Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L owners ? I've got a problem

[neoglow]

Hey everyone.

Any GA-G31M-ES2L owners out there? Need your help...

I seem to have got a problem with the Socket 775 Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L mobo.

First off, Im totally confused by the SATA settings in the Bios,Ive got the latest bios, version FI is it? Ive got one Western Digital SATA HDD and a SATA DVDR drive. Which setting should I have it on??? Combined? Non Combined? Enhanced?....So heres the problem, when I try to fresh install Windows XP, all seems to go fine. I get into Windows, install mobo drivers, gpu drivers etc. But then, at some point on a system restart it will fail and give me the 'System' file (in Windows\System32\Config folder)is corrupt or missing. I try a recovery etc but nothing sorts it. So, reformat, try again. Same problem.

Ive set the comp up on bare minimum, and it just dosent want to play ball. The thing is, I think its the SATA settings in bios, I dont think I have them correct cos the GPU works fine after driver install, the HDD partitions and installs things fine and the DVD drive spins up easy to install XP. Now apparently the mobo can emulate the SATA drives as PATA drives (by setting the confusing bios SATA settings), hence I didnt use a SATA driver disk on the fresh install of XP. The Windows install setup found the HDD and created partition etc. Im stuck Is the mobo borked?

Also, maybe a bit off subject, does anyone elses mobo take a while to post when RAM is in Dual Channel?, with one stick it flies in POST, but with Dual it takes a bit longer to beep and show the first screen when it detects the drives and continues into XP startup.

Any suggestions? Any help would be mucho appreciated.

 

[1Day]

Go into bios and set failsafe defaults.
Select in the advanced option which source to boot from. Default will be HDD - if you are installing windows select your DVD.
Install OS

That will do it.

 

[neoglow]

All sorted now, turns out both the Gigabyte Mobo AND! the HDD were faulty. How unlucky is that!?!

The mobo wasnt POSTing properly all the time and the HDD just kept corrupting and reporting back sectors after XP install.

So had to RMA both of them. Got replacements and all is installed now, running smooth first time. Was a painful process of elimination.

Heres the conclusion from another thread I made about this god damn system build, has to be the worst build Ive ever had to do. But, all a-ok now.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18278662&highlight=startername_neoglow

Cheers for replies guys.

Heres something funny which just goes to show how Mobo manufacturers make these boards and sometimes not tell you what the hell some Bios settings mean.

I used Compatible mode in the Bios for the SATA HDD and SATA DVDR.

Used the same old XP SP2 Pro cd I have used a thousand times, DID NOT use the F6 during installation, XP install found the HDD, formatted it and installed XP. Got into Windows for the first time and did a restart WITHOUT installing the chipset/audio/lan drivers just yet.

Entered Bios, changed 'Compatible' mode to 'Enhanced' mode for the SATA and restarted expecting it to BSOD or Disk boot error and.......worked fine! Straight back into XP, did another restart to see if the Bios had automatically changed itself back to Compatible. Nope, still on Enhanced.

So, back into Windows, checked ATA/ATAPI in device manager and it didnt show the chipset drivers, I cant remember what it said but it definatley wasnt the Intel ICH7 SATA driver.

Installed the drivers for chipset/audio/lan. Lotsa reboots and has been working ever since. Device manager now shows Intel ICH7.

So, go figure. Basically Compatible and Enhanced seems to mean nothing with an XP install. Why cant they just explain this stuff in manuals???