Windows 8 with Intel Rapid Storage (RST) driver

Although Windows 8 performs surprisingly well with older hardware and drivers out of the box, I have generally used drivers from the component manufacturers, as the computer manufaturers stop releasing new drivers after a while (for obvious cost reasons). In this case, I'll be looking at Intel SATA AHCI Controller driver, with particular interest in NCQ.

My Dell Vostro 1520 laptop (~3 years old) came with Windows 7 Pro and AHCI enabled (NCQ was a feature I was looking for at the time - it has to be supported by both chipset and HDD), and the recent upgrade to Windows 8 Pro went smoothly in AHCI mode (I remember what pain it was to change my Windows 7 work laptop a couple years back from legacy to AHCI mode post-install).

With all that work cut out for me, all I had to do is install Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) package (console and driver) - latest version available 11.7.0.1013.

Dell Vostro 1520
Intel ICH9M (Intel G45 Express chipset)
Seagate ST9320423ASG HDD
Windows 8 Pro x64

• Before: Windows 8 standard

• After: Intel RST driver

ATTO Disk Benchmark shows some mixed results - direct, overlapped I/O, queue depth 4 (default). Microsoft driver performs better with smaller transfer sizes, where Intel driver is slightly faster with larger transfer sizes. In real life use, Intel driver feel very slightly quicker under load, or maybe it's just me - I remember making a bigger difference with older Windows versions (when was called Intel Matrix Storage Manager). Maybe Microsoft is doing a very good job, or Intel exhausting its tricks :-) In fairness, the package does much more than just AHCI (RAID, hybrid SSD acceleration etc), and it's probably doing it's best, especially with older hardware.

  

In the end, I guess it's up to you to decide whether you want to keep it or not - you can uninstall it and revert back to standard anytime.

Dell Vostro 1520 – driver updates

Windows Experience Index before updating the drivers.

Personal note, I usually keep all drivers in D:\_Drivers, in folders per component containing the driver archive (including the version in the name of the file or in a separate readme) and a link to the provider’s website - it makes it easier to check later for driver updates.

To Dell’s credit the system came with quite recent drivers, most users don’t need to do this, unless of course you are the type that likes to experiment with newer drivers.

• Intel Driver Update Utility (auto-detection)

This is a really good resource, at least for your Intel components, no need to go and pick them (requires an ActiveX install, use the Internet Explorer 32bit):

http://www.intel.com/support/detect.htm?iid=dc_iduu

• Intel Chipset Identification

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/id/

Although I ran the utility as administrator, as the popup says, it didn’t allow me to run it. I’ve used CPU-Z which reports GM45/GM47 chipset.

A useful link from where to get the graphics, chipset and storage drivers is:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-029319.htm

• Graphics driver

Dell’s support site has a slightly older Intel graphics driver (04/11/2009, 8.15.10.1840) than the one on the Intel site (8.15.10.1986) – going for the Intel one.

 http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/detect.htm

• Wireless driver (Intel Wi-Fi 5300)

System driver : 12.4.1.11, Dell’s website : 13.0, A01, Intel’s website : 13.0.0.107 – going for Intel’s driver.

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/detect.htm

• Intel Chipset Driver (Mobile Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset Family)

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Chipset+Software+Installation+Utility

• Intel Matrix Storage

The system came with the latest AHCI enabled drivers, but it didn’t include the Intel Matrix Storage Console, so I just installed the Intel package from:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101

* * *

A very good idea is to start from http://support.dell.com website, where it can detect the tag of your system and will provide you with a page where you can select the operating system and get the appropriate drivers for your system.

The you can find drivers or firmware updates for your HDD (mine already had the latest firmware available, as it can be seen in Intel Matrix Storage Console), audio drivers (also latest version, usually it’s quite hard to find these off the web, providers usually rely on OEM channels) or the more important BIOS updates (do not apply these unless in the release notes you see a fix for problem that you’ve been experiencing as well – updating BIOS incorrectly could brick your system and you will have to send it back for repairs).

Already having recent drivers, I didn’t expect a huge leap forward in performance, there’s very small differences, probably not worth the effort if you’re already happy with the overall performance.

To keep the performance at top levels you should regularly clean your system (using Windows CleanUp tool or 3rd party tools like CCleaner) and defrag your hard drive (Windows Defrag or 3rd party tools like PerfectDisk).

Catalyst “Mobility” 9.11 Vista legacy drivers on Windows 7

Same procedure as before, with the difference that this time the setup worked fine, except for an error at installing the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable (I don’t know what the implications are on this one…). Driver seems to be working fine in full resolution (1920x10200) on a Dell Inspiron 9300 (ATI Mobility X300).

