A8V-XE WinXP 64 install problems.

I've reinstalled XP about 5 times so far. At one point I had it
running ok, but I'm trying to get XP to work with AHCI instead of IDE.
I have all SATA devices. Two hard drives, and two SATA DVD's
3Gb of Ram and EVGA 8600 video card.

Is there a way to install drivers at install time. If so where do I
get the drivers from to do this.

If I start the install process with AHCI enabled I get the blue screen
of death. Not sure what it say, other than if this is the first time
yada yada yada.

If I install with IDE enabled it will install fine, but at install and
first boot it will take 5 or 10 minutes to start.
I've gotten it started and install (in this order) the Via chipset up
dates, then Asus updates.

I'm thinking I should have gotten a different Motherboard. I had 3GB
of DDR400 ram that I didnt' want to waste, so this was one that would
allow me to use it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Wedge

wedge40 wrote:
> I've reinstalled XP about 5 times so far. At one point I had it
> running ok, but I'm trying to get XP to work with AHCI instead of IDE.
> I have all SATA devices. Two hard drives, and two SATA DVD's
> 3Gb of Ram and EVGA 8600 video card.
>
> Is there a way to install drivers at install time. If so where do I
> get the drivers from to do this.
>
> If I start the install process with AHCI enabled I get the blue screen
> of death. Not sure what it say, other than if this is the first time
> yada yada yada.
>
> If I install with IDE enabled it will install fine, but at install and
> first boot it will take 5 or 10 minutes to start.
> I've gotten it started and install (in this order) the Via chipset up
> dates, then Asus updates.
>
> I'm thinking I should have gotten a different Motherboard. I had 3GB
> of DDR400 ram that I didnt' want to waste, so this was one that would
> allow me to use it.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Wedge

There is some info here on AHCI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahci

Researching this is interesting. As you'd expect, the Southbridge enumeration
is expected to change, when you use the AHCI setting. By downloading the
Hyperion Pro 5.X driver from Viaarena, I can see a line in the "viamraid.inf"
file, where AHCI is identified. That suggests to me, that their RAID driver
might be something to try (i.e. covers RAID and AHCI ?)

PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_6287.DeviceDesc="VIA AHCI Controller - 6287"

This file *looks* like it might make a floppy for you. I haven't
tested it. You should end up with a txtsetup.oem file at the top
level of the floppy.

VIA_HyperionPro_V514A:VRAIDDrvriverDiskPrep.exe

The ZIP driver package can be downloaded from here -

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...D=1&CatID=1070 (info)
http://drivers.viaarena.com/VIA_HyperionPro_V514A.zip (file)

There is an information note here, unrelated to the Hyperion:

http://drivers.viaarena.com/rnotes/V...ase%20Note.htm

Why that one is interesting, is it says:

"Due to the change of VIA Device ID definition Policy for Storage
Class Devices, some IDE adapter (on this product) will still use 0581h,
0591h or 3349h (depends on product) as its Device ID even if it is
working under IDE mode. VIA suggests all BIOS providers should follow
VIA Device ID definition Policy for Storage Class Devices in order to
let driver be correctly workable for VIA SATA controllers."

Now, the last sentence implies that when the BIOS is set to IDE, AHCI, or RAID,
the enumeration should change also. For example, you'd hope the Southbridge
SATA ports would enumerate as 6287 when AHCI is selected, in order for the
above Hyperion Pro floppy preparation to work.

Sometimes, the best bet is to boot Ubuntu (ubuntu.com) or Knoppix (knopper.net),
and do your device enumeration testing in there. Both of those are bootable
LiveCD distributions, that don't need to install on a hard drive (or
touch the hard drive). By using "dmesg", "lspci", and "lsusb", you
can get enumeration info of one sort and another. If you wanted to double
check how the BIOS was setting up the hardware, that would be a possible
avenue to explore. The ISO9660 download for those two distros, is 700MB
in size, so is only a feasible download via a broadband connection. I
burned my disks with the copy of Nero that came with my burner.

Good luck,
Paul

Paul wrote:
> wedge40 wrote:
>> I've reinstalled XP about 5 times so far. At one point I had it
>> running ok, but I'm trying to get XP to work with AHCI instead of IDE.
>> I have all SATA devices. Two hard drives, and two SATA DVD's
>> 3Gb of Ram and EVGA 8600 video card.
>>
>> Is there a way to install drivers at install time. If so where do I
>> get the drivers from to do this.
>>
>> If I start the install process with AHCI enabled I get the blue screen
>> of death. Not sure what it say, other than if this is the first time
>> yada yada yada.
>>
>> If I install with IDE enabled it will install fine, but at install and
>> first boot it will take 5 or 10 minutes to start.
>> I've gotten it started and install (in this order) the Via chipset up
>> dates, then Asus updates.
>>
>> I'm thinking I should have gotten a different Motherboard. I had 3GB
>> of DDR400 ram that I didnt' want to waste, so this was one that would
>> allow me to use it.
>>
>> Any help would be appreciated.
>>
>> Wedge

Since you're using WinXP x64, I guess the correct INF file would have
been VIAMRX64.inf . In my previous post, I quoted the one for the
32 bit install. The line

PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_6287.DeviceDesc="VIA AHCI Controller - 6287"

is still in there.

Paul