[gauze]

My mom just bought a Dell Inspiron 537 and wants me to install XP on it.

My only concern is I don't know what the motherboard is in the tower (it is coming soon but I rather prepare early) and so I have really no idea what type of drivers I should be using.

I did download the chipset driver update from Dell and the only files I see with AHCI or SATA in the name are:

ichaahci

I'm not even sure whether or not JMicron ports are involved. Would it be a safe move to integrate all the 32 bit drivers?

Or is there a better way for me to figure out what textmode driver I need?

[Fernando 1]

@ gauze:

Welcome at MSFN Forums!
If there is any Windows OS running on your mom's computer, open the Device Manager and look for the controller names, which are listed within the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and - if present - within the "Storage Controllers"/"SCSI and RAID Controllers" sections (the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controllers" are not interesting at all, because they are only supported by the MS generic IDE drivers).

Good luck!
Fernando

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: 29 May 2009 - 08:04 AM

[agnivo007]

Fernando, I'd need a little help from you regarding using iastor.sys driver on vista x64. My mainboard is Intel DG35EC.

I have used your modded version for ICH8 while I was using WinXP 32bit; the nLited XP SP3 CD still works perfectly loading iastor.sys for the ICH8!

Now that I've moved on to vista x64, I'm having few issues to make the controller use the iastor.sys driver.

I have the latest BIOS update (v113) and SATA mode set to AHCI. However, after installing vista x64, the msahci driver was chosen by the OS.
I do not have enough faith on the MS AHCI driver (I wanted iastor), so I installed the Intel chipset utility (latest) and sadly it put back the controller on older IDE emulated drivers and showed up 2/4 port SATA controllers now in device manager! I think it's due to Intel forcing ICH8 not to use AHCI driver and use emulated ones instead. (screenshots attached)

http://i44.tinypic.com/j81p53.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/9h2k2u.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/aufgah.jpg

I really want to use the latest iastor.sys drivers and seek for a modified version for my plain old ICH8 controller on vista x64.
I downloaded your ICH8 package from first post but it seems the drivers in x64 folder have not been modified at all.

Once I have your modified 64bit drivers, I'll manually update the drivers for the controller from the INFs and see if iastor.sys is picked up.

Awaiting your comments and help,
Thanks

[Fernando 1]

agnivo007, on May 31 2009, 01:57 PM, said:

I really want to use the latest iastor.sys drivers and seek for a modified version for my plain old ICH8 controller on vista x64.
I downloaded your ICH8 package from first post but it seems the drivers in x64 folder have not been modified at all.

Once I have your modified 64bit drivers, I'll manually update the drivers for the controller from the INFs and see if iastor.sys is picked up.

You are right: I forgot to modify the INF file of the 64bit driver version. As soon as I returned home again from my holidays I will repair this.
You may use my modified driver nevertheless, if you do the following:
1. Download the 32/64bit package with the modified drivers und unzip it.
2. Copy the file named "iaAHCI.INF" from the 32bit to the 64bit folder and let the present file with the same name been overwritten.
3. Now you can use the content of the 64bit driver folder with Vista x64.

God luck!
Fernando

EDIT: I just have repaired my 64bit INF driver file.

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: 01 June 2009 - 06:16 AM

[agnivo007]

Looks like you deleted the file and didn't update the new link on first post:
"The key you provided for file download was invalid. This is usually caused because the file is no longer stored on Mediafire. This occurs when the file is removed by the originating user or Mediafire."

[Fernando 1]

agnivo007, on Jun 2 2009, 11:34 AM, said:

Looks like you deleted the file and didn't update the new link on first post:
"The key you provided for file download was invalid. This is usually caused because the file is no longer stored on Mediafire. This occurs when the file is removed by the originating user or Mediafire."

That happened yesterday, because I was in the hurry. I am sorry about that, but now the link is repaired and should work for everyone.

Good luck!
Fernando

[agnivo007]

I learnt this from VMWare forums; would be helpful for fellow DG35EC users:

Quote

Just as a note. The DG35EC bios 112 and 113 has a bug that causes the AHCI setting to malfunction. Even though you select to use Native SATA with AHCI, you will see that VMware is seeing only IDE devices. True for Windows too.

I have v113 BIOS and the 2824 controller isn't being detected.

Intel has released v115, going to flash and try iastor drivers.

Thanks Fernando!

[agnivo007]

OK, updated BIOS and put in the driver. Working well now!

http://i44.tinypic.com/9j22o7.jpg

Thanks Fernando!

[Fernando 1]

agnivo007, on Jun 4 2009, 03:21 PM, said:

OK, updated BIOS and put in the driver. Working well now!
http://i44.tinypic.com/9j22o7.jpg
Thanks Fernando!

You are welcome.
Thanks for your feedback!

Regards
Fernando

[computer_techie]

Hi There,

Ok, I am in need of some serious help now. I have tried the steps specified in post #1 and still have problems getting my installation to detect a HD. The OS I am trying to re-install is Windows XP: Media Center Edition 2005 For System Builders. It has Service Pack 2 on it with the version number of: 5.1.2600.2180.

The OS I already have on my laptop is Windows XP: Media Center Edition 2002. I'm not sure if the OS I am trying to install is a 32x bit or a 64x bit since the case I got doesn't specify which.

I have talked to Intel to find the AHCI controllers that I need for my laptops chipset which is a Intel ICH7R controller. When I go into nLite, choose the folder I have my clean OS files in, select two options on the menu which are, Drivers and Boot-able ISO.

I then go to the next screen to pick my drivers. From there, I choose multiple driver folder and locate the Intel controller folder. It then gives me a list of all the controllers for different versions of Intel chips. There are two in the list which deal with the ICH7R. They are:

.:. Intel ICH7R/DH SATA AHCI Controller
.:. Intel ICH7R/DH SATA RAID Controller

I have been choosing both of them and then checking to make sure that textmode was on. I then insert them and then start the process. After it merges all the files, I put in a blank DVD+RW and burn the files using nLite.

After its finished, I restart my laptop, hit F10 to choose boot from CD/DVD and then let it go through the loading of the information on the DVD. After it is done loading the initial startup files it tells me to hit Enter to continue the installation of Windows XP. After I hit Enter, it then gives me the error message that setup cannot find any HD's!

Your help to solve this issue would be EXTREMLY appreciated!

- Jeff

[computer_techie]

Ah, solved my own problem!! The solution was instead of choosing both Intel ICH7R controllers, I just chose one. I chose to use the Intel ICH7R/DH SATA AHCI Controller.

[Fernando 1]

computer_techie, on Jun 5 2009, 09:14 PM, said:

Ah, solved my own problem!! The solution was instead of choosing both Intel ICH7R controllers, I just chose one. I chose to use the Intel ICH7R/DH SATA AHCI Controller.

Thanks for your feedback.
By the way: I doubt, that the installation failed because you integrated both ICH7R Controllers. Usually it is not a problem, if you choose all listed Controllers, but it fails, if you miss the needed one.

Regards
Fernando

[hosch]

deleted by myself - problem solved.

This post has been edited by hosch: 20 June 2009 - 08:58 PM

[Bls]

Hello and welcome everyone,

I'm having an issue with my ASUS G1 laptop (full specs here http://en.gentoo-wik...m/wiki/Asus_G1). I'm kinda desperate as no one seems to find any suitable solution. I asked for help on many forums already, so let's say I MSFN's are my last hope
So here is my issue :

I've been using Vista for a long time, being pre-installed on my ASUS notebook, till I decided to install Windows XP aside. The main purpose of that dual boot system was to set a clean & french install of Windows XP only to run my games and get a real performance boost compared to Vista.
My problem is that I'm getting awful performance under Windows XP. For instance, everytime the hard drive is working, mouse movement stutters ; it also takes an unusual time to run not so heavy applications such as Firefox web browser (takes under 20 seconds on Windows XP compared to 3 seconds on Vista). I know that I shouldn't get such a low performance, especially on Windows XP, so there is definitely something wrong here.
I immediatly thought about drivers ; so far, when I was done with the XP installation & Windows Updates, I installed the intel chipset drivers, ACPI drivers and last, Nvidia drivers. Nothing helped, the overall performance is still slow, and mouse movement is anything but smooth whenever I run applications. Of course, I tried different drivers (first I've been downloading Windows XP drivers from Asus Website, then the newest versions of Intel's, etc), but nothing helped.
I should add that I didn't install any specific driver on my Vista partition and the performance is okay there (no matter how many applications I run, it goes blazing fast and mouse movement remains perfectly smooth and precise).

