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    Problem installing XP on M1730 even with SATA drivers slipstreamed

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by deckman, Dec 4, 2008.

  1. deckman

    deckman Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi everyone,
    my first post...
    I've been trying to install Windows XP on my 6 month old m1730 for a couple of weeks now and have had no success.
    Thanks to the m1730 owner's lounge thread I found out that windows xp couldn't recognize my hdd because of the lack of SATA drivers, and I also learned how to slipstream it into the xp cd with nLite.

    The problem I'm having now is that whenever I try to boot up with it it keeps crashing with a bsd before even entering the setup screen (whereas previously a message appeared saying no hdd was found). I tried the cd on my other computer and it makes it to the setup screen fine. My other computer has a regular ide drive however...

    Does anyone else have this problem and how do I fix this?

    I have a single 320 7200rpm drive installed,
    other major specs are: T8300 2.4 GHz, 4gb RAM, single 8700M GT...

    Thanks!
     
    deckman, Dec 4, 2008
    #1
  2. Boo Boo

    Boo Boo Notebook Deity

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    did you set your bios to be ata or sata drives? i cant remeber if the settings are listed or not
     
    Boo Boo, Dec 4, 2008
    #2
  3. sonyfxa36

    sonyfxa36 Notebook Evangelist

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    go into the Dell BIOS make sure you turn off flash cache module and also check under SATA choose either RAID Auto Detect AtA,Raid On, Raid Auto detect/AHC1.
     
    sonyfxa36, Dec 4, 2008
    #3
  4. deckman

    deckman Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks, I'll give that a try. I've got a few questions...

    While going through the steps of turning off flash cache module and changing the SATA mode it gives a warning about maybe having to reinstall the OS or the current OS being unreadable.

    Does that mean my hard drive is going to be wiped out or unreadable?

    Does that mean I'll be using ATA type speeds even though I have a SATA drive? Is it possible to install XP in ATA mode and then switch the bios to SATA mode again to use VISTA (for the dual boot)?
     
    deckman, Dec 4, 2008
    #4
  5. |-007-|

    |-007-| Notebook Enthusiast

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    Disable the flash cache module and then turn off AHCI in the BIOS. Then install Windows XP using a normal Service Pack 2 or 3 disk. Once you have XP working, install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (available from Intel and maybe Dell). Then you can enable AHCI and the flash cache module in the BIOS without causing Windows XP to bluescreen.
     
    |-007-|, Dec 5, 2008
    #5
  6. deckman

    deckman Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks, it worked!
     
    deckman, Dec 6, 2008
    #6