WinXP Pro install demanding Intel Application Accelerator Disk but not accepting the ones I've got

[songdog]

I am building a new system in the Shuttle XPC SB81P case, which features the Intel 915 and ICH6R chipsets. My hard drive is a Maxtor Maxline III drive which supports native command queueing. I'd very much like to take advantage of NCQ, which is one of the reasons I chose this drive, but I'm running into a problem during the Windows XP Professional install that I can't seem to get around.

As I understand it, in order to make NCQ work I have to enable the advanced host controller interface in the BIOS, which I have done. I have to provide the AHCI driver via pressing F6 during the Windows XP installation load, which I have done. But after choosing and loading the AHCI driver, agreeing to the license agreement, and specifying and formatting the system drive the XP installer prompts me to "Insert the disk labeled Intel Application Accelerator driver into drive A:". My driver disk is not accepted at this point, and I have no choice but to hit F3 and abandon the installation.

I have tried three different floppies. The first one came with the Shuttle barebones system and is labeled "Intel RAID Driver 9D144M0001". The second one I created using a tool on the CD full of mainboard drivers and software that Shuttle provided. The third one I created using the IAA 4.1 driver disk download from Intel. Each of these is accepted in the F6 process for the purpose of loading the AHCI drivers, but none of these is accepted later on when I'm asked for the IAA driver.

Does anyone know what disk I need here, and where can I get it?

Thanks for any help,

Songdog

 

[LTC8K6]

Intel raid driver V4.5 for ICH6r


Note the floppy creator link on the page for F6 install.

 

[songdog]

I've tried that. That's the third of the three floppy disks I mentioned above. It works for the F6 step, when I hit S and add supplemental drivers for AHCI/RAID, but it is not accepted when the installer asks for the Intel Application Accelerator driver a little later.

-Songdog

 

[LTC8K6]

HAve you tried installing it in Windows? Download the regular version rather than the floppy deal?

 

[songdog]

According to this AT article (on this page) AHCI and NCQ will not work on the system drive unless you set them up during installation (also: the only way I can think of to avoid the prompt for the IAA drivers is to not hit F6 to load the drivers for AHCI.)

 

[LTC8K6]

Yeah, I misread Intel's readme files. LEt's go back to the beginning. Are things going along like the description in Intel's readme as below?


3. At the beginning of the operating system setup, press F6
to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver.

4. When prompted, select 'S' to Specify Additional Device.

5. When prompted, insert the floppy disk you created in
step 2 and press Enter.

6. At this point you should be presented with a selection
for one of the following depending on you hardware
version and configuration:

- Intel(R) 6300ESB SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) 82801ER SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller

7. Highlight the selection that is appropriate for the
hardware in your system and press Enter.

8. Press Enter again to continue. Leave the floppy disk in
the system until the next reboot as the software will
need to be copied from the floppy disk again when setup
is copying files.

 

[songdog]

More or less (through step 7, anyway).

3. I hit F6 at the appropriate time.
4. Also 'S'.
5. I insert the disk (I've tried three different ones, specified above).
6. Check.
7. I choose the SATA AHCI Controller driver (can't confirm the "82801FR" right now as I'm at work) and the installer it loads it from my floppy. I hit Enter to continue.

Then, as I have no other additional drivers to load I hit Enter again. Then I hit F8 to agree with the Windows license ageement (can you tell I tried this quite a few times last night?). Then I select my hard drive, choose to format it, hit 'F' to format it, and wait until that's done. All this time the floppy disk has remained in the drive. The computer has not rebooted, although it's loaded a lot more stuff off of the WinXP CD. It is at this point that the XP installer asks for the Intel Application Accelerator disk. I have the choice of hitting Enter once the disk is inserted in drive A:, or hitting F3 to cancel the installation. With the disk in the drive I hit Enter, but to no avail (as a matter of fact, I'm reasonably sure it's not even seeking on the floppy, although it certainly did so when it loaded the AHCI driver earlier).

I cannot get past this point.

 

[LTC8K6]

Okay, have you tried hitting F3 to cancel the IAA installation? What happens then?

