Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers

[-.-PhanTom-.-]

Ah yeah, that could be the reason indeed come to think of it....the first time I uninstalled the NVidia IDE drivers after reading posts where people recommended against installing them...

Just find it odd that they should have this influence on SATA hdds on SATA controllers.

I have no hdds on the IDE channels...only a DVD burner..

Well, seeing asI don't have any hdds on IDE channels, installing the default windows pata drivers did not remove the icon....but I bet it will be gone if I do the same for SATA drivers... (and looking at an image file from first install, I see that I somehow managed NOT to install nvidia SATA drivers as well...so they indeed are the cause of that icon appearing)

Question then remains if there are any performance/stability gains from using the nvidias hdd drivers at all?

Wouldn't want to loose performance or stability just because of a tray icon....

[Fernando 1]

In the mean time I found a workaround by setting the ide controller transfer mode to "PIO only" instead of "DMA when applicable". I don't know enough to have any idea if that will slow data transfers but I'm assuming it will. Is there any drawback to leaving the transfer mode set to PIO only? The only device on that controller is the cd-rom.

You can try it, but I'm sure, that you will not be happy with a very low CD-ROM speed.

Well, seeing asI don't have any hdds on IDE channels, installing the default windows pata drivers did not remove the icon....but I bet it will be gone if I do the same for SATA drivers... (and looking at an image file from first install, I see that I somehow managed NOT to install nvidia SATA drivers as well...so they indeed are the cause of that icon appearing)

Question then remains if there are any performance/stability gains from using the nvidias hdd drivers at all?

Wouldn't want to loose performance or stability just because of a tray icon....

I bet, that you will get trouble if you try to replace the nForce4 Serial ATA Controller by the Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller, although the MS device manager shows them as "compatible". That is exactly the error during the install of XP which causes the endless reboots at the end.

I would recommend to give the systray icon a chance (you may hide it with the task manager).

[m1ke78]

Just as a follow up, it appears that my slipstream problem is actually a bad motherboard. After googling the error it seems to be the equivalent of "Something in your hardware is borked". I've been getting random system lockups during post and earlier the board actually couldn't find the BIOS. It kept searching for a backup BIOS, after shutting it down for a few seconds it was fine on the next boot. I ran memtest and the memory was fine, seems like a bad mobo to me but I would hate to tear the system completely down if that's not really the problem.

[Fernando 1]

Just as a follow up, it appears that my slipstream problem is actually a bad motherboard. After googling the error it seems to be the equivalent of "Something in your hardware is borked". I've been getting random system lockups during post and earlier the board actually couldn't find the BIOS. It kept searching for a backup BIOS, after shutting it down for a few seconds it was fine on the next boot. I ran memtest and the memory was fine, seems like a bad mobo to me but I would hate to tear the system completely down if that's not really the problem.

I'm hoping with you, that it isn't the mainboard which should be repaired or changed.

Before you bring it back to your vendor, check your cables (SATA and IDE) and your PSU. These hardware components are very often the reason for errors.

Good luck!

Fernando

[blank]

working for me now on my a8n32sli with xp64. I have had the sata-raid folder driver as txtmode and sata-ide folder driver as pnp. I plug my second driver on nforce sata port after first reboot.

[Fernando 1]

working for me now on my a8n32sli with xp64. I have had the sata-raid folder driver as txtmode and sata-ide folder driver as pnp. I plug my second driver on nforce sata port after first reboot.

That is a very interesting variation for the installation of XP x64 with integrated nForce SataRaid drivers (but the wrong thread!).

Please give us answers to the following questions, because they might be helpful for other users:

What was the result with XP (32-bit)?

Which nForce driver package did you take for the successful install of XP x64?

Did you integrate the NVIDIA standard SATARAID subfolder or the one with the added files (NVATAX64.INF etc.)?

CU

Fernando

[blank]

for xp 32 i use the package: nForce4_x16_6.82_winxp2k_international, but i can do nothing with my 2 other nforce sata port, all driver i plug feel good in bios config but i have no driver under windows. I try a bunch of trick to get something work buy nothing get more. So i swicth to an xp64, get the nf4 16x package: nForce4_x16_6.82_winxp64_international, i made no changes on directory, no files were move, just add sataraid as txt and sataide as pnp.

First hust let's the raid disk plugs, instead xp will put boot file on disk ouside raid config. At the end of first steup part "dos like", i shutdown my comp, pluf my third disk, change boot sequence to start on raid en continue windows setup. Now i have all my disk plug on nforce sata port and working like a charm.

[Fernando 1]

First hust let's the raid disk plugs, instead xp will put boot file on disk ouside raid config. At the end of first steup part "dos like", i shutdown my comp, pluf my third disk, change boot sequence to start on raid en continue windows setup. Now i have all my disk plug on nforce sata port and working like a charm.