ATI Catalyst Display Driver v9.11
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_vista32.aspx

Catalyst “Mobility” 9.3.1 Vista legacy drivers on Windows 7

Windows 7 RC default drivers for ATI Radeon Mobility X300 are working fine on my work Dell Inspiron 9300 with Aero Glass and all, but let’s try to push it a bit further.

Download Catalyst Radeon 9.3.1 legacy desktop drivers for Windows Vista x32:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/previous/Pages/radeonaiw_vista32.aspx

Run the package and let it extract the drivers - usually to a path like X:\ATI\Support\9-3_1_legacy_vista32-64_dd_ccc – then cancel the installation.

Download and run DriverHeaven’s Mobility Modder to modify the drivers package (see similar notes on the application download page).

I’ve tried then to run the setup.exe from the driver package as the instructions say on the Mobility Modder page, but the driver didn’t show up in the list, so I went and update the driver manually through Computer Management > Device Manager > Display adapters > ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 > Driver (tab) > Update driver > Browse my computer for driver software > Let me pick from list of device drivers on my computer > Have Disk > X:\ATI\Support\9-3_1_legacy_vista32-64_dd_ccc\Packages\Drivers\Display\LH_INF > etc. Reboot when prompted.

The updated driver didn’t change the graphics rating and I couldn’t notice any performance increase, but I’ll keep the drivers if no problems appear.

 
Note: I have tried the same procedure on ATI Catalyst 9.8 desktop drivers, and although the driver is being presented through the manual update procedure, on reboot I lost the Aero Glass and the maximum resolution allowed was 1600x1200. Which probably makes sense, since ATI has dropped support for the legacy chipsets in newer drivers, even if the Modder makes them appear in the .inf file.

Catalyst 9.3.1 Vista legacy drivers on Windows 7

ATI’s made the Catalyst 9.3.1 Legacy Display Driver for Windows Vista 32bit work fine on Windows 7 now, no need to do any hacking, of course it comes with the note saying that’s not officially supported.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_vista32.aspx

 
I don’t know about yous, but this gives my old system (Intel P4 3.0 GHz Prescott, 2 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600XT) a new lease of life, Windows 7 is working pretty much as fast as Windows XP, maybe with a little more HDD activity (although I stopped Superfetch service and turned off write-cache buffer flushing), but generally fairly happy with it. It works fine with the Aero Glass and all the nice stuff, haven’t missed running any software yet, heck, even old Halo (2003) works no problems.

ATI Catalyst Mobility 9.3 – Windows XP driver

I’ve been looking for a while for an updated driver for ATI Mobility X300 in my Dell Inspiron 9300 work laptop running Windows XP - Dell’s driver dated back to 2005. I don’t know if this is going to help anyone nowadays when all the buzz is Vista and Windows 7, but it’s a keeper anyways as you can’t seem to be able to get it from AMD’s website.

ATI Catalyst Display Driver
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonmob_xp.aspx?type=2.4.2&product=2.4.2.3.4&lang=English

Driver package (OpenDrivers.com)
http://download1.opendrivers.com/uploaddrv/display-and-video/ati-technology/9-3-mobile_xp32_dd_ccc_enu.exe

Video: Why Intel 915 graphics don’t have a WDDM driver for Vista

http://www.tinyscreenfuls.com/2007/04/video-why-intel-915-graphics-dont-have-a-wddm-driver-for-vista/

Read the full article on Josh Bancroft's blog, on short it's about the lack of WDDM drivers for Intel 915 integrated graphics much needed to run Vista Aero, Movie Maker and DVD Maker and the reson for that is that the Windows Vista WDDM driver spec came after 915 was complete and in production and is missing a hardware piece needed to be WDDM compliant. Some people complained that Aero used to work on 915 in one of the release candidates, and Josh explains that Intel didn't change the drivers but Microsoft has changed the product to not allow XPDM drivers access to those features.

Also found this on Intel's website explaining the hardware limitations in 915 chip.

Q5: Why doesn’t the Intel 915 Express chipset family support Windows Vista Aero?
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-023606.htm#5

To be honest from reading Intel's explainations I kinda get that it would've worked but would've been slow. I think there's a bunch of politics involved as well, they can't release some half compliant WDDM driver since they are such a big company and obviously they don't want to spend time and money on an older chipset so they've dug up these technical details. Fair enough, but they should've came out with these explanations from the beginning and most people probably would've understood, now there's a bunch of angry people out there feeling that they've been deceived, they are not sure now if it's Microsoft or Intel or both.

