Aspire M5630 and BIOS AHCI and SSD

Hi. I have an Aspire M5630 that I have upgraded over the years and about the only thing original now is the motherboard. I started off with Vista then XP Pro then Windows 7 Home then Windows 7 Pro now Windows 10 Pro via the update process. I have 4GB RAM, nVidia GTX 550 Ti graphics, SB X-Fi sound card, larger power supply and three HDD. I wanted to add USB3.0 but the only PCIe slot is next to the graphics card which is dual slot so I cannot use the PCI-e USB 3.0 card. I removed the graphics to test USB3.0 and it worked great. I have since ordered a PCI USB 3.0 card and yes I know it will be slower than full USB3.0 speed but still faster than USB 2.0.

I want to add an SSD as my boot drive (likely a clean install of Windows 10 Pro) and have read that I need AHCI enabled on the SATA ports. I have not got this visible in Device Manager nor can I find it in BIOS.

Question 1: Will either of the BIOS updates available for my machine give me AHCI? (R01-C1 & R01-C2_A_A). Do I need to install the early one first, then the second one? I cannot see the factory BIOS available for download.

Question 2: Will an SSD work OK without AHCI. What are the drawbacks? I want 1 x 256GB SSD for my Windows C:\ drive and 1 x 256GB SSD for my FSX (flight sim) drive and I'll keep a 1TB HDD for data. I dont want to buy the drives and find they wont work or are slow over time. I dont want to flash the BIOS an find my system wont work at all. Windows 10 Pro is great and I cannot see me going back to 7 in a hurry although I have enjoyed 7 a lot. Thanks in advance.

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IronFly

your PC doesn't support AHCI, so in my opinion it's not worth installing a SSD.

it would be like having a ferrrari with very bad tyres.

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-SSDs/Why-do-i-need-AHCI-with-a-SSD-Drive-Guide-Here-Crucial-AHCI-vs/td-p/57078

astro744

Thanks. I think I'll stay with what I have and spend the money on an external dual disk backup solution. My machine does what I need it to do and I guess it has finally reached its upgrade limit. I mainly use the PC to scan and store film images and store digital images and video and occassionally play FSX. It is great for all of these apps. Faster transfer to external drives via USB 3.0 would be nice and the PCI card I ordered will give me 1.3GB transfer rather than 5GB offered by PCIe cards but still much faster than 480MB the USB2.0 card I have added delivers.

I wont bother with the BIOS update but would like more info on exactly what each update resolves or adds to the BIOS and also have the factory BIOS available as a download. My system is working so no need to fix it. Thanks for your help.

Note if you do a search for 'SSD for Aspire M5630' you get a link to Crucial offering their drives as 'guaranteed compatible'.

IronFly

You welcome.

Crucial is correct but...but being compatible doesn't mean that you will have all the SSD pros.

About BIOS update, first of all you need to know which version is on your M5630, then you can upgrade after extracting the files and run the .exe file from windows.

there is no release note, so....only Acer techs knows what's new.

astro744

Thanks. I'll post the factory BIOS version when I get home and perhaps an Acer tech can tell me what each update would offer. I'm interested if it gives me AHCI but this is more likely a hardware issue. The last thing I want is to make my machine unuseable because of an incompatible BIOS and not being able to get the factory BIOS back.

Yes I could change the motherboard but then I would more than likely have to change the processor and definitely have to change the RAM. The case too would have to change as the new MB would have a different rear port arrangement. It would no longer have any components from the original and it would probably be cheaper to buy a new PC and keep the old one as a spare for something. It works great with Windows 10 Pro. Thanks again for all your help and I'll still post the BIOS version later.

IronFly

You welcome.

yes it will be cheaper to buy a new PC. Smiley Wink

astro744

My current BIOS is R01-A2.

What will R01-C1 offer?

What will R01-C2_A_A offer?

Must C1 be installed before C2?

I would like AHCI and if a firmware upgrade of the BIOS will give me this then I will likely try it.

