AHCI Problems - No Drives

[abelpa]

Going a little insane after spending a load on this brand new build!

I am building a Dual-Boot Lion/Win7 setup, with the following hardware, and have run into a problem.

Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3
Intel i5 2500K 3.3ghz (3.7ghz Turbo)
MSI AMD Radeon HD 6670 1GB GDDR3 (R6670-MD1GD3)
Corsair Vengeance Black - 8GB 1600mhz (2x4GB)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HDD 7200rpm
Samsung S222AB 22x DVD +/-RW Drive
Alpine 700w ATX PSU

Scenario 1.

When I enable AHCI mode for the Sata drives in the BIOS, the boot just hangs where you would normally see the AHCI drives listed (HDD and DVD). All I am am left with is a flashing cursor at the top of the black screen. This is before any attempt at installing an OS on brand new unused equipment. Once it gets into this state, I am unable to even enter the BIOS even after turning off the machine, so I have to remove the battery on motherboard.

Scenario 2.

I removed the HD 6670 GPU, and booted using the on-board graphics, then I could get both the HDD and DVD to appear in AHCI Mode with no problems .
I successfully installed Lion using UniBeast in this mode, but the on-board graphics are not properly supported and I obviously want to use my new GPU anyway.

Scenario 3.

I re-installed the HD 6670, enabled IDE mode for Sata drives in bios, then I was able to install Windows 7 and that worked fine, so I know the 6670 actually works when in IDE mode.

I would greatly appreciate any insight/help if there is something that I appear to be missing? as far as I am aware the HD 6670 should be installed in the PCIe x16 slot, Although I also tried using the x4 slot to check my approach was right.

So yeah If someone has any clues or suggestions: Please let me know!

 

[abelpa]

Can anyone help? or at least heard of this issue?

 

[livingbeetroot]

I can't help, but I can tell you that you're not crazy.

I have spent the day becoming increasingly agitated with a MSI HD 6670 2GB DDR3 VGA DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card http://www.ebuyer.com/343931-msi-hd-667 ... 670-md2gd3 along with:
GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3
i5 2500K
G-Skill 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz RipjawsZ
OCZ 60GB Agility 3 SSD

I faced the same scenario (1) as you, although rather than pull the bios battery out, I removed the card and booted with the on-board graphics to reset.

If you (or anyone else) overcame this I would greatly appreciate some advice, be it a solution or simply throwing the card away.

 

[kzyuan]

Not so sure but just a suggestion that did you guys check your bios update? Try newer bios for both VGA and mainboard.
Sorry if it sounds stupid.

 

[livingbeetroot]

hi kzyuan, thanks for trying to help. I did check that I had BIOS version F9 prior to attempting installation. I have managed to install 10.7.2 using the on-board graphics and a DVI-HDMI adapter to my tv. Ideally I want to be using a graphics card that supports DVI-VGA as I don't think the on-board graphics do.

I was hoping for a vanilla install and specifically chose this graphics card and motherboard from http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac but an afternoon spent googling leads me to believe that I have chosen the wrong GPU.

If there isn't a straightforward solution to my problem perhaps someone could suggest a <£100 GPU that will suit my hardware and my needs (specifically DVI-VGA)

 

[kzyuan]

how abt a GT210? i heard that it works well. or a 6870 if you can xd.

 

[Jamesbond007]

Going a little insane after spending a load on this brand new build!

I am building a Dual-Boot Lion/Win7 setup, with the following hardware, and have run into a problem.

Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3
Intel i5 2500K 3.3ghz (3.7ghz Turbo)
MSI AMD Radeon HD 6670 1GB GDDR3 (R6670-MD1GD3)
Corsair Vengeance Black - 8GB 1600mhz (2x4GB)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HDD 7200rpm
Samsung S222AB 22x DVD +/-RW Drive
Alpine 700w ATX PSU

Scenario 1.

When I enable AHCI mode for the Sata drives in the BIOS, the boot just hangs where you would normally see the AHCI drives listed (HDD and DVD). All I am left with is a flashing cursor at the top of the black screen. This is before any attempt at installing an OS on brand new unused equipment. Once it gets into this state, I am unable to even enter the BIOS even after turning off the machine, so I have to remove the battery on motherboard.

Scenario 2.

I removed the HD 6670 GPU, and booted using the on-board graphics, then I could get both the HDD and DVD to appear in AHCI Mode with no problems .
I successfully installed Lion using UniBeast in this mode, but the on-board graphics are not properly supported and I obviously want to use my new GPU anyway.

Scenario 3.

I re-installed the HD 6670, enabled IDE mode for Sata drives in bios, then I was able to install Windows 7 and that worked fine, so I know the 6670 actually works when in IDE mode.

I would greatly appreciate any insight/help if there is something that I appear to be missing? As far as I am aware the HD 6670 should be installed in the PCIe x16 slot, Although I also tried using the x4 slot to check my approach was right.

So yeah If someone has any clues or suggestions: Please let me know!

So the display card works when the motherboard SATA is set to IDE mode but not when set to AHCI mode? This is the first time I even heard of this problem.

From your descriptions it seems to me that your motherboard should be fine and that there might be a compatibility problem between your video card and motherboard. If you want to replace your video card, I suggest getting a Nvidia GT240.

 

[gurjisolo]

hi kzyuan, thanks for trying to help. I did check that I had BIOS version F9 prior to attempting installation. I have managed to install 10.7.2 using the on-board graphics and a DVI-HDMI adapter to my tv. Ideally I want to be using a graphics card that supports DVI-VGA as I don't think the on-board graphics do.

I was hoping for a vanilla install and specifically chose this graphics card and motherboard from http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac but an afternoon spent googling leads me to believe that I have chosen the wrong GPU.

If there isn't a straightforward solution to my problem perhaps someone could suggest a <£100 GPU that will suit my hardware and my needs (specifically DVI-VGA)[/quote
nVidia 9500GS , works straight away no funny buissness , if your reinstalling lion , dont use nvidia inject or what ever it is , just use graphics enabler , it will reconize the card, im im almost positive if u just pop the card in on your already made hackintosh it will work ,this card is fairly decent as well , had hdmi , dvi and vga

 

[abelpa]

Just realised I didn't post my solution, sorry for that...

i swapped the GPU for the same series (Radeon HD 6670) of a different make, so it would appear it was a compatibility issue on that card.

This system was for my brother, but I seem to recall it got swapped for a card made by Satellite.

Same specs, different make and all was fine.