[Randomness]

Hello:

This thread is intended for reference infomation specific to the A8M2N-LA (NodusM3) motherboard ( it may apply to other variations of the motherboard)

HP's website has the following for the Motherboard's specifications:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...reg_R1002_CAEN

It uses a nForce 430 (aka MCP51) southbridge.
The Serial ATA controller is sometimes referenced as MCP51S ; and the Parallel ATA controller is sometimes referenced as MCP51P

ANY MODIFICATIONS YOU PREFORM USING THE PROVIDED INFORMATION ARE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

In contridiction of the HP motherboard specifications, the southbridge (nForce 430) is capable of SATA-II (3.0Gb/s transfer rate).

The PATA IDE interface is also capable of ATA-133 (UDMA mode 6)

However, for those with the motherboard, may have noted that their Transfer rate for SATA is at 1.5Gb/s and the PATA is at UDMA mode 5 ;

The SATA transfer rate can be increased by doing the following :
Download the nForce 430/410 platform driver straight from www.nvidia.com ; and install it ; When your computer restarts, go into the BIOS, and set the PnP enabled OS to "YES"

When your system boots into Windows, goto Device Manager, open the properties of the "NVIDIA nForce 430/410 Serial ATA Controller" device. You should have 2 entries of this device for the "NodusM3" version of this motherboard.

Find the Channel your harddrive is on, uncheck the "Let BIOS select transfer mode" and manually set the transfer mode to
"Seral ATA generation 2 - 3G"
( you will have to restart your computer)
**This will only work if your harddrive supports SATA-II ! Do not use this trasnfer mode if the harddrive is only compatible with SATA-I ; data corruption could result in the worst cases.
---
Getting the PATA controller to use UDMA Mode 6 is more tricky. You will need to do some driver modifications.
goto http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_archive.html
Find and download the:
nForce4 AMD Edition - Windows XP/2000 (32-Bit)
Version: 6.70
Release Date: October 26, 2005

It contains "legacy" PATA IDE drivers. However they do not have the MCP51P controller Device codes inside the INF file.
When you download the installer package .exe , use 7-z to unpack it using the "extract files" option. (http://www.7-zip.org/)

You will find the PATA controller drivers in the
IDE\WinXP\Legacy directory

You will need to add the following line to the nvatabus.inf under the [NVIDIA] label

"NVIDIA nForce 430/410 Ultra PATA controller"=Crush11_Inst,PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0265

save your changes.

Now you can manually install the NVIDIA driver through device manager. Right click on the "Standard dual channel IDE controller", select "Update driver", use the Advanced option, than the "don't search, i will choose a driver to install" then click on "Have disk" on the next screen. Browse to the location of the IDE\WinXP\legacy\nvatabus.inf ; Select the device in the list, click next ; you will get an unsigned driver warning. Click "Continue Anyway" ; When finished, restart your computer.

Upon restart, go back to device manager, find the PATA controller, double click on it to open its properties. Find the channel of the harddrive that is stuck on UDMA mode 5, uncheck the "Let BIOS select transfer mode" and manually set it to Mode 6. Restart.

Enjoy the slightly faster preformance ; ideal for movie editing, etc and so forth.

BE CAREFUL. If you force a harddrive to operate in a mode it doesn't support, you can cause data corruption.

Also note, you cannot use any of the higher UDMA modes unless you are using a 80-conductor 40-pin PATA IDE cable.

You may want to double check your southbridge is a nForce 430 and not a nForce 410 by visually inspecting the chip on the motherbaord iteself. Otherwise these modifcation may not work.

And of course, you do these modification at your own risk.

good luck, take care,

- Randomness

[DBeyrent]

im runnin a hp a1710n with vista home premium evga 8800gts can i do this also? i am trying but when i try to manually put in the sata rate all i get is "PIO Mode" option i cant put anything in manually. am i doing something wrong? thanks for the info.. this is the most ive gotten on this mobo so far. phoenix award bios 12/15/2006-c51/mcp51-a8m2n-La-00

[Randomness]

Hello:

Sadly, there is a bug in the nVidia SATA drivers that doesn't list the upper transfer modes. Hopefully nVidia will correct this soon for the nForce chipset. By default, the nVidia SATA drivers use SATA 1.5Gb/s (aka SATA 1G, aka SATA 1, aka SATA 150MB/s). Until the drivers are fixed in a new release, i don't think its would be easy to convince the system to use the SATA II speed, because harddrive IDE and SATA speeds are initially determined by the BIOS. Hence, if nVidia doesn't fix the drivers, one would have to consult HP with regards to a BIOS update to address the limited harddrive speeds.

I wouldn't suggest using XP drivers for IDE and SATA in Vista, things can get messy, and more than likely you'll have to reload your system from scratch.

Although, after doing some experiments / math when i was still using XP, i've concluded that the preformance gains from using UDMA Mode 6 (for the IDE PATA harddrives), or SATA II transfer modes are almost negligible. (Unless you using a Harddrive with a very large cache, or one of those sever harddisks in excess of 10,000rpm) most desktop harddrives have physical transfer speeds limited (ie// from the actual hard disk platters to the controller) between 60 to 80 MB/s, which are well accomidated in the NodusM3 BIOS configuration thus far.

Take care,

- Randomness

[Randomness]

Hello:

Another random note i found out while surfing the web about this motherboard is in regards to entering the BIOS. Instead of using the F1 key as suggested by the startup screen, use F11 to enter the BIOS. This will allow you to see more advanced options (granted, these options are still limited).

Take Care, good luck

- Randomness

[mikel321]

My pc has the A8M2N-LA motherboard version 1.03 with BIOS 3.10. The BIOS has the SATA Controller Mode set to IDE and will not allow it to be changed. Does this chipset driver update fix that or is something else needed?

[ChaosMinionX]

Originally Posted by mikel321

My pc has the A8M2N-LA motherboard version 1.03 with BIOS 3.10. The BIOS has the SATA Controller Mode set to IDE and will not allow it to be changed. Does this chipset driver update fix that or is something else needed?

Hi there, and welcome to DriverHeaven

Being that this thread is almost 2years old, it is advised you make a new post concerning your problem and not resurrect posts in such a manner.

Just proper forum etiquette is all.

I took your question, and made you a thread with a proper topic. You will find it at the following link.
***http://www.hardwareheaven.com/motherbo...usm3-bios.html

-CMX