HP M8530F PAVILLION MEDIA CENTER - Need Help

[jw]

I have a HP M8530F PAVILLION MEDIA CENTER that will not boot up.

This system apparently was sold as a package with VISTA (groan!).
I do not have the recovery disk(s) that came with it.

I have tried to install a fresh XP and VISTA on it, but neither
installation will work. The installs fail almost immediately.

This M8530F machine is strictly SATA (no PATA), and I interpret its
BIOS to show that SATA driver(s) are needed for any install to even
get started.

I have GOOGLE'd for help but have only found that my problems are
hardly unique. I looked for, but did not find, some kind of start-up
procedure that someone has used and that I could use to get this
thing started up - but found nothing that I could get to work. One
GOOGLE respondent was an individual who gave up on its M2N78-LA
motherboard in favor of a Gigabyte replacement, which he said worked.
Maybe I have to do that too?

I am looking for some sort of procedure/technique by which I can
install VISTA (or preferably XP) the normal way - from DVD/CD disk.
Anyone have a suggestion? Or tell me to get another motherboard?

Thanks

Duke

 

[Don Phillipson]

I have a HP M8530F PAVILLION MEDIA CENTER that will not boot up. .. . .
This M8530F machine is strictly SATA (no PATA), and I interpret its
BIOS to show that SATA driver(s) are needed for any install to even
get started.

This would be an anomaly. Most PCs built since 2000 seem to enable
SATA in the BIOS (i.e. need no other SATA drivers.) My ASUS does so
via the IDE Interface submenu.

HP's drive replacement page
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...c=en&cc=us&site=null&key=null&product=3740333
is admittedly generic (for both PATA and SATA.)

 

[jw]

tell me to get another motherboard?

Can you elaborate on "the installs fail almost immediately"?

Actually, when I try this, the boot process does not start the usual
downloads from the install disk (XP for example). It seems the BIOS
sometimes does not recognize any of the SATA drives (HDD or DVD), and
other times recognizes them but the downloads do not occur. Seems
odd, but that's the case.

Duke

 

[jw]

This would be an anomaly. Most PCs built since 2000 seem to enable
SATA in the BIOS (i.e. need no other SATA drivers.) My ASUS does so
via the IDE Interface submenu.

HP's drive replacement page
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...c=en&cc=us&site=null&key=null&product=3740333
is admittedly generic (for both PATA and SATA.)

This machine has no IDE connector on its MOBO. I have tried a
different SATA primary drive, with same results.

Duke

 

[jw]

So, you're sometimes having problems *before* the drive selection screen?

Yeh I guess you could say that. You see, the resident BIOS wants to
identify both the DVD drive and the HDD as SATA drives, which means of
course a SATA driver must be involved. Wherefrom I have no idea. The
motherboard has no PATA connection, so I can't install to a PATA
drive. Google readings indicate that others have the same problem
with this motherboard.

Duke

 

[jw]

I maybe misreading Don's intent, but you might be able to get around the
SATA driver requirement by configuring your BIOS to treat the SATA ports
as IDE ports. Some motherboards have this option, but cannot tell if
the M2N78-LA does.

The BIOS just has a yes no choice as to whether to use a 'SATA1
Controller'. More often than not, the BIOS fails to detect the SATA
drives (HDD and DVD) at all, whether the controller is enabled or
disabled.

Duke

 

[jw]

I read some those threads as well, and came away with the suspicion that
you might actually be seeing a hardware fault.

Would seem so

Duke

 

[GMAN]

Yeh I guess you could say that. You see, the resident BIOS wants to
identify both the DVD drive and the HDD as SATA drives, which means of
course a SATA driver must be involved. Wherefrom I have no idea. The
motherboard has no PATA connection, so I can't install to a PATA
drive. Google readings indicate that others have the same problem
with this motherboard.

Duke

No, in the system BIOS there is a menu where you can select native SATA mode
or IDE mode. It runs the SATA in compatibility (IDE mode) and therefore the OS
will just use the standard EIDE drivers.

 

[GMAN]

Would seem so

Duke

No, its not!

 

[jw]

No, in the system BIOS there is a menu where you can select native
SATA mode
or IDE mode. It runs the SATA in compatibility (IDE mode) and
therefore the OS
will just use the standard EIDE drivers.


I do not see any BIOS option to run SATA in 'compatibility mode'.
The only choice I see is to use a SATA controller or not.
I wish there were a 'IDE mode'.

Duke

 

[jw]

That's been brought up, but I'm going to credit JW with his contention
that option is not in his BIOS.

Thanks. That is true. JW

 

[jw]

I maybe misreading Don's intent, but you might be able to get around the
SATA driver requirement by configuring your BIOS to treat the SATA ports
as IDE ports. Some motherboards have this option, but cannot tell if
the M2N78-LA does.

AFAICS this M2N78-LA does not.

JW

Duke

 

[GMAN]

That's been brought up, but I'm going to credit JW with his contention
that option is not in his BIOS.

It might say NATIVE or COMPATIBLE as the two choices. Native being SATA mode
and COMPATIBLE being EIDE emulation mode

 

[jw]

It might say NATIVE or COMPATIBLE as the two choices. Native being SATA mode
and COMPATIBLE being EIDE emulation mode

I am looking at it. The choice is 'enabled' or 'disabled' for what it
calls 'SATA1 controller'. That's the only BIOS option I see for SATA.

JW

 

[Paul]

It might say NATIVE or COMPATIBLE as the two choices. Native being SATA mode
and COMPATIBLE being EIDE emulation mode

On a Vista box, they may well jam it in AHCI mode in the BIOS. To
install WinXP, then you'd want to F6 in a driver for it (because
WinXP doesn't have AHCI drivers included). Retail motherboards,
on the other hand, can have a full menu like IDE (compatible/native),
AHCI, RAID. The Vista install, should be reasonably prepared for
whatever it finds (unless the chipset is "newer than Vista" or something).

Using a Linux LiveCD, may allow (eventually) figuring out what state
it's in. But that's not the fastest way to answer this question.

Paul