XP fails during clean install w/ SATA

[flagbag]

New computer build and XP install does not finish.

msi k8n neo 4 moboard
western digital 250gb hd
1gb (2x512) crucial ballistix ram
XP Home OEM

Moboard came with 2 SATA floppy disks:
1. nVidea nForce4 SATA RAID and PATA RAID merge drive
2. Silcom Image RAID driver for Sil3114
I press f6 and install the 2 SATA files on the nVidea floppy. I'm assuming to only use that disk as the moboard has the nVidea chipset.

What happens is XP continues with the install, I partition the disk, everything looks great until XP reboots itself... then it can't reboot and the display says, "We apologize for the inconvienience but windows did not start successfully..." then options for safe mode, last known good configuration, etc. (none of which work).

I've tweaked the bios until I am quite sure I have it right, and have tried this about 5 times... always the same result.

On the last attempt I did NOT press f6 and did NOT install the SATA drivers and XP installed fine, but when I look at device properties, the IDE controller does not say SATA (of course).

Any help greatly appreciated. What am I doing wrong? Is there a way to install SATA controller at this point, with XP installed? How? Or, should I clean install again and how to work around the problem of XP locking up at it's reboot?

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums

On the last attempt I did NOT press f6 and did NOT install the SATA drivers and XP installed fine, but when I look at device properties, the IDE controller does not say SATA (of course).

That's not necessarily a bad thing. If you want it to say SATA, you can download and install the latest nVidia driver package from http://www.nvidia.com/drivers and install it, and opt for the SW IDE drivers when prompted (pic of what you'll see), but sometimes they're not as stable as the standard IDE drivers.

The other thing I can add is that your RAM is fancy stuff, so if it gives you any instability, do scoot the memory voltage up to 2.8 volts like they're built for. Many motherboards default to 2.6 volts these days, and if that works, then fine. But if not, you can manually "raise the octane" in the BIOS

 

[flagbag]

thanks mechBgon!
So i can fix this by installing the SATA drivers now--after XP is installed w/out the f6 during install? If so, that is gggggrrreeeaaaatttt! I was not looking forward to hours-and-hours and perhaps more dissapointment. Let me see if I can find those drivers....

 

[mechBgon]

That's correct, and it's nice not to have to scrounge for drivers and stick them on a floppy to install Windows

By the way, if the software asks if you want to install the nVidia Network Access Manager / nVidia Firewall, be aware that people have had struggles with it, so you may want to not install it. There are other options for firewall protection, my preference being a budget router plus the Windows Firewall (or maybe ZoneAlarm free version if I wanted outbound monitoring).

 

[flagbag]

you're gonna think me such a nOOb for asking this.... but i'll feel better just getting it out! :

I find drivers at both the nVidea site and at MSI for my specific motherboard. Both are about 36megabyte, but the one at MSI seems to be a bit older version than the one at nVidea. Anyway, i already downloaded (3 hours dial-up) the one at MSI. Shoul I can it and start over with the one at nVidea?

MSI: http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/d.../dvr/spt_dvr_detail.php?UID=637&kind=1
nVidea: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp32_amd_6.70.html

 

[mechBgon]

As a fellow dial-up user, I sympathize about the time needed to download this stuff, especially if anyone in the house wants to use the phone!

I doubt it will really make a functional difference which set of drivers you use. If you've got some version of the nVidia motherboard drivers, then that's most of the battle Personally I'd probably spend the 3 hours to get the latest ones from nVidia, but I'm crazy like that