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Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers


Fernando 1

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ok so i used these drivers, remember this is a NON-Raid setup with an SATA hard drive.

A8N32 Sli Deluxe

nForce4_x16_6.85_winxp2k_english

SMBus --- nf4sys.inf

legacy --- nvatabus.inf

sata_ide-- nvata.inf

I'll start a new thread, post this and requesting other to post info on their MB's hopefully an admin can organize the whole thing.

Hi DarqAngels,

thank you for your post, unless it is not easy to understand, because

a ) INF files are no drivers (you can point at any INF file and you will get all files of that INF file folder onto your nLited CD) and

b ) the SMBus has nothing to do with Sata drivers.

So I try to resume for owners of an Asus A8N32 SLI Deluxe, who want to integrate the nForce Sata drivers for a non-Raid-system into a bootable XP CD:

For the successful integration you have to integrate the LEGACY and SATA_IDE subfolder of the 6.85 package as PnP drivers - that's all.

Is this correct?

Or did you mean, that the LEGACY folder has to be integrated as TEXTMODE and the SATA_IDE as Pnp driver? Or did you mix both folders before you began the integration?

Please clarify this if possible.

CU

Fernando

oh hehe sorry about that.

all i did was download 6.85 extract it, and then point nlite to those .inf files, so i didn't mix anything i just left everything as it was. They were integrated as PnP drivers.

i added the SMBus because i figured a8n32 users needed it anyways for the Hypertransport.

hope that clears stuff up

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For the purpose of this gude should a NForce 430 / GF6150 board be counted as nForce4 AMD ie 6.85 drivers or should I use the 6.70 drivers? Anyone know?

nForce4 AMD

if i'm not wrong 6.85 is only for nforce 4 16x platform.

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all i did was download 6.85 extract it, and then point nlite to those .inf files, so i didn't mix anything i just left everything as it was. They were integrated as PnP drivers.
I don't believe, that you integrated the Raid drivers (off the LEGACY folder) as PnP drivers. You can integrate Sata drivers by this method, but not Raid drivers. Otherwise your Raid array will not be recognized during TEXTMODE part of the install.
For the purpose of this gude should a NForce 430 / GF6150 board be counted as nForce4 AMD ie 6.85 drivers or should I use the 6.70 drivers? Anyone know?
For mainboards with an nForce 430/410 chipset there is a special nForce chipset driver package 8.22. The only problem is, that this package has no NVATABUS.INF (no LEGACY folder). If you want to install this driver package, give me your eMail adress and I will send you the correct IDE driver package ready for integration as TEXTMODE driver.
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all i did was download 6.85 extract it, and then point nlite to those .inf files, so i didn't mix anything i just left everything as it was. They were integrated as PnP drivers.
I don't believe, that you integrated the Raid drivers (off the LEGACY folder) as PnP drivers. You can integrate Sata drivers by this method, but not Raid drivers. Otherwise your Raid array will not be recognized during TEXTMODE part of the install.
For the purpose of this gude should a NForce 430 / GF6150 board be counted as nForce4 AMD ie 6.85 drivers or should I use the 6.70 drivers? Anyone know?
For mainboards with an nForce 430/410 chipset there is a special nForce chipset driver package 8.22. The only problem is, that this package has no NVATABUS.INF (no LEGACY folder). If you want to install this driver package, give me your eMail adress and I will send you the correct IDE driver package ready for integration as TEXTMODE driver.

hehe you must have forgot. mine wasn't for a raid, just for a single sata

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hehe you must have forgot. mine wasn't for a raid, just for a single sata
There are so many posts of so many different people - how should I remember all these things? Where did you mention that?

This is a thread dedicated for users with an nForce Raid array (look at the title of the thread). As a consequence I assume, that each poster is a user of an nForce Raid system.

If I had realized, that you have no Raid, I would have given you the advice just to integrate the SATA_IDE subfolder as "normal" PnP driver and nothing else.

