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SATA AHCI Driver for ASMedia 1061 SATA Controller "F6 Driver"

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First post, by fellthrutmewarp

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Hi,

Trying to install WinXP 32Bit on an ASUS P9X79-LE Motherboard, which has a ASMedia 1061 SATA Controller (sometimes referred to as 106x). Using a 120GB SSD. I was able to (1) download drivers from ASUS, (2) find a random driver copy online, (3) extract drivers from the WinSetupFromUSB install files, and also (4) extract drivers from the Easy2Boot install files. So basically 4 flavors of the same ASMedia driver - but all slightly different.

Can't seem to get any to work however. I can install WinXP when the BIOS is set to IDE, and also when set to RAID (IRST setting), but when set to AHCI I get the 0x0000007B BSOD right at the beginning of the WinXP installation, right before it would normally show the formatting options.

I tried installing from a few different copies of WInXP CDs that I have (basically 2 different copies - a Dell copy, and a "Plain Jane" non-OEM standalone copy) But neither would work for AHCI. The Dell copy would work for both IDE and RAID, but the non-OEM copy works only for IDE. I'm guessing the Dell copy has an extra driver on it that allows RAID to work. (This same Dell copy also allows the AHCI option to work on many different WinXP-era Dells that I have, but no such luck here.)

I tried basically all the combinations of the 4 different driver flavors slipstreamed onto the CDs using nLite - but no luck there either.

I tried WInSetupFromUSB - but it has the 0x0000007B BSOD no matter what, even for the IDE setting, again right before the formatting options appear. So seems like WinSetupFromUSB itself is not working. Tried debugging that a bit, but still no luck.

Tried Easy2Boot, but that hangs right before launching the WinXP installer. Works up until the "5 second" countdown that is apparently supposed to show right before launching WInXP - but it just stops and never shows that one last line. Again tried debugging that a bit, different settings and different USB ports, but no luck.

Seems to me that slipstreaming the driver onto the CD with nLite should have worked... which is making me wonder if I have the correct driver for AHCI specifically. (The drivers I have are called "ASMedia 1061 SATA Controller" - no mention of AHCI...)

Anyone know of a known-good generic AHCI driver, or maybe an Intel AHCI driver I should try? Or does it have be an ASMedia driver specifically?

Also, how do you guys normally go about installing the AHCI driver? I've never done this before successfully, aside from using the Dell WinXP CD I have that just "works" - for Dells.

I ordered a USB floppy drive, which is on its way, so I can try the F6 option, but I don't have super high hopes... No floppy ribbon cable port on this motherboard - so I can only try a USB floppy drive. (Or the GoTek drive...)

Also tried installing the OS all the way through on the RAID setting to see if I could somehow then switch it over to the AHCI setting, but no such luck there either... (Is there any viable way to switch over to AHCI after the installation, instead of doing it before?)

Something I'm confused about - when set to RAID, that means AHCI is NOT operational? In other words, they are mutually exclusive? Somehow I thought RAID included AHCI, but I guess maybe not? (maybe because on the Dells the setting is called "RAID Autodetect / AHCI" - this may have misled me) - or is it true that the RAID setting should also include AHCI?

Also, is this even worth it? Or should I just be happy with the IDE or RAID setting? Kind of would like to get AHCI to work, ideally... was going for "max speed" on this build...

PS all the BIOS settings are set to be as legacy-friendly as possible - no UEFI stuff, etc. Plus like I say the IDE and RAID settings work, so I don't really think it's a BIOS setting causing the issue...

(PPS - I'm not specifically interested in putting together a RAID config - was just using that setting for debug. In case that wasn't clear)

Thanks for the help!

Last edited by fellthrutmewarp on 2023-06-05, 02:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 1, by fellthrutmewarp

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ah, I figured it out. I needed to use an Intel C600 SATA AHCI Driver instead. I knew I had the wrong driver! So silly of me to use the driver with the same name as the HW on my board...

I had noticed that both WinSetupFromUSB and easy2boot had also been suggesting an intel driver as a secondary option in addition to their corresponding ASMedia driver suggestions. I just assumed they were being dumb, particularly since when I used the suggested Intel driver from WinSetupFromUSB, the WInXP installer just spit back an error about a missing file - iastorA.sys I think - even though the file was indeed present on the thumb drive.

I received the USB floppy drive today in the meantime, and that worked well enough - helped me to "rapid fire" different drivers at the issue at least. But even when I directly loaded the Intel driver that I got from WInSetupFromUSB it STILL told me a file was missing, even though the file was present on the floppy. So silly.

So next I tried the Intel suggestion from Easy2Boot, and that worked! Except once the yellow progress bar started in the WinXP installation, it suddenly said it couldn't find ANY of the files from the floppy disk. 🤣. (It just kept throwing an error for each file it was looking for, until I skipped each file. Like 5 I think. And then it had a BSOD on the first reboot...)

So, since I had FINALLY seen some success (proceeded to the WinXP format screen at least, for the first time ever with AHCI set in the BIOS) I took the driver and slipstreamed it onto my WinXP CD instead, and voila! It worked! (actually no, it then yelled at me about my CD key, which was strange because that key usually works, but I tried a different key and it worked, so I slipstreamed it again with the second key... And then it worked. But you get the idea)

SUPER frustrating... but glad it works now, I guess... 🤣 took basically my whole weekend to figure it out.

For reference, the Intel C600 SATA AHCI Driver from WinSetupFromUSB was: (run the extractor "WinSetupFromUSB-1-10.exe") -> \...\WinSetupFromUSB-1-10\files\DPMS\DPMS.iso\D\M\I4 (extract the whole folder "I4" from DPMS.iso and use that) but again keep in mind this version didn't actually work (for me).

The Intel C600 SATA AHCI Driver from easy2boot (which worked for me) was: (run the extractor "Easy2Boot_v2.19_DPMS.exe") -> \...\Easy2Boot_v2.19_DPMS\_ISO\e2b\grub\DPMS\D\M\I\6 (again, use the whole folder "6" altogether)

OH, and by the way be sure to add it as a TXTMODE driver in nLite. NOT a PNP driver. You can tell that it worked to sliptream onto the CD properly if you watch closely and see the driver name fly by during the initial WinXP install screen.

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