New Z68 install blue screening

[TJones2]

Configuration:
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H
i5-2500k
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600
Bios configured to auto and default settings except RAID.

I'm going nuts here. I got Windows installed today but I keep getting blue screened (points to hardware issues or the setup of the hardware). Also, when I load into Windows it first says "Loading Operating System...." before Windows starts to load, is this normal when you have RAID set? Do I have to do something with RAID to stop the blue screen?

The plan was to setup RAID so I could easily add an SSD driver later to take advantage of the caching feature of the Z68 boards. I have only one hard drive, no SSD drive yet.

Here's what I did. I set RAID under "Control Mode", installed Windows 7 64-bit with the F8 RAID driver when installing. I also installed the Intel motherboard drivers including the ISRT software. And all the Windows updates of course. I haven't done any setting up of RAID, do I need too when I only have one drive? Remember, I have no interest in real RAID configurations, I just want to add a SSD drive later on.

Please explain in layman terms, I'm getting a bit lost here.

 

[Luzah]

Umm.. I may be wrong here, but as I always understood it you need 2 or more drives to do anything with RAID. With you only having one HDD, I can't see how RAID would even work. I honestly would disable RAID since you only have one hard drive. Unless, I am behind on the times and you can use RAID on only one disk... but that would defeat the purpose of it's actual name.. Redundant Array of Independent Disks

 

[TJones2]

You need it set to RAID to take advantage of the Z68s caching of an SSD, and it has to be installed with Windows not after, at least, that's what I've been told. I've had a bunch of people here and elsewhere tell me to install the RAID with the one drive, and put in the SSD at a later time.

 

[Luzah]

Hm... never heard of that. I don't use SSD anyhow, so that is news to me. Either case, it couldn't hurt to disable it to see if you still BSOD.


Edit: I see what you are saying about installing the RAID drivers -with windows-.. but, you may want to keep is disabled in the actual BIOS until you get your SSD installed. Then you could just re-enable it and you'd be good to go. That's my guess, and it may be wrong.

 

[TJones2]

Hm... never heard of that. I don't use SSD anyhow, so that is news to me. Either case, it couldn't hurt to disable it to see if you still BSOD.


Edit: I see what you are saying about installing the RAID drivers -with windows-.. but, you may want to keep is disabled in the actual BIOS until you get your SSD installed. Then you could just re-enable it and you'd be good to go. That's my guess, and it may be wrong.

My guess is, if I did that, I wouldn't be able to access Windows again without a reinstall.

 

[TomBk]

Is there a manual?

 

[THRiLL KiLL]

when it bsod, can you see the stop code?

if its 7b then its a driver issue

if not, then it may the mobo looking for the ssd drive (it sounds like a poor mans striped raid)