Please explain a little bit more detailed what you have done.

As I understand you have 3 SATA hdd's.

1. They are all connected to nForce SATA ports. Two of them are put together to an nForce RAID array, the third is a single SATA hdd.

2. Before you start with the install, you unplug the non-Raid hdd (to prevent, that the XP setup puts the MBR files onto this hdd).

3. After the end of the TEXTMODE part of the install you shutdown your pc, connect your 3rd hdd and then you continue with the install.

4. This works with XP x64, but doesn't with XP x32.

Is this what you did and what happened?

What happened, when you reconnected your 3rd hdd after the successful end of the install?

EDIT:

So i swicth to an xp64, get the nf4 16x package: nForce4_x16_6.82_winxp64_international, i made no changes on directory, no files were move, just add sataraid as txt and sataide as pnp.

As nLite puts the driver files all together into the same OEMDIR folder, you would get the same effect, if you copy all files of the SATA_IDE into the SATARAID subfolder prior to the integration. Edited January 22, 2006 by Fernando 1

[blank]

As I understand you have 3 SATA hdd's.

1. They are all connected to nForce SATA ports. Two of them are put together to an nForce RAID array, the third is a single SATA hdd.

2. Before you start with the install, you unplug the non-Raid hdd (to prevent, that the XP setup puts the MBR files onto this hdd).

3. After the end of the TEXTMODE part of the install you shutdown your pc, connect your 3rd hdd and then you continue with the install.

this is what i do for x64 and working great, i haven't try it yet on xp32, last install on xp32 i plug my non raid drive at the whole end of windows install and get a bsod at restart like first debug on old nlite release. On xp32 nlited cd i had have just integrated sataraid driver.

[Fernando 1]

this is what i do for x64 and working great, i haven't try it yet on xp32, last install on xp32 i plug my non raid drive at the whole end of windows install and get a bsod at restart like first debug on old nlite release. On xp32 nlited cd i had have just integrated sataraid driver.

Thanks for the reply.

When you got the BSOD after reconnecting the 3rd hdd at the end of the installation, did you try to boot in safe mode? If yes, did it fail?

Could you read the error message?

[blank]

this is what i do for x64 and working great, i haven't try it yet on xp32, last install on xp32 i plug my non raid drive at the whole end of windows install and get a bsod at restart like first debug on old nlite release. On xp32 nlited cd i had have just integrated sataraid driver.

Thanks for the reply.

When you got the BSOD after reconnecting the 3rd hdd at the end of the installation, did you try to boot in safe mode? If yes, did it fail?

Could you read the error message?

don't have time to read bsod computer reboot too fast, in safe mode= reboot without bsod (or really too fast to see it)

[Fernando 1]

don't have time to read bsod computer reboot too fast, in safe mode= reboot without bsod (or really too fast to see it)

You can prevent the reboot by hitting F8 and choosing "no reboot at system failure". Then you have plenty of time to read the error message.

By the way: Is there a MBR on your 3rd (non-Raid) hdd, for example from earlier installation tests? If yes, you should delete it.

[blank]

don't have time to read bsod computer reboot too fast, in safe mode= reboot without bsod (or really too fast to see it)

You can prevent the reboot by hitting F8 and choosing "no reboot at system failure". Then you have plenty of time to read the error message.

By the way: Is there a MBR on your 3rd (non-Raid) hdd, for example from earlier installation tests? If yes, you should delete it.

no there no mbr on my third disk, it's just a storage disk. I'll make some other test on xp32 with 2 other sata disk.

[Francesco]

Err sorry I didn't read the whole post (too many replies) but what about using bashrat the sneaky driverpacks? they're so easy to integrate in just a few seconds you can have plenty of updated drivers in your cd!. Give them a try they rock! Naturally massstorage drivers are directly integrated so the setup uses them to recognize scsi/sata devices.

[Fernando 1]

Err sorry I didn't read the whole post (too many replies) but what about using bashrat the sneaky driverpacks? they're so easy to integrate in just a few seconds you can have plenty of updated drivers in your cd!. Give them a try they rock! Naturally massstorage drivers are directly integrated so the setup uses them to recognize scsi/sata devices.

This thread was started within the nLite Forum and is dedicated for home users, who want to create their special Windows XP or XPx64 CD with integrated nForce SataRaid drivers by using nLite.

The integration of Driver Packs and especially MassStorage Driver Packs into a Windows CD has primarily nothing to do with nLite. There is a special forum "DriverPack MassStorage" within the MSFN Board. That forum is dedicated for pc system administrators, who want to create a Windows CD useful for nearly each mass storage combination.

Cu

Fernando

Edited January 24, 2006 by Fernando 1