Total Confusion--Please help!

[Lori A. Kuiper]

I have a new system that I put together as follows: Motherboard is NF7-S
V2.0; Processor is Althalon 1.8 2500+; Video card is Diamond Stealth S80
Radeon 9200SE 128mb DDR DVI/TV-Out AGP 8X; Hard Drive is Western Digital
120GB; DVD R,RW drive is I/O Magic Dual 4XMax.

I have hard drive connected to Primary Controller set as Cable Select, DVD
is on Secondary set as Master. Also have floppy drive installed.

When I loaded XP Professional, and went to load the chipset drivers from the
CD, it asked if I wanted to install the ATA Serial GUI (takes place of PCI
Controller) and I said yes. It then recognized my hard drive as a SCSI
device and my system ran really slow. My DVD driver however, ran fine. I
then disabled the onboard ATA Serial Controller and Boot Rom in the Bios per
someones advice. Installed a floppy drive, and Reloaded XP and downloaded
the newest Nforce drivers from NVIDIA website. When asked if I wanted to
enable ATA Serial GUI I answered no this time. Then loaded ATI
videovdrivers from disk. My system is running faster and video seems to be
working correctly now, but my DVD won't write to a blank DVD anymore. Also,
the speed shown in system properties for the DVD drive is only 1/2 of what
it was previously for the DVD Drive when I had the Serial ATA drivers
loaded.

Does this system require the ATA serial drivers loaded to recognize my hard
drive and DVD Rom at Ultra ATA100 speed even though I do not have either
connected to the ATA Serial controller? Should I re-enable the ATA
Controller and just not select the Boot Rom portion and then reload the
motherboard drivers with the ATA Serial GUI? I thought that the ATA Serial
interface was only to enable RAID 0 and RAID 1? Since I only have the one
hard drive and DVD Drive, I did not think the serial ATA drivers were even
applicable although they are loaded if I switch the BIOS settings to
defaults. It says in the motherboard manual that I should disable the
onboard floppy controller if I install a high speed controller--does this
mean that I need to disable the floppy if I install the ATA Serial drivers?

Also, I cannot access the DVD drive before XP loads with my USB keyboard--is
this normal? The keyboard is older, but it is suppose to run on USB.

The next time I reload XP, should I shut down the system and boot directly
from the DVD drive? I just put the CD in and then restarted the system the
last time. I may have had a problem when I originally loaded XP since the
BIOS needed to be updated to properly recognize my Western Digital
drive--which I have done now. Also, I only formatted one partition when I
loaded XP--should I format all of them and then just select which I want to
put XP on? Now when I put a blank DVD in the drive and select properties,
it shows the file system as RAW?

Could the fact that I left the hard drive set to Cable Select (the way it
was set from the manufacturer) and had the DVD drive set to Master cause
problems--even though they were on separate cables?

In summary, what drivers do I need to load, what should my boot sequence be
when reloading XP, and do I need to shut down the PC before loading and boot
directly to DVD drive? I will need to plug my keyboard into PS2 in order to
do this. Can I change it back to PS2 later, or is it better to run it as
PS2 since it seems to work OK that way. I currently have mouse on USB and
that seems to be fine.

 

[Jim Macklin]

Is your hard drive IDE or ATA?

Why are you using cable select? Cable select is for
factories that install lots of hard drives, the drive on the
end is seen as master and the drive in the middle is seen as
slave. Which connector is your drive plugged into?

Did you get a mobo CD with drivers with the mobo? Do you
have the mobo manual?




| I have a new system that I put together as follows:
Motherboard is NF7-S
| V2.0; Processor is Althalon 1.8 2500+; Video card is
Diamond Stealth S80
| Radeon 9200SE 128mb DDR DVI/TV-Out AGP 8X; Hard Drive is
Western Digital
| 120GB; DVD R,RW drive is I/O Magic Dual 4XMax.
|
| I have hard drive connected to Primary Controller set as
Cable Select, DVD
| is on Secondary set as Master. Also have floppy drive
installed.
|
| When I loaded XP Professional, and went to load the
chipset drivers from the
| CD, it asked if I wanted to install the ATA Serial GUI
(takes place of PCI
| Controller) and I said yes. It then recognized my hard
drive as a SCSI
| device and my system ran really slow. My DVD driver
however, ran fine. I
| then disabled the onboard ATA Serial Controller and Boot
Rom in the Bios per
| someones advice. Installed a floppy drive, and Reloaded
XP and downloaded
| the newest Nforce drivers from NVIDIA website. When asked
if I wanted to
| enable ATA Serial GUI I answered no this time. Then
loaded ATI
| videovdrivers from disk. My system is running faster and
video seems to be
| working correctly now, but my DVD won't write to a blank
DVD anymore. Also,
| the speed shown in system properties for the DVD drive is
only 1/2 of what
| it was previously for the DVD Drive when I had the Serial
ATA drivers
| loaded.
|
| Does this system require the ATA serial drivers loaded to
recognize my hard
| drive and DVD Rom at Ultra ATA100 speed even though I do
not have either
| connected to the ATA Serial controller? Should I
re-enable the ATA
| Controller and just not select the Boot Rom portion and
then reload the
| motherboard drivers with the ATA Serial GUI? I thought
that the ATA Serial
| interface was only to enable RAID 0 and RAID 1? Since I
only have the one
| hard drive and DVD Drive, I did not think the serial ATA
drivers were even
| applicable although they are loaded if I switch the BIOS
settings to
| defaults. It says in the motherboard manual that I should
disable the
| onboard floppy controller if I install a high speed
controller--does this
| mean that I need to disable the floppy if I install the
ATA Serial drivers?
|
| Also, I cannot access the DVD drive before XP loads with
my USB keyboard--is
| this normal? The keyboard is older, but it is suppose to
run on USB.
|
| The next time I reload XP, should I shut down the system
and boot directly
| from the DVD drive? I just put the CD in and then
restarted the system the
| last time. I may have had a problem when I originally
loaded XP since the
| BIOS needed to be updated to properly recognize my Western
Digital
| drive--which I have done now. Also, I only formatted one
partition when I
| loaded XP--should I format all of them and then just
select which I want to
| put XP on? Now when I put a blank DVD in the drive and
select properties,
| it shows the file system as RAW?
|
| Could the fact that I left the hard drive set to Cable
Select (the way it
| was set from the manufacturer) and had the DVD drive set
to Master cause
| problems--even though they were on separate cables?
|
| In summary, what drivers do I need to load, what should my
boot sequence be
| when reloading XP, and do I need to shut down the PC
before loading and boot
| directly to DVD drive? I will need to plug my keyboard
into PS2 in order to
| do this. Can I change it back to PS2 later, or is it
better to run it as
| PS2 since it seems to work OK that way. I currently have
mouse on USB and
| that seems to be fine.
|
|

