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Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers


Fernando 1

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@Fernando

I seriously doubt his "missing dll" problem is related to my method in any way.

Yeah, just to clarify, I never experienced the "missing dll" problem using your method. I experienced the "missing dll" issues during my first couple attempts at using the OemInfFiles method. My last attempt, however, at using the OemInfFiles method went through perfectly. Unfortunately, Device Manager still shows the "Unknown Device" in the SCSI & RAID DEVICE section.... :blink:

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Using my method I get absolutely no missing file errors whatsoever, no problems with windows, no errors or question marks or anything weird in the device manager, nothing wrong whatsoever.

This is the part that still has me stumped. I seem to be able to get the system to load just fine using BOTH methods, but for whatever reason Device Manager still gives me an "Unknown Device" in the SCSI & RAID DEVICE section. UGH. I keep thinking I must be doing something wrong, but I've honestly followed both methods through several times exactly as shown and continue to have this issue....

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It's not SCSI drivers that are connected, it's the IDE drivers.

Best would be to remove both.

I cannot find a special option to remove the IDE drivers by nLite. There was only a combination of SCSI drivers and something else and I removed that combination.

The IDE drivers can be removed individually in nLite's HARDWARE section (not in the DRIVERS section).

So I guess I'm the only one with this "Unknown Device" issue in Device Manager, huh? WTF am I doing wrong? :lol:

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It's not SCSI drivers that are connected, it's the IDE drivers.

Best would be to remove both.

I cannot find a special option to remove the IDE drivers by nLite. There was only a combination of SCSI drivers and something else and I removed that combination.

The IDE drivers can be removed individually in nLite's HARDWARE section (not in the DRIVERS section).

So I guess I'm the only one with this "Unknown Device" issue in Device Manager, huh? WTF am I doing wrong? :lol:

Wooosh, what board have you got. I believe you've posted it somewhere, and I think it may have been an A8N-sli deluxe, but I may just be making that up... If so, is that the only unknown device that you have in the system. If you right click, properties etc. and go to the device ID, what's the string that it gives you there? My current train of thought is that it's nothing to do with the RAID array, and it's the ATK 0110 Acpi Utility, the driver for which is part of Asus's AI overclock software (you don't have to install it all, just extract it and point windows to the driver). However, I may have got this all wrong, and just gone off on another of my ramblings... :unsure:

BTW, I'm well aware that this has nothing to do with SATA, RAID, or any serious device issues for that matter. Do you have any 'known' devices showing in device manager, namely Nvidia nForce RAID Class Controller and Nvidia nForce4 Serial ATA RAID Controller. If so, that should be your lot and it wouldn't surprise me if windows has placed the Acpi Utility there just to play silly b*ggers with you.

Hope this is of some help

Edited by FatalSaviour
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It's not SCSI drivers that are connected, it's the IDE drivers.

Best would be to remove both.

I cannot find a special option to remove the IDE drivers by nLite. There was only a combination of SCSI drivers and something else and I removed that combination.

The IDE drivers can be removed individually in nLite's HARDWARE section (not in the DRIVERS section).

So I guess I'm the only one with this "Unknown Device" issue in Device Manager, huh? WTF am I doing wrong? :lol:

Wooosh, what board have you got. I believe you've posted it somewhere, and I think it may have been an A8N-sli deluxe, but I may just be making that up... If so, is that the only unknown device that you have in the system. If you right click, properties etc. and go to the device ID, what's the string that it gives you there? My current train of thought is that it's nothing to do with the RAID array, and it's the ATK 0110 Acpi Utility, the driver for which is part of Asus's AI overclock software (you don't have to install it all, just extract it and point windows to the driver). However, I may have got this all wrong, and just gone off on another of my ramblings... :unsure:

BTW, I'm well aware that this has nothing to do with SATA, RAID, or any serious device issues for that matter. Do you have any 'known' devices showing in device manager, namely Nvidia nForce RAID Class Controller and Nvidia nForce4 Serial ATA RAID Controller. If so, that should be your lot and it wouldn't surprise me if windows has placed the Acpi Utility there just to play silly b*ggers with you.