Is R01-A2 available as a download or is there anyway of saving the current firmware if I have a problem and how do I go about restoring?

Also what is the correct procedure to upgrade the BIOS? e.g. from within Windows as admin using cmd or from a fresh boot to safe mode command prompt and then from a USB disk? Thanks.

IronFly

honestly i don't know if Cx version is compatible with Ax version, so i can't suggest you to update or not.

Flashing BIOS is simple, you just need to double click the exe file on windows, nothing else.

astro744

OK. Thanks. I've found out a bit more since last time. The BIOS screen says v02.59.

I have in the BIOS under Integrated Peripherals an option to use Enhanced or Compatible SATA.

I found a message on another forum saying that SATA should be set to enhanced and will give AHCI provided the hardware controller on the MB supports it. I have always had this set to enhanced and I only ever get IDE ATA/ATPI controllers in device manager with no AHCI.

I also read on another forum that Intel SSD work fine in IDE mode provided you schedule an optimising feature using Intel Toolbox on a regular basis since Windows wont optimise (Trim) itself without AHCI.

I'm tempted to try an Intel 535 240GB and if it doesn't work I'll add it to my work notebook although I am keen on the Samsung 850 Pro 256GB also but am not sure if it will work with any 'tuneup' software Samsung may have if any.

I've decided not to update my BIOS as the risk is too great. Thanks.

astro744

Some feednack on what I did and the results thereof.

Ran Bios update software and saw I could save existing which I did.

Opened R01.C1 and flashed BIOS. Restarted. I was prompted to press F1 to enter BIOS setup. Check all settings which seemed as before. No AHCI option in SATA. Saved and exited BIOS and Windows started successfully.

Ran Bios update software again and this timed opened R01.C2 and flashed BIOS. Restarted. I was prompted to press F1 to enter BIOS setup. Check all settings which seemed as before. No AHCI option in SATA. Saved and exited BIOS and Windows started successfully.

Upon opening Outlook I was promted to activate the product. I then realised that my motherboard was the only existing component from my original Acer Aspire M5630 and since I changed the BIOS revision Windows saw it as a new motherboard. I activated Outlook and the rest of Office including FSX but then thought perhaps I shouldn't have done that at least without test running the new BIOS for a while although I only had three days to activate. I then tested restoring the saved factory original BIOS and it worked and I then flashed back to version C2 since I just activated all of Office on it. Still no AHCI though.

Today I bought a Sandisk Plus 240GB SSD and cloned the C:\ drive onto it. I then removed the existing C:\ drive and now have a very nice and fast Windows 10 Pro machine with 240GB SSD C:\ drive, 1TB HDD data drive and 500GB partitioned into FSX & Downloads. I aim to get a second SSD for FSX and remove the HDD and move the downloads to the 1TB.

My system is a lot quiter already just by removing one HDD although I did vacuum the dust of the CPU fan. I think its quieter because the load on the PSU is a lot less now. I just thought I'd give some feedback to anyone else with a similar system wanting to upgrade to SSD.

AngeloS75

Hello astro744,
this thread was the first result since I just received my first SSD (a Drevo X1 240GB) and I have the same Acer Aspire M5630 with motherbouard Acer EG31M V1.0 and BIOS R01-C2.
So far I have 2 SATA HDDs and they work fine (mainly with Win10), but the SSD is not recognized at all by the BIOS even if I try to use different SATA2 ports, SATA cables and power cables. No AHCI specific option in the BIOS settings, as you already wrote.

Since it seems that SSDs can be used on this desktop PC, any additional help?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Angelo

AngeloS75

Hi everyone,
just a quick update: I used this Drevo SSD with a USB2SATA adapter/case and it is detected fine by Windows 10.
I also used Minitool Partition Wixard to mirror the C: unit with Windows 10 to the SSD and now the OS and programs are there too.

The SSD is still not detected by BIOS. IS there any bios update or setting that could be helpful to use it as a real SATA drive?

Thanks again.

Angelo

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