No F6 response

Greetings, your Geekness! Need help with new-build. ASUS K8V, Athlon 64 3000, Seagate SATA 120GB, Crucial 512MB. Can't get through the XP home upgrade. First problem encountered is that, when prompted to press F6 for SATA/RAID driver install, nothing happens. There I am with my floppy at the ready, and the stupid XP just continues with the file loading. I've tried holding the F6 down at the prompt as well as tapping it multiple times. Nothing --. Would this prevent XP from being installed? It gets to the "no previous Windows detected" point, I insert the requested W98SE CD, it studies it and then goes to the formatting page where I'm supposed to use the arrows to highlight my formatting choice. Trouble is there is nothing highlighted. So I hit "enter". It then gives me the "Stop 0x0000008E" error along with "setupdd.sys address F84C8CAD". I know the stop errror is supposed to indicate a memory problem. Thought the problem was the Ultra stick I had, so bought 2 512MB sticks from Crucial and installed one. Same result. What concerns me is I was getting the same errors when I had the original bad HDD and bad mobo. Now that I have replaced both, I'm still stuck with the same errors. Can you help, please?

 

It sounds like it's most likely just not finding the HD, since you didn't install the needed SATA driver.

During the install when you press f6 it shouldn't stop immediatly. It should finish loading the stuff it was loading and then the next screen should ask for you to load the SATA driver. You'll need to do this to get windows to recognize the SATA HD.

If that screen doesn't come up after pressing f6 (it may take liek 5 mins before it actually goes to it) thenmy guess is there is something wrong with the windows CD, as it really should come up.

 

also, if you're certain you have your jumper settings correct and all the good old stuff plugged in right, i have a quick question for you...

did you get a new keyboard too?

MANY new keybaords use the F keys for more than one function, and to use them as F keys, you have to turn on the F-Lock key (normally in the top left corner) just a thought

heres a picture of an example http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/compuvisor/eliteleft.jpg

 

Is it a USB keyboard? If so you will need to enable Legacy USB support in your BIOS

 

Thanks for the tips, guys! Yes, I have a new keyboard, but I'm using the old one. I was unaware that the F6 wouldn't apply till after the file loading. Will give it another try and report back. Thanks again. You guys are the greatest!
-SgtRon-

 

OK, tried it again; this time waiting for it to ask for the RAID drivers. It never asks for them, per se. But does pause and says "to specify additional SCSI adapters, CD-ROM drives, or special disk controllers for use with Windows, including those for which you have a device support disk from a mass storage device manufacturer, press S". I have the RAID drivers (downloaded from Seagate) on a floppy. So, thinking that may be what they're talking about, I press S. I am then informed that it can't find the needed file on the floppy. Was this, indeed, the floppy they were asking for? There was no other pause in the loading process until it asked for the CD of a previous Windows version. The only other pause is when it reads the W98 CD and pauses to ask me the formatting options. (which aren't options at all, since there's nothing to select). Pressing <enter> at that point gets me the Stop: error. btw, I had been thinking that the HDD was recognized and being used, since the activity light has been on. Is this not so? Hope you can follow all of this. I ask your indulgence with my 70-something dim-wittedness. I'm still learning, albeit slowly.

 

Ok, yes the SATA/raid drivers are needed on that floppy. You are in the right place.

Keep in mind, those drivers must be unzipped onto the floppy, not in zip format.

Also keep in mind, those drivers need to conform with the raid( maybe sata too) bios version for which they were designed.

 

Yeah, sorry I should have said so ealier. SATA wasn't out back in 2001. Which is when XP came out. So the install doesn't ask for scsi/sata drivers since they didn't exsist back then. Although that screen really will take any extra HD drivers.

 

After reading Adrynalyne's post, I dug into the ASUS CD's readme file as well as the manual. They have slightly conflicting versions on how to make the floppy and use same. Tried it both ways (made 2 floppies). Results were the same with either of them. After inserting the floppy when prompted, I get a message that it can't find the file "txtsetup.oem". I examined both floppies before using them, and that file is definitely on there. Seems to be moot, now, anyway. After the last attempt it no longer wants to boot from the XP CD. Gets through POST and just hangs there; no activity light on CD or HDD. Backing up a few posts, I should've mentioned that BIOS is recognizing the HD. Although it has it pegged at 111GB rather than 120.
Sometimes I think it's about time to throw in the towel and take it to my local gurus.
Only the positive vibes I get on this forum stop me! Thanks to all of you!