I am certain you can install the IAA part from windows. Maybe that would work?

Apologies if you have already tried that 1100 times.

What I am gettin gat is that I think you only need to install the AHCI part with F6, the IAA can definitely be installed later when in windows. Assuming you are ever able to get that far. Maybe the cancel option is only cancelling the IAA install and not the AHCI install?

 

[songdog]

F3 cancels the entire Windows installation. I don't have a way of installing the AHCI Controller driver but NOT installing the IAA driver, and according to the AT article I linked if I fail to install these during installation then AHCI and NCQ won't work. If no one has any better ideas I'm going to try that and see, however.

It frutstrates me that I can't even tell whether I have the right _disc_, as the instructions don't even mention the prompt I am getting.

 

[LTC8K6]

Cross posts...

Well if F3 is cancelling the whole shebang, then I guess my idea won't work.

I was thinking of getting the IAA onto it's own floppy by itself and inserting that when prompted.

I dunno, I'm stumped.

Hopefully some experienced anandtecher will spot us floundering around and lend you a more knowledgeable hand.

 

[songdog]

It wasn't a cross post - I just responded quickly . I'd be happy to put the IAA onto it's own floppy if I knew how to do so! All three of these disks seem to have pretty much the same stuff. The disk I created using the IAA download from Intel seems to be the same as the others. It has the AHCI driver on it, but is rejected when I'm asked for the IAA disk, which seems crazy.

One other possibility: I'm using a USB floppy drive. WinXP is working fine with it for the AHCI driver load, but I suppose it's just possible that it's not seeing this drive when it looks for the IAA files. Why this would change in a couple of minutes is beyond me, but you never know. If I can't come up with anything better then I'll dig up a FDD, install it in the case (groan) and try that. I really really REALLY don't want to do that though. Looks like a fun weekend.

 

[LTC8K6]

I think you got something with the USB floppy thoughts.

Too bad the USB couldn't be set to be the 1st boot device. Well, even if it could it wouldn't get you out of the situation since you need to boot from the CD.

 

[songdog]

It actually can be set to be the first boot device with this BIOS, but as you say it doesn't help in this case. I am currently trying with an internal FDD and will report on that shortly.

 

[songdog]

Remarkably it's working! Instead of prompting me to insert a disk in drive A: it just scanned the one I have and then gave the usual "Please wait while Setup copies files to the Windows installation folders. This might take several minutes to complete." A friend suggested to me that while the Windows XP installer may be perfectly happy checking out the USB disk it's possible that the drivers loaded at F6 time somehow reference the floppy drive by a physical address of some sort. I hope that the various parties involved resolve this in the future. I will report back again once Windows in in and I can verify that everything is hunky dory with IAA, AHCI, and NCQ. Thanks for your help!

 

[songdog]

It worked!

After installing XP, as recommended by Intel, I installed first the chipset drivers, then DirectX 9, then IAA 4.1. When I run IAA 4.1 and select my system drive it clearly indicates that native command queuing is enabled. Hurray!

 

[LTC8K6]

:thumbsup:

 

[VirtualLarry]

Interesting - so the conclusion is, that WinXP will not sucessfully load "press F6" drivers from a USB floppy drive, but only from a legacy internal floppy, correct?

I've read somewhere else that Win2K/XP fail to boot properly when loaded off of a bootable USB flash drive, because they cause a reset the USB bus at some point during the loading procedure. I wonder if that is the same cause of the failure to be able to use a USB floppy for loading "press F6" drivers?

 

[songdog]

Not exactly. It happily loaded the drivers from the USB floppy drive when I pressed F6 and then S. Several steps later, however, after selecting an installation volume, it went looking for additional files on the floppy and at that time it ignored the USB floppy. This may very well have to do with the way this particular set of drivers is set up (perhaps with references to a specific physical drive, which would not work with an external floppy) and would not necessarily be a problem with other drivers. I can't tell you exactly why it happened but if you're experiencing a similar problem with an external floppy on install then it's certainly worth trying an internal before you beat your head against the wall too many times.