Hope this is of some help

I'm using the BFG nFORCE4 Ultra board. The "unknown device" appears underneath the SCSI & RAID DEVICE section. It is the only unknown device in the Device Manager. The ID string for it is: ACPI\_NVRAIDBUS\3&2411E6FE&0

So, it appears that the system at least knows it is an nVIDIA RAID device! :thumbup (can u detect my sarcasm?) What I don't understand is why I cannot use the Update Driver option to successfully load the drivers? I also tried loading the drivers using the 6.66 package within Windows but that didn't work either. Basically, it's as if Device Manager knows there is an NVIDIA RAID controller but something is preventing it from letting me load the correct drivers. This makes me think that I am somehow doing something wrong with one of the .inf files during the nLite CD creation phase and this is causing some kind of error telling the system that the drivers are actually located somewhere where they are actually NOT located (or something like that). But, then, even that wouldn't explain why I can't just use the 6.66 driver package within windows, would it?

The relevant known devices as they appear in my Device Manager:

Disk drives:

NVIDIA STRIPE 372.61G

IDE/ATA ATAPI CONTROLLERS:

NVIDIA nFORCE4 Parallel ATA Controller

NVIDIA nFORCE4 Serial ATA Controller

NVIDIA nFORCE4 Serial ATA Controller

SCSI and RAID Controllers:

***Unknown Device*** with ID string of ACPI\_NVRAIDBUS\3&2411E6FE&0

Sound, Video, and Game Controllers:

NVIDIA® nFORCE Audio Codec Interface

System Devices:

nForce4 Hypertransport Bridge

nForce4 PCI-Express PCI Root Port

nForce4 PCI-Express PCI Root Port

nForce4 PCI-Express PCI Root Port

nForce4 PCI-Express PCI Root Port

NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management

**********************************

Unless I'm mistaken there should be more than one nVIDIA entry under the Sound, Video, & Game Controller section. I'm also missing an ethernet/lan adapter entry even though I have repeatedly tried to integrate it. On the plus side, the drivers for my Gigabyte Radeon X800 XL successfully integrated and installed and DO appear in the Display Adapters section.

**********************************

Thanks for all the input! I'm a little frustrated but am actually having a little fun with this. It's certainly providing a few laughs at nVIDIA's expense, even if I'm the one that's dumb enough to spend this much time beta testing their hardware for 'em! :P

Edited by mjswooosh
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ok, I'm starting to think I must be doing something wrong during the nLite creation phase. Here's the process I've used:

1. nLite 1.06b --> int. RyanVM's hotfixes, int. nFORCE4 6.66 / ATI Catalyst 5.8 / Netgear WG311T wi-fi drivers, remove WINDOWS SCSI/RAID & IDE drivers (& a bunch of other stuff. Final nLited WindowsXP size = 295MB). I add all 4 "patches" and several of the tweaks. I use "FullUnattended" and "Oem Preinstall".

During the integrate section I point directly to the nFORCE .inf files in the AudioDrv, Ethernet, SATARAID, sata_ide, and SMBus sub-folders.

2. Here is the relevant file structure for my finished nLite XP cd: X2PVOL_EN\$OEM$\$$\OEMDIR

3. OEMDIR Folder Contents: idecoi.dll, nvatabus.inf, nvatabus.sys, nvcoi.dll, nvide.nvu, nvraid.inf, nvraid.sys, nvraidco.dll

(all files copied directly from the 6.66 SATARAID sub-folder except the nvatabus.inf which was copied from PATARAID sub-folder)

4. Then I go to the X2PVOL_EN\I386 sub-folder and modify the WINNT.SIF file as instructed with the following 2 lines as shown:

OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\OemDir"

OemInfName = "nvraid.inf","nvatabus.inf"

5. I don't use nLite to create an ISO. I use the Microsoft Corporation.img file and burn the CD in Mode 1 in NERO.

******************************

I honestly don't see what I'm doing differently than the rest of you guys so am a bit of a loss here! :lol:

Thoughts: am I somehow creating a faulty folder/sub-folder structure? Does my CD directory structure somehow look differently than it should? Do I need to copy the files from PATARAID folder instead of the SATARAID folder into the OEMDIR? Does it make a difference if you use the files from the SATARAID folder or the PATARAID folder? I wouldn't think it should matter as long as you make sure to copy the nvatabus.inf file as well. Do I need to modify and/or rename any of the .inf files?

