LiquidSage

Advanced Serial ATA / Raid Integrator v1.5 Adding Intel SATA Drivers to an installation CD in 15 steps iaStor.sys not found during XP install OEM driver installs can be tricky sometimes... Try doing a search first in the future before posting.

A nice Junction/Hard/Symbolic Link shell extension that I've always been partial to. Has a walk-through and pics of what each type does as well Link Shell Extension

did you check that UDMA is enabled for that drive? also, if you installed a codec package uninstall that and the dvd software you are playing the dvd with, reboot and reinstall just the dvd software. Does this happen for cd's as well or just dvd's?

1. You want to uninstall any drivers added since initial installation. Windows will otherwise expect to see them during 1st boot on the machines you deploy to. Some devices are very bad to leave before getting ready to image your OS. Some Examples Intel,VIA, SIS chipset drivers should not be installed at all because they will cause BSOD (7B's) if hardware is dissimilar. Windows generic pciide and atapi work for all hardware saving you a headache. USB Mouse / keyboard drivers sometimes won't start because the USB controller hasn't been re-detected and driver signing prompt has not been OKed leaving you stuck at the account logon screen (PS/2 usually is not responsive either).This also affects safe mode. 2. Yes uninstall devices, reboot, and image the system before it is used again. Have that boot CD ready! 3. Using sysprep before making an image allows you to change the SID, clear current hardware Id's and prepare windows to do a full hardware re-detection and reseal for distro. This saves you from doing step 1 and will be much cleaner than doing it by hand. Get all the info from DEPLOY.CAB. and d/l from MS the newest version. 4.. Use Forced drivers for different hardware, mainly RAID and SCSI controllers or deploying IDE<->SATA. VMWare P2V and Acronis UR both use sysprep to an extent. For a nice easy automated sysprep that will package all the latest drivers and reset the HAL, try using theUniversal Imaging Utility. After it runs, just make an image of the system (step 2) and deploy. Because of the extensive driver inclusion, it's not the fastest but it has worked without any major issues for me so far. Try that and tell me if it helps you at all and we can go from there.

I have used both without too many problems. I use Acronis UR regularly. Give more info where the restore fails. A successful OS migration can be done by using sys-prep properly and making an image immediately upon reboot. If you don't want to really bother with sys-prep at least do a few things before making an image of the OS you want to deploy with Acronis UR. Assuming you are ready to backup the system.... 1. Uninstall non-general hardware. (Intel, SIS, VIA, graphic / sound ,printer, RAID drivers , AMD or Intel CPU drivers, etc) 2. Disable any 3rd party Services and MS services that are not essential for booting. 3. Remove read only attribute for the entire drive where the OS resides. Also, make sure you don't have Security restrictions in place unless otherwise needed. 4. (optional) Install Recovery Console to HD. (winnt32 /cmdcons from your install CD) 5. (optional) Copy OS install CD to Windows dir if you don't have a full local source. 6. (optional) Make hardlinks for big duplicate files to save space. ( I use Same Files Assistant which searches for duplicates and makes hardlinks automatically for the entire partition.) 7. Defrag Then reboot and use the boot CD or Startup Recovery Manager to make an image. You should now find your deployment to be more agreeable with different hardware. If that doesn't work let me know. I've spent a lot of time with Acronis TI Ent Server and Snap Deploy.

Get a can of air and blow any dust out of your PC. You can try to buy a bottle of CAIG's DeoxIT and clean the connections to RAM modules and the video card. Take out and re-seat your RAM at the very least. However, from what you have told us.... I'd suspect the memory first. The vid card is probably not the culprit since you only see the lines in one specific game. On a side note, win2k is generally not the best OS to run games with.....

I'm using an Auzentech X-Plosion DTS 7.1 and expecting the new X-Meridian at my door any day now.

ECS IMO make horrid mobo's. I'm not surprised you are having issues....BUT Yes. It is just a matter of updating the BIOS. Though the Cool n quiet feature still causes lock-up's. ECS's site has the BIOS updates you need. There are better boards out there that still have agp slots (even a few mobo's with both agp and PCI-E). It would be a good investment if you already spent $$$ on older RAM and AGP vid cards and don't plan on upgrading in the near future. Gigabyte makes a good one. (I upgraded a client's PC in a similar sit. They are quite happy with it.) http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-K8U-939 ASRock makes one as well though I have heard some dodgy opinions about it. ASrock 939dual SATA2 kv2 bios http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/Prod...DetailName=BIOS

DO NOT use ata slots on sound card. They have a long history of performance issues and IRQ conflicts. Man... that card is probably ISA type. Your DVD-RW and HD's will not love you for doing that. It sounds like you are using old PC parts. If so, that ata card probably is ATA/66. Do yourself a favor and rethink this project. Even current low budget parts will be much faster, more reliable, and less likely to cause conflicts that plagued early P I-III days.

That card probably needs drivers for you to see it. If so, to boot off the drive you will need to install an OS using the F6 method or slipstream them into an install CD. Also, in the bios or in windows the HD order may have changed. Check HD boot order in BIOS and check boot.ini in windows to make sure the right partition is used. Use a partition manager program to see if the other drives are present. Have you formatted them yet? If you want to max out your HD's ability you should get an ATA/133 card.

If it's USB, look in bios to change USB related settings. I have an ABIT mobo and it allows you to choose between BIOS and OS controlled USB mouse and keyboard input. If I choose OS controlled, my mouse and keyboard also don't respond on any boot menu or even when Windows loads the boot.ini choices (presumably because the OS hasn't loaded). Hope that helps...

Do you get ntldr errors upon first booting the cd itself or right before install starts from the hd? What are you using as the boot menu? CDshell, easyboot... etc Are you trying to tidy up you folder structure by hiding files? Are you using something like RyanVM's updates or nlite? If you delete the $OEM$ folder, does the AIO cd boot correctly again? Are you sure winnt.sif is correct for all options? Are you making sure to omit ISO 9660 version number when compiling? Double check all the setupldr.bin's and try replacing ntldr and ntdetect.com with the win2003 or win2003sp1 versions (might as well do it regardless anyways).

try copying the files from the working install to the other folders. Also, if the files are not in uppercase, change all of them and see if the installers will play nice. You didn't use nlite or ryanvm integration did you?

Well...to be quite honest and very blunt.......If you had the programming skills and knowledge to create a mouse module, you wouldn't be asking about it here. If you do want to make one, you better sit down and get nice and cozy w/ an ASM primer and then start to look at the Developer Manual. reanimatolog is really they only person that has made a 3rd party plug in (showgif & bcdw) worth looking at.

is this the same dvd drive you have used on a working machine or is this an old dvd drive? If it's old....the dvd may need a firmware update or it might not support the disc brand. Try using a recordable drive...they usually have better luck.

you probably don't have all the ident files (WIN51,WIN51IP,WIN51IP.SP2...etc....) at root of your dvd. Windows looks for those markers to check what version it is and what SP's are included.

1st. Are you actually building the entire ISO and either burning it to disc or using a virtual computer to test it? If you are using a virtual computer, are you mounting the image using a virtual disc mounting utility (alcohol120,daemontools,magicdisc...etc)? or are you just using cdshw.com to test the menu? (I know you aren't using this because you did read the help section at cdshell.org which explains that cdshw.com is used to test the GUI aspect of your menu's, not the bootable function's of them.) 2nd. Okay.....you mount your ISO and call the drive from your virtual pc or you burn the whole thing to disk and reboot to see if it works and still no luck..... Do you have PRO1.DAT and 3ENT.DAT in the root of your dvd?

post your dir. tree

Well, you can call both CO's and argue that since the system recovery was on the HD you had no way of repairing your system when the HD faced a disaster. They should provide CD reecovery disks with the system for free. I've been able to get a free CD recovery set from IBM and also a DVD recovery set for my Sony GRX600 from Sony.

One possible cause would be moisture. If the room is cold at night or when you aren't using the comp. and you turn on the heat when you are in it, there could be some water condensation on the mobo or plug in cards. If people enter the room tracking in snow or mud that also will contribute to the problem. If nothing else works, try putting a dehumidifier nearby. Also, try a different keyboard and mouse just for the hell of it.

1st question: You won't get help for that on this forum. If you owned a comp. from Emachine & Gateway, you wouldn't be asking here.... "so don't try to play that card". 2nd question: Either make a deploy-able image of each system and select the image at boot menu, or create a Nx1 distro with a menu (that you will need to select from) for each system type. On-the-fly system detection and system installation is not possible and impractical. Too many small changes in hardware from the manufacturer and users would make it a pain to try to update. You can make a corp. version pretty universal by integrating drivers though (try BTS driver packs).

Though you can do it, performance will suffer and setup will be time consuming. Also, if one computer user crashes the computer or some other problem arises, you should expect to lose all of the terminals connected. It would be better to just get a bunch of low end pc's instead of paying major $$$ for a few really high end ones, unless you're planning on hosting games as well. (Then you would want a bunch of high end machines. Each user having their own.)

IMO, quality thermal paste, shouldn't need to be checked more than once per year. AS Ceramique (which is safer for beginners) doesn't need to be checked for 2+ years due to the addition of silicone which acts as a binding agent. Just remember...Less is More. Any basic Physics book will tell you the greatest amount of energy can be transferred between two objects by insuring the two objects have as much surface area in contact with each other as possible. Thermal paste is used to fill in the ultra-fine imperfections between CPU and heatsink by eliminating any air pockets between the two, so use as little as possible. (The instructions are not lying when they suggest using a small rice grain sized amount). In this ideal air-tight situation, the paste will not dry out. It can't. However, case vibrations, people bumping the computer, etc cause the heatsink to shift around ever so slightly and leads to exposure. This is not a sandwich!!! Do not dump an ample amount of goo on your CPU before you plop the heatsink on top!. When the heatsink is 'sticking' to a CPU, more often than not it's a suction and means it has been applied correctly. Usually, it's the thermal pads that will melt, burn, and cause CPU and heatsink to stick together. This is because they usually contain wax. Also, taking off your heatsink to 'inspect' your thermal paste is somewhat asinine. If the heatsink is ever detached from the CPU, both must be cleaned and fresh thermal compound must be reapplied otherwise it will lose it's effectiveness. It is sort of like using a small piece of tape to try to remove lint off an entire sweater. Too often people can't leave well enough alone and fiddle with the heatsink (without properly re-prepping it) and/or continue to OC their system and blame the thermal paste when their system becomes unstable. If anything should be inspected, it should be the tension between the heatsink and CPU/mobo. No amount of paste can fill a huge gap that shouldn't be there and a big, over-sized heatsink, usually is more of a challenge to mount correctly. Of course ambient air temp,dust build up, and possible 'dead air' spots should be looked into as well as a possible cause for higher temps.

Are you getting artifacts? Are you overclocking it in any way? The 9800 series generally runs pretty toasty and the relationship between OC'ing and increased heat is exponential. Don't expect to get a comfortable OC without putting some $ into cooling. Tight budget solutions to aid in cooling.... 1. Replace stock thermal pad/paste with a quality thermal paste on the heatsinks. 2. If you have the time, lap your heatsinks then apply a quality thermal paste. 3. Volt mod your exhaust fan (downside is extra noise which can be controlled by soldering a temp control to the fan.) 4. Clean up the cables in your case for better airflow. 5. Cut up and lap an old heatsink to use on exposed ram chips on your 9800. Use thermal adhesive instead of thermal paste to keep them attached. 6. Put as much distance as possible between your AGP slot and used PCI slots. Sometimes removing a PCI slot cover underneath the AGP slot will help reduce heat buildup. Also, remember.....the fact that your heatsinks are getting hot is a good thing (up to a certain point of course). It means that your chip is not cooking itself to death and a good thermal transfer exists between your chip and the heatsink. If it's an exposed chip that is getting hot, put a heatsink on it! Since you don't want to put money into the cooling, about all you can do is increase airflow and try to decrease ambient air temp.

You may have the option of unlocking the temp sensor. If you have the right board, you will need to not only flash the card w/ a new BIOS, but mod the hardware as well. Triple check that your card layout matches the list of eligable boards and back up your card's BIOS. Check this out.... 9800 temp sensor If heat is a concern now, it will be more so after a flashing it to an XT. So start now with inspecting your case cooling (make sure airflow is good along the card's path). If that isn't the problem, consider replacing the stock VGA heatsink with a better one. Artic Cooling's ATI Silencer or a Zalman VGA cooler are popular.