First off, here's my setup:

Dynamax Case w/430W PSU
ASUS P4P800S-X Mobo
P4 3.0e CPU
2 x 512MB Kingston RAM
Geforce FX5200 256MB Video
Maxtor 250GB Diamondmax 10 HDD S-ATA

Anyway, I can't seem to get XP to install on this setup for anything. At first I tried the XP boot disk floppies and the computer would randomly restart about 3 minutes into the install. So I borrowed a copy of XP from a friend of mine and it did the same thing. So, I was thinking maybe it was a flaky power supply or the mobo.

So first I upgraded the BIOS to revision 1010 (latest revision) and then I decided I'd install Windows 98 and see how that went. Windows 98 installed with no problems whatsoever (aside from the 5 1/2 hour HDD formatting time). So after insuring that it was nice and stable, I popped the XP CD in and chose the "new installation" option. When the computer made it through the first 5 minutes of the install, I thought it was a done deal. It copied all the files over fine, and pretty much went through the whole installation with no problems. Then when it got to the last 2 minutes of the install (saving settings) it just turned off. So, I let it sit for a while and I tried it again, it picked up from the 40 minute mark and went through the install again, Again it died at the 2 minute mark. I tried it one more time with no change, so now I don't really know what to do with it.

Any help would be appreciated

Howdy

If you are wanting to run a SATA drive as primary drive , then at the very start of installing XP you need to press f6 to install the sata drivers. They need to be on a floppy (as microsoft won't recognize any other drive for driver source).
G'Luck

windows should work without any special sata drivers, but you can always try... i reccomend you run a memory tester such as memtest to rule out the possiblity of your ram being the cuplrit. for troubleshooting purposes it would serve you well to try the install with only one stick of ram installed, before you do anything else.

Thanks for the replies guys, I actually tried it with the drivers with no success. But after searching around the net, I think that this mobo just has issues with SATA drives. I found many, many posts from people who were having similar problems, and once they got windows installed they still got stuck with even more intermittent problems. So I called newegg back up and told them I wanted to exchange it for a better board -- no problems at all getting a RMA, gotta love that place. Got a P4P800SE coming in it's place on friday. Anway, I didn't notice that the S-X wasn't a dual channel board, or that there was no wi-fi, so assuming my next install goes smoother, I'll be way happier for the extra $35. Just wish I would've gone this route in the first place, it would've saved me quite a few hours of hassle.

thanks for the help

kdog_x
Thats very cool.
Sorry it had to be more $$'s.
I'm glad you found a solution...

Zephead,
Am I missing something about sata?
Both my abit p2.4(vt7) and my asus XP 2700(a7n8x-e deluxe)
required sata drivers on a floppy to install XP.
In fact I failed to install XP on the sata p2.4 abit, couldn't
get windows to see the sata drive even with (f6) sata drivers on floppy
that came with the MoBo, didn't see any of the 4 drivers....
worked fine on the asus.
If you wouldn't mind clarifying this for me....Thanx

i frequently install xp on new builds with sata and unless there is a raid scheme, i have always let windows handle the drives, installing proper chipset drivers on completion of the installation.

in response to the first post:

you should be able to boot from the xp cd and run the installation from there. there is no need to install windows 98 at all, even if you are using an upgrade version of xp. simply put the windows 98 cd into your drive if prompted during the setup, then you can resume your xp installation. in fact, windows 98 does not support sata (technically speaking) and its presence is likely to complicate things further.

Got the new board in yesterday, Install went off without a hitch with the replacement. The old board must have been defective, or maybe it's just a crappy budget design. Anyway, Asus seems to be trying to brush that model under the rug as far as I can tell. It's just weird that Windows 98 installed with no problems, I would've thought everything nowadays would be designed with XP in mind. The computer was writing to the hard drive, so it had no trouble finding it cause of SATA. I tried installing the drivers using F6 anyway just for good measure, but it didnt make any difference. Oh well, just glad it's up and runnin now.

Awesome!!
I'm glad the new MoBo fixed the problem..
I see the f6 sata install was not needed, did
the board come with raid/sata drivers on a floppy?
Just curios.

Nope, no SATA or RAID drivers were included on floppy. Although, they can be downloaded from the Asus site pretty easily. Like you said though, windows picked up the drive just fine without the drivers since I wasn't going for a RAID configuration.

thanks :approve: