GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

[Mark A]

First post - be kind!

Specs:

E5300 @ 2.6 GHz
2GB generic DDR2
IDE Maxtor HD (200 GB)
IDE LG DVD-RW
Win XP SP3
Onboard graphics (ftm, anyway)

I installed the board yesterday and encountered no problems at all. However, every time Windows loads I get a balloon saying "found new hardware - IDE channel". After that, "primary IDE channel" comes up in a balloon and then a message from the hardware monitor tells me "there was a problem installing this hardware... an error occurred during installation of this device... driver is not intended for this platform". I have enclosed a cap of this message.

In Device Manager I have disabled every IDE channel except one (see cap in following post) which I cannot disable, and every time I uninstall it the required reboot just finds it again and tries to install it again.

Am I missing a driver here, or can I tell Windows to ignore this IDE channel? The Intel storage controller surely handles my IDE drives...


My other issue is with crashing caused by games. I was in the middle of playing on ZSNES when it froze, after which I noticed that the chipset was running VERY warm - are the onboard graphics responsible for this? I never had crashes with my old AGP board.


Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Mark.

[Mark A]

Re: GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

Cap of Device Manager follows.

M.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

Maybe you didn't install this yet? Intel Chipset Drivers >>

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=816

[Mark A]

Re: GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

I installed everything that came on the disc accompanying the board (indeed, I simply pressed the "install all" button at autorun). Would these drivers really be absent from that disc? Is there a way I can check the drviers have been installed?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

Well for starter you should not use the disk, it has all OLD drivers. Yes the one I linked above is on the disk, but it would be newer above. And express install can also install drivers you don't need, so I suggest not using that in the future anytime either (For others who may read this later)

I suggest you try that out the above version and see if things are corrected after you install and reboot.

[Mark A]

Driver confusion

Just tried to install the "latest" chipset drivers from the Giagbyte website, only to find that they are OLDER than the ones i already have in (9.1.0.1007 vs 8.3.1.1009) and the latest version on Intel's own website is 9.0.0.1008. Should I "downdate" to Intel's own most current drivers?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

Yes, I suggest you use the ones at Intel. While there is newer ones out, even newer then you have, they are beta or alpha builds and this could be part of your issues.

This may not be it at all though, but this is where I suggest starting.

You have IDE Devices so why do you want to disable all channels anyway?

[Mark A]

Re: GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

It's not that I want to disable the channels, it's just that I don't want this annoying "found new hardware" message coming up EVERY time I start Windows!

[Mark A]

Success!

Turns out that I had an expired trial version of Alcohol 120 buried in my hard drive; once I had uninstalled both this and Daemon Tools the PC rebooted, told me the IDE channels would require ANOTHER reboot, and now all is well.

I've read that these two programs make alterations to atapi.sys, so I also did a "rename-replace" on that.


Any ideas on the chipset/graphics issue? The manual tells me that the graphics are built into the Northbridge and that 8MB is shared with the system - would a dedicated PCI-e graphics card solve my problem? I'll be getting one anyway ;).

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

Ahh nice to see you found that, I would have never thought of a mounted drive!!

Ya a PCIE card would be MUCH better for gaming as opposed to a onboard chipset, get a nice one that your PSU will support and you should be good to go.

Need to know what cards can play what games? Check here >>
Can You RUN It?

[Mark A]

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G31M-ES2L - a couple of issues

Glad I could help!!

Ya know, if you continue to have IDE issues and want to keep your IDE drive you could get a IDE to SATA Adapter and try one of those out. They are pretty cheap ($1-8) on ebay from China, if you need a link to some suggested ones let me know