I am helping a friend restore an old HP computer the, HP Compaq 8100 Elite Convertible Minitower, RUNNING WINDOWS 7, with 1.13 BIOS, product number QM046US#ABA, motherboard 531990-001. I installed the StarTech 6P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD only with no HDD connected and when booting the system the computer freezes at the BIOS blue screen. Removing the SATA card and the computer boots into windows. Is the 6P6G SATA CARD not compatible with this computer? I also saw this message in the boot process Asmedia ASM1064/116X SATA Controller ver 0.96 AHCI
Dear @OBF , thank you for your interest in our Community.
I would like to begin by confirming that the 6P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD is indeed compatible with Windows 7 and backward compatibility with PCIe 1.x/2.x, while the HP Compaq 8100 Elite provides an x16-format slot electrically operating at x4. The messages shown indicate that the SATA controller is being detected and that its pre-boot firmware is starting correctly. The “Can’t find any device” message is expected because no SATA drive was connected during the test.
The card and computer meet the basic PCIe requirements, however, because the computer freezes before Windows begins loading, this appears more likely to be a BIOS or option-ROM configuration or compatibility issue rather than a Windows or driver issue.
If I understand correctly, you do not have any disk connected to our card, but expect to boot on Windows: which seems to indicate that your boot drive is likely connected internally, yet while the computer may be prioritizing our card when installed. This, to me, would be my first place to look.
I would recommend trying the following:
Make sure to update the BIOS booting configuration and order while the card is installed and detected by the system (avoid trying to boot from the card and rather directly point to the right internal boot drive).
Try the card in the other available PCIe x16-format slot.
Test it with one known-working SATA drive connected.
If possible, test the SATA card in another computer, to rule out a hardware issue with the card itself.
Temporarily disable unused boot options such as network/PXE boot and remove any other unnecessary expansion cards.
Load the BIOS default settings or clear the CMOS.
Should the issue persist, I would recommend to contact our Support team for a more in-depth troubleshooting session, preferably while in front of the equipment in question.
I hope this helps you find a solution and have an excellent day!