BSOD during SATA/XP Pro install

[GergV]

Hope this is the correct thread for this.
I recently decided that it was time to upgrade a system that I have been using for a home recording studio and purchased the following:

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3LR LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
BFG Tech GS-550 550W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.8 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7500
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model VS4GBKIT667D2 ( I bought a total of 8GB)
PNY GeForce 8400 GS 512MB PCI card
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

I installed it all in the same Lian Li case I have always used.
The problem is, everytime I try and install Windows XP Pro it Blue Screens everytime it passes the first screen. It will do the ussual driver installs at the bottom, past the F6 and F2 prompt, but will blue screen before it gets to the "Welcome to setup" screen where it partitions and formats.
This is my first experience with SATA, so I have been googling like crazy but have not found any solution.
I tried removing RAM to a single 2GB stick, and swapping it with other sticks.
I plugged the Hard drive into my XPS and formatted it - it showed as healthy.
I have also tried to perform the Windows XP install using the XPS with the same blue screen result.
I ran the Data Lifeguard utility to check for errors, in both fast and slow, and it showed no errors.
I used Data Lifeguard to format it as well in a 80/912GB partition.
I have plugged the former 40GB IDE hard drive into the system and it worked fine.

The options in the BIOS are:

SATA RAID/AHCI Mode (Intel ICH10R Southbridge)
Enables or disables RAID for the SATA controllers integrated in the Intel ICH10R Southbridge or configures the SATA controllers to AHCI mode.

Disabled Disables RAID for the SATA controllers and configures the SATA controllers to PATA mode. (Default)

AHCI Configures the SATA controllers to AHCI mode. Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is an interface specification that allows the storage driver to enable advanced Serial ATA features such as Native Command Queuing and hot plug.

RAID Enables RAID for the SATA controllers.

SATA Port0-3 Native Mode
Specifies the operating mode of the integrated SATA controllers.

Disabled Allows the SATA controllers to operate in Legacy IDE mode.
In Legacy mode the SATA controllers use dedicated IRQs that cannot be shared with other device. Set this option to Disabled if you wish to install operating systems that do not support Native mode. (Default)

Enabled Allows the SATA controllers to operate in Native IDE mode.
Enable Native IDE mode if you wish to install operating systems that support
Native mode.

I do not want a RAID configuration, and have read that AHCI will not work with XP Pro. Not sure if this is correct?
I have pressed F6 during install and used a floppy to install the ICH10R SATA RAID driver from the mobo disc and from Intels site. Is there anything I need to do to the BIOS in between?
Tried changing the BIOS to RAID and configuring it as RAID 0 with a single disk (I read somewhere that this is possible) but it did not give me the "press <ctrl+l>" option to set up RAID that the manual said it would. Possibly because it only sees a single disk.
Tried disabling SATA RAID/AHCI mode, but enabling SATA Port0-3 Native mode.
Gigabytes web site is horrible, and only randomnly lists the mobo, has no real troubleshooting and support hours stink.
Feel like I have tried so much that I need to start over. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Been beating this to death since Thursday.

 

[Neuromancer]

Have you tried NATIVE IDE and NOT installing the Intel drivers?

If this does not work either, it could be Optical media is bad.

The specific stop error will tell you what the problem is (more or less)

you can always run a memtest bootable CD to test memory, however considering the point it fails I assume it is a 0x7F storage stop error.


EDIT: Just reread.

Disable both things so you run in native PATA mode. Install XP, install install SP3. Reboot. Install AHCI/SATA drivers. Reboot, set AHCI mode in BIOS reboot.

Should be fine from there on out.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Are you using an old Windows XP Pro CD (without service packs)? I've encountered a problem on certain new motherboards where a vanilla Windows XP Pro CD could not be used for the installation, because it didn't contain drivers necessary to communicate properly with hardware on the motherboard. If your BSOD error says something about "pci.sys", then it's very likely that you're having the same problem.

 

[GergV]

NeurOmancer and KillrBuckeye, Thanks for the quick response! I have tried with the Native IDE enabled without F6ing and installing the Intel drivers. I tried a different optical drive at one point (I forget just how much testing I did with the other drive), and I have tried 3 different XP Pro disks with just XP Pro, and with SP1. It seemed like there were some options left out of the BIOS so I did check to see if there was a more recent version, but the only other one available is a BETA that had no information on it on Gigabytes web site.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

I believe the problem I described was resolved by installing with an XP SP2 disk. I don't think SP1 will do the trick if this is indeed the issue.

 

[GergV]

Just found out that the 3rd disk was XP Pro with SP2. Occured to me as well so I decided to check up on it.

 

[GergV]

Called Gigabyte and was notified that I was running my RAM at 1.8v instead of 2.1v and that Windows XP Pro would go great after that. Tried it and..did not work. Of course the tech at Gigabyte pretty much jumped off the phone before I could test it, and I could not get them on the phone again. Go figure. Trying to slipstream a XP Pro disk with SP3.

 

[Dice]

Is your HDD plugged into Sata port 0? XP will apply boot sector info to whatever drive is in port0. If is is your optical, then this explains the stop error.

 

[GergV]

All set! Not sure if it was setting the RAM voltage from 1.8v to 2.1v or slipstreaming XP Pro w/SP3 that did the trick, but it loaded up and is running pretty good. Probably more than I will need for the studio software. Thank you all!

 

[KillrBuckeye]

All set! Not sure if it was setting the RAM voltage from 1.8v to 2.1v or slipstreaming XP Pro w/SP3 that did the trick, but it loaded up and is running pretty good. Probably more than I will need for the studio software. Thank you all!

Good to hear that it's working now! You'd be surprised at how much you can load the CPU with a DAW software running lots of plug-ins.

 

[Mike Wolf]

Don't know if its relevent but I figured since I recieved a blue screen issue a few times when I was installing XP Pro in the past and it was a hard drive configuration issue, I'd share.

At first I thought it was an issue with the fact the systems originally came with Vista and I was using an XP CD to format, but when I couldn’t even get to the formatting stage, I then remember running into the issue with a corrupted CD drive a few months earlier (yes it happens to even brand new factory fresh drives) After I replaced the CD drive and the issue remained, I checked the BIOS settings.

It was an issue with the way the hard drive was configured, which was that in the BIOS it was set to RAID Autodetect/AHCI, which would cause a blue screen on installation, but once I set it to RAID Autodetect/ ATA, I had no problems.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

error says something about "pci.sys", then it's very likely that you're having the same problem.

Also, I would reseat the RAM, especially if it displays on a black screen, "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\PCI.SYS" (or similar text on a black screen)