Once I get into Windows I continue to have the "Unknown Device" in the SCSI and RAID Controllers section as well as missing an ethernet/lan device entry. I feel like I must somehow be mis-directing the .inf file during the nLite creation phase so that when windows looks for these driver files it is looking in the wrong place.

Ahhh...fun, fun, fun with nVIDIA RAID!!! :P

EDIT: I just noticed that for some reason when windows first starts it actually identifies it as a "SCSI Device" down in the System Tray. When I try to use the Update Driver section it also identifies it as a "SCSIAdapter". Then, after manually trying to install the 6.66 driver package it identifies it as NVIDIA RAID CLASS device in the system tray (but still "SCSIAdapter" in Device Manager when I try to use update driver). Not sure if this is significant, but I thought I should mention it.

Edited by mjswooosh
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Hmmm, very bizarre. I'm afraid I can't be much help for now (It's 2am here now and I've done 40miles of cycling today...) but I'll just contribute a little...

Should there be any nvidia related bits in Sound, Game etc.? Certainly not sound I should imagine, Nvidia didn't incorportate sound into the NForce4 did they, I know on the Asus and most other makes, (all apart from MSI I believe) Realtek 850 codecs were used, so I would start by not integrating them. (AFAIK anyway - please correcy/flame me if I'm wrong).

When you try and integrate the E'net drivers, does nlite add them, but when you come to install windows, they've disappeared, or does nlite complain from the start. For me, it was just a simple case of integrate, et voila! they worked. Certainly when you come to install the driver package in windows, you should be able to get these installed. Have you tried installing them in safe mode?

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Don't integrate Sata_ide folder also lol. That will probably only cause you problems. Just integrate sataraid folder with nvatabus.inf added.

I'm pretty sure that is your problem because windows can't properly integrate duplicate files. And when you are integrating both those folders they are all duplicate files. So the result is probably some kind of hybrid driver which manages to allow you to use your raid array but can't indentify properly in device manager.

Oh and just a small tip, delete the "NAM" folder inside the "ethernet" folder before you integrate the ethernet driver. It is just the crap installer for nvidia's crap "hardware" firewall. Takes up a lot of space.

Edited by dale5605
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Very strange, because that's exactly what I did, as mentioned, without modifying the Txtsetup.oem, or creating an OEM dir, yet, windows works absolutely lovely...up to the occasional restart. Checking in device manager, all drivers provided by nvidia, and all seem ok.

Have you tried an install of the drivers in safe mode yet wooosh?

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Oh and just a small tip, delete the "NAM" folder inside the "ethernet" folder before you integrate the ethernet driver. It is just the crap installer for nvidia's crap "hardware" firewall. Takes up a lot of space.

Does nlite copy that folder then, even if you just point it to the Ethernet driver? You learn something new every day.

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Oh and just a small tip, delete the "NAM" folder inside the "ethernet" folder before you integrate the ethernet driver. It is just the crap installer for nvidia's crap "hardware" firewall. Takes up a lot of space.

Does nlite copy that folder then, even if you just point it to the Ethernet driver? You learn something new every day.

When you select a .inf nLite integrates that directory and subdirectories also...

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ok, I'm starting to think I must be doing something wrong during the nLite creation phase.  Here's the process I've used:

1. nLite 1.06b --> int. RyanVM's hotfixes, int. nFORCE4 6.66 / ATI Catalyst 5.8 / Netgear WG311T wi-fi drivers, remove WINDOWS SCSI/RAID & IDE drivers (& a bunch of other stuff.  Final nLited WindowsXP size = 295MB). I add all 4 "patches" and several of the tweaks. I use "FullUnattended" and "Oem Preinstall".

During the integrate section I point directly to the nFORCE .inf files in the AudioDrv, Ethernet, SATARAID, sata_ide, and SMBus sub-folders.

2. Here is the relevant file structure for my finished nLite XP cd: X2PVOL_EN\$OEM$\$$\OEMDIR

3. OEMDIR Folder Contents: idecoi.dll, nvatabus.inf, nvatabus.sys, nvcoi.dll, nvide.nvu, nvraid.inf, nvraid.sys, nvraidco.dll

(all files copied directly from the 6.66 SATARAID sub-folder except the nvatabus.inf which was copied from PATARAID sub-folder)

4. Then I go to the X2PVOL_EN\I386 sub-folder and modify the WINNT.SIF file as instructed with the following 2 lines as shown:

OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\OemDir"

OemInfName = "nvraid.inf","nvatabus.inf"

5. I don't use nLite to create an ISO.  I use the Microsoft Corporation.img file and burn the CD in Mode 1 in NERO.

******************************

I honestly don't see what I'm doing differently than the rest of you guys so am a bit of a loss here!   :lol:  

Mjswoosh, you have done everything correctly.

