Fresh re-install XP MCE2005

NicRic

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Apr 4, 2008
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Due to the inability to have my WinsdowsXP MCE2005 boot up and after trying a repair installation the "Last Known Good Configuration" etc ,I finally reformatted and re-installed WindowsXP MCE2005, here are the specs on my system >>>>
Dell XPS400 2.8GHz Dual Core Pentium D, 3G.B.s DDR2 RAM, 250G.B. Samsung internial H.D.,320G.B. Seagate FreeAgent Externial USB H.D., ATI X300SE HyperMem PCI-E Graphics card ,ATI TV Wonder Elite PCI TV tuner card. <<<<<<
Problem > Upon bootup I recieve 2 beeps and then a black screen that states that Sata 1,2 & 3 are not reconized(my hard drive is on SATA 0) then gives me two options.Press F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup ,if I press F1 its boots up normally and everything seems to be working just fine ? Its a minor inconvience however I would like to fix the problem yet I do not want to take a chance on losing my fresh install of WinXP. My internuial H.D. in the BIOS is set to RAID Autodetect /AHCI which is the default setting . I've done extensive reading on RAID and SATA setups and according to what I read I had to set my H.D. in the BIOS to Combination mode after re-install ,however when I attempted that I recieved a prompt that this setting would cause me to lose my ability to set it back to AHCI and the drive may not be reconized upon boot up ? I do not have any drives installed in SATA 1,2&3 and by default the are set to on in the BIOS ,my DVD-ROM and DVD-RW are set on PATA in BIOS. Would turing off SATA 1,2&3 cause me any problems with other H.W. on my system ?
When I was finished with the fresh re-install I had WinXP SP2 however I purchased the CD from Microsoft to install SP3 and it installed without any issuses. The Bel-Arc Advisor reports I have 53+ missing Window Updates ,many are criticial updates yet my system is working so well I do not want to take a chance that one of the missing updates will cause me problems ,do I really need these Windows Updates , I have a Anti -Virus app installed and working with virus definitions up to date .Well I better cut this post off it already much to long. Any suggestions greatly appreciated sadly I cant afford to just buy a new PC so I have to work with what I have !
Thank To All ,Nick
 

Cyberat_88

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Unless you have 2 HDs set to raid, go to combination mode. You do understand what raid means right ?
Since you have a clean WinSP3 install, the next step is go to Dell and download all drivers needed for you system. Once you have no yellow question marks in Control Panel-System-Hardware-Device Manager, you're good to go.
 

NicRic

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Apr 4, 2008
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First of all thanks for your input. I already have a clean bill of health in device manager,no yellow exclamation marks. I did have one right after the fresh install on PCI Bus ,however after using the DEll resource CD for a second time and making sure I installed all of the nessesary drivers, chipsst etc. upon reboot the yellow exclamation mark was gone on the PCI Bus entry. At first I also had the system not detecteing the ATI TV Wonder Elite TV Tuner card ,however it was now being detected and once the proper codec was installed I again had live TV working on my PC again :) Your suggestion that I change my setting in the BIOS to combination is certainly what I have read I should do . Yet Iam very reluctant due to the prompt that this may cause me to lose the ability to go back to hte RAID Auto Detect/AHCI setting which is working on my only internial H.D. in SATA 0 ? SATA 1,2&3 are empty and the ones I cannot turn off because the BIOS verA05 and causing me to have to press F1 to continue on bootup?The BIOS ver I have does not allow me to configure each SATA seperatly,so I can turn 1,2&3 off ? Any further input on this issuse from you would be welcome .
Thank You Very Much,
Nick