 

[mike]

Enable usb keyboard in the bios. You haven't put anything on your cd yet so
there is no file system. If you aren't using serial ata disable it in bios
and don't install the drivers . Cable select is fine if your using an 80
conductor ide cable and anything but a western digital hard drive. The udma
ide cables have the end marked disk 0 and disk 1 in the center , or vice
versa depending on who made it.It's easier to have xp on the c: drive.
Format the rest of the partitions at your leisure. If your going to boot xp
setup from cd you need cd to be 1st boot device. Set your wd hard drive to
master/no slave only if it is the only hard drive. Make sure in bios that
udmais enabled for both ide channels and the same in device manager.

 

[Lori A. Kuiper]

I do have an80 conductor ide cable--so you are saying that with my Western
Digital Hard Drive I should not set it to cable select (that was factory
default)--so I will change it to master since it is the only drive on the
cable. DVD is already set to Master and is the only drive on secondary
controller.

I did install XP twice already. I had serial ATA disabled in the BIOS, but
I went back in and enabled it. Then reinstalled motherboard drivers and had
it load the NForce Serial driver. It seems that the NForce drivers are
somehow using the the Serial ATA controller because my DVD speed is back !
I just found some documentation that says the chipset can utilize the ATA
drivers to reduce load on CPU--still not sure if it is actually utilizing
the Serial ATA controller somehow, but I know the system did not run as well
until I reenabled Serial ATA in BIOS. My drives are hooked up to the
regular onboard PCI controller though.

My problem still is that even though my keyboard is set to USB in BIOS, I
still can't access the DVD drive before XP loads--when it says push any key
to boot from CD, it just continues to boot into Windows. I have to plug
keyboard into PS2 to access the keyboard before XP loads??

I will change my hard drive setting to Master and see if this helps since it
is still set to CS (I left the factory setting).

I will post back after making the change, or with any more problems.

Thank you so much for the replies!

 

[Jim Macklin]

In the BIOS look for Legacy USB support and enable it.


| I do have an80 conductor ide cable--so you are saying that
with my Western
| Digital Hard Drive I should not set it to cable select
(that was factory
| default)--so I will change it to master since it is the
only drive on the
| cable. DVD is already set to Master and is the only drive
on secondary
| controller.
|
| I did install XP twice already. I had serial ATA disabled
in the BIOS, but
| I went back in and enabled it. Then reinstalled
motherboard drivers and had
| it load the NForce Serial driver. It seems that the
NForce drivers are
| somehow using the the Serial ATA controller because my DVD
speed is back !
| I just found some documentation that says the chipset can
utilize the ATA
| drivers to reduce load on CPU--still not sure if it is
actually utilizing
| the Serial ATA controller somehow, but I know the system
did not run as well
| until I reenabled Serial ATA in BIOS. My drives are
hooked up to the
| regular onboard PCI controller though.
|
| My problem still is that even though my keyboard is set to
USB in BIOS, I
| still can't access the DVD drive before XP loads--when it
says push any key
| to boot from CD, it just continues to boot into Windows.
I have to plug
| keyboard into PS2 to access the keyboard before XP loads??
|
| I will change my hard drive setting to Master and see if
this helps since it
| is still set to CS (I left the factory setting).
|
| I will post back after making the change, or with any more
problems.
|
| Thank you so much for the replies!
|
| | > Enable usb keyboard in the bios. You haven't put
anything on your cd yet
| so
| > there is no file system. If you aren't using serial ata
disable it in bios
| > and don't install the drivers . Cable select is fine if
your using an 80
| > conductor ide cable and anything but a western digital
hard drive. The
| udma
| > ide cables have the end marked disk 0 and disk 1 in the
center , or vice
| > versa depending on who made it.It's easier to have xp on
the c: drive.
| > Format the rest of the partitions at your leisure. If
your going to boot
| xp
| > setup from cd you need cd to be 1st boot device. Set
your wd hard drive to
| > master/no slave only if it is the only hard drive. Make
sure in bios that
| > udmais enabled for both ide channels and the same in
device manager.
| >
| >
|
|

 

[bob]

Western digital hdd's have or had an issue with c/s.

 

[Richard Urban]

Lori!

Western Digital drives should be set as "single" if there is no other drive
attached to the cable. I have four of them. Check the drive spec sheet or
the quick install sheet. It will tell you how!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard