New Machine

ok,

I have another problem that i have no clue too. i hope someone can help me out. ok here it is..
these are the parts i bought.
1. Shuttle XPC SN27P2 AMD Socket AM2 AMD Athlon X2/Athlon FX/Athlon
64/Sempron NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra Barebone
2. A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual
Channel Kit
3. LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black SATA Model
4. SAPPHIRE 100203L Radeon HD 2400PRO 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16
HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
5. AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core
Processor Model
6. HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 HDT725050VLA360 (0A33437) 500GB 7200 RPM
SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
---------------------------------
Everything went together ok when i turned it on i got some beeping, for some strage reason it was placing my 2 Sata drive as master so i replaced the DVD drive with an IDE. and everything was fine. now i am loading Windows XP even if i load or not load the SATA drivers all that loads up is Basic Windows like you would see in Win95 or 98. I am using a legal Windows XP w/sp2 CD. what is causing this?? half way thru the install it says put in WinXP disc in drive it needs some files. but it is already in the drive. when all is done it looks like Win98 it has none of the visual features that you would see in win XP. i have gone thru several forums and i cant figure it out. I have never had this problem on any of the other shuttle's i have built, i have 3 other shuttles. can someone please help.

And the not looking pretty usually means the video card doesn't have the right driver..

If you read the post, it says it was beeping before the sata cd drive was replaced with the ide cd drive, and now "and everything was fine". I presume that to mean that the beeping has stopped. Settings in the "init display first" section will not cause distorted graphics..that only affects the device that is first powered on when the computer is turned on..obviously if there is a display visible, then the video card has power. Oddly, Shuttle only lists the Gigabyte version of your Radeon HD 2400 PRO as being compatible..not the Sapphire version. I think NooNoo is right..install the video drivers.

Each SATA drive channel is independent, so doesn't have any Master function, but certainly boot order can be selected in the BIOS setup. I'd guess maybe the beeping was the RAID controller indicating the SATA drives it found couldn't be configured into an array. It's likely the board defaults to RAID mode, and if this had then been disabled in the BIOS it probably would have been happy with the SATA optical drive.

Did the installation name the files it was searching for and couldn't find? This problem can indicate a fault with reading the XP disk (eg a fingerprint, scratch or similar on the disk surface), but may also just be code for "please give me whatever disk these files are on, but I don't know what name to give it".

It seems to me that XP simply didn't have any video driver that it could install to match your card, didn't know how to ask intelligently for an alternative then installed the generic VGA driver. Have you been able to install the motherboard chipset drivers (they should always be installed first) and the drivers for the video card?

It should be possible on newer S-ata installations to configure S-ata as IDE in bios, set the S-ata1 as the boot device, have the S-ata DVD connected and then go through the XP or whatever setup without having to use a REAL IDE cd/dvd.

This means that NO F6 is required, just the bios config.

As always, RTFM I guess. I tried a download but am having problems with large files atm.

I got everything to work, it is just when i go to load the windows XP disk in it gets to 3/4 way thru and tells me it needs the CD. i did hit the F6 to install the Sata drivers from a floppy drive. the first time this happened with the shuttle i took the CD out and cleaned it. but it did the same thing. i just reinstalled Xp on another computer and i had no troubles with the CD everything went thru as normal. so i don't think it is the cd. but right now i dont know what to think any more. i ALWAYS load the chipset first! then do the others. but i dont get that why it loads windows and after it is done it looks like windows 98 no Windows XP? :knife:

Out of curiosity, is that a slipstreamed install cd?

Maybe if you are more descriptive about how exactly it looks like 98 instead of xp? what looks different than the standard xp?

In the Appearance tab of Display Properties, is Windows Classic style selected?

During installation, XP setup runs video tests - MS says:

"Operating System Setup
There are two types of dynamic adjustments made during the setup of Windows XP: RAM-based adjustments and video-based adjustments.
The video-based adjustments are determined by running a variety of atomic tests after the video resolution and color depth have been automatically determined. If a specific atomic test takes too long to complete, then the corresponding visual effect is turned off by default. The majority of systems will have all of the visuals on by default; a few systems with video driver or video adapter performance issues will be configured with the effects off by default."

If the setup had an issue with the video, the style may have been set to the least demanding Classic.

ok, this is a brand new machine so there is nothing on the hard drive. but yes i did redo the machine and what i do first is use my "Fdisc" command and wipe everything off the drive then i place the Windows XP disk in and start loading XP. CCT no this is not a slipstreamed CD it is a store bought Windows XP w/SP2. I looked everywhere there are no jumpers on the mobo or anywhere else to tell what is master or slave HD. in the bios it is set to PCI-Express not PCI, when i go into the control panel under display settings all i have there is Windows Classic style there is nothing else. you cant change the setting even if you wanted too. all the icons that come with WinXP are not there.. they were never loaded. like i said before it is like you loaded Windows98 or more like 95 or if you would like windows 3.1, The machine is running fine except it is not loading Windows XP correctly. i see a picture it is not distorted.. there is no beeping.. i did everything that i normally do when building a machine i don't know why this is any different. :confused:

thanks guys!

maybe the themes service isn't running for some reason?
Control Panel ....
Performance & Maintenance...
Administrative Tools....
Computer Management...
Services and Applications....
Services....
Themes (a box with tabs appears)

The 'General' tab is at the front.
1. If 'startup type' is set at 'disabled' change to 'automatic'
2. At the bottom is 'service status' CLICK 'Start'