Help me buy an upgradable system

**Xiahou** · 03-04-2007, 00:52

Originally Posted by Geezer57

If you have an open PCI slot, stand-alone ATA-100/133 controller cards are fairly inexpensive. But if your motherboard's SATA controller is bad, it should be returned for a fix or exchange.

The thought crossed my mind, but as you said, it's a brand new board- no reason to settle for a faulty one.

When you were attempting to install WinXP on the new SATA hard drive, did it prompt you for a SATA driver? Or is the mobo's BIOS so advanced it contains the code already?

I'm in unfamiliar waters with SATA, but I think I tried all my options- feel free to tell me otherwise:

First off, Windows setup detected the drive and partitioned/formatted it without incident. My understanding is that if it sees the drive, it doesn't need a special driver. However, later I tried to load a driver with the F6 option during setup using a floppy that I created from the MoBos driver CD. On the SP2 slipstreamed XP install, it made no difference whatsoever- still bluescreened on the first reboot after copying files. Using an XP SP1 CD, I got it to install completely once- but during reboots it constantly gave me errors about the registry claiming it had restored a corrupted file, then when I applied SP2, it rebooted to the all too familiar BSOD. Oddly, when I tried another SP1 install later is gave the BSOD on reboot after copying files. Sometimes I would get the same STOP errors, but sometimes it would be different- I guess depending on what I tried.

Sound like a bad onboard SATA controller to you? Also, my understanding was that most SATA drives would detect in Windows as an IDE drive. Is this the case? Regardless, I would've thought the fact that Windows setup detected the drive without needing a special driver would suggest I was in good shape.

**Geezer57** · 03-04-2007, 18:06

Originally Posted by Xiahou

Sound like a bad onboard SATA controller to you?

Could be, but it's hard to know for sure with Windows error messages.

Originally Posted by Xiahou

Also, my understanding was that most SATA drives would detect in Windows as an IDE drive. Is this the case?

I really can't answer for the newest motherboards. On my newest (1 year-old) mobo, SATA drives aren't recognized at all by Windows setup without the F6 driver install. I suspect it has a lot to do with how advanced is the BIOS code.

Originally Posted by Xiahou

Regardless, I would've thought the fact that Windows setup detected the drive without needing a special driver would suggest I was in good shape.

That's the impression I get also, but then we're dealing with Microsoft's products here, aren't we?

From you problem description, it seems you're not installing from a slipstreamed SP2 CD. There's a good guide here (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1626), as long as you have access to another PC that's working. You can even add the current SATA drivers to the final CD.

**Xiahou** · 03-07-2007, 06:42

Well, they got my mobo that I sent back to them an replaced it with another of the same (although now Im wishing I had ponied up for the Gigabyte SLI board). I spoke to the guy working on it and he claims to have loaded up XP on the new board with no problem and is going to leave it running benchmarks over night before sending it back to me if all is well.

Here's hoping... If it still doesn't work, I'll likely have a meltdown.

**Gawain of Orkeny** · 03-08-2007, 17:52

Hey is this a great deal or what?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082

GeForce 8800 GTS

269 dollars. Is this as good a deal as I think. Thats less than I paid for my 7950gt.

**Xiahou** · 03-08-2007, 19:04

Originally Posted by Gawain of Orkeny

Hey is this a great deal or what?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082

GeForce 8800 GTS

269 dollars. Is this as good a deal as I think. Thats less than I paid for my 7950gt.

That's the exact one that I got for $10 more. I haven't played 'Dark Messiah' yet either, but it looks like a decent enough game for a pack-in.