Question about M50SV and XP install with SATA drivers.

Hello everyone.

I've just received the new M50SV-A1 from the UPS delivery man. It's my first ASUS and I'm wowed by how good it looks. I was deciding between the Dell M1350 and HP DV9700T and found this ASUS option through this forum. I got this from GenTechPC, based on Ken's review and BTOtech.com's video.

However I was stupid to not get the full XP installation option. Since the softwares I use will run mostly on XP only, I've no choice but to make the change. I'm pretty much a novice at doing this whole PC stuff so I've been reading up on how to install XP and slipstreaming and BIOS changes and what not. I have a few questions that I hope that you guys can help me out on.

 

Whoops. Hit enter too quickly there

My questions are:

1. Does switching the BIOS SATA configuration from Enhanced Mode to Compatible Mode a permanent solution or do I need the SATA Driver still?
2. Does the ASUS driver CD come with SATA drivers or do I have to download it?
3. I don't have a floppy drive, so could I use a USB drive instead?
4. UAA driver, install this before everything else, right?

That's the questions I have for now.

Thank you for any response.

 

No answers?

So far, I've gone through the set the SATA config from Enhanced to Compatible since I read that you can install the driver after the XP installation. And I've attempted to boot from the XP install disc with the hope that I could overwrite the installed Vista program. Blue screen all the time. If this is wrong, please, I suck at this, so help me. I don't know if I should or could format the HDD that's currently residing in the laptop, cause that seems like the only way to install XP now.

Can anyone help me?

 

1: If you leave it at compatible mode then you don't need install SATA driver, but if you want to use Enhance mode then you'll need to download SATA driver:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/14848/eng/iata78_enu.exe

2: It comes with Vista driver

3: You'll need a floopy drive because when it ask to insert the driver it'll only look for Floppy A:, slipstream will be a good idea.

4: You don't need to install UAA driver since the newer version of Realtec audio driver has UAA integrated:

ftp://202.65.194.211/pc/audio/WDM_R189.exe


The blue screen might be because your XP disk is too old and does not have PCI-Express driver, go borrow a XP disk with SP1 so you can install XP or use nLite to slipstream Windows Service Pack.

 

I just did the XP format install yesterday. You are correct to change the SATA BIOS config to compatible mode.

Boot from the XP cd and you'll need to format at least the C partition.
If you like you can delete all partitions and configure them yourself how you like it but if you're not comfortable just install XP over the Vista partition.

After you go through the install you'll need the driver disc. The CD will autorun and tell you that it will only work under Vista but you can cancel and ignore it. If you browse into the CD you will find folders for each program and just go through and install. A few things you won't need, I didn't make a list of what folders I installed so I can't tell you exactly what.

 

The XP disc is from my brother and it is about 1.5 to 2 years old. Way too old in the software game, I suppose. He also gave me a separate SP2 disc that MS provided. I'll look into slipstreaming. Good thing Asus provide their buyers with a free copy of Nero, eh.

I think my wife still have a her old USB floppy drive... So. I only have to place the .exe file that you've linked to into the floppy space, right?

Thank you for your help.

 

Oo, thanks for the quick guide. Do you have the same Asus model I? Would it cause any problem if all the programs got installed?

 

Service pack 3 is out so if you are going to slipstream I suggest download the latest one:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...ad-bc34-40be-8d85-6bb4f56f5110&displaylang=en


The .exe file does not work during XP install when it's asking for the driver, if you change IDE controller to compatible mode it will not ask you for the driver, you'll just have to install the SATA driver after XP is installed.

But the first thing you need to do is slipstream service pack before you can install Windows XP, otherwise you'll keep getting blue screen because it can't find the PCI Express driver.

 

Do I have to worry about slipstreaming the previous SP2 as well? or does the SP3 just takes care of everything I'll need?

 

My wife suggested that I just go ahead and get the SP with Sp2 already on it. So I might just do this to make it easier. Here's a possible course of action...

Get XP SP2 (I'll upgrade to Sp3 at a later date)
Install XP SP2 with IDE/SATA controller in Compatibility mode.
Install the Sata driver
Switch the IDE/SATA controller backto Enhanced mode.
Sleep.

 

Any other insights? Thanks.

 

So I went ahead with the install. I didn't slipstream the driver and make a new XP boot disc. But I did everything else to get XP on the laptop with all the drivers.

So with XP booted, I tried to open the iata78_enu.exe file and it tells me that my system doesn't meet the minimum requirement for installation. What can I do now?

 

Probably the SATA Enhanced mode needs to be enabled? Try enabling it in BIOS and see if Windows boot. If yes, then try to install the driver.

