Building a new GA-EP45-DS3L machine

[Lsdmeasap]

You can test with orthos and Memtest86+, that is what I use >>>
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool
Orthos_20060420.zip

Ya, you can put it all back together. You should buy you some new floppy disks as your floppy can save your life later so keep it installed. You can get sets of them on ebay pretty cheap

Let us know how your build comes along

[Lobster]

I'll let you know how it goes tonight. What will be my next step after I've got the RAM issue handled? Do I need to do anything else in the BIOS, or is the build effectively "done" at that point and I can proceed with installing/updating software? I'd really like to get up and running tonight, or at least close the case.

[Lobster]

I flashed the BIOS with no problems at all and installed the second DIMM. I had no errors or problems booting directly to Windows after putting in the DIMM; no voltage setting required! :D I'm running Orthos on it right now to doublecheck and so far there are no errors at all. XP is only recognizing 3.25GB but that's to be expected since that's the most XP supports. The computer sees all 4GB at boot.

So really, I'm not entirely sure what the fuss was all about! People on other forums kept telling me this board was so ornery and finnicky and so far the only even semi-difficult thing I've had to do to it is the BIOS flash, which was entirely voluntary. I guess I'm just lucky (good thing I'm not superstitious or I'd start smelling smoke right about now)? The hardware install is completely done at this point, with one minor detail. Can't seem to get the case panels back on! :( Software side is another story as without any drivers or anything I've still got some hardware not working, including the ethernet. I can handle that without any particular guidance, though. I think. I hope.

Even if it seems to be running fine right now is there anything else I SHOULD do?

Thanks for your help, lsd. I would've felt very lost without you and it was great to know if things DIDN'T go smoothly (or if they still don't) I could get some highly knowledgeable help!

[Lobster]

One little problem.

SATA AHCI Mode (Intel ICH10 Southbridge) .............Disabled or AHCI

SATA Port0-3 Native Mode........... Enabled

When I turn on AHCI mode Windows won't load. I see the splash screen, then it restarts. Disabled it and everything works fine again.

I'm installing a few more drivers and some software on it right now, then I'm going to take it off the bench and get it on the internet to get everything up to date. With a little luck, I'll be using it the next time I post. :)

[godto]

AHCI is almost just like RAID .... need to install window fresh with F6 driver add ...
can't just turn it on

[Lobster]

Hmm, just spent a few hours updating. Are the benefits of AHCI worth going back and doing it over again?

On the new machine now, by the way. Woot. :D

[Lsdmeasap]

Thanks for all your kind words! Glad I could be of some help and comfort to you!

AHCI must be turned on before you install windows and then you must load the driver at pre-install (F6 method)

What you can try is (Works sometimes people say but I have never) is put the AHCI Drivers on your desktop and right click the .inf file and choose install then reboot to BIOS and enable AHCI and then see if windows will load.

But the correct way is to set the BIOS to AHCI then install windows using the F6 method right as the install begins when you see "press F6 to load additional drivers"

Yes, it is a bit faster especially if you have a Newer drive that supports NCQ. But it will add some startup time

[Lobster]

I seem to recall that it has something "similar" to NCQ but not quite. At this point I'm not sure it's worth the effort to do everything over again, especially when everything seems to work now (if it ain't broke, etc.). Spent about 6 hours last night downloading and applying updates. :P

How much faster are we talking?

[Lsdmeasap]

Ahh, not sure. If it is a Newer (Like past 2-3 years) it should for sure support it.

You can check with Everest to see if it is NCQ capable, and as said above you may not HAVE to reinstall >>>
Enable AHCI without reinstalling XP?

I am really not sure about the speed differences, and it would depend also on disk size, cache and RPM, and model/manufacturer, XP/Vista 32/64, ect.

I found you this >>>
HDTune scores with and w/out AHCI - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion

Is AHCI faster or not? - [H]ard|Forum

And some more tips and methods here on how to switch if you want to try it out >>>
SATA vs AHCI - Overclockers Australia Forums

Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Lobster]

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look.

Really the big barrier for me is that I don't want to have to spend another 6 hours installing/updating software. Do you think it'd be possible to do a dirty re-install of XP (install it over the current install instead of removing it first)? That'd save me a lot of time.