Installing a chipset driver isn't permanent so it's nothing to worry about . Just download the .zip file and unzip it into a folder that you can find again. When that's done navigate to that folder and double-click the "setup.exe" or whatever the .exe file is named. Let it install and then reboot.

If anything goes wrong you could always go into Device Manager and tell it to roll the driver back, but I doubt you'll have any problems.

Besides, XP has been dead for so many years, you probably should be more concerned about using it with all its serious security issues than by installing an Intel chipset driver...

Thanks for explaining the install. I was afraid that as this appeared to me a major upgrade that I wouldn't be able to do a roll back if there was a file bit error in the setup or exe files. Hopefully, the upgrade will be worth doing and there wont't be any errors when I try again to install the Startech card. The chipset upgrade and the Startech drivers I installed with a flash drive downloaded from my Windows 7 laptop. The Dell 8300 is never connected to the internet so there's no such risks due to XP.    

@raffaella  You're welcome.

Post back and let us know if the card works after you update the chipset drivers...

When I unzipped the file I read most of the chipset driver update notes in the accompanying text file, and where it says that if the system fails to behave normally to go into the Device Manager Drivers tab for how to roll back the settings. However, if that doesn’t restore the system to prior operation then they suggest reinstalling the OS.

Are they kidding? No way can I afford taking that risk just to install this card.

What a waste of money and a huge waste of time.

The bad joke’s on me.

@raffaella  - You want to double-click the Setup InstallSheild launcher.

And you can always save an image of all partitions on your drive using Macrium Reflect (free) on an external USB drive before you install the chipset driver, if you're that worried. And use Macrium to create a bootable USB stick that you'd need if you ever have to revert to that image.

Thanks for replying and offering that option, but I'm not quite at your knowledge level and not at all comfortable experimenting on what may or may not fix this problem, without causing other problems that would take even more time to fix. Frankly, it’s really obscene that I should have to put this perfectly functional OS at risk and also waste as much time as have trying to do a simple card install, all because of bugs in that card and/or this motherboard.

Too bad Dell or one of its partners didn't make a fully compatible SATA controller card, and selling for what I paid for this one. Or if anyone knows of another brand SATA card that just works with this board. Either of THOSE would be the right solutions for me!   

You're worrying way too much about doing a simple chipset driver update. And making an image with Macrium Reflect is really quite simple and it runs in Win XP-SP3.

You should be backing up or imaging regularly, even if you don't update the chipset driver, as protection against a potential HDD failure.  If you don't want to use Macrium, at the least, manually set a System Restore Point in XP before running the chipset update.

BTW: You never explained why you want a RAID controller card. This PC supports two internal SATA hard drives, but it came out before RAID was offered.  If this is just for backing up, there's also (free) software that runs in XP and can back up the HDD onto another internal or external HDD automatically, so you may not even need an add-in card. You can search for those apps...

It's going to be hard to find any RAID card (unless it's old/used) that still works with XP these days, and even if it does, it probably will also need the latest chipset drivers...

Windows XP Pro on this pc has only SP1 so would that OS imaging program you suggest using even run properly? And from what I’ve read installing each SP can take quite a while. How many hours to load SP2 and SP3?

And how much risk of crashing the OS? Any risk is too much for my liking, as the last thing I’d want to do is pay someone to put things right again on something this badly obsolete. And then the risk loading the chipset update. For how many months longer that I plan on keeping this relic it just doesn’t seem worth putting the OS at risk with each one of those three updates, in which case setting a system restore point doesn’t seem to offset any such risk.

It would be nice if there were some way to know if that chipset update was ever installed in the first place. At least that way if chipset was found to be updated the install errors would more likely be due to a defective controller card. If yes, then another such card might have installed successfully.

As to the purpose of that card, I said at the start of this thread that I wanted to run the two storage drives in the pc in non RAID or JBOD mode; just a redundant pair of  backup drives which I manually update separately every month or so. Indeed, before I get my new Xeon desktop, I will soon have configured a mirrored or otherwise non striped RAIDed set of at least four HDDs in a Qnap or Synology backup system-which like the new desktop will have error protecting ECC memory.

My biggest problem all along was that it took this long for me to learn what hardware best meets my current and future needs.

You have 2 drive bays and 2 SATA ports on the motherboard. So you could use one for an internal HDD as a backup and get an external USB HDD for the 2nd backup and do backups manually.

Macrium's site says it works work with XP, but doesn't specify any Service Packs. You'd have to ask them. Or just install it and it either runs or doesn't. Just be sure to select the option to validate the image each time you create a new one so you'll have confidence that it was created successfully.

Don't know where you're going to find a safe copy of the stand-alone XP SP2 update and SP3 update to update SP1, since you obviously don't want to do a clean install. Microsoft took them off line.

You could browse around in Device Manager to see if there's an entry for the Intel 875P chipset. Assuming there is, compare its driver version number to the new driver version number.

Even if the newest version is already installed, that doesn't mean the RAID card is defective. There could be lots of reasons why the new card doesn't work, including incompatibility with XP SP1, or even with BIOS itself. 

BTW: Did you clear BIOS after installing that card by powering off, removing the motherboard battery and pressing/hold the power button for ~30 sec. Then reinstall the battery (time for a fresh one?) and boot.

BTW2: Some cards require their driver be installed before the card is physically installed on the motherboard.  What do this card's installation instructions say?

BTW3: Does this card support a 33 MHz PCI bus?

Honestly, I think you're just beating a dead duck. Time to send this ancient PC off to the recyclers. Just save all your personal files on a USB drive and then nuke the internal HDD(s) with something like DBAN to destroy all your personal info.