formatted computer now SATA RAID problems (among others)

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Morning guys,

My old SP1 desktop has been fine for years, never had to reinstall windows on it... until my antivirus suddenly stopped working the other day, so i tried a few new ones, started getting lots of pop ups, became unusable quite quickly... so bit the bullet last night and decided I need to format it...

everythings loaded up fine, albeit in a bare, freshly installed state, but I have two major problems:

1) My onboard sound device will just not work, I have looked everywhere for the drivers in question, and installed what I think are the right ones, and it just tells me the device wont work as the drivers aren't right - the motherboard is Epox 8HKA+...

2) I have a SATA RAID card installed, and a 320GB drive attached to it, which now cannot be seen - I have tried finding the drivers for it, and installing them, at start up it say its a SIL 3112A, and in the configuration screens during the loading phase, it seems to list the hard drive there - but windows cannot see it - do I have to get the drivers and put them onto a floppy and setup> f6 them to get them to work? As this could also present a problem - I have no floppy drive...

Please, any advice wold be very gratefully received...

 

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At a first guess - you need to install the motherboard drivers from the CD that came with it.

Things like sound not working are a frequent result of missing this step.

If the SATA RAID isn't the boot device then you don't need to go the F6 route. You do that usually when the boot device is SATA.

And I'd suggest getting this unit to SP2 at least!

Harry.

 

Could you use a USB key for the files you need to put to floppy?

If not, maybe worth getting a USB FDD? (I used the f6 route using a usb fdd no so long ago)

 

I don't have any CDs or drivers for any hardware, apart from maybe the SATA RAID card - the computer is about 7 or 8 years old, a hand-me-down, so I shall try and find the motherboard drivers online?

Also, thats good that I don't have to go down the F6 route, but what DO I do? I am going to see if I can find the CD which came with the device, that should hopefully solve some issues...

And yes sadly I've had to join the SP2 era at last ironic really that I have my 70-272 tomorrow - could do without this crap!!

 

You *have* to have the motherboard drivers. These handle the 'glue' chips (i.e. north/south bridges). Without these being handled correctly it is *very* common for other drivers to fail to work or install. Once those drivers are in then I suspect that the rest will go OK.

Harry.

 

I've just had a quick search for the motherboard. This is a VIA unit. You *definitely* need the "4 in 1" drivers. The good news is that often the generic VIA 4-in-1 drivers will do.

Harry.

 

Assuming a slight typo in your reported motherboard model number, the drivers appear to be available here.

Harry.

 

Hi Harry,

thanks for the link! Yep just a typo I think - will i need just the "4-in-1" drivers? ie. is this just sound drivers? or for the whole motherboard?

ps. I am looking for another source as Epox seem to have given up hosting any drivers!

 

The 4-in-1 drivers are for the VIA chipset. The sound drivers are usually separate. However - this can vary. If the sound is in the chipset then the motherboard drivers will usually include them.

Harry.

 

Well thanks for your help Harry, I'll have a go at this tonight!

Hopefully I can resolve this and move onto the mystery of the missing SATA drive...

 

I have tried using a USB floppy during Windows installs before and although it worked initially (detecting it as a floppy and allowing you to specify additional drivers) later in the install it would ask for the disk again and not recognise it. This has happened to me on a few different PC's.

If a floppy isn't available, then a good alternative is to use a program like nLite. It will allow you to easily slipstream drivers and service packs into XP.

 

You had any luck yet?

How did the exam go?

 

The SIL 3112A drivers come in two formats RAID and Non RAID. If using RAID make sure you use the RAID version. You will need these on floppy to install windows (F6), however, you maybe able to make a slipstream CD and include the drivers on that CD.

Andi

 

Hi Guys,

Sorry for taking so long to get back, been busy with one thing and another... first of all I passed my 70-272 so I am now an MCDST!! YAY! so I shall update my CV and hopefully have more luck on the job front...

Onto the computer - the SATA RAID card problem was solved very easily, I went up in the loft, found the CD with the drivers on and installed them, came back to life straight away!

The sound, was not so successful... I searched high and low, for all drivers, and nothing would work - motherboard drivers, onboard sound, you name it, I tried it...
So, I relented, and bought the cheapest soundcard I could find - got home, excited to install it, put the soundcard in, installed it and had the same error message "data is invalid" I was furious!!
So, in the end, I had to reinstall windows AGAIN but foolishly didn't save my favourites, lost 8 years worth of browsing

But it's all working now so thanks guys for all your help

 

With a little Google-Fu, you could have found those drivers...

 

Trust me, I found every single driver possible - none of them would work as they should!! Bit gutted that I never got it working as it should, and had to take the easy option...