The physical parts that make up a computer are so much "smarter" than they were just a few years ago. My new Antec P150 case is absolutely out-of-this-world---of all the components, cases have probably improved the most. Anyway, after attaching the last cable, I turned the new rig on and, viola, it booted like a champ. I'm in the process of installing Windows XP on it right now.

For those of you who might be interested, I mostly followed Shelly's lead. The main ingredients are:

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socketr AMD nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX Motherboard.

ASUS EN7600GS SILENT/HTD/512M GeForce 7600GS PCI Express x16 video card.

AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000= Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor.

Two Seagate SATA drives---250 Gig each.

All the other parts were from the old rig.

PROBLEM ALERT !!!

I'm running into a problem doing a fresh install of XP. At first, I partitioned and formatted one of the new SATA drives where I then attempted to install XP. When setup asked where I wanted to install Windows, drive C:\ was listed as having a copy of Windows already installed. This is on a PATA drive I moved over from my old computer (which was working fine). Wanting to install to the newly formatted SATA drive, I selected it. After Windows began to install, I left for about two hours. When I got back I was greeted by the black splash screen with the progress bar frozen (the one with the three little blue squares that stream). I rebooted and started setup again. Same thing happened at precisely the same spot with Windows attempting to run.

I figured the old installation was causing confusion so I unplugged the PATA drive. Then, on reboot all I get is "BOOT DISK FAILURE. INSERT A SYSTEM DISK AND REBOOT."

It would appear that I could just install over the old Windows installation on the PATA drive, but, I don't want to do that. Can I use the Recovery Console to reformat the PATA drive, and, if need be, the SATA drive (I suspect it to be corrupted from a messed up Windows installation)? If not, what?

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

I'm a little confused. Why do you have a PATA drive in there when you have 2 brand new SATA drives?

And why would you want to install XP on the old PATA drive?

If you wanted to keep the PATA drive in there for extra storage I can see that.


As for the BOOT DISK FAILURE. INSERT A SYSTEM DISK AND REBOOT error, it sounds like you may have messed something up with your masters and slaves when you took the PATA drive out.

Make sure your CD ROM is set to boot before your hard drives and make sure the CD ROM drives are set correctly on the IDE ribbon.

Visit the Basement

Adam, I think you're right in suspecting the IDE cable and CD-ROM jumpering. I'll look into that first thing tomorrow.

As chance would have it, that PATA drive turned out to be the one (of three) in the old rig that had the Windows partition on it. No, I didn't want to install to that drive on the new rig. I am hoping you're right about the CD-ROM possibly not being cabled/jumpered right. Too bad I can't follow up on that right now. Oh, well, patience is noble (or some such nonsense ).

Thanx for your guidance.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Friday morning and you were right, Adam---the IDE cabling/jumper didn't match. Windows XP is now 92% done formatting one of the SATA drives.

Now, after doing a lot of Googling, it looks as though:

1) it would be a good idea to have the size of the OS partition be circa 10 Gig.

2) for performance enhancement, install programs to the second SATA drive.

Any comments?

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

I don't see any reason anyone would install their programs to another partition or another drive for that matter because in the event you ever have to wipe C clean and start all over you still would have to install all them programs as the windows registry would be wiped in that scenario. With hard drives being so large space shouldn't be a problem in my opinion. Depending on how many programs you need to install I would just make the C drive a little larger and install programs to C Drive. Just my opinion.





Vista Ultimate,AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor,ASUS M2N-E Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP,CORSAIR XMS2 2GB, SAPPHIRE 100142L Radeon X1300 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card,LITE-ON DVD

Thanx for your comments, Jeff. Things may have changed, but, it used to be that (as I understood it) performance was enhanced by having Windows on a separate hard drive from applications since separate drives can access data simultaneously. Does that still apply (if ever )

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Reasons for partitioning are not as great as they used to be, with the use of NTFS you can have a huge drive all in one partition and not pay a performance and wasted space price due to allocation unit size. The real reason for multiple partition is organization of your data and programs.

In my office I have six filing cabinets. Each has four drawers, and in each drawer there are logically arranged folders and in the folders are individual files in groupings that make sense in regard to how I use information. I can instantly lay my hands on any piece of information going back many years.

I suppose I could have saved a lot of time by just parking a dumpster, or a large packing crate in my office, and just tossing everything into it. Of course that could make it hard to find things, and hard to notice if anything was missing. It would also make researching anything difficult.

I would not have just one partition, or just one drive in a computer. That nay just be because I have an orderly engineers mind, but an orderly mind isn't a bad thing to have.