 

Yeah I did try that but that didn't work either. I switched, used F10 and got a flashing blue screen when the computer was booting up.

Anyway, I went ahead and used NLITE to slipstream the SATA driver into a new XP installation disc. I still have the BIOS set the SATA controller mode to compatible. So far, not working. Seems like the driver wasn't installed even though the XP install file that NLITE generated did get slightly bigger.

 

Try setting to enhanced and then installing with the SATA driver slipstreamed. Sorry if you already tried that.

 

Well, I did try that too, but i'd get a blue screen message saying that there aren't any sata drive :|

I did try to reinstall Vista to get ENHANCED SATA mode but when I tried to install XP afterward, I ran into the same problem with new XP disc. So I'm thinking that the problem maybe that the Sata driver wasn't integrated properly into the XP disc.

I read in the OS Software forum that I should only chose the exact driver I'd need when using NLITE. Specifically, "Intel(R) 82801 HEM/HBM SATA AHCI CONTROLLER (Mobile ICH8M-E/M]" , and that means selecting the "Textmode Driver" option instead of the "regular PNP driver". Is this the case for everyone else?

Thank you for any responses.

 

HUZZAH!!!! Success!

Forget about Slipstream! Here's how you do it.

I downloaded the the Intel Matrix Storage Manger from the Lenovo website
Link below
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/7tim04ww.exe

I open the executable.

Update my driver with the iaastor.inf file, choosing specifically the Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller

And it works!

Rebooted and changed the SATA controller from compatible to enhanced mode

And it really works!!!!

Thanks to everyone who had helped me along the way. I've tried everything and, after 6 installation of XP, this works for me.

HUZZAH!!!!

 

just received my m50 yesterday just have a question.. i didn't get the difference between the enhanced sata mode and the compatible mode.. Is there a downside to any of these modes?.. I will surely install xp on this laptop by the way..

 

There is a slight performance hit when you use the compatible mode. I don't know exactly how slight.

 

hi asianrage...
i need your help,
where i can find iastor.inf file?

need your help here....

 

Montor mabur,

The best way to be sure of a successful XP installation is to use the program nLite to integrate the SATA driver into XP CD. And at the same time, you can also integrate Service Pack 3 components, and Internet Explorer 7, and make a new XP sp3 CD. So, you don’t have to worry that your existing XP CD may be too old.

Here is the way to do it.

Get the Service Pack 3 components, WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe from here, and put the file under C:\

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a8-5e76-401f-be08-1e1555d4f3d4&DisplayLang=en

Download the Internet Explorer 7, IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe from here, and put it under C:\

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...be-3385-447c-8a30-081805b2f90b&DisplayLang=en

And download the SATA driver 32-bit Floppy Configuration Utility for Intel® Matrix Storage Manager, f6flpy32.zip from the following site. Unzip it in a new folder and name it SATA driver. Put this folder under C:\

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/con...91&DwnldId=16013&strOSs=&OSFullName=&lang=eng

Download and install the program nLite.

http://www.nliteos.com/download.html

Put your original XP CD into the DVD drive. Run the program nLite and click Next. In the page of “Locating the Windows installation”, click Browse >> My Computer >> DVD drive, a window pops up.

“Select where to save the CD installation files for modification”.
Choose or create an empty folder.

Click OK, a window pops up. Click C: >> Make a new folder >> type New XPCD >> OK

The nLite starts to copy all the files of the original XP CD into the folder C:\New XPCD.

Click Next. In the page of “Presets”, click Next. In the page of Task Selection, select Integrate [Service Pack], [Hot fixes, Add-ons, and Update Packs], [Drivers], and [Create Bootable ISO], click Next.

In the page of [Service Pack], click Select >> WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe >> Open. The nLite starts to integrate the service pack 3 components into the folder of New XPCD. Click Next.

In the page of [Hot fixes, Add-ons, and Update Packs], click Insert >> C: >> IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe >> Next.

In the page of Drivers, click Insert >> Single Driver, a window pops up, select C:\SATA driver, 2 selections show up, select iaAHCI, click Open, then pops up another window, in which there are more than 10 selections, select Intel® ICH8M-E/M and ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller, click OK >> Next, a window pops up with a question “Do you want to start the process?”, click Yes.

Take out the original XP CD and put a blank CD into the DVD drive.

Click Next. In the page of Bootable ISO, select Direct Burn for Mode, type New XPCD for Label, select minimum 4 x (705KB/s) for Burn Speed, then click Burn. The nLite starts burning the New XPCD. After completion, you have a new XP installation CD now. You can use it to install XP smoothly.

Good luck!!