Clean Vista Business Install Issue on A8N-SLI DLX

AVP

Senior member
Jan 19, 2005
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Ok so after a few weeks of vista business goodness, my installation died and I could not repair, or eventually even get into safe mode. Well now I have wiped my harddrive and I am attempting to reinstall it.

I have a Asus A8N Sli-dlx nf4 mobo, with a wd800jd (or something like that) 80g sata hd. Before I was having ntfs and iterraid.sys issues but I realized I was not installing any sata controller drivers.

So now when I install vista I load the Sillicon Image 3114r5 drivers, which are supposedly compatible with RC2 (no new editions) I get a partmgr.sys missing or corrupted black screen somewhere within the install process.

I only have one hd, but it seems that I still need to install the Sata Controller, correct? I have NVRaid disabled in the bios, as it always has been, but do I need to install the Nf4 chipset drivers before installation as well?

I know that everything is more or less compatable, as I have used Vista Buiness already on this machine.

Any help on how to resolve the partition manager issue, whether it be disabling both nv raid and the Sillicon Image controller, or using NvRaid instead, would be helpfull! Thanks a ton, I will be waiting around for a response, so dont hesitate to offer any input!
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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There appear to be Vista (RTM) drivers for the Silicon Image 3114 in non-RAID mode here. Are these what you are using?

I know zillch about NForce-chipset motherboards. Do they have an IDE emulation mode that doesn't require SATA drivers for non-RAID drives? Many motherboards do.
 

AVP

Senior member
Jan 19, 2005
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Yeah I used those sillicon drivers, the IDE and the raid ones. I am in the middle of an attempt to install Vista having the Silicon Sata Controller and NVraid all turned off however and I got to completing installation and the computer rebooted as normal, but now I cannot boot to either the hard drive or the dvd.

I had it set to hard drive and it gives me options to boot vista normally or safe mode, yet the installation wasnt really completed. It restarted and I tried the dvd but it restarts at the end of the "green bar" initialization screen.

Worst part is, now that it did not install correctly, I think I have to wipe my disk again since I cannot get anything else to work.

Lemme go into the Bios to check for Ide emulation, I might have seen something like it. Thanks for your help anyways!

*Though currently I am receiving no error messages...shrug
** oooh new update, all the drivers loaded and I can get into safe mode, but it says it cannot complete the installation there. Lets see what happens
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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So, are using RC2 or RTM? With the new Activation-timer-reset-switch, RTM can be used until July without Activation, while RC2 likely expires in May.
 

AVP

Senior member
Jan 19, 2005
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Full Vista Business, I assume that is the same as release to manufacture?
 

AVP

Senior member
Jan 19, 2005
885
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76
Ok so yeah now I am stuck again. Evidently all the drivers are loaded but the installation did not continue and I cannot boot from cd or hard drive, so essentially I am guessing I am stuck. Safe mode sorta works but it says installation needs to continue as noted. I guess I have to wipe the drive again? That would suck, having to take a few hours between tries is what is getting me right now.
 

NokiaDude

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2002
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You don't have to wipe the drive if you've done a complete wipe already. Just delete the partition and install again. All you're doing is wasting your time.
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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Yeah. A clean Vista install only takes about 20 minutes. Just pop in the DVD and, when asked, tell it to delete the Vista partition and start over.
 

AVP

Senior member
Jan 19, 2005
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Ok guys well thanks for everyhing but still no luck. I think I am gonna scrap vista and wait on my xp home cd which arrives wednesday.

Ive tried every combination of having components disabled, silicon image controller, marvel lan, usb controller etc. The only thing i havent done is swtiched my hd to the red nvdraid sata ports, but oh well.

Anyways, the reason that I had to keep nuking my harddrive was because after a botched install I could not even get the dvd to load, though that seems fixed now, though still after a restart nothing happens. Worse yet i have developed a post error, one long beep and three short ones, which points to a video card error, though this does not happen on a cold boot, just a restart.

So maybe despite all the sata/harddrive/ntfs etc error messages I recieved earlier were a fluke and something is wrong with my video card, a 6600gt that has been going strong for a while. While in vista I usually got driver failures, but I attributed that to crappy new vista drivers from nvidia.

I dont know really where to go from here, I am tired of spending time on the problem, and I will just go back to xp untill i get a new mobo and videocard sometime in the next year hopefully.

Though if anyone else owns this mobo, I would love to hear your experiences. I know this one in particular has been having problems with vista, but some peopel ahve been getting around it. Lemme know, thanks!