The reason for your "Unknown Device" should lay somewhere else.

After having googled with your mentioned ID string, I found this:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?th...goto=nextnewest

What is about your BIOS (is it actual, correct settings)?

What is about ACPI (activated or not)? Did you make any ACPI presettings by nLite section "Unattended Install"?

EDIT:

Within the DFI-Street Forum I just found something, with might be very interesting for us all:

NF4 chipset MUST have ACPI power management ENABLE in the bios. I tried for several days to install those drivers and i finaly succeded. I had to flash the bios to 510, enable ACPI, did a REPAIR in the windows XP setup and it finally recognize the drivers. I reflashed back to the latest BIOS 623-3 and everything is fine. Dont forget to press F6 in the setup.

Remember, in the Device Manager, if the computer description is set to MPS processor (or everything except ACPI processor...) , you will not be able to install those drivers.

Edited by Fernando 1
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Don't integrate Sata_ide folder also lol. That will probably only cause you problems. Just integrate sataraid folder with nvatabus.inf added.

I'm pretty sure that is your problem because windows can't properly integrate duplicate files. And when you are integrating both those folders they are all duplicate files. So the result is probably some kind of hybrid driver which manages to allow you to use your raid array but can't indentify properly in device manager.

Oh and just a small tip, delete the "NAM" folder inside the "ethernet" folder before you integrate the ethernet driver. It is just the crap installer for nvidia's crap "hardware" firewall. Takes up a lot of space.

Ok, got it working! WOO HOO! Wow, that only took 3 days! :thumbup

The only thing I changed was the following:

1) The only files I left intact in the OEMDIR folder are: nvatabus.sys, nvatabus.inf, idecoi.dll. I deleted the rest.

2) I modified the WINNT.SIF file to read:

OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\OemDir"

OemInfName = "nvatabus.inf"

I'm not exactly sure why it didn't need the nvraid.inf/nvraid.sys files in the OEMDIR folder...but for whatever reason it seems to be working correctly now. Anyone have any idea why this works & why the other other method (including all of the other files) didn't? Maybe it has something to do with the fact I integrated the sata_ide file as well? I'd guess Dale is onto something that somehow it created a weird hybrid driver file and WinXP didn't know where to look for the RAID drivers... SO, I guess if this is true then you can EITHER integrate the sata_ide file OR include the rest of the files in the OEMDIR folder, but not both? :wacko:

Can anyone else verify what their Device Manager entries look like so I can compare mine? I now have the following 2 entries in my DM:

NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator

NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator

SCSI and RAID Controllers

NVIDIA nForce RAID Class Controller

****************************

EDIT: The only remaining problem was that for some odd reason the nForce4 ethernet drivers did not load up despite the fact I integrated them every time. I thought this very odd. It turns out the default setting in the latest BFG bios is MAC LAN: "OFF". I re-checked it twice just to make sure I'm not an even bigger i*d*i*o*t than I already thought! haha When I load "optimized defaults" in the BIOS it turns the mac lan *OFF*. Is this normal for the nFORCE4 chipset? I've never ran across a BIOS that turns the built-in LAN off by default...

Edited by mjswooosh
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Can anyone else verify what their Device Manager entries look like so I can compare mine?  I now have the following 2 entries in my DM:

NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator

NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerato

SCSI and RAID Controllers

NVIDIA nForce RAID Class Controller

Congratulations, this is totally correct.

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Can anyone else verify what their Device Manager entries look like so I can compare mine?  I now have the following 2 entries in my DM:

NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator

NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerato

SCSI and RAID Controllers

NVIDIA nForce RAID Class Controller

Congratulations, this is totally correct.

Everyone...THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!!! I'm not sure why this latest method works without all the other files in the OEMDIR folder, any ideas? But it does work, so that's the important part! :thumbup

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