Personally, I don't think they did a great job with the XPDM driver either, I can notice is slower on my R2H in Vista compared to XP even when drawing up windows and not themed ones - so maybe they should've tried to put together some half-cooked WDDM driver and release it through some Intel community channel, there are you are boys, we couldn't build a public release WDDM driver cause Microsoft would never sign it, why don't you have a go at this version but keep in mind you are on your own, don't come back crying if it brakes. It would've been installed by the 6000 technology geeks petitioning now, there you go is slow as we told you a while ago, then everyone would've disabled Aero cause it draws too much battery but happy now they have a WDDM driver :-) and maybe then I could've been able to change the brigthness from Vista Mobility Center :-) but since that won't happen, back to the drawing board on that one...

ASUS R2H - ADI SoundMax drivers

While looking for a new audio driver for Vista on RH2 I found this exhaustive post on nForcersHQ.com forum covering various ADI SoundMax drivers for XP and Vista (btw, mine has an ADI 1986 chip, or so it says in Device Manager, Hardware IDs).

I've tried the latest one from the ASUS series, the one labeled 6.10.02.6400 [03-01-2008] which I believe is in fact 6.10.1.6400 due to some strange ASUS version labeling, I've seen this with the latest sound driver available on the ASUS R2H drivers page as well - note the driver version on the page then download the file and open the i386\Vista\ADIHdAud.inf and look for DriverBuildID.

You may have to uninstall the previous SoundMax drivers from ASUS (Control Panel > Programs and Features). It seems to bring an audio processor from Sonic Forge that you can configure from Control Panel > Sound > Playback (tab) > Speakers (configure) > System effects (tab). You will also notice that when enabling the Sonic Focus processing the sound is fuller and also audiodg.exe will take about 10% CPU. Oh, the software will also install a SoundMax entry in Control Panel that doesn't seem to work and it's related to that the same icon in tray area (disabled, you can get rid of it using Autoruns - also remove the SoundMaxPNP entry if you get an error message about it when you logon).

One other thing, when enabling the audio effects, these drivers still have the bug where it's loosing handlers, explained here at WithinWindows.com - you see them going by in Task Manager or Process Explorer, add the Handles column and watch audiodg.exe process - before throwing another one at Microsoft :-) read the article at WithinWindows.com.

Next in line was the 6.10.01.6200 driver from Lenovo. Nothing added there, just that it simply works, when compared to the default Windows Vista driver :-) No audio effects as you won't be able to use the installer - extract somewhere and use the Device Manager > Update driver > Let me pick my ... button and go for i386\Vista folder, not that you will, but just if you were thinking to try it anyways...

Same luck with the 6.10.01.6380 Lenovo drivers, installer doesn't work, you could update them manually but again why would you.

Finally, the conclusion is that if you want the audio effects you should install the ASUS drivers. If you don't want/need the effects you can simply uninstall previous SoundMax entries from Control Panel and use the Device Manager to manually update the drivers with whichever driver you want, without the audio effects they all sound as flat as the other one :-) I'll keep an eye on the Sonic Focus support page if they post a driver for ADI 1986 (the current one is for 1988 chip) maybe the CPU usage is going to drop as well as fixing the handles issue.

Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.2.0.1001

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2101&DwnldID=16012&strOSs=44&lang=eng

This driver provides support for high-capacity & fault-tolerant Serial ATA (SATA) RAID 5 arrays and high-performance & fault-tolerant SATA RAID 10 arrays on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X and 945 chipset-based platforms. It provides support for high-performance SATA RAID 0 arrays & redundant SATA RAID 1 arrays on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X, 945, 925, 915 chipset-based platforms. It also provides AHCI support on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X, 945, 925 and 915 chipset-based platforms, as well as on Mobile Intel® 915/910 chipset-based platforms.

Note: Intel® RAID Technology requires the Intel® ICH9R/ICH10R SATA RAID controller hub, Intel® 82801HR I/O controller hub (ICH8R), Intel® 631xESB/632xESB I/O controller hub, Intel® 82801GR/GH I/O controller hub (ICH7R/DH), Intel® 82801FR I/O controller hub (ICH6R).

Read Me (txt) Release Notes (htm)

File : iata82_enu.exe
Version : 8.2.0.1001
Date : 2008/06/02
Size : 6858 KB
OS : Windows Server* 2003, Windows Server* 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, Windows Server* 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server* 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Vista*, Windows Vista* 32, Windows Vista* 64, Windows* XP Home Edition, Windows* XP Media Center Edition, Windows* XP Professional, Windows* XP Professional x64 Edition

This download is also valid for the products listed below. Use the links below for additional product downloads:

Intel® 3 Series Chipsets
Intel® 4 Series Chipset
Intel® 5000P Chipset
Intel® 5000V Chipset
Intel® 5000X Chipset
Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 955X Express Chipset
Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 975X Express Chipset
Intel® E7230 Chipset
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager
Mobile Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family
Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family

INF Update Utility 9.0.0.1008 - Primarily for Intel® 4, 3, 900 Series Chipsets

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=816&DwnldID=16023&strOSs=163&lang=eng

Intel® Chipset Device Software is the new name for the Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility; this name will be seen when running the installation package.

