How do you set up Vista on a SATA drive?

[Colin Barnhorst]

Yes.

Using four dimm slots at 800 seems to put too much load on some memory
controllers, espeically when it is a 64-bit OS. I have never seen the issue
reported with two or three dimms in use.

The OS doesn't matter either. I have seen it with both XP x64 and Vista
x64.

Oddly, I suspect than less expensive mobos have a better chance of working
out than the higher priced ones on this issue. I know that sounds odd, but
the extra expense is usually for more ports an such. The more devices
demanding dma the more likely the memory controller is to hunker down. A
user who goes for the cheaper board probably doesn't have as many devices as
someone who buys the higher priced mobo. I'm just guessing here, but I'll
bet I'm close.

If you want to monitor the postings on this issue, look for:

1. pc6400 ram
2. four dimms
3. nVidia chipsets

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Since that guarantees there are not four dimms, it works for installation.
However, if the problem is caused by more than the storport.sys issue adding
a fourth dimm will fail. There is no one factor causing this. It is
certain combinations of factors. Something like a triple witching hour sort
of thing.

The truth is that the engineering on consumer mobos right now is right on
the edge when it comes supporting large amounts of ram. As ram speeds
increase the problems get more complex. Some mobos make it and some don't.
Some mobos just need the wrinkles worked out of the BIOS but some will never
make it. At the heart of it all lies the mobo chipsets. I know for sure
that nForce 4, 650, and 680 chipsets are prone. I'm sure there are more. I
suspect that P35 and P38 chipsets do fine but I haven't heard any reports.
I also have not heard much about AMD64 based systems either, which is
probably good.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

That's my take also. Besides, it is crashing while WinPE is running in ram.

 

[Carlos]

Frank,
I have followed my mobo owner's manual instructions.
Dual channel is on 1/2 or 3/4.
It can also be verified during boot when it displays "single channel" or
"dual channel".
In my case, using 3/4 is "dual channel" and it matches the user manual
instructions.
Thanks for the heads up, anyway.
Carlos

 

[Frank]

Frank,
I have followed my mobo owner's manual instructions.
Dual channel is on 1/2 or 3/4.
It can also be verified during boot when it displays "single channel" or
"dual channel".
In my case, using 3/4 is "dual channel" and it matches the user manual
instructions.
Thanks for the heads up, anyway.
Carlos

:

Great! Looking at the photo of your mobo it appears to be color coded
but I don't have this mobo and haven't read the owners manual.
I'm glad you are aware of what you're doing.
Frank

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I have one mobo on which the physical order is 1 & 2 and then 3 & 4 and the
color coding is 1/3 and 2/4. I have a newer one on which it is 1 & 3 and
then 2 & 4 and dimms are installed 1/3 then 2/4. The newer mobos seem to
be moving to putting the same channels next to each other. Perhaps it is
easier for users to understand intuitively.

 

[M Skabialka]

It has built in WiFi, so itsn't hard-wired to the high speed connection, but
since Vista isn't running, neither is WiFi
Thanks for the suggestion

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Colin.

At the risk of digression... ;^}

In a later post you said:
And here:

make it. At the heart of it all lies the mobo chipsets. I know for sure
that nForce 4, 650, and 680 chipsets are prone. I'm sure there are more.
I suspect that P35 and P38 chipsets do fine but I haven't heard any
reports. I also have not heard much about AMD64 based systems either,
which is probably good.

My motherboard is an EPoX MF570sli, with AMD Athlon X2 5000+ CPU and 4 GB
PC6400 RAM, recently graded from 2 GB with identical DIMMS, describe by
NewEgg as: OCZ Platinum DDR2 800 (PC6400) - SDRAM - 2 GB. The chipset is
nVidia 570 SLI.

When I boot, the first few lines of the first screen say:
Main Processor : AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+, 2 CPUs
CPU Real Clock : 2600MHz(200x13.0)
Memory Testing : 4194304K OK
CPU0 Memory Information: DDR2 800 @ 371 Mhz, Dual Channel, 128-bit
NVMM : 4.062.0704/24/06 Tcl :5 Trcd :5 Trp :5 Tras :15 (2T
Timing)

I can read some of that, but not all of it. I am particularly curious about
that "DDR2 800 @ 371 Mhz". What does that mean? Do I care?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I take it you are wondering why you are not seeing "DDR2 800 @ 400 Mhz" and
if that is a problem. I don't see why 371 Mhz would be of concern. Anyway
the label DDR2 800 (or 400x2 if you prefer) is just a spec. Operational ram
speed would be optimized for the system.

