Problem installing Nforce3 250 serial ATA controler (v2.6)

[Brutuskend]

I bought this motherboard about 6 months back and after going through HELL for several months I mothballed it and started using a ASUS K8VSE Deluxe. Then last week I decided to give this DFI board another try and POOF it booted right up, first try! YHAAA

 

But.

 

I wasn't able to get windows XP to install on my raid 0 array. I'm using 2 WD 250gb SATA drives and at first I couldn't get windows install to see them as a array even though they show up in the bios as a healthy array. So I did my install on another drive installed in the machine and all went well. Even though in windows I still wasn't able to get the drives to show up as a array.

Eventually, using the western digital data guard tools in DOS I was able to get the raid array to show up one 500 gb drive in windows.

 

BUT

 

I can't get the Nforce3 250 serial ata controler drivers to install and work properly. Everytime I reboot and the new hardware found window comes up it finds the SATA controler but when I try and install the drivers I get the following message after the drivers have installed.

 

 

THIS INSTALATION PACKAGE IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THIS PROCESSOR TYPE. CONTACT YOUR PRODUCT VENDOR.

 

Right now I'm just running some old memory sticks I had laying around as well as a old Radeon 8500 out of a old dead box I had taking up space. As soon as I get all the bugs worked out I plan on switching to some better memory and a better video card out of one of my other machines.

 

BTW: I'm running a A64 3000+ mobile processor and everything else seems to be working just great. I don't suppose the processor has anything to do with this driver issue?

 

Everything in the device manager shows up as being installed and working properly except I have a yellow (!) on one one of the primary IDE channel.

 

No raid controlers or SATA controlers show up in the device manager right now, though at one time I did ADD the raid drivers using add hardware in the device manager. However I could not get them to work even after that, no doubt do to the fact that the SATA drivers had not been loaded.

 

Any help that you kind folks could give me on this issue would be GREAT!

 

I've been waiting a LOOONG time to get this up and working.

 

(By the way, after all the HELL I went through several months back trying to get this board to boot, it turned out to (apperantly be) the power supply. At the time I tryed 3 differant ones to no avail, but the first time I plugged it into my new Antech P/S it fired right up! YEAH ANTECH!! )

[red930]

well if it boots with that crappy ram your lucky go to the bios and check and make sure the CPU voltage is set to around 1.4 or higher and make sure you set the multiplier to its right one. Auto and default setting don't like mobiles. memory has to be the same type and same SPD and has to be in lots 1 & 3. if the memory ant the same just use one stick

[Brutuskend]

well if it boots with that crappy ram your lucky go to the bios and check and make sure the CPU voltage is set to around 1.4 or higher and make sure you set the multiplier to its right one. Auto and default setting don't like mobiles. memory has to be the same type and same SPD and has to be in lots 1 & 3. if the memory ant the same just use one stick

 

Memory isn't the problem since it does this irregardless of whether I use 1 stick or 3. Voltage is right for the processor I'm using and so is the multiplier.

 

Any other ideas?

[possum]

I've been fiddling with this board a long time getting it to work right.

I'm not sure but I can give some suggestions and you can see if they work for you.

Install hdds on primary ide

Install burner on secondary as master, rom as slave. See what happens.

It was my experience that windows expects them there.

[possum]

Also if anything is disabled in bios it must be enabled to operate, load software for it, or whatever.

[Mac213]

The Nvidia raid drivers have to be installed when windows is installed by pressing F6 when prompted if any third party drivers need to be installed as per manual

 

Installing the RAID Driver

1. Start Windows Setup by booting from the installation CD.

2. Press when prompted at the beginning of Windows setup.

3. Press to select "Specify Additional Device".

4. At this point you will be prompted to insert a floppy disk

containing the RAID driver. Insert the "NVRAID Driver" diskette.

5. Locate for the drive where you inserted the diskette then select

"NVIDIA nForce3 ATA Controller" to install the driver.

6. Now press again to specify another device.

7. This time, select "NVIDIA nForce3 ATA RAID Class Controller".

8. Follow the prompts on the screen to complete installation.

 

Sorry for bringing bad tidings but they cannot be installed ounce windows is installed.

Ounce windows is installed you can then install Nvidia IDE Drivers, but some people stay with windows drivers and find them fine.

Hope this is helpful.

[Brutuskend]

Believe me I tried that MANY MANY times.

 

When installing XP (even after F6 and installing the correct drivers) my raid array does not show up as a array but rather as two seperate hard drives.

 

I gave up and installed on one of the drives and use the other for storage.

 

I also took out the mobile processor and put in a 3200+ and then guess what?

The SATA drivers installed first time, so I guess the SATA drivers DO NOT LIKE mobile CPU's.

 

Now, other than the raid array not showing up as a option to install windows XP on, everything else seems to be working ok.

 

Odd.