Ugh...still a no go with P5N-E

[wtkprol]

I have been trying to install Windows on an SATA drive for about 3 weeks with this board and still cannot get it to work, so I have turned to the forums for help.

I am using a 36gb raptor and 2 500gb WDs in RAID1. What I ultimately want to do is have Windows and my games installed on my Raptor so they will load faster and then have the rest installed on my RAID array. Well I configured my array through the BIOS and it says its good to go, ok so good right? No, in the BIOS it shows just my 36gb Raptor which I have no problem with because I know my 500gbs are in raid. But then I go to install Windows and it says it says I dont have any hard drives installed. .

So I go back into my BIOS disassemble my RAID array and go to install Windows again, raptor shows up install goes good until I reboot and go into the last part of the Windows install. While installing devices with 34 minutes to go everytime this happens. I get a little blue smiley face in the top corner of my screen and then I get the blue screen of death that says DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Everytime at the exact same time in the Windows install this happens. I have no idea what to do.

The weird thing is it works fine on an IDE drive, I still get the black screen with a little blue smiley but after that it just goes straight back into the Windows install. Is there some SATA driver I need?


Things ive tried:
Upping CPU voltage
Upping memory voltage
Installing on another SATA drive
Unplugging everything except hard drive

Any ideas?
Thanks.

[shawn1998]

Are you attempting to install any sata/raid drivers at the F6 prompt?

[wtkprol]

Ahh, I just made the floppy and all. Thanks for the advice, im so dumb for not thinking about that.

Just one question though, if im going to have RAID on my computer but not on the drive on booting off of do I still need to install the RAID drivers with the Windows installation?

[Lestat]

i have to be a smart a$$ here wtkprol,, sorry.

it took you THREE WEEKS! to figure out you had to make a floppy with the drivers on it which is the same procedure which you/we have had to do since the dawn of windows using raid.

ok im done being a smart a$$

the answer to your 2nd comment is no, if you are using a single drive as windows and the other as storage in RAID, if the windows drive is NOT raid then no you do not need to .

but maybe you need to check the manual,,, if windows cant see the drive then there are several things to consider.
(i was helping NJKID get his Abit 965 board hooked up and he spent a long time being very angry at his board and i went to go to abits site for the manual and he sent me the pdf over AIM, ok well after less than 10 minutes with the manual i found out that he needed to install the jmicron drivers for his cdrom. took me 10 minutes with the manual which took him several hard angry hours to NOT figure out., this served to show us 2 things.
1)
RTFM
2)
for some STUPID reason Abit put the cdrom on the JMicron controller (an IDE cdrom mind you) and you MUST install the drivers just for the CDrom to work in windows install.
this is the first time EVER that i have seen this and its the most stupid thing ever.

so now ask your self these simple questions.
1)
which ports do you have the drive plugged into?
if they are not the standard sata ports and are the 3rd part controller then chances are you MIGHT need to install drivers regardless.
2)
If you have the drive hooked up to a raid controller ports then you must make it a raid drive otherwise windows will not see it.
3)
what are you doing wrong that windows cant see the drive? anything, anything at all?
4)
have you tried other ports?
5)
have you disabled SATA spread spectrum in the bios?
6)
does the manual, when i read it, state that i must install any drivers for the IDE cdrom ?

[wtkprol]

Haha, nah. My Windows install still isnt working so its obviously not the SATA driver.

Ive read the manual and it says NOTHING and I mean NOTHING about RAID or Windows install, which is really what is pissing me off because you would think that Asus would have atleast noted something about it but no.

I have gotten my RAID configured and I can now see both the RAID array and the Raptor in the Windows install. I think it was a matter of switching the ports. But I am still getting that error which is really weird. I have used this CD with plenty of other motherboard and CPU combos so it isnt the CD.

I am reinstalling Windows right now with just the SATA controller on it and not the RAID controller. I will update and let you know how it goes.

[Lestat]

im gunn ask this even though i shouldnt

are you overclocking this thing while your installing windows?

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

overclocking.....

one last one, disable E V E R Y T H I N G that you are not using and do not need.

[wtkprol]

Bahaha, this is a weird motherboard indeed. So I am installing Windows again and the little blue smiley pops up, I get angry and bang my keyboard and waddaknow, Windows continues to install. So its installing right now and I hope it finishes.

No, im not overclocked. Not that dumb.

[Lestat]

little blue smiley pops up

wtf.... huh ? a little blue what ?

[wtkprol]

Yea, its really weird. Its nothing but a black screen but in the top right corner theres a flashing cursor with a blue smiley.

It surprised me too. I dont know whats up with this mobo, but its a good mobo when you get used to it.

[Kunaak]

when the built in junk doesn't work, always have a spare.

I keep a spare PCI Raid card around always, cause some boards just come with crappy IDE or Raid controllers.
my old P5WD2-E I was screaming mad trying to get that board to see both my DVD drives at the same time... and my sata drive.
it would never see any more then 2 items...
it was beyond frustrating.
that was when I get this raid card.
I always had one in the past... then I sold it cause I didnt think I needed it anymore... then like 2 weeks later... I needed it, haha...

so now I just keep them around.

[Omastar]

You know, these boards (nForce6) are not exactly the most stable motherboards ever. There have been numerous SATA issues with the 680i boards (namely the NVIDIA reference board) and eVGA claims a BIOS update will fix SATA issues on their board, but it's only a half truth. It's still very hit and miss and quality control was obviously very poor on these boards.

I wouldn't be surprised if you got a board with a faulty south bridge (ask Lestat, he knows what I'm talking about), and when that happens you'll have issues with SATA HDDs and RAID. But if it works, it works.

[falqon]

From the reviews I've read there's no reason why you can't build your RAID later, are you installing windows with only the raptor plugged in?

Edit: The stuff Lestat is going off about you don't have to worry about, unlike Intel, Nvidia's chipset includes IDE channels.

[Lestat]

yeah the 650i isnt showing the sata issues.
1) its an asus they didnt have the issues
2) i THINK its the same 570/590 southbridge. but again no sata issues that i have seen people talk about.

mine shows up today so i will get to play with it.

[wtkprol]

Well, I got it to work now. So everything is good, my CPU just sucks balls, I cant even get 3.0 at 1.4v.

But I have read alot of people getting bad vdroop but I have a crazy overvolt. I set to 1.3125 in bios and I get 1.392 at reboot. Its really bad, but I guess its better than a vdroop.

[Omastar]

Overvolt on an Asus board? You've got to be kidding me.

[Lestat]

test it with a DMM
and over is better than under.
well as long as its a reliable overvolt and not some roller coaster ride of high and low volts thats just gunna hurt things.


run Orthos you'll see where the board droops.

[wtkprol]

Yea, sometimes im getting an overvolt sometimes im getting dead on. Im trying to narrow it down but it seems anything over 1.4v and it overvolts but anything below and I get dead on what I chose. I get .3v vdroop on load.

This board is very weird, I used to get major vdroop like everyone else but then I put it under dry ice and now its spontaneous. I do not recommend this board to anybody who wants a "plug and play" type thing, this is something you have to work with.