Most BIOS's (at least the ones that support overclocking) will let you
increase the dram speed (by incrementally increasing the memory voltage) so
I suppose you could do that. But I wouldn't. Let the system tune itself as
it wants.

I think it is interesting that you are running an AMD64 cpu (which has the
memory controller onboard) and not experiencing any issues with 4 dimms. It
bears out my suspicions. Your nVidia chipset is for AMD processors and I
still am not hearing of an issue with them. It seems to be nVidia chipsets
for Intel processors that I hear about. Or it may be simply be that the
memory controller is on the mobo with Intel processors.

It looks to me like you are enjoying one heck of a good computer.

 

[DanS]

Great! Looking at the photo of your mobo it appears to be color coded
but I don't have this mobo and haven't read the owners manual.
I'm glad you are aware of what you're doing.

Frank

Not to be too insulting, but a little bit 'o PahlyxB rubbing off on ya huh.

 

[Donald L McDaniel]

Decided I needed a new PC, so bought and assembled all new components and
started to install Vista Business. The HDD is a 500GB SATA drive, the
DVD/RW is SATA. 8 GB RAM, but took that down to 4 GB since it isn't Vista
64bit edition..

Anyway, Vista started to install but got a BSOD within a minute. Checked
all hardware settings and tried again, and again. Every time it gets a
different STOP error. So used an XP CD to format the drive figuring that
was the problem. It finished formatting then said it couldn't copy a file
kodak??.??? Tried Vista again - BSOD.

Tried booting to the motherboard driver CD to find SATA drives but my only
options on boot up was to set up a RAID array. I'm happy with just a normal
non-RAID setup. There is no floppy drive. The Maxtor CD would not boot at
all.



So, how do you set up Vista on a new SATA drive? Is there a set of steps to
take that isn't listed in the drive or motherboard installation booklets?

I've always thought that one can only install Vista on INTERNAL
drives, not EXTERNAL ones, like e-Sata drives.

Vista may INSTALL on such a drive, but it WON'T BOOT from it, no
matter the type.

BTW, Vista already has SATA drivers INCLUDED on the installation
media, and the installer package installs them if it sees them.

MY copy of Vista Ultimate does, at least. I have no other internal
drives than SATA drives. Yet I do NOT need to install a SATA driver
to install Vista.

Additionally, my DVD drive (used to install Vista) is also a SATA
drive, and I did NOT need any SATA driver for it, either.

So, the problem is that Vista MAY install on the e-Sata drive, but it
WON'T boot from it. PERIOD.

Vista will actually try to install on an USB drive or a Firewire
drive. But it WON'T boot from either. Vista won't boot from external
drives. Nor will the installation finish.

Donald L McDaniel

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

I've always thought that one can only install Vista on INTERNAL
drives, not EXTERNAL ones, like e-Sata drives.

Vista may INSTALL on such a drive, but it WON'T BOOT from it, no
matter the type.

BTW, Vista already has SATA drivers INCLUDED on the installation
media, and the installer package installs them if it sees them.

MY copy of Vista Ultimate does, at least. I have no other internal
drives than SATA drives. Yet I do NOT need to install a SATA driver
to install Vista.

Additionally, my DVD drive (used to install Vista) is also a SATA
drive, and I did NOT need any SATA driver for it, either.

So, the problem is that Vista MAY install on the e-Sata drive, but it
WON'T boot from it. PERIOD.

Vista will actually try to install on an USB drive or a Firewire
drive. But it WON'T boot from either. Vista won't boot from external
drives. Nor will the installation finish.

eSATA drives are just the same as SATA drives as far as the OS is concerned.
It is the same thing, apart from eSATA ports being on the outside of the
case, and the connections being more rugged. You must be thinking of USB or
Firewire connected external drives.

And did you think that development of new chipsets and hard drive controller
chips ceased once the Vista DVDs were pressed?

ss.

 

[DP]

I'm confused, Donald L McDaniel.
Did the OP say anywhere that he was installing on an external drive?
I don't see that in his message.

 

[Frank]

Not to be too insulting, but a little bit 'o PahlyxB rubbing off on ya huh.

