Question about activating AHCI mode for Samsung SSDs

Question arises on Windows 10 Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.3693), dual boot with Win7/Win10 on separate partitions. All drives (4 of them) are Samsung SSD Evo. Mobo is Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 Rev. 2.0.

I've followed the instructions in the TenForums tutorial for enabling AHCI, and the instructions from Microsoft (which are pretty much the same). No matter what I do, the value HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorAVC\StartOverride\0 keeps being reset to 3. BIOS AHCI mode has been enabled for quite a while for Win7; Win10 is a recent addition. Tried changing the value under the Administrator account, both in and out of Safe Mode.

Nevertheless, Samsung Magician shows AHCI mode "Activated" for all four drives.

So I'm confused. Is Magician right? Is the tutorial (and Microsoft) wrong? Is there someplace else I can look to ensure I've got AHCI mode activated?

One or more of these methods may be useful:

1) Open device manager > expand all rows > look for any displaying a yellow triangle with black exclamation mark or unknown device > view IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers > right click > view properties

2) Open MSINFO32 > expand components > expand storage > click on IDE


3) Open DxDiag > search for Standard SATA AHCI Controller


4) Run this script using administrative powershell:

powershell - how to determine, by command line, whether my SATA sockets are connected or not to a device? - Super User

Code:

# query for wmi objects
$drivers = Get-CimInstance win32_pnpsignedDriver -filter 'DeviceName="Disk drive" OR DeviceName="CD-ROM Drive"'
$disks = Get-CimInstance Win32_PnPEntity | ? {$_.service -in 'disk','cdrom' -and $_.name -ne 'Xvd'}  # Xvd is an xbox/windows-store-related device

# Iterate through disks
$result = foreach ($disk in $disks) {
  # disk controllers are usually either IDE (IDE/SATA) or SCSI (NVME/M.2/virtual)
  $controller = Get-CimInstance -query "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID='$($disk.DeviceID)'}" | 
    Where {$_.CreationClassName -in 'Win32_IDEController','Win32_SCSIController'}

  # the driver class lists drive location
  $driver = $drivers | where DeviceID -eq $disk.PNPDeviceID

  # combine data for result
  $disk | select Name,
    @{l='location';e={$driver.Location}},
    @{l='controllerName';e={$controller.Name}}
}
$result

MSINFO32 result example:

Code:

Name	Intel(R) 300 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller
Manufacturer	Intel Corporation
Status	OK
PNP Device ID	PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A352&SUBSYS_7B511462&REV_10\3&11583659&0&B8
Memory Address	0xA4234000-0xA4235FFF
Memory Address	0xA423A000-0xA423A0FF
I/O Port	0x00004050-0x00004057
I/O Port	0x00004040-0x00004043
I/O Port	0x00004020-0x0000403F
Memory Address	0xA4239000-0xA42397FF
IRQ Channel	IRQ 4294967294
Driver	C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\IASTORAC.SYS (17.7.0.1006, 1,011.47 KB (1,035,744 bytes), 12/10/2019 2:47 AM)

DxDiag result example:

Code:

     Name: Standard SATA AHCI Controller
Device ID: PCI\VEN_1B21&DEV_0612&SUBSYS_06121849&REV_02\4&1FDBC9C8&0&00E6
   Driver: C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\storahci.sys, 10.00.22621.2506 (English), 11/14/2023 21:24:31, 214400 bytes

Script result example:

Code:

Name                      location                         controllerName
----                      --------                         --------------
SanDisk SD6PP4M-256G-1006 Bus Number 0, Target Id 0, LUN 0 Standard SATA AHCI Controller

Thank you both for the detailed replies! Turns out it was a "bad user on device" (old DEC joke) situation. I read the relevant tutorial as I said. But I somehow missed the note after step 8 saying "This value will return back to 3 after you restart the computer later." Duh. Regardless, the info you provided will certainly come in handy in the future.

Pebkac

Indeed