windows xp compatible mainboards?

[Brett Caton]

I bought windows xp service pack 2, because MS told me that they
wouldn't support windows ME anymore. Once I installed it, I had huge
crashes to power off whenever I tried to use my DVD drive or cd drive in
windows. It worked fine in linux.

I updated firmwares for everything I could, downloaded every latest
windows driver, tested copying from one hard drive to the other (fine),
tested I could actually install games by copying the whole cd to a fat
partition when i was in linux, and then reboot into windows...

Unfortunately copy protection was causing problems with some games when
i try that. I really wanted to have a working windows system so i
gritted my teeth and contacted Microsoft Technical Support. I was told
to do pretty much what I had already done. I even wiped windows and
redid the whole install. Nada. Finally they said I must be using
incompatible hardware, and that the DVD and CD drive should have a
proprietary driver, and closed the case.

"1. How to determine if a part is compatible in the future
To do this, when you purchase any new hardware it should come
with a logo stating that it is compatible with Windows XP"

I have contacted various CD and DVD manufacturers and they all say they
don't use proprietary drivers, they use the windows ones.

The ASUS DRW-1608P2S has a picture of the xp logo, with "designed for
Microsoft Windows XP". It doesn't mention being compatible. Is this the
same thing? There used to be a Hardware Compatibility List on the
Microsoft site but MS has removed it.

I have never seen a motherboard with such a logo, or a hard drive. I
suspect this is all a motherboard (ECS K7VZA) issue; that the windows
driver for IDE and the one from Elitegroup driver for XP might both be
buggy. Is this reasonable or is there something I am missing? I don't
understand why linux is working fine and windows xp seems so unstable.

I am thinking about buying a new mainboard, but that means essentially
buying a new pc now, and that means I've wasted my money buying XP in
the first place. It certainly makes it a lot harder to buy parts and
assemble your own machine if you are using windows. Maybe that is
deliberate? I read a lot of rumours that Microsoft hates people building
boxes because of DRM. I really don't want to buy an expensive Dell PC or
similar but I don't know how else to guarantee it will run windows!

Thanks for reading this, and I hope to read your comments.

Brett Caton.

 

[Paul Murphy]

I bought windows xp service pack 2, because MS told me that they wouldn't
support windows ME anymore. Once I installed it, I had huge crashes to
power off whenever I tried to use my DVD drive or cd drive in windows. It
worked fine in linux.

I updated firmwares for everything I could, downloaded every latest
windows driver, tested copying from one hard drive to the other (fine),
tested I could actually install games by copying the whole cd to a fat
partition when i was in linux, and then reboot into windows...

Unfortunately copy protection was causing problems with some games when i
try that. I really wanted to have a working windows system so i gritted my
teeth and contacted Microsoft Technical Support. I was told to do pretty
much what I had already done. I even wiped windows and redid the whole
install. Nada. Finally they said I must be using incompatible hardware,
and that the DVD and CD drive should have a proprietary driver, and closed
the case.

"1. How to determine if a part is compatible in the future
To do this, when you purchase any new hardware it should come
with a logo stating that it is compatible with Windows XP"

I have contacted various CD and DVD manufacturers and they all say they
don't use proprietary drivers, they use the windows ones.

The ASUS DRW-1608P2S has a picture of the xp logo, with "designed for
Microsoft Windows XP". It doesn't mention being compatible. Is this the
same thing? There used to be a Hardware Compatibility List on the
Microsoft site but MS has removed it.

I have never seen a motherboard with such a logo, or a hard drive. I
suspect this is all a motherboard (ECS K7VZA) issue; that the windows
driver for IDE and the one from Elitegroup driver for XP might both be
buggy. Is this reasonable or is there something I am missing? I don't
understand why linux is working fine and windows xp seems so unstable.

I am thinking about buying a new mainboard, but that means essentially
buying a new pc now, and that means I've wasted my money buying XP in the
first place. It certainly makes it a lot harder to buy parts and assemble
your own machine if you are using windows. Maybe that is deliberate? I
read a lot of rumours that Microsoft hates people building boxes because
of DRM. I really don't want to buy an expensive Dell PC or similar but I
don't know how else to guarantee it will run windows!

Thanks for reading this, and I hope to read your comments.

Brett Caton.

Windows XP will be more taxing on a PC than Windows ME as there's allot more
to it. Consequently it will often show up any "weaknesses" with hardware.
By this I don't mean that your hardware wont work with Windows XP but that
there may be something not correctly configured or connected. There are a
myriad of possible issues that cause such behaviour, an IDE cable partly
disconnected, incorrect BIOS settings or a PSU on the way out are just 3
examples,.Did you access the insides of the PC at all during the upgrades?

Microsoft do have HCLs for "compatible" hardware but its not exhaustive so
just because something may not be there, doesn't mean it wont work. My
suggestion is that there is something wrong with your hardware set-up and it
would be best rather than spending money on another motherboard which may
not be required, to take it to someone you trust who's experienced at
repairing PCs, perhaps your local computer shop. There are some things such
as BIOS setting configuration which shouldn't be attempted unless you have
the required knowledge and experience. Similarly firmware and BIOS upgrades
can cause problems unless the updates are done perfectly correctly.

Paul

 

[Tom Byrne]

...My suggestion is that there is something wrong with your hardware set-up...

If the hardware is at fault then why does it work perfectly under Linux?
This is actually an interesting situation - a few years ago it used to be
the case that setting up many types of hardware under Linux was a pain in
the ... now it appears Windows is the problem...

 

[lurkswithin]

Brett Catonwrote
I bought windows xp service pack 2, because MS told me that they

wouldn't support windows ME anymore. Once I installed it, I had hug

crashes to power off whenever I tried to use my DVD drive or c drive in
windows. It worked fine in linux

I updated firmwares for everything I could, downloaded every lates

windows driver, tested copying from one hard drive to the othe (fine),
tested I could actually install games by copying the whole cd to fat
partition when i was in linux, and then reboot into windows..

Unfortunately copy protection was causing problems with some game when
i try that. I really wanted to have a working windows system so i
gritted my teeth and contacted Microsoft Technical Support. I wa told
to do pretty much what I had already done. I even wiped windows an

redid the whole install. Nada. Finally they said I must be using
incompatible hardware, and that the DVD and CD drive should have a
proprietary driver, and closed the case

"1. How to determine if a part is compatible in the futur
To do this, when you purchase any new hardware it should com
with a logo stating that it is compatible with Windows XP

I have contacted various CD and DVD manufacturers and they all sa they
don't use proprietary drivers, they use the windows ones

The ASUS DRW-1608P2S has a picture of the xp logo, wit "designed for
Microsoft Windows XP". It doesn't mention being compatible. I this the
same thing? There used to be a Hardware Compatibility List on the
Microsoft site but MS has removed it

I have never seen a motherboard with such a logo, or a hard drive.

suspect this is all a motherboard (ECS K7VZA) issue; that th windows
driver for IDE and the one from Elitegroup driver for XP might bot be
buggy. Is this reasonable or is there something I am missing? don't
understand why linux is working fine and windows xp seems s unstable

I am thinking about buying a new mainboard, but that mean essentially
buying a new pc now, and that means I've wasted my money buying X in
the first place. It certainly makes it a lot harder to buy parts an

assemble your own machine if you are using windows. Maybe that is
deliberate? I read a lot of rumours that Microsoft hates peopl building
boxes because of DRM. I really don't want to buy an expensive Del PC or
similar but I don't know how else to guarantee it will run windows

Thanks for reading this, and I hope to read your comments

Brett Caton

Hello Brett,
I read this post and then read the other thread in which you replie
to and mentioned this same issue a bit differently.
I have come to the conclusion that it is not a compatability issue a
you tend to lead into here but infact just a correction of th
registry for the DVD issues

try this and see if it doesn't get you going again

Please back up your registry in case of a mistake


Run regedit and navigate to registry ke
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet
Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Highlight it and in the right pane,
find the Upperfilters and Lowerfilters values.
Highlight each one in turn, right click and delete them
Close regedit and restart the computer

Now try to burn a DVD and post back as to how it did

 

[Paul Murphy]

If the hardware is at fault then why does it work perfectly under Linux?
This is actually an interesting situation - a few years ago it used to be
the case that setting up many types of hardware under Linux was a pain in
the ... now it appears Windows is the problem...

Because as I explained with Win XP vs. ME, Win XP taxes hardware more than
some other OSs. I used to work as a computer tech for a school and when
upgrading PCs from Win 98SE to XP Pro (back when XP first came out - Pentium
II 450 MHz times), there were some machines that started misbehaving under
XP which had worked fine under 98SE. I stand by my above suggestion and it
does sound to me like this PC needs a professional to look at it. Money is
best spent on this before any other (possibly unnecessary) replacements are
made.

Paul

 

[Brett Caton]

I bought windows xp service pack 2, because MS told me that they






Hello Brett,
I read this post and then read the other thread in which you replied
to and mentioned this same issue a bit differently.
I have come to the conclusion that it is not a compatability issue as
you tend to lead into here but infact just a correction of the
registry for the DVD issues.

try this and see if it doesn't get you going again.

Please back up your registry in case of a mistake!



Run regedit and navigate to registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
Highlight it and in the right pane,
find the Upperfilters and Lowerfilters values.
Highlight each one in turn, right click and delete them.
Close regedit and restart the computer.

Now try to burn a DVD and post back as to how it did.

I don't have those keys. Are they supposed to be there? Should I add them?

I've tried repartitioning, reformatting and reinstalling Windows so I
would have thought that the registry couldn't be the issue unless my
windows cd is the cause of my woes, but i will certainly try anything if
it'll save me buying a new pc.

http://theeldergeek.com/restore_missing_cd_or_dvd_drive.htm seems to
argue that the keys should be there but the daya removed... I am
guessing they are supposed to be recreated upon reboot?

I'm not a windows guru so I don't know how to isolate the relevant data
from my system tto prove what I am seeing here, and it's quite possible
I'm missing something obvious. Below is a dump from regedit:

Key Name:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Class Name: <NO CLASS>
Last Write Time: 21/03/2006 - 5:57 AM
Value 0
Name: Class
Type: REG_SZ
Data: CDROM

Value 1
Name: <NO NAME>
Type: REG_SZ
Data: DVD/CD-ROM drives

Value 2
Name: EnumPropPages32
Type: REG_SZ
Data: MmSys.Cpl,MediaPropPageProvider

Value 3
Name: Installer32
Type: REG_SZ
Data: storprop.dll,DvdClassInstaller

Value 4
Name: SilentInstall
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 1

Value 5
Name: NoInstallClass
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 1

Value 6
Name: TroubleShooter-0
Type: REG_SZ
Data: hcp://help/tshoot/tsdrive.htm

Value 7
Name: Icon
Type: REG_SZ
Data: -51


Key Name:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000
Class Name: <NO CLASS>
Last Write Time: 20/03/2006 - 7:26 PM
Value 0
Name: EnumPropPages32
Type: REG_SZ
Data: storprop.dll,DvdPropPageProvider

Value 1
Name: InfPath
Type: REG_SZ
Data: cdrom.inf

Value 2
Name: InfSection
Type: REG_SZ
Data: cdrom_install

Value 3
Name: ProviderName
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Microsoft

Value 4
Name: DriverDateData
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 00 80 62 c5 c0 01 c1 01 - ..bÅÀ.Á.

Value 5
Name: DriverDate
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 7-1-2001

Value 6
Name: DriverVersion
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 5.1.2535.0

Value 7
Name: MatchingDeviceId
Type: REG_SZ
Data: gencdrom

Value 8
Name: DriverDesc
Type: REG_SZ
Data: CD-ROM Drive


Key Name:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000\DigitalAudio
Class Name: <NO CLASS>
Last Write Time: 20/03/2006 - 7:26 PM
Value 0
Name: RegistryVersion
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 1
Name: NumberOfBuffers
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x8

Value 2
Name: SectorsPerRead
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x10

Value 3
Name: SectorsPerReadMask
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0xffffffff

Value 4
Name: CDDASupported
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 5
Name: CDDAAccurate
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

 

[Brett Caton]

p.s. I can watch DVDs on my system fine. "Serenity" and "Scrubs" without
a hitch.

 

[Paul Murphy]

p.s. I can watch DVDs on my system fine. "Serenity" and "Scrubs" without a
hitch.

I don't believe its a registry issue at all (and there aren't filter keys
there on my XP Pro SP2 machine either). As you rightly mentioned, windows
will take care of the correct registry settings when its freshly installed
as you've done. If its only some DVDs that cause crashing on your machine,
then possibly the DVDs are faulty? Have you tried the suspect DVDs on other
machines or hiring new DVDs to test on yours? Additionally the DVD drive may
need a little maintenance (again a job for experienced/trained people) if
its been in use for some time in a dusty environment. Are you getting any
read errors before the crashes? Often in these cases you'd hear the DVD
repeatedly cycling in speed in an attempt to read the needed data. Just
because everything seems to work fine in one OS and not in another does not
mean that the hardware setup is all fine.

Given that you were considering spending money on parts, what's wrong with
spending money getting it professionally diagnosed first to ensure those
parts are actually needed and its not something trivial/cheap causing the
issue? I'm sure if you let them know what you've tried already, they'll also
look at hardware/BIOS configuration issues as being possible causes.

Paul

 

[Brett Caton]

I don't believe its a registry issue at all (and there aren't filter keys
there on my XP Pro SP2 machine either). As you rightly mentioned, windows
will take care of the correct registry settings when its freshly installed
as you've done. If its only some DVDs that cause crashing on your machine,
then possibly the DVDs are faulty? Have you tried the suspect DVDs on other
machines or hiring new DVDs to test on yours? Additionally the DVD drive may
need a little maintenance (again a job for experienced/trained people) if
its been in use for some time in a dusty environment. Are you getting any
read errors before the crashes? Often in these cases you'd hear the DVD
repeatedly cycling in speed in an attempt to read the needed data. Just
because everything seems to work fine in one OS and not in another does not
mean that the hardware setup is all fine.

Given that you were considering spending money on parts, what's wrong with
spending money getting it professionally diagnosed first to ensure those
parts are actually needed and its not something trivial/cheap causing the
issue? I'm sure if you let them know what you've tried already, they'll also
look at hardware/BIOS configuration issues as being possible causes.

Paul

The DVDs work fine if I boot under Ubuntu, and I've been playing civ 4
by copying to a shared partition under it and then rebooting to xp.
Also, the same problem has occurred with my older DVD drive and the
creative CD-RW which the ASUS DVD-RW replaced.

I have installed games from CD. I have burnt a few files onto cd but
they often have CRC errors assuming I don't get the crash to power off.
If I burn the same files under Ubuntu, no errors, no crashes and no
problems installing them and using them under XP.

Microsoft's professional opinion was either the hardware is not windows
xp compatible or Ubuntu is somehow responsible. The latter I found
bizarre but I guess their techs aren't really familiar with any other
operating system than their own. The proof of compatibility is
supposedly in that the hardware has the xp logo on the front. The ASUS
DRW-160892S has such a logo, but I haven't yet seen a mainboard with it
on, let alone a hard drive. If I replace the mainboard, apparently the
lot has to go as standards are so different (eg SATA, PCI-Express).

I've already been to one shop and they just told me to buy a new pc. The
cost per hour of investigating was not worth it, he said. I could try
another shop but I'm not really sure I'd ever get a different answer. My
experience of tech support at PC shops has been poor.

For the time being, I'll just use Ubuntu to swap files from DVD to HD
and install from there.

Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated!

Brett.

 

[Paul Murphy]

The DVDs work fine if I boot under Ubuntu, and I've been playing civ 4 by
copying to a shared partition under it and then rebooting to xp.

Thats explainable by the fact that different OSs tax hardware in different
ways and it doesn't really prove anything.

Also, the same problem has occurred with my older DVD drive and the
creative CD-RW which the ASUS DVD-RW replaced.

Thats very usefull information and points to it not being caused by that
particular DVD-RW drive as it would be most unlikely for all the previous
drives to be faulty. As the problem seems to occurr under usage of the DVD
Drive that narrows down the remaining possible causes. It may be a faulty
IDE ribbon cable or not fully connected (could try swapping the cable to see
if any difference occurrs). Additionally it may be BIOS setting related -
there are websites which explain the numerous different settings.
Motherboard manuals often touch on the subject but dont go deeply into it so
further research would be needed to check the correct settings are used. It
may be a problem with the PSU and if you have anything using lots of power
which you can temporarily go without for testing purposes, unplug that from
the PSU or motherboard, boot up the PC and test again. If it is a
motherboard problem (the last thing to check), then swapping the controller
channels should result in the problem going away.

I have installed games from CD. I have burnt a few files onto cd but they
often have CRC errors assuming I don't get the crash to power off. If I
burn the same files under Ubuntu, no errors, no crashes and no problems
installing them and using them under XP.

I presume you have installed motherboard chipset drivers on your new Windows
installation (if required for your particular chipset).

Microsoft's professional opinion was either the hardware is not windows xp
compatible or Ubuntu is somehow responsible. The latter I found bizarre
but I guess their techs aren't really familiar with any other operating
system than their own. The proof of compatibility is supposedly in that
the hardware has the xp logo on the front. The ASUS DRW-160892S has such a
logo, but I haven't yet seen a mainboard with it on, let alone a hard
drive. If I replace the mainboard, apparently the lot has to go as
standards are so different (eg SATA, PCI-Express).

If you have a spare blank HDD, it may be worth installing only Windows on it
and try that out. Certainly dual boot arrangements can be problematic and
removing a second OS from the equation, removes that possibility.

I've already been to one shop and they just told me to buy a new pc. The
cost per hour of investigating was not worth it, he said. I could try
another shop but I'm not really sure I'd ever get a different answer. My
experience of tech support at PC shops has been poor.

I'm sorry to read this. Here in the UK there are many shops that have a flat
fee repair with a "no fix, no fee" assurance. Maybe its worth posting it
further afield for diagnosis/repair at a decent place that doesn't just want
to flog you a new PC.

For the time being, I'll just use Ubuntu to swap files from DVD to HD and
install from there.

Until you can find a better computer repairer, perhaps someone in the IT
team at your employer may look at it during lunchtime for a modest cost?

Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated!

Glad to help a fellow antipodean (I'm originally from NZ).

Paul