nowinscenario

I am (unfortunately) happily experimental, so sign me up with my fellow Beta Lemmings & I'll jump right in... It does appear, however, that U planned to release this week sometime (as per your post)...

SATA drives are still problematic oftentimes for Windows setup (many of my hardware builder friends are still steering clear of them, instead opting for next best performance solution of 16MB cache 7200RPM IDEs)--but I have had better luck with the newer SATA IIs, especially Seagate's newer perpindicular component models (otherwise, I'd go for the Spinpoint Samsungs or the Western Digital SATARAID models). I've definitely seen better-quality (and locking) SATA cables stop blue screens, too--so look at the cabling and only use highest quality. Also, I've found that just changing the type of RAID makes a difference: for whatever predictably mysterious Windows reasons, the OS will like one RAID configuration over another without making any other changes in your install (brand of RAID can make or break you, too: I've had better luck choosing Silicon over NVIDIA in a few cases). (Interesting: I have a setup of 2003 R2 which is totally stable and likes dual RAID 0, OS on two drives and storage on two drives--but consistently bluescreens when the four drives are RAID 5!--which, of course, is counterintuitive, given that it's a truism that 5 is predictably more stable and robust than 0 ... So go figure...!)

@TUX: good link. I have to say, I grow weary of the long-winded manual solutions soon after I learn them, and know exactly what they're doing: one of the easiest do/undo methods of a lot of these (and related security) settings is to just use the free, executable-only, no-install SafeXP (whcih also works for 2K3, too, I might add)--you can tick the one-page interface of boxes ON/Off at your discretion (as well as make a default backup setting). But it would be nice to be able to use the Repair function without error, yet have all this crap essentially disabled--but I haven't figured out how to do that yet (like we need to be able to provide the function some particular file, or two, for it to operate--yet without having the full functionality up and running, for security reasons...). OK, back on topic, now...

Just a thought: Latest NVIDIA seems, of late, problematic at best for driver integration, especially for ethernet, and I don't no why: no matter what, I've found I almost always have to put the mainboard CD in post-install, even though I integrate all the drivers beforehand--I suspect order-of-integration issues that prevent full install during unattended builds. I've just come to accept this as fact of recent nForce MBs XP builds (whether, ultimately, it's an issue with new nForce chipsets themselves, or something else I take out that prevents the chipset full inegration--with respect to network--is a real good question ... Any ideas, Tux...?). Does everything install when you put in the mainboard CD?

The "blackscreen" problem is well-known and discussed over in the RyanVM forum: http://ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=28666#28666 ... so maybe adding that to this exploration might give us some more clues (I've only experienced it with 2K3 R2, mysteriously enough)...

@Sesshoumaru: btw, do you remove TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service? and do you have File and Printer Sharing NOT installed?

@Sesshoumaru: can you do a network support repair without error on XP?

@Camarade_Tux: maybe we need a new thread--most of my recent builds, real or VM, suffer that weird new error (try right click on netwrok icon and doing a repair--ouch, oops, there it is, predictably). Thing is, I've always removed or disabled the components related to this, yet had no repair problems with errors. Mysteries abound, yet again. Let me know what you find. Thanks.

Although last couple of installs seemed relatively flawless--except for the noted bugtrack list, which still stands (sorry I haven't updated it lately--I've been REAL busy)--I've seen some mysterious memory reference and runtime errors being generated by a variety of programs, seemingly randomly at first, but also escalating to the point of regular annoyance (and even rendering a couple of applications unusable). If anyone else has seen this, please report it: otherwise I'll just dismiss it as a couple of build anomalies--but if it is starting to happen regularly, it's not going to be fun tracking such arrors down to their origins... Also, anyone have any DMA enabling problems lately? I'm temporarily discounting some of my last errors and problems, because it turns I was working with a bad motherboard--unless someone else comes up with the same or similar, or unless I am able to reporduce them again in the next couple of days on two new motherboards.

Most likely will add more to list tonight (one example, extended: this time NET 2 joined NET 1 as a downed soldier in the customization fight: neither installed, even though the popup screen indicated that they were installing ... another example, extended: logon weirdness again confirmed: if I check auto-login; change the Admin account; change the User account that, supposedly, auto-logs-in--nLite will not change the Admin account, does not create the User account, yet tries to auto-login with that absent User account, which creates the incorrect log-in error, from where I have to change it to just simply the default Administrator). For the brief moment, I can't recall any original or new behavoir--just variations on the above theme (I will say that there's something in the tweaks that basically ends up turning ALL the effects on--aarrrgh!)

Namor is correct, as far as I can remember for all recent builds: Common Tasks seems to always be enabled for me (even though I don't want that way)--and I always tick to have classic and tick to have no common tasks. So, yeah, somthing is awry here. N.B.--my last install was SO screwed up (for whatever ephemeral reason) that I'm not even going to bother upping any files: I don't want to create untold chaos!--so I'm rebuilding again tonight. (I suspect medium errors and such when it's this severe.)

Tux: touche! Choice is the key to ultimate bliss.

Correction: My hardware builder said this was not ASUS, but a peculiarity in a MSI board because of a faulty BIOS--flashing fixed it.

Nuhi: if I were to have problems, what would they be? (I presume you were addressing me...?) It's just that I've always done this. Well, here's the latest variation in mthof: I'm using the update to Aserone's add-on, which covers both the SFC and the OOBE as hacks, so I'm not using the actual SFC disabling in the nLite interface (because it was producing similar problems that people were having above)--so it's a twin add-on hack. Yet, I leave the toggle for SFC in nLite Enabled ... Would you consider this incorrect? It's the only compromise I've come up with, for now, that seems to not produce errors.

The ASUS point is important: and, if I'm not mistaken, there's some that require you to have SATA enabled in the BIOS even if there are no SATA drives (I'm almost sure this was the case on recent board I worked on--which, after pulling my hair out, turned out to be a simple, but non-intuitive, BIOS setting)... User beware!

owikh84 just pointed out another one I've been forgetting--but, again, it's not peculiar to RC8, as far as I can tell: it concerns the setting of a default sound scheme (presuming an add-on, such as the excellent Vista Sounds--yes, I too, am tired of most of XP's sounds)--it seems to come up as a blank scheme, to which you have manually point it to (for instance) the Vista Sound scheme...

razormoon, that's good to know--just Media Center? I only ask because I've actually never had any problems with using even the newest beta drivers--but I've only messed with Media Center once (and not as a custom install). BTW, I've just incorporated the latest ForceWare 91.28 without a hiccup into my latest build, if anyone's interested.

Oh, sorry, I think I was directing that question to calderstrake's weird display driver issues.

Thanks owikh84, just added to post above. =;-}

calderstrake--Well, this is just odd: like Nuhi, I'm inlcined to say this makes no sense (especially given my experience of always removing all XP display drivers for 50+ builds now--with the exception of a couple of older laptops)--however, given my recent weird mouse cursor behavior (where I've had to install the default Windows cursors just to get my themse installed), we may be looking at another possible bug here. But it still doesn't sound right. owikh84: although I would like to, I've found that going over the same source repeatedly, without refreshing the base files cleanly from the original source, almost always leads to problems. I know it takes a little longer, but it's less headaches in the end. How are you extracting them or otherwise storing them for nLite to get to?

Yo, comrades in arms, list underwent some revisions (and will probably corrobroate more tonight). Stay tuned ... Don't touch that dial...

Two cents: As per Nuhi's suggestion, I also disable SFC at install, re-enable post-install (after I'm through cleaning house with XPLite, but before I install a lot of apps), and have had no porblems by this method, which I've always used since the SFC tweak was available.

Nothing I do is proof, necssarily, but for what it's worth, I've used that obscure RAID5 add-on for the last 20-30 builds with no problem that I can detect. To be honest, I've kind of forgotten that's even in my "Primary nLite CABs" folder (to which I have a "Secondary," an "Alternate," an 'Optional," and an "Experimental" CAB directories--so, you see, it hasn't been in one of those for a while), because since I pretty much never have any problems with them, I usually only change ones when their updated. But, to be fair, too, I haven't had the opportunity to really play around with the RAID5 functionality, such as it is, because, quite frankly, not many people have computers with the minimum system requirements (at least four hard drives): my thought was just to have it in there, in case at some point in the future, they were to upgrade their hardware to reflect this potential functionality. All I know is that, such as it, it has never cause any problems. However, the equivalent of this, created by some enterprising member, for what Fernando has here would be paradise for a lot of people--and essentially make all of this crazy stuff obsolete. So, ppppuuuullllleeeeaaassseee, someone work on a CAB add-on, or something workably similar, that we can use with nLite (or RyanVM Integrator), or that Nuhi can somehow work into his programming of nLite itself. Pretty please. ... with Splenda and Nutrasweet on top? Hello...?

Good simple point. Don't keep messing with likely broken or otherwise corrupt base files.

Just a stab in the dark: did you change the nLite entry concerning the type of computer (you know single processor, Advanced Power Management Interface, et al)? I scrolled too far by mistake once without noticing, and it took me forever to discover the error, but I seem to remember it causing an setup failure in the same ballpark as yours. Also what mode did you answer the drivers as being?