blackduck30

this will be one of your problems , you may need to try and download the driver again as makedisk might be corrupting your floppy, let me look into this a little further.

I have been watching this thread all arvo and mgoldb2 has been doing a great job

Chizl

Also when I go under "Boot" | "Bot Device Priority", I only show 2 devices.. My floppy and my CDRom.. Shouldn't I see my harddrive or is that not the case with Raid?

Chizl

Noone responded earlier.. Should I select Boot Array? When I do it changes the status of the array from "Source", "Mirror" to both "Boot"

blackduck30

Do you have this driver from the asus site

http://support.asus.com/download/dow...A8V-E%20Deluxe

VIA VT6420 (VT8237) SATA RAID Driver Package Version 4.30C & 64bit XP/2003(WHQL).

mgoldb2

Not sure I suppose that is a possibity. I would of thought thoe the computer would not of started if the ram was not working bad enough that you cant get pass the first step if windows install.

I guess if you wanted to check the ram I would take every stick but one out. leaving just one stick in DIMM_B1 (see 2-12 on your motherboard manual). Maybe try it twice with different sticks if it does not work the first time to make sure you did not try it with a bad stick. it unlikly more then one of the sticks are bad.

After that the only thing I can think of is updating to a newer version of the bios.

Chizl

I think I answered my own question.. I changed it to boot and it now shows up in bios under boot priority. Didn't fix my WinXP install issue though.

blackduck30

yes select boot array

blackduck30

try downloading the driver again from the link I gave you, it is vital that you get that driver to work on the floppy

If you have your boot order as cd / raid array / floppy the F6 function should always look for the driver on your floppy

mgoldb2

hmm I not liking the fact it dont see the harddrive at all.

You followed step 1 and 2 from way back then about going to advance and enabling the raid controller and setting to raid mode right?

blackduck30

mgoldb2

Yeah the only thing I can still think of is trying with only one stick of ram and updating the bios.

blackduck30 is very correct that we will need the drivers but we have to get to the part we install the drivers before we worry about that.

Chizl

This is a windows installation disk for after windows is installed.. I can't get windows installed to get to that point.. I launched the setup on my second computer and it's telling me it can't find an ASUS mother board..

blackduck30

you will have to use explorer and then find makedisk
also have you checked that your windows disk is not damaged

Chizl

This installation doesnt have makedisk.exe in it.. Only has 9 files and it's a setup to put on floppy with only a windows application setup.exe. When I ran the setup exe it starts looking for the ASUS on the local machine. This isn't a setup to create a disk.

Chizl

BTW mgoldb2, I've taken out all the ram, put on one in at a time and it does the same thing.. I dont think it's a memory stick.

blackduck30

ok then do you have the original mobo disk

Chizl

yea, I just dug through a closet and woke up everyone in the house falling over, but yes, I found all my old alienware cds.. A8V Series Montherboard VIA K8T800Pro Chipset Series Support CD v77.01

Chizl

Looking into the CD, I see make disk for the 6420, which I already had..

mgoldb2

go ahead and get all the drivers you need on to floppy disks from the support cds.

As far as the fact that windows xp install freezes at the very start before you can do anything am running out of idears. Acturally only got one left.

This would be to update your bios. the directions for this is in section 4.1 of the mothboard manual.

blackduck30

make sure you have a formatted floppy

browsw the contents of the cd to locate the driver disk utility

/drivers/viaraid/6420raid

and see if it will make a driver disk, the only reason is because if you get to the point were you can install and you don't have a floppy ready you will not be able to install the OS