Shelly

I'm orderly and organized too, but I have known individuals who used the "dumpster" approach and could find whatever they were looking for as fast, if not faster, than I could. Neither they, nor I, are engineeers.

Jim.

Windows is a little more sophisticated than a filing cabinet and having just one partition is a little more organized than all your files in a dumpster.


I am the most organized neat freak there is. Probably almost on the verge of compulsion. I still do not see a need for partitions. On my main PC my OS is on a 200GB drive. I have another 320 and 500GB internal drives only for extra storage.

Visit the Basement

Sounds like a great rig! I have been looking real hard at that processor, it's down to $170, free shipping at Newegg. Bang for the buck, I don't think it gets any better. Please let us know how you like that processor after running it a bit. I have heard it tends to run warm with the stock heatsink/fan, let us know your experience.

thanks

Bob, the stock heatsink is a real engineering beauty---lots of copper and fins---I can't imagine it to be inadequate for proper cooling unless you plan to overclock big time.

BTW, I got Windows installed and things are looking good. Gotta get all the drivers and apps in place to give this baby a real test drive.

.
Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

The new rig is running fine, but, the video card is not being found by Windows XP. The card is, however, providing limited VGA support, very slow when dragging windows, etc.---jumpy. Upon booting, I get the following error message:

Error cannot find graphics card information.

And, when running Device Manager to reinstall the video drivers, the nVidia drivers are shown installing to the System 32 folder, then, the Hardware Update Wizard reports "Cannot Install this Hardware. There was a problem installing this hardware. Video Controller (VGA Compatible). An error occurred during the installation of the device. Access is denied."

I have Windows installed on SATA drive E:\. Could that present problems such as the video card issue? Drive C:\ is empty.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Why isn't windows on C?

Visit the Basement

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

What drivers aree you trying to install? Are you sure they are the correct ones for your OS?

Windows does not have to be on C: But certain boot files must be on C: for the BIOS to find them. You said C: was empty.

Shelly

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Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Steve, all I see are IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. There's another file named delnis.bat---that's it.

.
Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

The video card is fully seated in the slot?
Maybe remove/replace it (with power disconnected & CAPs drained - press power button for a few seconds).

Steve, I had already removed the card and was careful to make sure it was fully-seated both before I removed it and upon reinstalling it.

Interestingly, the video is working fully on that machine and has been for the past twenty-four hours. However, as I stated above, when I reboot, it'll freeze up on the splash screen until I boot to Safe Mode and delete the nVidia drivers, then, reboot normally and reinstall the nVidia drivers. I've never seen this nonsense before.

Who remembers the name of the free testing program that provides performance benchmarks for your system?

.
Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Tone
Tone

Not to me, in my way of looking at it.

I specifically want the OS on E:\.
Then I specifically install my programs onto C:\.

I set some PATHs for %TEMP% files & the like to point to locations on C:\.
I specifically create a C:\My Documents\ folder & have program that typically would write to %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\ to there instead.

Keeps my OS partition very small & clean.

Works for me.

Those letter assignments come from having IDE HDs installed along with SATA. When you originally install to the SATA drive the program Letters all the drives starting with the Master in the first IDE connection. I think this might just hold true if the IDE drives are already formatted.

I had this same thing happen on my last build and was shocked to see at the finish of my XP OS that the install was on "I" drive. It's inconvenient at first but it works smoothly so I just left it alone.

Moral of the story is just setup a new install with one SATA drive and nothing else but the CD-ROM until you get the OS in and running. IMHO.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Ain't that smart, Sid. I'm starting to suspect that you may have a marginal video or MB. They certainly should recognize the settings. But I guess it could be an OS problem. Sorry I don't have any suggestions.

QUOTE:
I'm starting to suspect that you may have a marginal video or MB.

Whoa! That's what I was fearing. I don't suspect the MB, or, the video card because they both are kicking ass as long as I don't reboot. A reboot results in a lockup (sorry for the redundancy, but, that's what I'm experiencing every time I boot with the iNvidia drivers installed. Still, a bad board could be causing this anomaly.

.
Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

  

That is the point in the boot process where control is turned over to Windows and the resolution changes from BIOS 640x480 to whatever you have set your operating resolution to. In other words, that is when your installed video drivers come into play.

I suggest you stop digging yourself into a deeper hole and start over, remove that PATA drive, format the drive you have Windows on and reinstall Windows on C:, and . Also make certain you properly install all the motherboard drivers from the CD that came with the board before you install anything else. Then install and configure your video drivers that came with the video card.

Shelly

Yeah! That's what I've been wanting to say, but was waiting for some other replies.

The OS not on C: was the first red flag for me.


And after all that is done, if the problem still persists try a different driver and if the problem still persists try another video card to test.

Visit the Basement

Okay, I agree to the need for a clean slate. But, how does one reformat the Windows partition? Isn't it necessary to boot into a DOS environment? I don't have a DOS boot disk, nor a floppy drive to run it on if I had it. Surely, attempting a reformat from the DOS Prompt within Windows won't work, or, will it?

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

DOS is for Windows 9x. Under an NTFS environment, you have no need to use DOS.


Connect your Sata drives to SATA 1, Sata 2.


Connect your CD ROM to Primary Master


Make sure your CDROM is set to boot before your hard disks in your BIOS.


Insert your Windows XP CD in the drive. Boot to Windows Setup, delete all partitions, format the C: disk and install.

Visit the Basement

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

When you boot from your XP CD and follow the instructions you'll come to a part that let's you make and delete partitions.

Visit the Basement

Everything about the new rig seems good, except for the video driver problem.

After reinstalling XP to C:\ and reformatting drive E:\ where it had been, the same behavior exists. After completing the installation I inserted the Asus Support CD and the first thing it wanted to do was install the graphics driver which it did flawlessly (?). I checked Device Manager and the correct nvidia driver was, indeed, present and accounted for. I adjusted my resolution and refresh rate and was pleased to see everything looking good---until I had to reboot after updating Windows. F**king thing froze during boot, exactly as before.

So, next, comes booting to Safe Mode, uninstall of nvidia driver, reboot. Computer boots fine in generic vga mode and immediately finds 'new hardware' and reinstalls the nvidia driver and I'm back in business after resetting all the video variables.

I think that, if I can hibernate the system, it'll keep the nvidia driver and be fine. However, the Standby option is greyed-out. My next, immediate, step is to figure out how to turn that option on.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Are you running the 32-bit or 64-bit copy of Windows XP? Do you have the latest drivers?

ForceWare Release 162
Version: 162.18 WHQL
Release Date: July 26, 2007

Hi, Darren.

it's the 32 bit version. The drivers are from the CD that came with the MB. Therefore, I suspect there is an updated one and am looking for it at Asus.com.

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Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Here's the latest, try it.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_162.18.html

Products Supported:
GeForce FX 5100
GeForce FX 5200
GeForce FX 5200LE
GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
GeForce FX 5500
GeForce FX 5600
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
GeForce FX 5600SE
GeForce FX 5600XT
GeForce FX 5700
GeForce FX 5700VE
GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
GeForce FX 5700LE
GeForce FX 5800
GeForce FX 5800 Ultra
GeForce FX 5900
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
GeForce FX 5900XT
GeForce FX 5900ZT
GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
GeForce PCX 5300
GeForce PCX 5750
GeForce PCX 5900
GeForce 6150LE
GeForce 6100
GeForce 6100 nForce 400
GeForce 6100 nForce 405
GeForce 6100 nForce 420
GeForce 6150
GeForce 6150 LE
GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
GeForce 6200
GeForce 6200 A-LE
GeForce 6200 LE
GeForce 6200 TurboCache™
GeForce 6200SE TurboCache™
GeForce 6250
GeForce 6500
GeForce 6600
GeForce 6600 GT
GeForce 6600 LE
GeForce 6600 VE
GeForce 6610 XL
GeForce 6700 XL
GeForce 6800
GeForce 6800 GS
GeForce 6800 GS/XT
GeForce 6800 GT
GeForce 6800 LE
GeForce 6800 Series GPU
GeForce 6800 Ultra
GeForce 6800 XE
GeForce 6800 XT
GeForce 7025 / NVIDIA nForce 630a
GeForce 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a
GeForce 7100 GS
GeForce 7200 GS
GeForce 7300 GT
GeForce 7300 LE
GeForce 7300 SE
GeForce 7350 LE
GeForce 7500 LE
GeForce 7550 LE
GeForce 7600 GS
GeForce 7600 GT
GeForce 7600 LE
GeForce 7650 GS
GeForce 7800 GS
GeForce 7800 GTX
GeForce 7800 SLI
GeForce 7900 GS
GeForce 7900 GT/GTO
GeForce 7900 GTX
GeForce 7950 GT
GeForce 7950 GX2
GeForce 8300 GS
GeForce 8400 GS
GeForce 8500 GT
GeForce 8600 GT
GeForce 8600 GTS
GeForce 8800 GTS
GeForce 8800 GTX
GeForce 8800 Ultra

Many thanks, Darren. Downloading as I speak. I was looking in the wrong place. I'll let you know how it works.

EDIT: Damn, that driver does the same thing as the one that came with the MB---freeze up during opening of XP.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

You say you're using the drivers that came with the motherboard. Do you mean you're using the drivers that came with the video card?


And have you tried a different video card? I had the same exact problem as you were having about a month ago with a Radeon 1600. In Windows every thing looked fine and kicked ass, but when I reboot the PC it had your problem. I tried every different driver there was and still had the problem.


I tried a different PCI-E card and problem was gone. It may be your card.

Visit the Basement

Oops, sorry. Yes, drivers from video card CD.

Haven't tried another card because I don't have another one. Did try the updated driver and it didn't work, either.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

I agree with Adam, I would try another video card. I've read where many were having problems the 7800 GS.

Can I assume you also installed the chipset drivers from the MB CD?

Shelly

I was thinking the same thing. I know on this one yu have to install the chipset drivers before you can do anything with the power management. It seems to bug up other stuff too but as soon as the chipset drivers are installed all works.

I also have the 7600 GS card in this. (Dell 4600) Installed it a couple months ago so I could run Vista and the newer editions of Age of Empires. Haven't had any problems with it so far...knock on wood.

Yes, Shel, I did.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

Check the Raid function in the motherboard manual. One board I was working with stated that Raid must be enabled even if you were not using the Raid connectors for proper function. I thought it odd, but maybe your system is scanning for something you have turned off before it boots. It seems you have covered all the other bases.

Roger that, Roger (sorry ). Your suspicion makes sense and I will check into that possibility. Thanx!

EDIT: Except, if the RAID configuration is causing the freeze, why would it boot okay in to Safe Mode? Is the answer that SM bypasses the RAID config as well as video drivers? That wouldn't seem to make sense because the RAID drives would be inaccessible in SM if that were the case. I've never configured RAID drives and have no idea how this would work. Anyone care to shed some light?

EDIT2: Device Manager does have an entry for a RAID controller. It has a yellow question mark beside it. I disabled it (it now has a red X on the question mark), but, that didn't help. I think Roger is on the right track. In RegEdit, I have found references to RAID, but, I'm hesitant to mess with deleting anything in the registry until I get some feedback as to how to scrub these things.

EDIT3: More reason to suspect RAID is that, just after POST and right before the Windows load, the following is displayed at the top of the screen: JMicron Tech. Corp. PCIE-to SATA11/IDE RAID Controler BIOSv 1.06.53 Detect drives found none. I want to get rid of this RAID nonsense. How, is the question?

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

I have a different ASUS board and I am using 4 SATA drives - no RAID, but try this

Sounds like you haven't loaded the RAID drivers. Go ahead a do so just to get rid of that yellow question mark. I am just AR about those kinds of things.


If you want to not RAID your SATA:

In BIOS under Onboard Device Configuration

Set SATA configuration as ENHANCED
then set SATA as IDE

Priscilla L.

Thanx, Priscilla, but, my bios doesn't have such a setting. I did go in there and set the RAID to "disabled", but, it didn't help.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

When RAID is disabled the Raid ports can be used as ordinary HDD ports.

Shelly

In which case, would not special cables be required---RAID to IDE, for example?

BTW, still no solution to my boot problem. I've contacted Asus technical support and awaiting a reply.

.
Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

No, no special cables.
There is no "RAID" cable.
There are IDE & SATA cables. Which you use depends upon the what type of drive(s) you have.

It is simply a matter of whether the drive(s) are to appear as a RAID array or singular drives.

Thanx, Steve, I didn't know that.

I thought Raid was just something people used to kill computer bugs.

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

This new computer is awesome, but, I am still having boot probs. The current situation is:

Using latest drivers (I think).

Haven't RMA'ed anything---have pretty much just been playing around with the boot process, watching how it responds, which has yielded the following:

1) When the machine freezes during the Windows Logo screen, I have found that, if I shut down, reboot and accept a normal Windows boot instead of booting to Safe Mode when the boot options screen appears (the one after an abnormal shutdown), the machine will boot on anywhere from the first retry to the fourth. That is, if I just keep trying to boot to normal mode, I eventually get beyond the frozen state and have a normal boot with all systems GO!

2) If, during the above re-boot steps, I press the reset switch, the computer reboots, and, after the opportunity to go into the BIOS, it produces a blank (black) screen with a white cursor flashing in the upper left corner. This is something I've often seen over the years, but, never knew the cause of. What the heck good is a reset switch if it doesn't work?

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Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD