1. #101
    Originally posted by JG52Uther:
    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by wolfman2100:
    I'll echo Q's wise words.

    Sigh....

    Now my PC will not boot from the disc allowing a format to take place, DESPITE me changing the boot order in BIOS, just like i did before.

    This machine is bizarre, it has a mind of it's own, it doesn't follow any set patterns at all.
    Probably a totally off the wall suggestion,but is it possible your install disc is b*ggered? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    It could be, but how would i find out?

    I found an old set of drivers on a disc, and installed them fine, IL-46 runs as well as it ever did, and RTW, but the latest drivers i have WON'T install, and STALKER won't work.

    I do have a driver problem, but really the only problems i've had all the way thru this is that the moment it's graphics graphics intensive my PC gives up the ghost. 46 isn't graphically intensive, neither is RTW.

    But, STALKER, Oblivion, and MTW2 (Battle scenes) are - that's when the shutdowns occur.


    PS - Thanks for the e-mail B16enk, i haven't checked my email for a few days, i might take you up on that offer, thanks. It's not easy trying to fight an attritional war with a PC that is intent on thwarting anything and everything we try and do to beat it. It just throws up one problem after another.
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  2. #102
    B16Enk's Avatar Senior Member
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    Not booting off DVD.

    Does your BIOS, when posting, offer a boot menu - something along the lines of 'Press ESC for...'?

    You only get the choice of Vista Edition if you DON'T input a product key (the key unlocks the version it relates to).

    I intentionally did it that way as there are upgrade disks, this will allow a clean install from an upgrade disk...

    Wolfman, no worries on hte offer, it still stands, and if a little of my time on the 'phone can get this resolved it's worth it.

    You say in your last that you got older drivers to install, what does your Dxdiag look like with these installed?

    Stalker is a DirectX game, IL2 is an OpenGL game that can be run in a DirectX wrapper.

    @ Tim thanks M8, appreciate your words ~S~.
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  3. #103
    B16Enk's Avatar Senior Member
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    Plot thickens.

    Did some more digging on the Mobo, the absence of disk info on the hard drive nagged me.

    Coupled with the lock up when formatting made me consider that perhaps Vista wasn't quite getting a proper grasp of the SATA controller the disk was connected to.

    Asus list beta drivers dated 2006/12/26.

    A quick google, knowing how tardy Asus are at updating their drivers, found drivers dated 23/07/2007 at the controller makers site here.

    Reading the read.txt it says:
    To create a pre-install disk for 32-bit Win2K/WinXP/Win2003/Vista, please copy all files in the floppy32 folder to the root directory of a floppy disk.
    To create a pre-install disk for 64-bit WinXP/Win2003/Vista, please copy all files in the floppy64 folder to the root directory of a floppy disk.
    which suggests that Vista may not have drivers built-in for it.

    Image 6 I posted has an option 'Load Driver', trying this and feeding it the drivers from the floppy32 folder may resolve the inabilty to format.
    I don't know if Vista will allow drivers to be installed from media other than a floppy, I think it will as floppy drives are deprecated, so it may load from a CD/USB drive.

    I'll reboot into 2003 and try this in my Vista VM again.
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  4. #104
    B16Enk's Avatar Senior Member
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    Vista will indeed load drivers from Floppy, CD, DVD, local hard drive or USB Drive.

    Remember that Vista install DVD whilst bootable does require a key press to make it boot from the DVD, it will prompt:


    If no key press is made it will then boot into Vista.
    XP did the same, as did ME and possibly 2000 IIRC
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  5. #105
    I will confirm the usb drive option as well, thats what I did toload my raid drivers when I installed vista. Speaking of which, it might be worth checking th bios and making sure that the sata and raid options are set right, also as risky as it sounds the way things have been going a bios update may help. Check the mobo web site and see what the latest bios is for that board and check it againsta whats on there. Maybe just a clearing of cmos will help.
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  6. #106
    Originally posted by B16Enk:
    Not booting off DVD.

    Does your BIOS, when posting, offer a boot menu - something along the lines of 'Press ESC for...'?

    You only get the choice of Vista Edition if you DON'T input a product key (the key unlocks the version it relates to).

    I intentionally did it that way as there are upgrade disks, this will allow a clean install from an upgrade disk...

    Wolfman, no worries on hte offer, it still stands, and if a little of my time on the 'phone can get this resolved it's worth it.

    You say in your last that you got older drivers to install, what does your Dxdiag look like with these installed?

    Stalker is a DirectX game, IL2 is an OpenGL game that can be run in a DirectX wrapper.

    @ Tim thanks M8, appreciate your words ~S~.
    I got it to boot after i uninstalled the GPU drivers, and disabled the the GPU.

    This time i made a new partition, and everything went as it should have done until the final part of the process, when aftr a restart i got the flicker in the top left again.

    Obviously the latest drivers still wouldn't install , but one i have dated 10 months ago, seems to install over the top of "broken" one fine.

    This though still doesn't allow for STALKER etc.

    I'm gonna try again tommorow this time hopefully it will format properly.

    I'm a bit hamsrung at the moment, because i'm stuck with one PC that can acess the 'net (this one) and one that can't (gaming rig). Unfortunateley the DVD drive in the 'net rig doesn't work and so i can't copy fies between the two.

    Hopefully i can get my gaming rig hooked up to the net on Monday.


    Thanks guys,

    Wolfman.
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  7. #107
    Here's an important question, each time you're trying to install the latest drivers are you installing them from the same download? What I mean is did you download them just once and been installing from that file each time or do you download them fresh? At this point I'm not willing to rule out anything, even the possibility that the download was corrupt and thats why it will not install. I would also try the latest beta driver just to have something else to try to install.
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  8. #108
    Originally posted by Urufu_Shinjiro:
    Here's an important question, each time you're trying to install the latest drivers are you installing them from the same download? What I mean is did you download them just once and been installing from that file each time or do you download them fresh? At this point I'm not willing to rule out anything, even the possibility that the download was corrupt and thats why it will not install. I would also try the latest beta driver just to have something else to try to install.

    I've been thinking about a corrupt DL myself. They were taken off another PC of my brothers and copied to disc.

    Had i had the means to DL them onto my gaming rig i would have done, and tried that.

    I can't try the latest beta i'm afraid, because i have no means of getting it onto my gaming rig.

    The fact the driver from 10 months ago installs, obviously points to a corrupt DL, or maybe a bad copy onto the disc.
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  9. #109
    Swop the dvd drive between rigs.5 minute job.D/L new driver,burn to cd/dvd,swop the drive back to the other rig.
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  10. #110
    Originally posted by wolfman2100:
    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Urufu_Shinjiro:
    Here's an important question, each time you're trying to install the latest drivers are you installing them from the same download? What I mean is did you download them just once and been installing from that file each time or do you download them fresh? At this point I'm not willing to rule out anything, even the possibility that the download was corrupt and thats why it will not install. I would also try the latest beta driver just to have something else to try to install.

    I've been thinking about a corrupt DL myself. They were taken off another PC of my brothers and copied to disc.

    Had i had the means to DL them onto my gaming rig i would have done, and tried that.

    I can't try the latest beta i'm afraid, because i have no means of getting it onto my gaming rig.

    The fact the driver from 10 months ago installs, obviously points to a corrupt DL, or maybe a bad copy onto the disc. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    Trust me, I know money doesn't grow on trees, but maybe you could think about getting a cheap usb thumb drive. I know you can get some pretty good ones for cheap these days, wouldn't have to be a big 2-4gig'er, a cheapo 512 will get the job done. I've seen some for 10 or 15 bucks, cheaper than a spindle of cd media and will last longer
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