@ all:

My guide (first post) is absolutely useless for people with a non-Raid system!

CU

Fernando

Edited by Fernando 1
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since i was directed to this thread, which is about NVRaid, i'll ask anyways...

what driver are you supposed to use for Non-Raid, i've tried a few and i just get that retarded BSOD about the bios not being fully ACPI compatable.

I've built a few systems using the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe and Premium; both for myself and another person. I always use RAID 0 on my personal systems but, Mario's was just 1 WD250G SATA II on the A8N-SLI Deluxe nforce4 chip. Unlike the Siil setup, nforce4 natively supports all versions of SATA and is supposed to require no F6 or other driver integration during WinXP setup for single-nonRAID-HDD's. I setup Mario's system and installed WinXP-pro SP2 in this fashion using no F6 and integrating no drivers at all-that was in the spring and he is still using the same install today-trouble free-1016 BIOS. After install I rebooted in to safe mode and ran setup.exe-6.66 at the time-and only the ATAPI drivers changed-opting for the NVIDIA sw drivers over MS generic.

I hope this helps

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yes, have the same result, nvraid is working but get bsod when disable floppy drive.
Thanks for your reply.

Are you really sure, that your mainboard and especially your floppy port is OK? In other newsgroups I saw a lot of posts from owners of an ASUS A8N32 Sli Deluxe with a lot of hardware troubles. That is why I am unsure, if your findings have anything to do with nLite.

So I would like to encourage other nLite users with an nForce4 SLI x16 mainboard to report about their experiences using my guide and especially about the best driver folder choice.

I have personally experienced these hardware anomolies-from total system freeze up so that when I forced a reboot WinXP would run chkdsk on my applications partition every reboot; even though no errors were found; to one of my Raptors dropping out of my array for no reason-checks good. The first concern required complete re-install and the second required shutdown, disconnect all power from mainboard for 1 minute, reconnect and switch system on booting into Windows with the array working perfectly and no problems since.

There have been other errors but the gist of it is already here-no sense going into detail about all. I think the mobo is probably good and the errors occured for me with or without an nlite install but, I feel NVIDIA and ASUS--and perhaps ABIT,........so on, need to synchronize the drivers and BIOS releases-the A8N32-SLI's problems smell a lot like the A8N Deluxe's crashes with the post 1007 BIOS releases-solved by 6.65 and later; a compatable NVIDIA driver set.

The A8N32-SLI Deluxe is one buggy mobo sometimes. In closing I've found integrating the drivers-nlite-and using a winnt.sif file is the most trouble free and stable.

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For mainboards with an nForce 430/410 chipset there is a special nForce chipset driver package 8.22. The only problem is, that this package has no NVATABUS.INF (no LEGACY folder). If you want to install this driver package, give me your eMail adress and I will send you the correct IDE driver package ready for integration as TEXTMODE driver.

I could use those drivers. I will PM you my email

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Hey Fernando,

First let me congratulate you on your fine work... Highly appreciated!

I have a small problem...

I used your method to slipstream the nForce drivers on Windows XP Pro version.

Which was meant to install on a Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard... Which worked perfectly!

But since my motherboard was malfunctioning and giving a lot of troubles, I bought a new motherboard; the DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert...

...except now I can't use the Windows XP Pro version I slipstreamed for some weird reason.

Currently I am rebuilding the Windows XP Pro cd with nLite with the drivers mentioned on the DFI website:

Revision 1.0.0.16

Driver RAID Driver

OS Window XP

File NF4 RAID F6.ZIP

Size 545,515 bytes

Date 2006/01/27

Description nForce4 RAID0/1 Driver & Silicon Image 3114 RAID0/1/5 Driver (Self-Extract to floppy for F6 Installation).

These could be added in text mode. Hopefully these will work.

If they do work, I will edit my post.

Otherwise, I am hoping to get a solution for this problem...

/edit

Wrong drivers... :S

Edited by HHawk
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But since my motherboard was malfunctioning and giving a lot of troubles, I bought a new motherboard; the DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert...

