Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers

[burningrave101]

"regular" 9.34 package don't work with nForce3 and nForce4 chipsets.

Are you sure about that? With the "regular" 9.34 package the Ethernet driver is suppost to be for NF3/4/5. Others didn't seem to have a problem with the Ethernet driver.

Try it and find it out yourself.

By the way: You won't find the new Ethernet drivers off the "regular" 9.34 package within the Remix packages we talked about. I am sure, that those guys would have taken them, if they really are fully compatible to nForce3 and nForce4 mobos.

In the remix he is using the beta 60.15 Ethernet driver. It says customized though so he obviously changed something in the .ini to support nForce3/4. The Ethernet driver may not work on all nForce boards though.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=70757

Ethernet 60 is contained in this, where i have done my best to ensure compatibility, i can safely say this WON'T work on all controllers, what i can say is.

If you report back to me, your model of mainboard and what chipset you use, i will have a general idea of what these ethernet drivers can work on.

The ethernet controllers so far are working on some NF3 chips. and some NF4 chips, the driver has also been installed on another persons NF2 NRM ethernet controller (the gb version from MSI i believe).

[Wnxsnowman]

Well how do you do Server 2003???? It has 2 cds. how do you get both of them. i want to install server 2003 on a dual 200Gb maxtor IDE raid 0 setup.

[i_know_tim]

Please post your experience with this method - successfull or not - into this thread.

Well basically I have been getting error 51 (error during paging operation on disk ...) in the event log of my computer for a while now which I have not been able to fix. Amazingly this fixed it. integrating the lagacy XP drivers from the 6.7 package worked a charm. My computer was also locking up with no bluescreen or event logs mainly during io intensive tasks like games (obivion). This was fixed simply by integrating these drivers. I really don't understand.

note: I have a raid 1 setup for my data but my system drive is not in a raid array.

Edited May 30, 2006 by i_know_tim

[Fernando 1]

Well how do you do Server 2003???? It has 2 cds. how do you get both of them. i want to install server 2003 on a dual 200Gb maxtor IDE raid 0 setup.

Windows Server 2003 has only 1 CD.

What you certainly mean is Windows Server 2003 R2. The installation should work if you just integrate the nForce SataRaid drivers into CD 1 (= bootable CD).

[Wnxsnowman]

Ok i am trying to integrate raid drivers into server 2003(xp home has this problem too) And so i followed the directions, and copied all the files according to the directions etc etc, and used Nlite and integrated the drivers and removed the oem raid/scsi drivers, and made an iso, burned it slow, and all that, and when i go to install, they will go perfectly fine up until after the formatting of the hard drive, when it actually installs files, It keeps saying files are missing, and so ive tried putting the original disc in there and getting the file from there, but that doesnt have it either, and its not just one or two files, its probly 20 to 30 files, and i end up just skipping em, and of course when it gets done says theres an error and to restart setup. WTF IS WRONG WITH MICROSOFT?!?!! im trying to install windows on a dual 200gb maxtor raid 0 setup, and using normal discs and putting drivers in with F6 it just installs and then continuously reboots blah blah blah am i doing something wrong? or is windows just ****t?!?! i have already wasted about 2 dozen cds with no success. Someone HELP!!!!

[Fernando 1]

And so i followed the directions, and copied all the files according to the directions etc etc, and used Nlite and integrated the drivers and removed the oem raid/scsi drivers

Where did you read this? You should not remove these drivers, when you are integrating the nForce SataRaid drivers.

It keeps saying files are missing

Always the same or each time different files?

Is your CDROM drive, your RAM, your PSU and your W2k3 CD ok? Do you have an overclocked system? Which SATA mode are your Maxtor hdd's using? If SATA2 is enabled by hdd jumper, do you have a mobo with nForce4 chipset? If yes, did you flash the necessary Maxtor firmware for a successful work with nForce4 chipsets?

Note: Don't press F6 during setup, if you have inserted a CD with integrated nForce SataRaid drivers.

Edited May 30, 2006 by Fernando 1

[Blub]

@Fernando 1:

Please post your experience with this method - successfull or not - into this thread.

Succesfully tested configurations using nLite:

• integration of LEGACY folder drivers from package 6.70 with RC7 and RC8
  
• integration of LEGACY folder drivers from package 6.85 with RC7 and RC8
  

Raid BIOS version v. 4.84

Mainboard: Asus A8N-SLI Premium

2 x Samsung SP1614C, 160GB, SATA 150 in Raid 0

Operating system: Windows XP home SP2, Windows XP home SP2 with slipstreamed hotfixes until Mar 06, Windows XP home SP2 with Ryan VM update pack 2.06.

I prepared a build with the beta drivers as well, but haven't tested it yet.

Nice thread Fernando! Especially the last update couldn't be clearer and simpler. I remember fighting a LOT with my first SATA drivers integration attempts. This should really be a BIG help

@i_know_tim:

Well basically I have been getting error 51 (error during paging operation on disk ...) in the event log of my computer for a while now which I have not been able to fix. Amazingly this fixed it. integrating the lagacy XP drivers from the 6.7 package worked a charm. My computer was also locking up with no bluescreen or event logs mainly during io intensive tasks like games (obivion). This was fixed simply by integrating these drivers. I really don't understand

Interesting. May I ask what drivers you used before and what motherboard you have?

