"Driver not intended for this platform" error

[Vasili]

Here's my problem. I've had a 160GB HDD as a secondary
master on my P4 1.5ghz machine for quite a while running
smoothly (WinXP pro SP1). Yesterday it started working
slow, like twice slower than it should. It wasn't the
drive's problem - I've checked that by taking it out and
putting it into an external usb2 enclosure - the speed
was excellent. So I went into device manager and found
that this IDE channel was running in PIO mode when it was
set to DMA if available. Next I found this article:
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm
and did as it said, that is, uninstalled the secondary
IDE channel in device manager and restarted the computer.
Well, it went on reinstalling the channel along with the
HDD and the DVD drive I have on that channel as slave.
Then it finally said it couldn't install the driver for
the device it named "hdc" (hard drive controller?)
because "the driver was not intended for this platform".
In the Device Manager the secondary IDE channel now shows
as "unknown device" with an exclamation mark against it
and driver not installed. I tried directing it to search
for drivers in c:\windows\system32 manually but the
result was the same. The strange thing is that the HDD
and DVD drive are now working properly at the correct
speed so DMA seems to be working. But I just feel uneasy
about this exclamation point in the device manager. Is
there anything I should do here? Thanks a lot for any
help/advice.
Vasili

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Download and install the chipset drivers for your motherboard from the
motherboard manufacturer's website..

 

[Vasili]

Thanks for the advice but that didn't help. My
motherboard has VIA chipset labeled P4VMM3 so I went to
VIA's website and downloaded VIA Hyperion 4in1 drivers
v4.53 and after installing and restarting the result was
just the same: driver not intended for this platform.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Try this:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

 

[Vasili]

Yep, that's what I have tried already. I selected Windows
XP then Chipset or Platform driver and got to the VIA
Hyperion 4in1 v4.53

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Bummer, did you try the older version?

 

[Vasili]

Yep, I just did - to the same result.
I'm beginning to think only reinstalling WinXP will do
the trick.

 

[Len]

Do you have Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% installed on your system?

 

[Vasili]

Aha! Yes, I do have Alcohol 120%. Is it messing the whole
thing up?

 

[Nathan McNulty]

I don't see why it would unless it tries to write its own atapi.sys file
which is possible. Try uninstalling them and see if that helps. It may
just be that part of the configuration on your computer for the
installer VIA uses is messed up too. A clean install would fix it, but
try uninstalling Alcohol 120% first and see if that helps

 

[Len]

Actually you can try...

Going to your %windows%\system32\drivers folder and find atapi.sys; do a
right click for properties. If it is seen as an MS file with version tabs
etc then that is not the issue. However, if it does not have the MS ID then
that is probably your issue.

What can work is to of course delete Alcohol 120% or you can rename/cut and
paste elsewhere the "bad" atapi.sys -> wait a few seconds -> windows should
replace it with a copy of the genuine file from its backup. Right click ->
Properties to confirm.

Once you have a good atapi.sys file in the drivers folder you can go into
device manager, delete the offending controller(s) and scan for new
hardware. This should allow the system to install the proper devices. Even
after uninstall of Alcohol 120% you may have to do this anyway. Also, do
not restart the computer until after your device driver changes are
successful. As long as Alcohol 120% is installed it will modify the
atapi.sys file on start-up.

Good Luck,
Len

 

[Vasili]

Thanks! This solution worked brilliantly!
I did not even have to delete Alcohol. Just renamed
atapi.sys and it got replaced with the correct one.

 

[Len]

You're welcome!

Thanks! This solution worked brilliantly!
I did not even have to delete Alcohol. Just renamed
atapi.sys and it got replaced with the correct one.