WINDOWS XP INSTALLATION GUIDE
written by: Mr Steveo
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Before I begin let me just say when installing Windows there are many paths to the one destination of a stable system. the method I indicate below is by no means the only correct method for isntalling Windows. It is simply a tried and true method I have repeated over and over with full success on these motherboards. If some of you have another method that works for you then by all means stick with what you prefer
Installation order for XP on an MSI Motherboard
- Make sure you are using hard drives with no current partitions or data.
- Put a blank floppy in your computer and power up. Booting will stop when it reaches the blank floppy. Now place the Windows XP CD ROM in the CD/DVD drive. Now remove the blank floppy Then press Control/Alt/Delete to reboot the system.
- Upon reboot the system will find and boot the Windows XP CDROM. If you are using RAID, then as soon as you see the first signs of the XP setup blue screen, IMMEDIATELY press F6. If not using RAID ignore pressing F6
- If using RAID you will be prompted to insert the Floppy disk containing your XP Compatible RAID drivers. Follow the onscreen instructions.
- You will be brought to a License Agreement screen. A few steps later you will be brought to a Screen that shows your hard drives and their sizes. It is from HERE that you may set up (or delete) partitions. With WIndows XP, this is the proper place to partition your drives.
- Once the drives are partitioned, highlight the partition to which you wish to install Windows, then press Enter and follow the onscreen instructions
- From there, go grab a sandwich or osda while Windows formats the partitions and installs the OS. Follow any onscreen prompts as best you can
-***For RAID you may get one or two warnings in a tan colored box indicating you have a device or driver that is not apporived for Windows XP. The choices should be Yes/Continue or No/Cancel/Dont Continue Please choose Yes/Continue for all tan colored box prompts like this
Windows has finished isntalling and you are at the Desktop
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- Install 4 in 1 driver all versions available from
www.viaarena.com Other VIA patches mentioned below also availabe from VIA website.
www.viaarena.com
For K7T Turbo Series -
No 4 in 1 drivers are needed for Windwos XP
For K7T266 Pro2 Series-
Install 4 in 1 driver version 4.35 When installing in XP it will only offer the choice to install the ".inf" file/portion of the 4 in 1 drivers. For your motherboard thats what you wanna do.
For KT3 Ultra Series-
Install 4 in 1 driver version 4.38 When you are given the coices of what modules to install choose only the INF 1.40a file (unselect AGP and IDE modules) Once done and you have rebooted. Install the VIA IDE Filter Driver. THis is a separate VIA pack that is not part of the 4 in 1 drivers. Be sure you download and isntall the IDE Filter Driver and NOT the IDE Miniport driver. Please note, I am aware this method may not give you the full ATA133 VIA promises with the IDE miniport. However the above recommendation takes into consideration the following
* WIndows XP will almost certainly have native support of ATA133 UDMA6 in the upcoming Service Pack 1
*This provides the cleanest path for you to fully employ the upcoming Windows XP Service Pack. Being familiar with the miniport and the 4 in 1 IDE module, there is reason to believe the future XP Service Pack may not fully install properly with these VIA patches. (for clarification, see me in the forum)
Its as important to think of the future of your computer as much as your immediate desire for performance.
*the Miniport drivers cause some people problems.
*no IDE hard drive can truly provide full ATA133 performance
Based on all these, the above 4 in 1 driver recommendations have been made. However, if the above seems too confusing, feel free to install the FULL VIA 4 in 1 driver package v4.38 for KT266A and KT333 motherboards running Windows XP
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- Finish Formatting. If you set up multiple partitions on your hard drives during Windows XP Setup - Setup only formatted the partition where Windows is located. To format the remaining partitions, Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools> Computer Manageemnt. On the screen that pops up you will see a "tree on the left hand side of the window. Click on the place called Disk Management. Now you should see on the right hand side of the screen a visual display of your hard drives and partitions. Choose an unformatted partition - right click it - choose format - and follow onscreen instructions.
- Repeat this for any partitions which are still unformatted.
