KN9 blue-screening during Vista install

[Aaron]

Hi everyone. If you could help with my problem then I would be very grateful...

The specification of my PC is as follows:

- AMD A64 X2 5000+ CPU
- Abit KN9 Ultra (nForce 570 Ultra, socket AM2) motherboard
- 2x1GB GeIL PC6400 DDR2 RAM
- PowerColor ATI Radeon X1950 w/512MB graphics card
- 2x160GB Hitachi deskstar HDDs (usually in RAID 0)
- 480W Thermaltake PSU

I also have a selection of other parts in my PC, but I've removed them since I've been having so many problems. I've also disabled the on-board sound and LAN on my motherboard.

The above set-up (including all of my peripherals) all works fine under Windows XP Pro 64-bit edition. I can play processor and RAM intensive games like Battlefield 2 without a hitch. No performance issues and no crashes.


However, I'm having really big problems installing Windows Vista 64-bit. I start installing Windows Vista and everything seems fine. I can select my hard-drive and it begins to install fine. However, when it reboots and gets to the 'completing installation' section, my PC blue screens. I've tried it half a dozen times (in various configurations, including unraiding the hard-drives) but I get the same result.

My guess is that this is a RAID driver issue. Despite the motherboard being marketed as "Vista Ready", there does appear to be a specific 64-bit Vista driver on the Abit KN9 download page.

Does anyone have any idea what my problem could be, what I could do to fix it or where I could get a compatible RAID driver for my nForce 570 ultra motherboard from?

Thanks!

[BUFF]

Check the memory voltage set by the BIOS against what the RAM mfr says is needed - often the boards set the JEDEC spec. 1.8V when the RAM requires more.

Also what BIOS version are you on - latest for that board is 19.
You will get the latest chipset drivers (incl. RAID) from www.nvidia.com

[freshu]

I've had a similar problem and incresing the RAM voltage solved my problem!
It seems that 1.8 V was too little! I have incresed the voltage to 2.0V and I managed to install Vista!

Also, with the default voltage I could not event install Windows XP. It got stuck during the Copying Files stage! Increasing the RAM voltage solved this too!

I have a ABIT KN9 ultra & AMD 64 X2 3800+ with 2x512 Geil DDR2 800.
I find it odd that you have to increse the memory voltage in order to be able to install the OS.

[BUFF]

I find it odd that you have to increse the memory voltage in order to be able to install the OS.

as I said the JEDEC industry standard for DDR2 voltage is 1.8V which is why the boards set it by default.
Strictly speaking the higher speed RAM isn't complying with industry standards at it's rated speed.
It should however be possible to run it slower than rated at a lower voltage - what does the SPD tables on that RAM say?