...except now I can't use the Windows XP Pro version I slipstreamed for some weird reason.

Currently I am rebuilding the Windows XP Pro cd with nLite with the drivers mentioned on the DFI website:

Revision 1.0.0.16

Driver RAID Driver

OS Window XP

File NF4 RAID F6.ZIP

Size 545,515 bytes

Date 2006/01/27

Hi HHawk,

don't use the DFI drivers. They were published by DFI in January 2006, but when you unzip them, you will see, that they are produced by NVIDIA in 2004.

If your old mainboard and the new one have the same nForce chipset (I suppose nForce4 SLI AMD), normally the same nForce SataRaid driver package should work.

Do both boards have exactly the same nForce chipset?

Which driver package did you use with your Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard?

What sort of problems did you have during the install on your new DFI board?

CU

Fernando

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Fernando - just getting the hang of this, but got the nlite xpsp2 nvidia 6.67 CD to install and setup all 4 SATA ch. (1-mirror, 1-JBOD) OK on my MSI Neo4 Bios 4.84 - Great stuff btw, thanks - nvidia should have people like u! Now my RAID Bios (N) New Array option doesn't lite up so I can add some IDE RAIDS (2x160Maxtors) - maybe I f__d something up since, but being I got this far I don't want to start from scratch (already got my JBOD array loaded, etc). Can I fix it in Windows (already tried to uninstall (won't let me)/disable the IDE/PATA controller in DM and disconnecting cable/disabling BIOS IDE, then reboot, etc)? Also tried to just re-install the drivers, but they're already there (MB supposedly supports both SATA & IDE - 4 drives each). Any other ideas to get this RAID Bios option lit up again Thanks...

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Now my RAID Bios (N) New Array option doesn't lite up so I can add some IDE RAIDS (2x160Maxtors) - maybe I f__d something up since, but being I got this far I don't want to start from scratch (already got my JBOD array loaded, etc). Can I fix it in Windows (already tried to uninstall (won't let me)/disable the IDE/PATA controller in DM and disconnecting cable/disabling BIOS IDE, then reboot, etc)?
Please write, what exactly you are trying to do.

As far as I understand, you want to rebuild your nForce Raid array (by adding 2 IDE hdd's) on a running system, although you are booting from the Raid. If this is correct, I would not suggest to try it. I would never touch a running Raid system.

Why don't you create a new Raid array with your Silicon Image Raid Controllers? And why can't you add non-Raid IDE hdd's?

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Now my RAID Bios (N) New Array option doesn't lite up so I can add some IDE RAIDS (2x160Maxtors) - maybe I f__d something up since, but being I got this far I don't want to start from scratch (already got my JBOD array loaded, etc). Can I fix it in Windows (already tried to uninstall (won't let me)/disable the IDE/PATA controller in DM and disconnecting cable/disabling BIOS IDE, then reboot, etc)?
Please write, what exactly you are trying to do.

As far as I understand, you want to rebuild your nForce Raid array (by adding 2 IDE hdd's) on a running system, although you are booting from the Raid. If this is correct, I would not suggest to try it. I would never touch a running Raid system.

Why don't you create a new Raid array with your Silicon Image Raid Controllers? And why can't you add non-Raid IDE hdd's?

I am trying to add a New Array (RAID 0) for my IDE drives. I already have 2 SATA arrays working. Shouldn't the New Array option be lit up at the bottom of the RAID Bios? - the Rebuild option is. I don't want to rebuild my working SATA arrays - just add a new IDE array. As it stands now, I can't get past that to see if my IDE's even show up to make a New Array in the nvidia RAID Bios (like my SATA's did). My IDE's show up in the main Bios and are functional as single drives in Windows. I don't recall seeing SI driver/controllers on the MB disk - only mentioned in the manual. Maybe it came with nvidia and Sil - so I'll take another look. (I'll certainly feel stupid if it is!:) Thanks.

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