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Now would be a good time to make sure ultra dma is enabled. Most default installs of Windows XP result in the CDROm being left in PIO mode. So to check and set UDMA levels, do the following:
1. Right click on My Computer - then properties
2. Click the hardware tab,
3. Click the Device Manager button
4. Double click on ?hard disk controllers? in the device manager
5.Right click on the primary and secondary ide device entries individually and select advanced properties.
6.Verify that you see DMA mode in the drop down boxes. If they do not, then go ahead and set them to "DMA mode if available"
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-Next (this applies only if you are using the following connection)
If you have a broadband connection to the internet and you are
a. connected directly to your DSL or cable modem
b. behind a NAT router from DLink model 804 or a Linksys model BEFSR41 and have the latest firmware
c. or if you are connected to the web by way of dial up
IF a,b,or c applies to you take this next step
Go into Control Panel> Add Remove programs> Install Windows Components the scroll down to Networking and click the "Details" box Put a check box in Universal Plug and Play then click all the "OKs" and "apply's" to install that feature Be sure to reboot
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-Next, go to Windows update and get a list of available updates. Go to the section thats called review and install updates. From there remove all the updates listed. then go up to available driver updates. Choose only the driver update for "AMD K-7 Processor" Choose to add that to the updates to isntall so its the only one on the review list. then click it and install that update (reboot when told to do so
- when back in Windows go again to Windows Update. Again scan for updates. Then in the area called review and install, remove all the critial updates preselected as you did before. This time choose to add ALL the updates in the category called "Windows XP" EXCEPT!!! Do not choose any of the updates for now that refer to Windows Messenger
Once you have selected to add all the non Messenger Windows XP updates, dowload - install - and reboot
- When back in XP go again to Windows Update and scan for updates. this time go to the "review and install" section and confirm that it has chosen all available Critical Updates. Once confirmed, download and install all the critical updates and reboot
- When back in XP, now install (not from Windows Update but from manufactuerer websites) all hardware drivers you need EXCEPT for video and audio. For now install drivers for everything else
- Install the latest WHQL certified drivers for your video card If using nVidia cards, you can get the latest WHQL driver from
www.nvidia.com
- Once the video drivers are installed and youve rebooted, set your color depth to 32 bit and your monitor refresh rate to 85Hz
- Now install your sound card drivers. then shut down the computer, plug the speakers into the computer and power up
-Next, see if you can find $40-60 in r piggy bank and head over to Walmart or CompUsa and grab a copy of Norton Utilities Youre not gonna want to install it, just run a utility from the disk. Once youhave this in hand; pop the disk in the CD drive and choose to "Launch Utilities from CD" Then choose Norton WIndoctor and run the application. It should return 17 to 30 errors. these are bugs/codeing problems with WIndows and actually is the lowest count for any MS OS so far. therefore actually 17 to 30 errors isnt bad for Microsoft...LOL Once the application is done running, choose the button called "Repair All" Let it do its thing and then exit the program and reboot the computer.
**This application itself is worth the full price of the Norton software. youd be amazed how many problems with your computer it automatically fixes. great stability tool. Consider running Windoctor after each software application you install***
- Next go into the advanced properties for your display adapter and set PCI texture memory to 63MBs or less
- Next set the paging file from whatever it is at now to "System Managed" WHen prompted to reboot do so
- Next click the following link and when prompted - choose "open"
Messenger v4.5
This will update Windows Messenger to version 4.5 Notice earlier I suggested NOT installing v4.6 from Windows update. the reason is because of an MS bug. If you install v 4.6 BEFORE you set up other WIndows XP user accounts, then only the administrative user will be able to fully use Windows Messenger. Therefore by clicking the link above you will get v4.5 which is where you want to start.
Once v4.5 from the above link is installed, reboot
Now youre ready to set up any additional Windows User accounts you want. Logging onto the internet while in Administrator Mode can put you at higher risk of vulnerability. So consider setting up a Limited User or better yet, Power User account for yourself
Once the User Accounts are set up now you should try logging into Windows Messenger for each user account.
Once youve done this - now log into Windows as an Administrator and go get the most recent Windows XP Messenger update.
Next install any antivirus and or software firewall program you have
Next install MS Office or any office suite you have.
Next if you use MS Office, be sure to get all Office Critical updates from WIndows Updates
Next, finish installing any software you want to use on this computer
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