???
Frank

 

[DanS]

???

I admit it, it was a lame attempt at humor. Your statement of 'I'm glad
you are aware of what you're doing.' You know. Naturally followed up by
.....'because I sure as hell don't'.

That was supposed to read PhalyxB, like alexB, you know...confused, being
wrong about what you posted, etc.

We've had a go-around or 2, but I don't think either of us are anywhere
nearly as egotistical, snooty, or wrong, (and completely unaware of it)
as the PhalyxB.

 

[Frank]

I admit it, it was a lame attempt at humor. Your statement of 'I'm glad
you are aware of what you're doing.' You know. Naturally followed up by
....'because I sure as hell don't'.

That was supposed to read PhalyxB, like alexB, you know...confused, being
wrong about what you posted, etc.

We've had a go-around or 2, but I don't think either of us are anywhere
nearly as egotistical, snooty, or wrong, (and completely unaware of it)
as the PhalyxB.

Oh...ok...I had no idea what you were talking about.
Frank

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Colin.

I don't see why 371 Mhz would be of concern.

Not of concern. Just wondering what it means. I'm an accountant, not a
techie, remember. You guys have taught me a lot, but I still hit terms and
specs now and then that leave me a bit curious.

I think it is interesting that you are running an AMD64 cpu (which has the
memory controller onboard) and not experiencing any issues with 4 dimms.

Yep. I just powered down, plugged in the 2 additional DIMMs and turned it
back on. The 4 GB was immediately recognized by the BIOS and by Vista x64
with no tweaking at all. The WEI didn't change, but that's because the RAM
rating was already at 5.9. My lowest score is Graphics at 4.6, with my ATI
Radeon X1600 Pro PCIe card. But I'm not a gamer, so that's OK. I had no
problem watching the Packers/Giants game on Media Center last night. ;<)

It looks to me like you are enjoying one heck of a good computer.

;<) This is my third EPoX motherboard. They are not well known, but have
always performed well for me. I have only one computer so I get to see just
one new mobo about every 3 years and don't get to do much comparing, but I
like this combination.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[NoStop]

Great! Looking at the photo of your mobo it appears to be color coded
but I don't have this mobo and haven't read the owners manual.

Yep, you can't be much help with your stupid speculations if you didn't
bother to read the mobo manual. But, that's par for the course, with a
dimwit mutherfscker like you Frankie Boy. Now, put your football helmut
back on and go play with the neighbourhood kids. Just think, 6 months and
it'll be your thirteenth birthday. Yahoo!

I'm glad you are aware of what you're doing.

He appears to be far more aware than you'll ever be. Thankfully, nobody
listens to your suggestions to start with. You do much better just swearing
at people than acting like you're some kind of techie.

Frank

Do read my sig Frankie Boy, it's there to help YOU.

Cheers.

--
Frank's Brain Activity Plotted (watch the red line):
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i4/Astronomy2/PreformanceMonitor.jpg

The Rolling Stones Love Vista:

Frank - seek help immediately! Visit ...
http://www.binsa.org/

 

[NoStop]

Oh...ok...I had no idea what you were talking about.

You normally have no idea about what anyone is talking about, so we aren't
surprised.

Frank

Read my sig, it's there to help you Frankie Boy.

Cheers.

--
Frank's Brain Activity Plotted (watch the red line):
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i4/Astronomy2/PreformanceMonitor.jpg

The Rolling Stones Love Vista:

Frank - seek help immediately! Visit ...
http://www.binsa.org/

 

[Frank]

Frank wrote:




Yep, you can't be much help with your stupid speculations if you didn't
bother to read the mobo manual. But, that's par for the course, with a
dimwit mutherfscker like you Frankie Boy. Now, put your football helmut
back on and go play with the neighbourhood kids. Just think, 6 months and
it'll be your thirteenth birthday. Yahoo!






He appears to be far more aware than you'll ever be. Thankfully, nobody
listens to your suggestions to start with. You do much better just swearing
at people than acting like you're some kind of techie.




Do read my sig Frankie Boy, it's there to help YOU.

Cheers.

hehehe...what's wrong you cross-dressing lying linux troll? Can't read
or can't comprehend what you've just read?
You're not that bright are you...which seems to be the norm for you open
sores losers.
Get a life dipsh*t...if you can afford one...LOL!
Frank