A7N8X-Deluxe - MAJOR SATA/win 2k problems

**Skywalker[TSG]** · October 29th, 2003, 02:35 PM

I've tried everything but it just wont install win2000

I have the 36gb 10krpm WD drive hooked to a Asus A7N8X-Deluxe motherboard , When I try to install the drivers during win2k installation I'm getting all kinds of wierd errors , Seems it wont copy the drivers from floppy.

I'm installing windows 98 on the system right now
but I cant run that because it doesn't support 1gb of ram.
Is there any way to install the drivers PRIOR to installing win2k or do I have to have them on floppy ?

Could I install 2k on a regular ATA drive and then simply ghost everything to the WD ?

Need help

**rpertusio** · October 31st, 2003, 04:27 PM

Skywalker[TSG],
You might want to try updating your BIOS. I think the latest bios version 1007 includes an updated SATA bios.

As far as I know, you cannot install the drivers prior to installing the OS, other than the floppy method.

Have you tried a diff floppy disk? And.. to double check, you are using the Silicon v10022 drivers from the Asus website?

Are you sure your floppy drive functions correctly? (Maybe it is defective or somethin)

- rp

**Skywalker[TSG]** · November 1st, 2003, 01:51 PM

I ended up installing windows XP wich seemed to include the drivers on CD.

**Jeordiewhite** · November 1st, 2003, 01:59 PM

When you say you tried installing this "36gb 10krpm WD drive" you didn't say this as plural.

Serial ATA Silicon ImageR Sil 3112A Controller with 2 ports
Support RAID 0/1

http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=...eluxe&langs=09
You would need two drives for this onboard serial ata raid, right?

When you have two drives of the same size, install this
Silicon Image Serial ATA driver version V1.0.0.22 and Utility V1.0.0.11:
Win9x / WinME / WinNT / Win2K / WinXP
http://www.asus.com/support/download...22.zip~zaqwedc

**Skywalker[TSG]** · November 1st, 2003, 02:04 PM

You dont need 2 drives , but adding a second one in RAID 0 would boost performance.

**ScarTissue** · December 9th, 2003, 08:52 PM

I am haveing a serious problem..I just put together a new system and I have the asus A7N8X deluxe with a seagate 80gig SATA hard drive..I am attepting to install xp home edition..when i put disk 1 of 6 for the installation I get an i/o error..I have the 1007 bios version from asus..the floppy drive is fine as i can use win98 boot disk and it works. on restart I see in the post that there is a sata controller.?? but the bios is detecting only my cdrom and floppy..not my HD?? any help would be appreciated..

**Atomic Rooster** · December 9th, 2003, 08:56 PM

.

**Derek79602+** · December 9th, 2003, 09:02 PM

Why aren't you booting from the XP CD?

**stroyal** · December 9th, 2003, 09:06 PM

ScarTissue

Why are you installing XP home with floppies?
If you use the CD it will ask you to press F8 or F6, in the beginning of setup to install SATA drivers

Edit: I think it says third party drivers

**ScarTissue** · December 9th, 2003, 09:25 PM

every thing I tried gave me an i/o error..I put floppy as 1st boot in bios then I tried cd as 1st boot..then i went to the amd forum and they said to try scsi as 1st boot..that gave me a ntldr error.I can't even get into the cd rom with win98 startup disc now.it stalls on pci bla bla bla #2

**ScarTissue** · December 9th, 2003, 09:28 PM

I tried to install with the cd first..but to no avail..that's Y I turned to the floppies that I got from the windows site.

**stroyal** · December 9th, 2003, 09:39 PM

If it is not showing up in the boot order, it is probably not enabled in the BIOS
The only thing I can tell you is how my Abit board works.
In setup under intergrated periferals/onboard PCI devices- enable SATA controler.
It then shows up as a boot device as HD0 in the boot order

**Xtreeme** · December 10th, 2003, 03:58 AM

"I can't even get into the cd rom with win98 startup disc now.it stalls on pci bla bla bla #2"

Hehe I get that now and again too on this mobo. But no sata-so its not a sata issue. I get it working by going into bios and choosing defaults-then run it. It will go through then. I "think" its the FSB sread spectrum. I turned it off when I had that problem. Default its on! I have set all mem settings and everything manual except left fsb spread spectrum on and it still works. So Im thinkign that is the problem. Either way go into bios and run defaults-then try. Worked everytime for me. I too have 1007 bios. 1006 did it too.