By the way: I had seemingly random freezes for a while too. They actually turned out to be caused by a defect memory bank. But until I discovered this (because the memory bank finally was kind enough to fail consistently, which made it easy to detect), But I was suspecting buggy drivers as well.Are you 100% sure it's stable now?

Edited May 30, 2006 by Blub

[Fernando 1]

@ Blub and i_know_tim:

Thank you very much for your posts. That really reassures me.

CU

Fernando

[Wnxsnowman]

the drives are IDE, not sata, sorry. and in the nlite program it says if you are integrating updated files you should remove the old ones. and i got it to work, i didnt pay attention to if it was the same files each time, but i just skipped every file and it worked. Yes my burner and ram and all that are fine, no o/c. Sytem is:

ECS Elitegroup NF4 soc 754 motherboard

Sempron 2800

PNY 1 gb pc3200 DDR

Enermax 470w 2.0 psu

ATI X550 256mb vid card

micro advantage dvd rw and Sony dvd rom

disc is brand new just downloaded it from microsoft. (180 day trial)

and of course dual 200gb Maxtor Ide hdds

and no i didnt do anything but create a raid array using F10 , and setting bios settings to allow raid, and then installing windows. I know not to use f6 using a disc with drivers integrated.

Edited May 30, 2006 by Wnxsnowman

[Fernando 1]

i got it to work, i didnt pay attention to if it was the same files each time, but i just skipped every file and it worked.

Fine, that you got it to work.

Maybe it were the CAT files, which were missed by the W2k3 setup. As these files aren't really necessary (because the nForce Pata/SataRaid drivers are not WHQL certified), it doesn't matter at all, that you skipped them.

[tubs]

Does this solution also apply to nforce 430 chipsets?

[davidlomax]

I have just entered the fun that is NVRaid chipsets!

Before I found your post I tried most combinations of most things and eventually decided to boot the machine using a standard IDE drive and then see if I could access the raid set up afterwards (non boot) using the windows set up kit provided on the website.

In short I gave up on using a bootable raid and now just want to use the 1+0 raid array on 4 250gb drives as a file serving system within win XP.

Once I try to install any drivers for the setup at all the system hangs at reboot as it normally does whenever you attempt to use the NV raid.

My question is what drivers do I install to avtivate my N4 chipset raid controller from within windows as a non-bootable array?!

Any Ideas? Trying endless combinations is driving me nuts!

Many Thanks,

Dave

Motherboard : FoxConn NF4SLI7AA

Chipset : NVIDIA Crush 19+MCP-04

Edited June 13, 2006 by davidlomax

[Fernando 1]

Does this solution also apply to nforce 430 chipsets?

Yes, my guide (first post of this thread) works with nForce 410/430 chipsets too.

The only problem is, that the special nForce 430 chipset driver packages offered by NVIDIA do not contain a LEGACY subfolder, which contains the needed NVATABUS.INF file.

My suggestion: Take the LEGACY subfolder from the package you get here.

My question is what drivers do I install to avtivate my N4 chipset raid controller from within windows as a non-bootable array?!

Try the new x86 package you get here. Run the package and install just the nForce Raid drivers.

[TBGator]

I am glad I found this site but am still having problems. I tried building an install using NLite and the driver instructions for Server 2003. I am still getting the blue screen Hard Error C0000221.

K8N-DL

2 x Opteron 246

2 x Cosair 1gb ecc registered

2 x Seagate baracuda SATA2 250 gb hard drive raid 1

Bios 1008

NVidia Bios 4.84

I copied the files as described into the SATARAID folder.

In NLite I selected the integrate drives and create ISO options

I selected the drived as textmode (I selcted one and it picked both).

After creating the drivers I watched that they were loaded during the pre gui load of windows, then got blue screened after the starting windows prompt.

I tried the same steps and selected unattended install, but didn't full in any options, just made sure the load OEM was checked. This didn't help.

I wasn't sure what this meant?

"To make the driver package suitable for the integration you have to unzip it"

Any help/suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Edited June 15, 2006 by TBGator

[Fernando 1]

I am glad I found this site but am still having problems. I tried building an install using NLite and the driver instructions for Server 2003. I am still getting the blue screen Hard Error C0000221.

Which driver package (version number) did you use?

Is your original W2k3 CD and your CD burner ok?

Did you use Nero for burning the CD?

I copied the files as described into the SATARAID folder.

In NLite I selected the integrate drives and create ISO options

I selected the drived as textmode (I selcted one and it picked both).

What you have done, seems ok.

I wasn't sure what this meant?

"To make the driver package suitable for the integration you have to unzip it"

When you have downloaded the chipset driver package, you don't see any subfolders, drivers and INF files. So you have to unzip the package, before you are able to integrate any subfolder and INF file.