HP N40L microserver and AHCI how to enable

roachyuk · 28 May 2012 at 10:08

I have a n40l ive put a ssd in the drive bay above the hdds bay...it works fine but for some reason its only running in ide mode not ahci mode, AHCI is enabled in the bios so i dont understand wht its showing up as ide...i sort of think its a driver issue but cant seem to find a driver on the hp site so not to sure...has anyone else came across this problem when using a ssd....i am using WHS 2011 thanks....

cokecan · 28 May 2012 at 10:12

You need to install a modded bios to enable AHCI on the spare sata connector on the board (the one you have your SSD plugged into)

roachyuk · 28 May 2012 at 11:22

ohhhh....i see is it worth doing that and do you have any pointers to where i can get it thanks...or can i put it into one of the normal bays using a adapter will it fit.

cokecan · 28 May 2012 at 11:23

I've not done it myself yet so haven't done much reading up on it but I'd say it's worth doing if you want to use that port (and I believe the external eSATA port) with AHCI rather than IDE

roachyuk · 28 May 2012 at 11:29

yes ive just found info on it from here gonna look into it more and to see if anyone else on here has used the modded bios before i try lol

http://homeservershow.com/hp-microserver-n40l-build-and-bios-modification.html

cokecan · 28 May 2012 at 11:55

lol good call

There are a few people in the mammoth microserver thread have done it, hopefully one of them will see this to offer more advice as I'd be interested in this too

roachyuk · 28 May 2012 at 12:00

Lol have you tried searching that thread.....think ill have a good look later on.

Ive had a read of this as well pretty good info and has the mod for you as well
http://homeservershow.com/forums/in...for-microserver-n40l-enables-hidden-features/

aln · 28 May 2012 at 19:14

The info provided in the thread is pretty straight forward. It gets you to make a bootable USB device, thus all you need to do is boot your microserver with the usb in, and it'll update the bios. Obviously if you lose power mid doing this, you may brick the device, but other than that it's no big deal at all.

After flashing, you need to change some bios settings, again discussed in the thread. I'd say this all shouldn't take more than 30 minutes for you get it working.

roachyuk · 28 May 2012 at 21:31

i know how to do it and have the files on usb already ...but was wondering if anyone has already done it and is it problem free...

aln · 28 May 2012 at 21:45

roachyuk said:
i know how to do it and have the files on usb already ...but was wondering if anyone has already done it and is it problem free...

I;'ve done it already.

roachyuk · 28 May 2012 at 21:48

and is every thing ok no glitches or anything....

aln · 28 May 2012 at 22:23

nothing wrong with it. rock solid.

roachyuk · 28 May 2012 at 22:33

sound ill do it in the morning thanks for the info of your experience

IanAG · 29 May 2012 at 09:44

Mine is an N36L but I have flashed a modified BIOS to both of mine and have been running AHCI with no problems on a 5th drive. Apart from the usual slight risk of any BIOS flash I don't think there is anything to be worried about.

roachyuk · 29 May 2012 at 11:16

Ok have flashed and works fine...ahci works now on my ssd in top bay.....couple of things are there different ahci drivers you can install and like win 7 are there any tweaks you need to do for whs 2011 thanks