Cross checked bios setting with my son's pc which has the same hardware as mine. But we discovered he has the p7h55-m board running bios 1101. He's upgrading his rig soon and when he figures out which new motherboard to get i might nab his old one!
Meanwhile - are we running out of options here do you think?
Just found this FAQ on the asus site ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- FAQ for my board - is it worth trying as it wont boot in AHCI mode nomally?
install win7 in IDE mode，then change to AHCI，OS would be blu screen，how to slove？
Solution
1. Run regedit to open registry
2. Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ services \ msahci
3. In the "Edit DWORD Value " dialog box, the "Value data " box, the value of the number from 3 to 0 (Figure 2), click "OK" button
4. Close the "Registry Editor " window and restart the computer.
5. Restart your computer when you enter the BIOS settings screen, change the hard disk AHCI mode
AHCI : Enable in Windows 7 / Vista This will show you how to do it, but I don't believe that is your problem. You can install either way. There is some other problem. I just hope the power outage didn't mess your board up.
Power outages and or power surges when the power is restored can cause motherboard problems when a poor quality power supply is used. It is more possible when a surge protector is not used.
A quality power supply has a higher quality low and high voltage spike protection built in. Lower priced motherboards are more susceptible to voltages variations also because they have fewer capacitors.
I recommend a surge protector even when using a quality power supply.
Sometimes trouble shooting these problems is almost impossible without a lab designed to do such testing.
My computers and everything that hooks to my computers has a surge protector used.
A few bucks can save someone thousands of dollars worth of equipment.
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I have installed Windows 7 AHCI and IDE so I do agree with Steve that is probably not your problem.
It can't hurt to try both ways to the best of my thinking.
Every thing I have seen or posted in this thread has shown the bios as 0504. Everything I can find online indicates that is the proper bios. Now can the bios be corrupted most likely NO but anything can happen with power surges. I would also suggest not to assume that a power surge only effected one piece of hardware. Power surges can also effect the video card bios.
I can not over state the importance of proper power and power protection.
If it sounds like I'm beating a dead horse to death so be it.
I think I will get some more coffee and sweeten with a little J.D. this time.
Paul, I don't believe that tutorial will work on XP. It is for Windows 7 and it tells the values for Vista at the top.
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