AHCI driver + XP install still = BSOD

Hey all,

I've tried this with both a Latitude E6410 and an E5420, same scenario.

I'd like to install XP on these systems (this is a corporate environment, there are reasons for it), and I'd like to keep the systems in AHCI mode. However, even when I use a USB floppy drive and Intel's latest F6 storage drivers, both systems still blue-screen just before getting to the first Windows setup text screen.

I've also used a 2009 Dell-issued WinXP Pro SP3 CD that had early Intel Matrix storage manager drivers on it. Didn't work. Used Magic ISO to replace the early Intel iastor (and other related driver files) with the newest ones from Dell's website, and burn a new disc, only to have the same problem.

Is there some issue with Dell's Core i-Series models (or at least some of them) that causes this not to work right? I can install XP just fine if I set the BIOS to ATA mode, but that's not what I want.

If anyone has suggestions or a fix, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have you tried to do the AHCI switch post-install? It's a little tricky (maybe less so now), but there should be plenty of guides out there... I always did it that way and I never had a problem... though I never tried it on anything later than C2D.

 

I've always had issues with installing Windows in AHCI mode in the E6400/E6410. Windows was ALWAYS flaky (I would get random BSOD after drivers install, ended up returning my E6410). I would try what Commander Wolf suggested, install in IDE/compatibility mode and do the registry switch.

 

I did that and got it to work. I try not to do that for image creation though. It looks like it may be my only choice at this time for the newer E-Series Latitudes.

P.S. Not truly related, but have either of you two noticed an increasing number of laptops that don't want to install Intel's Wireless drivers through the basic package? I'm getting a lot of that, where the drivers aren't found to be the correct ones by the operating system.

Downloading the standard PROSet Wireless application and using it works, but I'd rather not carry around the baggage. I'm having it in WinXP, Vista, and 7, and I'm finding this a common issue on Latitudes and Vostros.

 

Never really ran into that issue, though I always only download the drivers only as I don't really use the Intel PRO wireless software, that's strange. Which Intel WLAN cards give that trouble?

 

So far, I've experienced it with some 5xxx and 6xxx cards.

It appears Intel has now changed their most recent basic driver into a single executable rather than a .zip with a bunch of files in newer releases like they used to, and these work. The .ZIP files I've had with the drivers (that you could either use DPInst.exe or a manual update to install through Device Manager) don't want to work. Windows doesn't find the drivers to be a match for the hardware and so it installs nothing.