XP and serial ata - no hd attached, stop:0 0......7b

  • Thread starter Thread starter Josh Brooks
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J

Josh Brooks

Since XP doesn't support serial controllers out of the box, how am I
supposed to move forward with a fresh install? I can't load drivers
provided w/motherboard because I'm only given an A: drive option to
install 3rd party drivers. Please help!

Thanks,
Josh
 
Hi,
copy the drivers on the cd that came with your MB to a floppy then at the
install press f6 with the floppy in the drive. Choose the correct option
for your serial/scsi interface and it will load the driver you want. Thats
what i had to do for my Zenith 7njs.

hope it helps
 
Hi, Josh.

Are you saying you have one of them newfangled modern computers with NO
floppy drive?

RC
 
Yeah - floppy drives. Sheesh. Well, I got my hands on an LS-120, did
the driver transfer thing, and this is what I got:
"File txtsetup.oem caused an unexpected error (1) at line 1742 in
d:\xpclient\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c." What now? I took the liberty
of zeroing the drive last night, so I'm pretty much OSless - I really
don't want to reinstall ME. This is an XP upgrade; does that matter?
The serial chipset is branded Silicon Image on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe,
if that helps at all. Thanks to all for the help.

Josh
 
Josh

It's not clear whether you have a full XP install CD or the Upgrade version.
If you have the upgrade version then you'll need to be able to pass the
qualifying criteria to complete a new install - either by providing your ME
install CD during set-up or having it installed already.

That said I think you're about half way there - with your drive zeroed
you'll need to do a full installation of XP.

Check that the CDs you are using are clean and undamaged.

Check the Asus website for the latest available BIOS version for your
mainboard - Asus may have updated the BIOS to cope with problems that have
arisen with their implementation of SATA (there has been some problems).
While you're there check that you have the latest version from Asus of the
compatible Silicon Image drivers. When creating the floppy disk with the
necessary drivers from the mainboard CD some errors may have occurred.

Check your mainboard manual for any required changes to the BIOS setting to
enable boot from a SATA drive.

Boot from the XP install CD and follow the procedure for F6 as previously
described, you'll need to for the Silicon Image controller - if you have the
Upgrade version of the XP CD you will also need to validate the XP
installation.

Since you've already wiped your drive you should delete, recreate and
reformat the partition you wish to install XP on and do a new clean
installation of XP.

Details on this procedure can be found here -
313348 - How to: partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;313348

Scroll down to the section headed -
How to Partition and Format Your Hard Disk by Using Windows XP Setup.

and then follow the normal procedure for a new installation of XP.

Hope that helps
Pete
---------------------------
 
Thanks much for the help y'all. I had to reinstall Me and get the
drivers from Silicon Image's website, as those on the Asus cd and their
website didn't work - setuptxt.oem error. XP setup is formatting the
drive as I type this, so at least I'm past this problem. Thanks again.

Josh
 
Hi Josh

Hmmmm. Where to begin? That's quite a detail-full post.

OK, easy questions first - even though that means not in the order asked....
the XP upgrade CD didn't ask for a qualifying disk because you already had
ME installed.

Personally, I've never been near ME so can't help you on the 'server duty'
question or how to replicate whatever it does.

I'd suggest that the problem with the controller is the reason why the drive
isn't working properly, not 'generic windows drivers' - but, as you've
discovered, it is *not* advisable to use general driver updates for hardware
that is located on your mainboard. There is too much variety in how
manufacturers prefer to co-ordinate their mainboard hardware for those
drivers to be relied upon.

Your device manager should show the silicon image controller under "SCSI and
RAID controllers" and it should be listed as either Silicon Image SiI 3112
SATALink Controller or SATARaid Controller depending on which one you
installed. BTW my own mainboard uses the same SATA controller and is listed
as Silicon Image SII 3112 SATALink Controller for a single SATA drive.

OK. Let's see if we can get this Asus board to work. That's who I blame by
the way ( it's a long story ;o) )

If you haven't already send that email to Asus support. Give them the
hardware set-up and the original problem and see what they suggest. It'll
be a good fall-back position. I've come across situations where they have a
BIOS update being tested (but not released) that fixed exactly the problem a
previous poster here was having.

In the meantime you could try the 'update' option for the SATA controller
and let it find it automatically - it may just fall on the 'right' one.
Unlikely but worth trying.

The other option is a little more grounded in logic.

Set up RAID 0 array on your single SATA drive using the utility provided and
then try installing using the controller provided by Asus - that should be
the SATARaid controller. It's not an ideal situation because a striped
drive (RAID 0) is more likely to experience data corruption but it may just
work for your set-up.

That's about the best I can do for now. Oh and I'm assuming that "Sandra
says my board measures 479 degrees F." should be 47.9 degrees F which sounds
fine.

Send that email and try the RAID 0 array with the SATARaid controller. If
the RAID doesn't work then Asus may still have a solution up their sleeves.

Post an update when you can...
Hope that helps
Pete
 
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