Bad Axe 2 / XP BSOD @ Install

unclebobuk · 23 Mar 2007 at 19:25

Hi,
just in the process of trying to get XP Pro SP2 onto my newly constructed

Rig :-

Zalman CNPS9700-LED Aero Flower
Intel Extreme D975XBX2KR BAD AXE 2
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz
CellShock 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 PC2-8000C4 1000MHz Dual Channel
Akasa Mirage 62 Aluminium Case
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan (2 of)

Drives :-

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache ( 2 of)
Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (2 of)
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe

All installed no problems. Posts fine. Currently, everything is at default settings. When trying to install XP SP2 goes all the way through to 'Starting Windows' and then throws a BSOD... does it everytime.

I can see the SATA optical drives, both SATA Disk drives (one currently disconnected to keep things simple).

Code from BSOD is 7B... I searched the intel support pages for this problem but all I could find was a reference to the 7B code AFTER an OS install.

WARNING: Switching SATA modes in the BIOS after installing the operating system is not recommended or supported when a SATA drive is the boot drive. Switching modes may cause an immediate blue screen with an 0x0000007b error code, followed by a reboot.

I've tried setting the memory timings to the settings for my RAM 4-4-4-12 PC800 @ 2.2v, and it made no difference. Also tried taking out one of the sticks and then swapping.... still no difference...

BIOS Rev is :BIOS Update 2333 [BX97520J.86A]

I was going to update to the latest bios next but I don't have a floppy drive but I've been able to construct a bootable usb drive so I'm going to try and get this done at least...

I may be barking up the wrong tree so if anyone has seen this issue please post as its driving me nuts. Until I get an O/S on this beast it's just expensive metalwork.... and to think I thought this would be easy.

Advanced -> Drive Configuration is set to manual for now :-

Use Serial ATA - Enable
ATA/IDE Mode - Native
Configure Sata as - AHCI
SMART - Enable
Primary Channel - Enable
Hard Disk Pre-delay - 0

If anyone has any specific questions, please ask and I'll do my best to provide the details...

I want this baby running!!!

Here's hoping someone can help me find the sweet spot and fix this baby.

<UPDATE - managed to get floppy drive and hook up so I could load the drivers from the 'Matrix Storage Technolgy Raid Driver' Disk. Hit f6 and loaded up the SATA and RAID drivers - now have my 2 500gb drives reconnected. Still does BSOD with 7B error. Also tried both sticks of RAM separately too.>

Anything else I've missed? Tried disks in both RAID1 and just JBOD. Both fail as above.

Not sure what else I can try...sigh

<UPDATE 2 - tried an old IDE optical drive for the install instead of the fancy SATA ones - worked! Just goes to show that SATA opticals still have a way to go :-(

>

Hopefully I CAN finish the install now. Looks like the Sammy DVD drives are going back....

< And so the Saga continues >....

got winxp install started, hit f6 to load drivers, saw the SATA driver and loaded from support floppy...came to select partition screen, and chose my formatted partition. (created during a previous attempt)

As soon as it starts to copy files to the new area on the disk it tries to copy over iaStor.sys, iaAHCI.inf, iaAHCI.cat from the floppy as during the initial install phase of the XP install... and, guess what, yep....accesses the floppy and then states it can't read the files.... eventually i have to hit ESC a few times to skip the files...and lo and behold, it fails with a 7B as before because it has not been able to copy the drivers over....

Anyone care to comment? I'm running out of ideas...

Bob.

unclebobuk · 24 Mar 2007 at 13:08

Well,
abandoned use of the optical SATA DVD drives and went back to an IDE DVD drive which now works fine. Installed new floppy drive so I can add the Matrix Raid drivers so that XP can see the 150gb raid 1 partition i've created. So far so good. Boots into XP install, allows me to load the matrix raid driver, format my 150gb raid partition and begin to load files onto it... however, during this phase of the install it needs to load the drivers onto the hardrive itself so it tries to access the floppy again... except this time it says it can't see the files it needs.... I keep hitting 'Enter' to tell it to try again and each time it says 'cannot find iostor.sys'... does the same for all the remaining required files...does not load them - result - xp fails to install correctly.

I'm at a loss to explain why it won't work on this 2nd phase when it loads the drivers ok on the 1st. I've even put the drivers on a new floppy in case it was faulty. Unless I can crack this I can't proceed. Why won't it read the drivers from the floppy on the 2nd pass? Has anyone else seen this problem?

Updated the board to latest firmware (march 15th)... no difference.

Guess I can either try creating a slipstream dvd with my drivers in or
install vista but i really don't want to go there right now.

So if anyone has had any similar issue, please feel free to share.

thanks
Bob.

Datamonkey · 24 Mar 2007 at 16:48

turn off the ahci option in the bios.

set it to either sata or raid if your going to raid the 2 hdds.

I have a similar setup.

6400
Bad Axe2
2 x 74gb raptors in raid 0
1 x 250gb hdd storage
1 x Sammy Sata Dvd

in the bios i have the second sata controller the marvel one disabled.

All 4 sata devs are on the intel controller and in the bios this is set to raid. but auto detect is enabled.

When booting i created the raid 0 setup using the ctrl i keys when prompted.

I then boot using my xp with sp2 slipped in the sata dvd rom.

What you will need to do is get onto the intel website and download the f6 drivers for the intel raid. dump these on a floppy and have the disc in the drive already.

Right when booting from the xp cd hit f6 when it gives you the option to. make sure you select the ich7 DESKTOP raid driver.

Then your install should progress with no issues.

I had no end of problems when i thought i would try out the ACHI option. So i wouldnt recommend using it.

Hope thats of some use lol

unclebobuk · 24 Mar 2007 at 19:01

Hi
thanks for the reply. I was pretty much doing what you have suggested bar disabling the marvell controller (which i had nothing connected to at the moment anyhow). I rebuilt the matrix raid driver cd using the utility from the website but, alas the same problem.

When I get to the second phase of the XP install where its copying files to the newly created RAID partition it accesses the floppy again to copy the drivers over the c:\windows\i386 etc... Its here that its failing to work. it ALWAYS says it can't find any of the drivers, eg iaStor.sys - however, they are on there (I even went as far as making sure that the filenames reflected exactly the correct format (even down to using the same upper and lower case chararcters for the filenames as referenced in the .inf files on the floppy...again no luck... All I get is

Setup cannot copy the file iaStor.sys
Retry - Press Enter
Skip File - ESC
Quit - F3

and it will do this for each of the 3 files it needs to load... I'm mystified as it loads them fine on the initial bootstrap, I mean I would not be able to see my RAID 0 C: drive otherwise would I?

Which is why I am at the end of my tether. I've had one attempt at making a slipstreamed copy of my XP Pro SP2 CD with the iostor drivers in, but somehow I didnt do it right and the installler failed. I now see this as the only way around this bizzare floppy issue. I've tried 2 different drives as well...sigh

I never thought trying to load a driver for a damn sata drive would be this much of a pain in the ass...

any other suggestions most welcome.

Bob.

Leporello · 25 Mar 2007 at 12:36

It's possible that your issue may be with your SATA DVD drive. I've seen a number of posts from people who've had your problem and solved it by using a PATA CD or DVD drive to install their OS. There's a long thread on the Badaxe2 on the abxzone forums and I'm fairly certainn that there are at least two people on that thread with this issue and who've resolved it by using a PATA optical drive.

unclebobuk · 25 Mar 2007 at 21:43

Hi there,
thanks for the responses. As it all turned out the issue was purely trying to get XP to load the matrix raid driver correctly during the install phase which despite numerous efforts I could not get it to do. I ended up creating a slipstreamed copy of XPPro-SP2 WITH my Matrix drivers included and it all went smoothly (tip - use nlite to do this and do not attempt by hand as i did initially - nlite does it all and its a breeze). I've no idea why it would not not work via the old 'hit F6' method but I guess I've learned my lessons here... if it don't work... try another route.

Now all up and running - I've taken mentions on the other forums and am avoiding the Marvell SATA/Raid controller (disabled) as i've heard there are issues with it. I have my 2 500gb seagates in a mirror set of the matrix raid controller and I am using the other 2 matrix ports to drive the Optical drives and it all appears to work well - even eventually managed to get the soundcard working (you need to install Intel Audio studio to get it set up and NOT the drivers - go figure). Anyways, its been rock solid so far... Will start looking at some mild OC's next week...

thanks all.

Bob.