**ScarTissue** · December 10th, 2003, 04:18 AM

well I've gotten past the i/o error and got the damn thing to boot from the cd ..but now when I f6 to install third party drivers for the sata hard drive..I get a error in the Si3112r.sys file and it doesn't install the driver..I can't bypass this cause it just tells me that I have no hard drive installed and I have to f3 outta setup ..curses..I heard that there is a" sata raid" driver and a"sata link" driver.and that the raid is no good for 1 hard drive ..to use the link..but I can't seem to find this "satalink" driver???

**Chrislim** · December 10th, 2003, 08:48 AM

Hi all
Scartissue, I have eactly the same problem as you.
I also am trying to setup a seagate 80g sata hd on an a7n8x deluxe rev2 & am having the same error as you when trying to load the drivers from a floppy during windows installation.

file si3112r.sys caused an unexpected error (4096) at line 2108 in d:\xpclient\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c.

i am also just using 1 hd & have not heard of this driver but if you find Pllleeeeaaaase post

I have tried the latest drivers from asus & silicone image to no avail & have updated my bios to uber 1007 which seemed to sort out a big problem with saving bios settings but not with installing the sata drivers. I belive i am making the floppy disk driver correctly, i read a post somewhere saying that i should make subdirectories on the disk according to info from the oem file & keep the oem in the root but when i do this setup cannot find the drivers. my boot order is 1 cd-rom,2 floppy, 3 scsi does anyone know if theres any other bios settings i am missing? i cant seem to find any other options relating to sata or scsi.

Please please can anybody think what im doing wrong i have searched google & found a lot of people with these sort of problem but havent been able to find a cure for this specific problem.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

**Chrislim** · December 10th, 2003, 02:06 PM

oops Maybe I should have started another post but i thought it was on subject

**r0wdyxc** · December 26th, 2003, 05:26 PM

I have the exact same problem as Chrislim. The only difference is that I've had the unexpected errors 1024 and 512 using the installation disks i got from my school. If anyone can help, that'd be awesome.

Thanks.

**Brangwen** · December 26th, 2003, 07:12 PM

Fellow A7N8X-Dx Owners ... I too attempted to load Win2KPo onto a 160 MB Maxtor SATA ... but it (HDD) did not show up in CMOS. I'm thinking it may have needed preparation with a Maxtor floppy - "partitioning / formating" ... I have not yet checked.

I booted off my Win2KPro CD no problem though ......

Brangwen

**rpertusio** · December 26th, 2003, 10:17 PM

Originally posted by Brangwen
[B]I too attempted to load Win2KPo onto a 160 MB Maxtor SATA ... but it (HDD) did not show up in CMOS.

No... any SATA device is considered 'SCSI' by the motherboard. It will never appear in the BIOS. However, your drives should appear in the SiliconImage SATA bios (which lists your drives right after the Informational BIOS screen on boot.) If you do NOT see this SATA bios.. you must enable SATA with the jumper on your motherboard, located near the CMOS battery.

If you intend to boot from the SATA drive, then go into the BIOS and change the boot order. Have it boot to 'SCSI'.

The very latest drivers for the Silicon Image 3112a (v 1.0.0.40) can be found at the Asus German FTP site. (Hint, leave out the .pdf and the 'GUI' folder when you put files on the floppy disk. Be sure that you put the files in the ROOT of the floppy disk.. don't put them in a folder)
These drivers are the 'RAID' drivers. It is a good idea to use them, whether or not you are using 1 or 2 drives in RAID configuration or not. They generally provide better performance than the 'IDE' drivers you may find.

If you modify the boot order to have the CD 1st (or 2nd), you can boot to the XP CD. (Or use those XP setup floppy disks if your computer cannot boot to CD.) Pressing the F6 key when prompted will let you specify the SATA (Scsi) drivers for your hard drives. Press [s], and pop in your floppy disk with drivers, and press [enter] to choose the driver once it finds it. It should indicate that it is copying the 'Si3112r.sys' driver.

If you have a USB keyboard, you might want to try a 'PS/2' keyboard, or enable legacy USB (keyboard) option in the BIOS.

If you have any 'ATA' hard drives in your system, it might help to temporarily disconnect them when you install windows. That way, XP wont try to install any boot info on the ATA drives.

Hopefully these ideas will help solve your problem

- rp

**r0wdyxc** · December 26th, 2003, 11:45 PM

rpertusio, thanks for the response. that's the exact procedure that i was attempting to try. But when i press 's' at the set up and instert the floppy, the i get the message that

'file txtsetup.oem caused an unexpected error (1024) at line 1742 in d:\xpsp1\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c.'

More than anything else, this frustrates me because the error isn't in anything that I'm doing, it's in the code that's written by other people. Is there anything I can do about this error in oemdisk.c or txtsetup.oem?

Thanks.