M3A32-MVP VISTA-64 Ultimate Install Problem

[Clouseau]

I have spent hours trying to get VISTA stable on my rig.

Mobo: M3A32-MVP Deluxe/Wifi - CPU: 6400+ Black eddition - Cooler: Zalman 9700 NT
Video Card: 2x Diamond HD3870's - PSU: PC P&C 750 Quad Silencer - Mem: GeIL DDR2-800 4GB (2x2GB) GX24GB6400ERSPDC [gambled on these sticks] Newegg had them at a good price - HD's: 2x SATA 300 WD 160GB raid 0 stripe=64 - disk drives : Pioneer BDC-202 (sata)/ASUS DRW-1814BLT (sata)/Xbox 360 HD-DvD (usb)

Installation was very erratic. Most of the time would not be able to get past where the files would finish loading. It would just hang at the point where the green bars would first appear. Sometimes was lucky enough to put in the key code. Was rarely able to get all the way to get VISTA completely loaded and updated only to get owned by the blue screen of death so I could watch the memory dump progress. Once was able to game a little and watch 3 movies all the way through using Power DVD Ultra. Eve-online worked perfectly. Never was able to get STALKER to load. After the last BLSD was never able to get installation past the file loading, the first step after booting up. Jumpering the hd's to master seemed to add a little more stability to the installation but not enough. Is the memory bad? Does the mobo need to be rma'd? I got so frustrated I actually found myself reading subjects on VISTA installation on Microsoft's Knowledge Base. Going to see if installing with a total of 1GB or less memory will actually make a diff. Initially was using only 1 stick of memory and 1 vid card...total memory was 2.5GB for installation. The 512MB DDR2 stick (on ASUS's qvl list) and a cheep-o vid card will be here on Monday. I am starting to grasp at straws. Is there a bios setting that would make all these problems go away? I am going crazy...HELP!

[pastorjay]

I am expecting my copy of Vista 64 today or tomorrow and then I can test and see what my results with it will be on the board. I know that Nate has had some issues with the 790 chipset, Phenom and Vista 64 as well.

I would strip it all down to basics and start from there:
1. Use Memtest to test your ram... if all is good then..

2. Install one stick of ram, one vid card, one hdd and try a install.

3, Make sure in the BIOS that you have the SATA drives setup correctly. This is an issue on many boards that can be confusing. I do not remember off the top of my head the BIOS settings, but you want something like IDE or Legacy for your SATA settings.

I know those sound basic, but that is at least a start. Keep us updated.

[DMB2000uk]

Take out one of your sticks so you are running on 2GB then install, update and patch vista then put the other stick back in.

You're the third user that i've seen on here that seems to have this problem >_<

Dan

[Clouseau]

Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to step away from thinking about the installation till Monday when the "installation kit" arrives. I was shocked to here from the ASUS tech that Microsoft said that VISTA should be installed with a total of 1GB of memory or less. So I verified what he said on Microsoft's Knowledge Base. Will keep you posted on the install process. The memory going to be used is a Kingston 512MB DDR2 667 (KVR667D2N5/512) and the vid card is ASUS N EN6200LE/TC256/TD/64 . The mem was $11.49 and the vid card was $29.99. If the install with this kit solves the problem I am actually going to cry becuase I know I have read in other forums and such that VISTA could be installed with 2GB and the vid card memory did not factor into the equation. The one BIOS setting I did learn to set to get crossfire to work on the board was to enable the Peer-to-Peer GFX/GFX2 otherwise catalyst would not work. More on this when I get home from work on Monday.

[Methious]

I had Vista Raid 0 install issues on the M3A board (770 chipset) with the 6400 black box cpu, Asus also told me use 1 gig for the install. Just to be sure I set the Sata controller to IDE mode and did the install on a single drive and it went fine. I retried the install on the Raid 0 array (sata set to raid)and it was very erratic, on a hunch I disconnected the sata dvd burner (sony/tsst model) connected an ide dvd drive for the install and it went right through. I ran the patches for Vista, installed the 4 gig mushkin ddr2 800 and it ran.

While I had it on single drive install I ran benches, 3dmark and pcmark, then after the raid 0 array I reran them. (did this in both Vista and XP) It only dropped my score 6 points having one drive. While Raid benches pretty, unless your transferring large files routinely, it doesn't do much for you in gaming and real life apps.

[Clouseau]

To start things off, VISTA is installed and running very well. The install was not done according to ASUS's tech's suggestion. The original problem, I had flashed the bios with version 701, a version they have since pulled from their site. When I reflashed the bios with version 603, the stability of the board increased beyond measure. the other reason for the hanging was the Pioneer BDC-202 blu-ray drive. I went back to my roots and did the install according to old school ways. Everything was plugged in including both vid cards and the 4 GB of ram. Hard set the bios settings for the CPU and memory parameters. Memory was set to 1.8V with 5-5-5-15 timings (DDR2 800 standard). The only other setting in the bios that was not default was for the marvell 6111/6121 controller. The option-ROM was enabled and set to raid. The install went flawlessly. Patched vista and installed all the drivers. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. still would not start at all. During the self-started hard boot from the game's failure to start, I set the marvell raid option-ROM back to disabled and logged backed into windows. I then placed the install dvd in the ASUS dvd drive and performed an upgrade install. ATI Catalyst was left with crossfire enabled. After the upgrade-install was finished, I had to re-install all the vista patches. Did all this early Sunday morning. It has been rock soild stable ever since. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. runs now without a single hicup. The rendering of HD-DVD and Blu-ray has vastly improved as well. I know that this install proceedure was not orthodox at all. Sheer dumb luck if you ask me. Now that the "install kit" arrived today, I will be going through the install steps again. Hope to see the benefits of following the tech's instructions. Hopefully that will elliminate the unorthodox install repair proceedure.

[Methious]

I usually set all my bios options manually. Old habit I guess, this last install it read my memory wrong and was causing hangs. Auto in bios is probably a good thing for a lot of people, but I like knowing what it's set to, and that it's set right.

Glad you got it stable, nothing more frustrating than a new system giving headaches.

[Clouseau]

Finally gave into curiosity and reinstalled VISTA x64 Ultimate uisng the 512MB Kingston stick and the Nvida 64MB vid card. All I have to say is that The ASUS tech I spoke with new what he was talking about. First I tried the install with exactly 1GB in total memory (512 for system and 512 on the HD3870. The install went smoothly but the board was still not all that stable once the ram was switched out to 4GB and the other 3870 added. The winning install was with just the 512 stick and the itty-bitty vid card. All the ASUS utilities work without a hitch and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. worked straight after install without a hicup. This is a very sweet board. Be warned though, VISTA on this board needs no more than 512 with the smallest pci-e vid card possible to install perfectly. Have had no issues now for the last several days.

[Zertz]

Did the ASUS tech provide some sort of explanation to this problem?