones.

If i guessed well, first ATA/IDE Configuration is some kind of enable/disabe compatible/combined or something like that, and the second ATA/IDE Configuration is the AHCI selector itself.

So try setting second to AHCI and play with values offered by first to see if you get it working.

Post some screenshots of the new menus and its possible values please.


  f3jpas_ahci.209.zip (Size: 439.85 KB / Downloads: 77)

[JJimmyJ]

Hello

Thankyou very much for the mod.
I'll give this a go over the weekend and report back.

Thanks

[JJimmyJ]

Hello

Flashed the bios to the new version.
Two items have been removed from the menu in Advanced:
1. Play POST sound
2. Speaker Volume
There are no new options available though.

I've attached before and after screenshots with original 209 bios and the new modded ones.

Thanks

[camiloml]

Try this now.


  f3jpas_ahci.209v2.zip (Size: 441.83 KB / Downloads: 141)

[JJimmyJ]

Hello again.

You'll be sick of hearing from me

Ok, new version flashed. Now gives me 2 ATI/IDE Config options, both with the same sub-options (attached photos). If I set both to IDE, no boot devices recognised. If I try RAID, I get the same message. If I set to AHCI it boots.
I changed the registry values to '0' (photo) it rebooted fine, but it still seems to be in IDE mode. I've attached a photo of device manager showing as native IDE (27c4). I believe this should read 27c5 if it's in AHCI mode.

So, it looks like the bios settings for IDE and RAID are not working, and potentially the new AHCI mode is sticking in IDE?? (That's just me guessing with my limited knowledge).

I'm doing this all on my standard HDD as I don't want to lock up my SSD. I'm also doing this on a pre-installed windows, so again this may be causing some issue.

Thanks again

[camiloml]

you have 2 menus with 3 options each, that means you can make 3^2 combinations of settings, and you must reboot to reenter bios on each change, they are only 9 posibilities, but have you tried all saving changes and entering bios after that?

Maybe the lack of option roms are why when you put ahci mode you see no devices detected.

Try preparing a linux bootable pendrive and boot from it to see how the changes in bios really affect controller mode.

[JJimmyJ]

Hello

Sorry, not been able to try anything lately but finally got round yo having a look tonight.
Ok, I've tried all sorts of different combinations, but nothing seems to change the device from IDE mode.
I've got Ubuntu onto a disk and booted from it. I've never used it before so have no idea what I'm looking at. I couldn't find any options for checking drive info?

Thanks

[alexgala]

Hello

Sorry, not been able to try anything lately but finally got round yo having a look tonight.
Ok, I've tried all sorts of different combinations, but nothing seems to change the device from IDE mode.
I've got Ubuntu onto a disk and booted from it. I've never used it before so have no idea what I'm looking at. I couldn't find any options for checking drive info?

Thanks

I want to learn, it has turned out at you with ahci?
At me the same problem with A7J.

[TellMeBios]

Hello Camiloml, JJimmyJ,

Any further progress?

Camiloml, when you added these 2 options in the bios, did you manage to check if the bios had the necessary class/code to manage ahci behind it?

JJimmyJ, did you try to force someway the OS or the bootloader to "think" it's using AHCI hardware? I saw in http://rants.atmurray.net/2009/06/sata-a...-bios.html that it could be done (but I've not tried yet myself).

Best regards

TMB