sata drivers reinstall help

Did you install the Chipset drivers, and other drivers on the Resource CD ?   Also you should install SP1 if it was not part of your OS.    Should also update your system with Windows update.

Message Edited by TomXPS on 02-24-2004 05:05 AM

Thanks Tom XPS

 

I did all the things you suggested but PCpitstop still says my sata hard drive is underperforming by 70% of the expected speed it should have.

Do I have to fdisk and reinstall to add the third party drivers (F6 option) or is there another way to update them as I dont have a floppy drive on the 8300.

Since you do not have a RAID controller I see no need for you to install any drivers etc on Boot from OS.  

On my XPS whenyou have SATA RAID set to ON, you have to install a driver from the diskette to even install the OS because the drive will not be reconized.  But this is not the case on your 8300.

Don't know what to tell you, outside of telling you to installing the Chipset drivers.    Because to my knowldege there are no SATA specif drivers to install except those related to RAID controllers.  You might want to search around the customer care area for a re-install guide may have some hints on what you need to do.

From your initial post, it appears you had a bench mark of what it was prior to to your re-load so that is good, you know when met your bench mark.   

Hopefully some one else will give you a better suggestion. 

 

What Promise FastTrak controller does the 8300 have?  None?  I am unable to install any of them with XP Pro.

Looking at the Dell Dimension 8300 specs, you should be running a Promise SATA Controller.  Normally Windows XP doesn't load up these drivers by default when you reinstall Windows XP.  So you will have to Press F6 during the startup of the install to load third party drivers.  Make sure you have a SATA Hard Drive it will have a small cable 7 pin connector and not the standard 80 wire 40 pin ribbon cable.  Also Dell does have some new drivers for that controller and a firmware update.  Which is located at this web address:  http://support.dell.com/FileLib/Type.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&Category=0&OS=WW1&OSL=EN&SvcTag=&SysID=DIM_PNT_P4_8300&DeviceID=4096

If you are going to reinstall Windows XP you will need a floppy drive to install the drivers for the controller card.  You can purchase a USB Floppy Drive but the standard internal floppy drive would be cheaper.  If you do get a USB Floppy Drive make sure you enable the USB Legacy Support in the Bios.

Thanks,

David

David

 

Thanks for all that info.  It is annoying that Dell push systems without floppy drives but offer a hdd option which needs a floppy drive to reinstall the controller drivers.

 

Is there away to install the drivers from a cdrom???

 

Thanks again

 

Paul

No, Windows XP doesn't support loading drivers from a CD-Rom during a new install.  I had the same problem myself.  When I moved up to a SATA Hard Drive.  I was able to get around it because I had an IDE Hard Drive that I installed the drivers for my SATA controller on it to get my SATA Hard Drive running.  Then I copied my everything over from my IDE Drive to the SATA Drive.

Thanks,

David

Was your system shipped with RAID or do you just have a SATA drive ?

If you just have a SATA drive I do not think there are any drivers you need to install on OS install, at least on the pre-install booting off the OS CD.

I understood from your first post you just had a SATA drive, no RAID.

 

 

 

Thanks Guys

Tom it is a SATA 120g HDD not a RAID but the F6 option indicated RAID or 3rd party which got me to thinking that I should have installed the SATA drivers at that point.

I have installed eveything from the Dell resources cd and updated the system but am perplexed by the lower performance score on my  hard drive. 

When I took delivery of this machine it didnt workbecause the HDD cable was not connected to anything,  poor qaulity control on the part of Dell.  Installing a floppy drive might be my only option although the machine is still very fast.

 

Thanks  David and Tom for all your help

 

Paul