Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R and vista problems

[colincliff]

I have bought a GA-G33M-DS2R to accompany a e4300 for a htpc build. I am having real problems installing vista premium with this board

the setup is:

GA-G33M-DS2R
E4300
2 x 1gb xms2 corsiar
250gb maxtor drive
Elonex Artisan case

To begin with i couldn't install vista at all with sata AHCI tuned in the bios. Googling found this to be a common problem a that the drivers need to be installed in the vista installation process. This didnt work for me - whenever i installed the drivers vista lost sight of the drives

In the end i disabled AHCI and gave up on using it.

With AHCI disables the vista installation starts ok but then takes a long time to get to the drive selection screen, from then on it installs slowly (slower than other vista instalations i have done) but seems to install ok.

Once it vista has booted for the first time i get further problems.
Trying to read the motherboard cd to install the chipset and other drivers makes windows explorer freeze or crash.

Windows update can download files but the process sticks at the creating restore point.

The partitions that i make with the vista installation process is unformated and vista cannot seem to format it.

Any cds in the drive either cannot be recognised or freeze the system up when

It seems to be some issue with the sata controllers but i managed to install the drivers in safe mode and i still get the same problems.

Basically any attempt to use the cd drive causes problems (even thought it installed from there), and anything other that basic hard drive access (like formtting etc) seems to cause problems too.

I would be happy to return the board to scan and choose another with a different sata controller, but i'm concerned that the board wouldnt be classed as faulty as the bios sees the disks fine.

Any ideas or similar experiances?

[colincliff]

i forgot to mention the controller that seems to be a problem is the Intel Ich9

[dannyboy83]

I've an Elonex Artisan and bought the Gigabyte GA G33M-S2 iG33 mobo. I'm not even at the stage you are. Can't get the computer to power up after installing CPU, hard disk and DVD-RW. Seems to be a short circuit or loose connection as I got the power supply and mobo to fire up when they aren't screwed into the case.

[kalniel]

I've an Elonex Artisan and bought the Gigabyte GA G33M-S2 iG33 mobo. I'm not even at the stage you are. Can't get the computer to power up after installing CPU, hard disk and DVD-RW. Seems to be a short circuit or loose connection as I got the power supply and mobo to fire up when they aren't screwed into the case.

1) Check the motherboard spacers

2) Check the IO shield isn't causing a short.

OP, try disabling the JMicron sata boards through the BIOS, I've seen problems with on gigabyte boards. Alternatively try different SATA poarts.