The Intel® Chipset Device Software installs the Windows* INF files. The INF files inform the operating system how to properly configure the chipset for specific functionality, such as AGP, USB, Core PCI, and ISAPNP services.

Note: This version of the utility no longer contains support for chipsets using an I/O controller hub older than the Intel® 82801EB controller hub (ICH5).

Note: This version of the utility no longer contains support for Microsoft Windows* Millennium Edition and Windows* 98SE.

Read Me (txt) Release Notes (htm)


Download
Ver : 9.0.0.1008
Date : 6/2/2008
Size : 2455 (KB)
OS : Windows Server* 2003, Windows Server* 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, Windows Server* 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server* 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Vista*, Windows Vista* 32, Windows Vista* 64, Windows* 2000, Windows* XP Home Edition, Windows* XP Media Center Edition, Windows* XP Professional, Windows* XP Professional x64 Edition


This download is also valid for the products listed below. Use the links below for additional product downloads:

Intel® 3 Series Chipsets
Intel® 4 Series Chipset
Intel® 6300ESB I/O Controller Hub
Intel® 848P Chipset
Intel® 865 Chipset Family
Intel® 875P Chipset
Intel® 910 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 915 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 925X Express Chipset Family
Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 946 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 955X Express Chipset
Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 975X Express Chipset
Intel® Centrino® Duo Processor Technology
Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology
Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility
Intel® E7210 Chipset
Intel® E7221 Chipset
Intel® E7230 Chipset
Intel® E7320 Chipset
Intel® E7520 Chipset
Intel® E7525 Chipset
Intel® E8500 Chipset
Intel® E8501 Chipset
Mobile Intel® 910GML Express Chipset
Mobile Intel® 915 Express Chipset Family
Mobile Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family

Intel Inf Update

I have decided to update the Intel chipset divers, too see if it's going to improve thing - maybe is just me, but it seems that the system is a bit snapier and the CPU is not getting at 100% as much as it used to.

First of all, if you just want to try this, but still be able to go back, you should copy your current hardware profile, to create a test profile. I guess you won't he able to select the new profile when Windows loads without an external keyboard, but i just wanted to mention it, in case you want to be on the safe side. I'm not going to cover that in detail, but here's a kb entry from microsoft that explains houw to do it - HOW TO: Set Up Hardware Profiles for Laptop Computers in Windows XP

Download the latest version (I used version 8.1.1.1010) from here - go for the exe file andsave it in a temporary folder (e.g. C:\Windows\Temp). Open a command prompt window (go to Start -> Run, type "cmd" and press [Enter]), and type the following commands:

cd c:\windows\temp
infinst_autol.exe -A -A

Follow the installation steps, and once finished you should have the drivers installed in C:\Program Files\Intel\InfInst

Open Computer Management from Control Panel > Administrative Tools, and select the Device Manager from the tree on the left.

Now we will update the drivers for the devices (right tree) that have Intel as the "Device Provider", starting with Intel UltraATA Storage Controllers.

Double click the device entry, select the Drivers tab - note the 6.x driver version:

Push "Update driver..." button, and the Hardware Update Wizard will start. Choose "Install from a list a specific location (Advanced)", and push "Next"...

Choose "Don't search..." and push "Next"...

... click "Have disk"

type or browse for driver location (C:\Program Files\Intel\InfInst\xp)

choose "OK" to install the new driver...

Successful driver update - note the version 8.x in the driver property sheet.

You may be prompted to reboot once you click "Close" button - you can reboot each time you are asked to or you can wait until you have updated all drivers.

Proceed to update the drivers for the other devices, following the same steps:

Systems devices
- Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 2448
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM PCI Express Root Port - 2660
- Intel(R) 82801FBM LPC Interface Controller - 2641
- Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller - 2950

Universal Serial Bus controllers
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2658
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2659
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265A
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265B
- Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 2658

Note: If theHardware Update Wizard presents multiple driver choices, make sure that you select the driver name that you started to update in the first place.

Note: Most of all the new drives will be version 8.x, but some will be 6.x or 7.x, but that's just fine as Intel doesn't provide update for all drivers in the same package - but they will be definitely newer than the ones you had pre-installed.

Let me know if you have any problems when or after updating the drivers.