Asus A8V-MX motherboard woes

[Daave]

I'm attempting to perform a Clean Install of Windows XP Pro (64-bit)
onto a PC my neighbor's brother built for him.

It has an Asus A8V-MX motherboard (link to manual:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8V-MX/e2337_a8v-mx.pdf )
and a Seagate Baracuda ST3808110AS SATA hard drive.

I tried disabling the SATA controller in the BIOS, thinking this would
make for the easiest experience, but when I do so, the motherboard does
not even acknowledge the hard drive whatsoever. There is no setting for
IDE emulation (if that's the right term). Just SATA, RAID, AHCI, and
"disabled."

The bottom line is the only way I can get this thing to work is to
choose SATA.

The problem is that when it's time for the PC to reboot, it hangs with a
black screen when it tries booting off the hard drive.

I have flashed to the most recent BIOS version. I disconnected the
graphics card and used the onboard graphics card. I tested RAM, one
stick at a time in each slot. I tested the hard drive with SEA Tools for
DOS.

I went to the ASUS site, looking for SATA controller drivers to place on
the floppy so I could load the drivers at the F6 prompt. But I could
find any!

I just came across this document:

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/iguides/sata/100390002b.pdf

Should I use the DiscWizard? Does anyone else have this motherboard, and
if so, can you PLEASE provide guidance?

I am truly perplexed. Thanks in advance.

P.S. I can't even get most "live CDs" to work on this thing. Here is a
list of those that have failed:

DBAN
Spotmau
Knoppix
Ubuntu
Live Mint (32 AND 64-bit)
UBCD4Win
BartPE
Hiren's

The only bootable CDs that work are:

SEA Tools for DOS
MemTest 86+
Windows Memory Diagnostic

Thanks again.

 

[Daave]

I went to the ASUS site, looking for SATA controller drivers to place
on the floppy so I could load the drivers at the F6 prompt. But I
could find any!

I wonder if I could use the driver from a PREVIOUS Socket 939
motherboard -- the A8V:

VIA VT8237 SATA RAID 64-bit driver v4.30C (WHQL) (Beta version 4.30C)

 

[Daave]

I wonder if I could use the driver from a PREVIOUS Socket 939
motherboard -- the A8V:

VIA VT8237 SATA RAID 64-bit driver v4.30C (WHQL) (Beta version 4.30C)

That didn't work ("unexpected error").

I just downloaded VIA V-RAID Driver, ver. 6.10A.

That yielded:

The file \x64\XP\viamrx64.sys is corrupted.

I'm thinking of throwing in the towel. :-(

 

[Paul]

I wonder if I could use the driver from a PREVIOUS Socket 939
motherboard -- the A8V:

VIA VT8237 SATA RAID 64-bit driver v4.30C (WHQL) (Beta version 4.30C)

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...x?DetailID=822&CategoryID=1&MenuID=16&LanID=9

VIA HyperionPro Driver V5.12A
Release Date 2007/05/31

http://download.ecsusa.com/dlfileecs/driver/mb/vga/via/VIA_Hyperionpro.zip

( also http://liveweb.archive.org/http://drivers.viaarena.com/VIA_HyperionPro_V512A.zip )

It has a ViPrt.inf in the SATAIDE folder. I'm hoping that
would be a driver for a SATA port in "SATA" mode.

Later drivers seem to be missing the SATAIDE, and the Falcon
driver doesn't seem to pick up the slack either. So that's my
only guess at the moment. If you have VEN/DEV info, you
can try matching it. It could be the 3349 or 5287.

%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3349&CC_0101.DeviceDesc%=StorageBus_Inst_x32, PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3349&CC_0101

%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_5287&CC_0101.DeviceDesc%=StorageBus_Inst_x32, PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_5287&CC_0101

http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids

1106 VIA Technologies, Inc.
....
3349 VT8251 AHCI/SATA 4-Port Controller
5287 VT8251 Serial ATA Controller

Now, the suspicious part, is the only txtsetup type info in the
download, is for VIAMRAID.INF (and 3349). Implying the vanilla
driver is already in Windows.

I got a driver, but no way to apply it. It's not F6 ready.
Needs a txtsetup.oem.

Anyway, that's a "progress report", not an answer.
I'm off to fire up the VIA machine and screw around a bit.

Paul

 

[Paul]

OK, scratch that.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...oard_id=1&model=A8V-MX&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

The advice there, is to flip to RAID mode, and make a floppy
diskette with the V-RAID drivers. Then, press F6. I'm guessing
the idea is, uninitialized volumes are accepted as single drives.
The V-RAID folder, somewhere in that extracted HyperionPro,
should have a txtsetup.oem. Ok, find "drvdisk" and copy the
contents to a floppy (1,146,880 bytes).

Give that a shot.

If the drive was a data drive, you could always try that HyperionPro
driver from my other posting.

Oh, and the other thing is, VIA chipsets have trouble with
SATA II cable rates. The drive should be jumpered for SATA I
using the Force150 jumper on the drive. The VT8237S is fixed for
that bug, and runs SATA I or SATA II equally well. I don't know
if the VT8251 has multiple versions or not. It could be,
the BIOS runs the cable long enough to get a disk_ID,
and then later, any appreciable amount of I/O screws up.
Just a possibility to further complicate matters. Time will tell.

Paul

 

[Daave]

OK, scratch that.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...oard_id=1&model=A8V-MX&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

The advice there, is to flip to RAID mode, and make a floppy
diskette with the V-RAID drivers. Then, press F6. I'm guessing
the idea is, uninitialized volumes are accepted as single drives.
The V-RAID folder, somewhere in that extracted HyperionPro,
should have a txtsetup.oem. Ok, find "drvdisk" and copy the
contents to a floppy (1,146,880 bytes).

Give that a shot.

If the drive was a data drive, you could always try that HyperionPro
driver from my other posting.

Oh, and the other thing is, VIA chipsets have trouble with
SATA II cable rates. The drive should be jumpered for SATA I
using the Force150 jumper on the drive. The VT8237S is fixed for
that bug, and runs SATA I or SATA II equally well. I don't know
if the VT8251 has multiple versions or not. It could be,
the BIOS runs the cable long enough to get a disk_ID,
and then later, any appreciable amount of I/O screws up.
Just a possibility to further complicate matters. Time will tell.

Paul

Thanks for those posts, Paul. I did try ALL of the above, including
jumpering the drive to force the lower transfer rate. No success. Oh,
well, at least I gave it the old college try!

 

[Flasherly]

Thanks for those posts, Paul. I did try ALL of the above, including
jumpering the drive to force the lower transfer rate. No success. Oh,
well, at least I gave it the old college try!

Worst comes to worst, if you got the slot, buy or eat a $10 PCI SATA
controller. It'll have a CD (like the one missing your neighbor
provided his dog ate). Check reviews for installation scenarios, the
one EveryBody is buying cheap. Newegg, of course. May it'll be
figured out, the ASUS. Eventually. I would. Some people have hungry
dogs, though, like a modem I sold a guy. Told me his dog ran away
with and buried it somewhere in the backyard. You know him. Gets off
work, no more bosses, gets up, stands on the coffee table, likes to
talk and drink a six-pack straight.