After 4 or 5 evening spent trying to install my new computer, I finally managed to masterize the process. I'm writing here what I've done and the problem I encountered, first for myself, then for anyone it could help
Installing XP
I actually spent most of my time struggling with windows errors and troubleshooting bad hardware (and replacing it).
I got STOP errors in setupdd.sys, hidusb.sys and PFN_LIST_CORRUPT error.
I also got errors indicating the copy of such file (it wasn't always same file) could not be copied correctly from the CD (or from the F6 floppy once!). Trying several times did not change anything and if I ignored the message I would get a STOP message soon afterwards.
First, I found out I got a dead hard drive from the shop. The disk wasn't even shaking when the computer was powered up.
I checked the power cable, used the other SATA power plug, used the MOLEX->SATA adaptor, changed the SATA cable, changed the SATA port the HD was connected to, still no shaking. Got to the shop, changed it. The new one was obviously spinning.
Then, I found out one of my two 1Gb RAM stick was toasted. I just removed it and the installation process went all smooth ! Alleluia !
JMicron and the intel driver
P5B motherboard has a JMicron chip that controls the legacy PATA port and provides support for SATA RAID and an Intel ICH8 chip for the 4 SATA connectors.
Apparently, using JMicron can be quite trooblesome so it is best not to install drivers for it in windows unless you are using its special features (ie. RAID). Apparently, linux kernel 2.6.19+ support the JMicron chip. Most of the time, the intel drivers are enough.
You might need to provide XP installation with the INTEL drivers using the F6 key and a floppy. Intel driver is on the installation CD of the P5B. The disk is bootable, runs Freedos and provide options to create an F6 floppy with the drivers (I didn't try it).
AHCI on a P5B motherboard
If it wasn't for all the hardware problems I had, I would have used the default Bios setup and install in a flash.
Because I was googling for clues about my HD not spinning, I found out that activating AHCI to get the best of a SATA hardrive and an IDE CD driver wasn't officially possible on a Asus P5B motherboard with the INTEL drivers.
To get AHCI working, I used the the trick explained in this post (it worked for me !). It explains how to patch the Intel Matrix Storage driver F6 floppy to install AHCI drivers for the ICH8 southbridge.
Here, I copy the instructions from this post, just in case it gets offline.
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Searching led me across a post on KernelTrap, of all places, where a user posted some updated INF and TXTSETUP.OEM files. These updated files, when added to the disk you can make for installing XP — this one, the latest version at the time of this posting — allows the iaStor.sys driver to see your ICH8 controller and its attached volumes. I tested it this morning and it appears to work like a champ. To save others, and myself, time in the future I’ve saved these files here:
- iaahci.inf
- txtsetup.oem
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I stored a copy of the patched intel F6 floppy here
Windows Driver installation
I found in this post (which is an installation guide for the P5B Deluxe, not the P5B) that there was an advised driver installation order.
I followed the following order:
- Intel ICH8 driver during installation
- Video card drivers
- Monitor drivers
- Lan drivers (from the P5B installation driver)
- Sound max drives (also from the P5B installation driver)
