serious driver issues after switching to XP

[GSRCRXsi]

ok. ill start with my computer specs.

P4 2.4 GHz
ASUS P4G8X MB
1 gig ram
XP SP2 corp ed.
80 gig HDD with win 2k
30 gig HDD with XP

the 30 gig drive used to have linux on it, but i wipped it clean to install XP. ill reinstall linux at a later date, but for now im just trouble shooting XP.

now ill first start off by saying that ive installed this same version of XP on at least 4 different computers without a single hitch with drivers or anything. 3 laptops and 1 desktop.

so after i wiped the 30 gig drive and installed a fresh copy of XP on it, i started to gather drivers for the vid card, wireless card, etc. most of which i had on the original install cd's and they installed fine. but i didnt have the MB drivers, so i went to ASUS's website and downloaded the network and audio drivers, which came in the form of zip files. i extracted them and ran the install programs. ethernet installer seemed to run fine, but the driver never got installed somehow. i try to force a driver and it says the device could not start. its pretty much the same story with the audio drivers.

has anyone had an issue like this? my last resort will be to root through my cd's at home to see if i can find the original cd, but i just dont know whats the deal here. i know its not a hardware problem because if i restart and load up 2k, everything works fine.

 

[phyregod]

You probably need to hunt down new drivers for everything. Having a new MB driver and old ethernet / sound drivers or the other way around is a bad thing...

P.S. are you completely uninstalling the devices, rebooting, then reinstalling with new drivers or just trying to install over the old drivers?

XP is incredibly good at making things work together, you just need to massage it a bit.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

i just got the drivers that ASUS gave me. and ive uninstalled and reinstalled several times with no luck

 

[TommyTheCat]

Might want to check their website for updates. Do it for everything that wont work with the included drivers.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

i dont know what you mean, they only give me one driver for each component for each OS. 1 for audio, 1 for ethernet, 1 for vid, etc. id assume that the drivers listed are upto date. and they dont work.. or wont install..

 

[phyregod]

sometimes the newest drivers aren't the best. Alot of companies archive each version of thier drivers so you can find one that works the best.

 

[TommyTheCat]

It sounded like you were using a CD that came with the stuff - is that not true? I was just saying you'd have to check for updates or other versions (as phyregod said) from their website.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

if they archive it its not listed. i found what seems to be a different driver, i did a search for the specific hardware rather than the motherboard. we'll see if it works any better.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

and no, i dont have the cd, if its anywhere it would be back at my place in baltimore (im at school in WV now)

 

[endlesszeal]

install driver cleaner and uninstall both audio, LAN drivers and then both devices. reboot in safe mood and run driver cleaner. reboot and let XP detect both devices. then proceed to install the drivers again.

lastly, if that doesnt work, try a BIOS update. that coudl fix it.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

ok, well the search for audio drivers on the internet was successful. i found the correct driver. asus has the wrong driver on their website. and for the ethernet, i think i may have picked the wrong driver. i MAY have the p4g8x deluxe and not the plain p4g8x. apparently they use a different ethernet (gigabit vs 10/100) so when its finished downloading, we will see if it works or not

edit: got the ethernet drivers installed as well. i DID have the wrong driver, but trying to get the correct driver from asus was equally as painful. they have a 20 meg file that unzips into like 30 folders and a shit load of files, non of which was the install file. so i ended up downloading the driver directly from broadcom and manually installing it.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

and while ive got everyones attention, i had a question about hard drives. i have a 320GB HDD on the way to replace my 80 and 30 GB drives. im worried about the computer not seeing the entire volume. what do you generally have to do if the computer only sees say 150 gig of it? bios update? and is there a way to transfer my entire XP setup from the 30 gig drive to the 320 gig drive and just have the extra space to use? without having to reinstall everything. or is it just better to redo it all?

 

[Battle Pope]

You should be able to use a partition copier to transfer the main partition from the old to the new. I tried to do that unsuccessfully, but the new drive was SATA and the old drives were IDE. I don't think that works because of how XP handles SATA drives.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

yea both the old and new drives are IDE ATA100

 

[endlesszeal]

you can image and move everything, but a clean install is the best. it makes u keep the absolutely necessary files and gets rid of the registry junk.

also, to see all 300ish GB of the 320GB drive, Windows XP SP1 is needed, that is if youre going with XP. And yes, some older boards do need a BIOS flash to see all of the space.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

sp1? why? i have sp2. is that ok?

 

[TurboMirage]

yea you're good

definately look into a BIOS flash... or download a program from quantum? which loads into the drive's boot sector and fools bios into thinking it can see the whole drive. cant remember the name of it.


time to get a newer tower.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

if i need to update the bios, i can get the flash utility from asus, i saw it on their website when i was looking for drivers.

the computer is old, but ive replaced pretty much everything except the MB and CPU which are about 4-5 years old at this point. but still runs strong.

 

[GSRCRXsi]

w00t, no need to upgrade bios. byte count 320,xxx,xxx,xxx. which came out to like 305,xxx MB and 298GB.

gotta love that they advertise the GB as byte count...

 

[posol]

its accurate. they use BITS, not BYTES.

its a factor of 8, not 10