Some people from the official ASUS forums told me about the integration of SATA drivers within my XP installation CD ;I've already tried that, but maybe I did it wrong.
Just in case you might need to know, these are all the informations I could gather about my Chipset, on my Vista installation (which works perfectly fine and has no lag at all) :
http://img14.imagesh...i/22719399.jpg/

I've already burned a custom Windows XP CD, with the following configuration :
Under Nlite, I've chose to integrate drivers and make it a bootable CD. On the next step, I hit the Insert button, Single Driver, hit iaAHCI.inf (from the unpacked floppy disk that you mentioned, though I already had it before), and selected the chipset that seemed to match the most :
http://img14.imagesh...i/79663077.jpg/
Still, the issue ain't gone ...

Is there anything I did wrong ?

Thanks in advance for your help, and sorry for this long & annoying story

[Fernando 1]

@ Bls:

Welcome at MSFN Forums!

As far as I have read your post, you have done everything the right way. I have no idea about the real reason for your performance issues while running Windows XP.

This is what I would do, if I were you: I would not waste any further time with Windows XP, but install the latest available pre-RTM version of Windows 7 as a second OS for testing purposes. I am pretty sure, that you will forget Windows XP and probably even Vista after having worked and played with this upcoming OS.

If you want to stick with Windows XP, you may try the following:
1. Prepare a new Windows XP CD with integrated SP3 and integrated 32bit Intel textmode driver according to my guide by enabling the device named "Intel® ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller". Don't integrate anything else and don't remove or tweak anything.
2. After having completed the Windows XP installation, run the installer of the actual Intel Matrix Storage Manager and the Intel Chipset Driver Software ("INF Update Utility").
3. Install the other needed device drivers (take only actual WHQL signed ones).
4. Check the performance of your fresh XP system.
5. If you are not satisfied, open the "Disk Drives" section of the Device Manager, do a right click onte the listed hdd > "Properties" > search for the options to enable/disable the write cashing.
6. Disable the write cashing option.
7. Check the performance again.
Maybe you are able to solve your XP problems this way.

Good luck!
Fernando

[Bls]

Thank you for your quick reply.

The reason why I'm not switching to Windows 7, yet, is that I've been getting used for years to XP's mouse sensitivity (I've been using the same for years as a gamer within my favorite game). Also I'd rather wait for the Final version of the OS, which might be released in October.

About your solution ; if you take a look at my screenshot this is exactly what I've done before !
When I tried to install Intel Matrix Storage Manager, it would say my hardware ain't supported ...

[Fernando 1]

Bls, on Jun 21 2009, 03:04 PM, said:

When I tried to install Intel Matrix Storage Manager, it would say my hardware ain't supported ...

Then you either don't have enabled the AHCI Mode of your Intel SATA Controller (BIOS setting) or you have chosen the wrong version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager. The v8.8.0.1009 should work with your Intel ICH7M SATA AHCI system.

[Bls]

I've download that correct version (8.8.0.1009).
Someone mentioned already the BIOS settings to be changed, thus I couldn't find it (and I looked everywhere already), maybe I should downgrade my BIOS (as I'm using the latest version ...).
Thing is, that BIOS settings cannot be responsible of that mouse stuttering & overall small performance as everything works fine under Vista ...

Edit: Write caching is enabled on Vista so that can't be the problem neither :/

This post has been edited by Bls: 21 June 2009 - 07:42 AM

[Fernando 1]

Bls, on Jun 21 2009, 03:26 PM, said:

Someone mentioned already the BIOS settings to be changed, thus I couldn't find it (and I looked everywhere already), maybe I should downgrade my BIOS (as I'm using the latest version ...).

Some laptop manufacturers do not implement the BIOS option to disabe the "AHCI Mode".
You can verify the SATA mode (AHCI or IDE) of your laptop by opening the XP Device Manager and looking into the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and - if present - the "SCSI and RAID Controllers" sections. If you are running your SATA hdd in "AHCI Mode", you should see a device named "Intel® ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller". The non-AHCI system just shows the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller".

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: 21 June 2009 - 09:54 AM

[Bls]

Yes. I've downgraded my BIOS and still couldn't find that option to switch between "Compatible" and "Enhanced" mode.
I took a screenshot from my XP device manager :
http://img523.images...i/33477218.jpg/

Hope it helps :S