Chipset Drivers 8400's

"I was wondering if you have to install any motherboard drivers after you do the install?"

Since there are chipset drivers available for download, the answer is most probably Yes.  The ones on your Drivers and Utilities CD will work just fine.

Since there are no online Reinstall Guides or Owners Manuals available for that model, I'd suggest looking at the documentation which undoubtedly accompanied your system for specifics.  There's usually a section in the Owners Manual that deals with reinstalling the OS and drivers.  Your documentation is usually the best place to look for answers to questions like this.

Message Edited by Flooby on 07-21-2004 11:58 PM

Thanks for the help...now I need to get a floppy drive.

On your Dell Dimension Resource CD, you'll need to install the following:

If you have a SATA RAID setup, you'll need this 1st:

#1  Under Utilities, Dell Desktop System Software

#2  Under Drivers, Intel Chipset Installation Utility

#3  Under Drivers, Intel Applicatin Accelerator  (Only if RAID enabled)

#4  Under Drivers, Microsoft DirectX 9.0b

#5  Under Drivers, Your ATI video driver (It will be one of the 3 listed, depending on the card you ordered)

#6  Under Drivers, Broadcom 570x Gigabit Integrated controller

#7  Under Drivers, Analog Devices ADI 198x Integrated Audio or Your Soundblaster driver from the soundblaster CD

#8  Under Utilities, Dell O/S Tools (Sun Java Runtime Environment 1.4.2_03-b02)

#9  On Modem Driver CD, Modem Helper (This will install the Modem)

After that, install Antivirus, PowerDVD, Sonic CD-RW (I strongly advise to install Record Now!, Do NOT install DLA), Printer, Scanner

Message Edited by dageezerus on 07-23-2004 12:07 AM

Message Edited by dageezerus on 07-23-2004 12:09 AM

Message Edited by dageezerus on 07-23-2004 12:10 AM

DaGeezerUS,

Have you actually tried to reinstall with the 8400?

I have been trying unsuccesffully to reinstall XP, I have been doing exactly as you say but at step 5 I get the following error:

Intel (R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Contoller
File iaStor.sys causes an unexpected error (4105) at
line 2108 in d:\xps1\base\boot\setup\oemdisck.c.

Press any key to continue

I am using driver R78496.exe, Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, v.4.0.0.6211, A00

If I don't use the driver, Windows can not detect the hard drive.

The dell people don't have a clue how to fix this problem.

 

Message Edited by Rob_H on 07-25-2004 10:01 AM

Yes I know, you read about how I was able to solve the problem here at this post:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=game-gen&message.id=14086

Basically what I say is keep trying, it took me dozens of times to finally get to the point where I was able to format and install WIN XP...if you get to that point let it do its thing. After you have it up and running, then you can put your PCI cards back in place.

I know that the Dell people know nothing and they are not much help, but then again we are the first people to get these systems. I am sure that as more and more of these are out there a BIOS fix will occur. That is what seems to be at fault here, something with the BIOS isn't working correctly.

Good luck.

joshieca,

I have no pci cards installed, except for the pci express video card. Everything else is on the motherboard. Sound is already turned on. Oh well.

Sounds like the floppy used has a glitch on it, try making another SATA floppy.  If that fails, try downloading the driver off the net from the driver tab above.

DaGeezerUS,
Excellent job on the reinstall instructions for the 8400, much appreciated...  I had already (after a few hours) figured out that the driver included on my dell cd was an OLDER SATA driver (nice,ehh) and downloaded the newer ones off the net.  Your message confirmed which driver to select of the three presented off the disk.

My system came with raid 0 installed, after some thought I decided as critical of a function as it will serve in (imagecaster) 0 was a better choice.
New system new problems, gotta love this bleeding edge stuff!

Anyway, thanks and take care...

Toyster

Just finished playing with my 8400 resource cd, Dell did goof & put the wrong SATA RAID driver in the boot menu, but they did put the right one in the Resource CD windows menu.

The ONLY way you can make a 8400/XPS Gen 3 SATA driver diskette, is to either create the diskette from the Windows Resource CD Menu, BEFORE attempting the reinstall, or browsing to the X:\zipfiles\R78496.EXE file in Windows on another system to extract & create the SATA floppy.

Thank you dageezerus for the info!!

It is a good thing that I read this before formatting  

Thanks again!

DCE

Bad floppy, now I feel stupid!!!!

Hello dageezerus


I receive my DELL Dimension 8400 on Monday 13, 2004. He comes with a 160GB s-ata HD, and im going to add a second (non DELL) 160GB s-ata (Samsung SP1614C). I don't want raid, one of many reasons is, i plan to install Linux as second OS. I have 2 s-ata data cable from my old PC with a MSI Mainboard. They should be ok to use ?

Ive read the infos about sata/pata setting and im a bit confused, if i read following at http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/SM/syssetup.htm#wp1052361

Drive Controller
Identifies and defines the SATA controller settings for RAID.
You can set the SATA controller to RAID Autodetect/AHCI, RAID Autodetect/ATA, or RAID On.

Which one is the sata/pata ?

My Dimension 8400 comes with Windows XP Home pre-installed by DELL, and i want make a fresh/clean install with my own Windows XP Professionell
(Systembuilder Version with sp1), slipstreamed with sp2.

I have no need for raid, don't want raid. Does Winxp need still a driver from floppy disk if i dont want raid?

If yes, which driver?

- Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller

I reloaded mine as well but didn't install a 2nd HD.  You will still need the Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller.  Make sure you have a good floppy too, lol.  I was beating myself up after that one.  Post back if you need any help.

Hello ShoutedSilence,

my DELL Dimension 8400 came yesterday early afternoon. I opened the tower case, added my new 160GB Samsung sata HD, my Plextor 708A DVD+/-R/CDR/w Burner and a AVM isdn card.
There was only one data cable for sata, it was connected with the build in Maxtor 160GB. My luck was, I had 2 new sata cable from my old PC.
Turned the Dell PC on, took an look on the bios settings and saw SATA AHCI was the factory default setting for the single HD.

Made a driver disk as described, added him with F6 Key and choosed "Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller". Windows XP Pro (sp2 sliptreamed) found everything, incl. the HD's. Install was easy and without any problems. After Winxp install did i add all drivers from the DELL cd's.
A few ppl wrote sata without raid worked for them with sata/pata bios setting only, wonder why...

The Dimension 8400 is really very quiet, the tower case looks much better than on pictures at dells website. So far im very happy and glad i choosed an DELL PC.

I know this is a VERY old post...but hoping somebody reads this reply and can assist.

 

I recommissioned my 8400 as a Windows Home Server.  It's been running fine for a few years - and the only driver I ever had to install was the NIC (after WHS is installed).  But now I'm using a PCIe SATA Cntroller Card (Non-RAID Silicon Image 3132 chip card - Port Multiplier) but the card keeps disappearing when WHS reboots - sometime soradically.  I'm wondering is this is b/c the Chipset Drivers were not installed?  Seems potentially logical?

If that's the case and/or if I want to experiment - how do I do that given the NIC driver and SATA Controller Card Driver have been installed already?  Can I remove the NIC driver?  Not sure how to remove the SATA Controller driver given I can't even see the card in the Device Manager and the SATA Controller BIOS info doesn't show up on reboot.

And is the Dell Desktop System Software needed for a Windows Home server install?

 

Thanks for any assistance!