This is, of course, what I get for the hubris of building a computer from parts.

I got a new motherboard (an Intel D865PERLL), a new processor (a P4 2.6GHz), new memory, new power supply (to support the P4 extra power connector), and two SATA hard drives.

I'm having two distinct fatal problems.

1. When trying to install Windows 2000, when it gets to the point where it seems like it's still in text mode, but it changes fonts slightly, the video card I was using, an nVidia P50 I got out of a Dell machine, it doesn't show the screen with the new font. It just goes black and stays that way. The CDROM churns and sounds like it's continuing with the install, but I can't be sure. An older nVidia card I have doesn't even get that far (but it was half broken when I stopped using it, so it might be more broken now). Both of them are AGP cards. An ATI PCI video card I have lying around seems to avoid this problem. Is it a driver problem or an AGP problem? And what can I do about it?
   
   
2. I got those SATA drives because the motherboard has RAID0 for SATA only. Of course, I get the motherboard and RAID is supported only under WinXP. When I use the ATI card and get far enough to partition the drives, it can't see them. I've tried the default BIOS mode for ATA/IDE, which doesn't show me any drives, and legacy BIOS mode for ATA/IDE, which actually crashes the Win2k installer. Any ideas here? I've not yet tried to use regular (parallel) IDE drives.

I haven't gotten around to trying to install Linux or BSD on the thing yet, as if Windows doesn't work, I figure any other OS has basically no chance of working.

s it a driver problem or an AGP problem? And what can I do about it?

Does the BIOS have an AGP 4X setting? Try disabling it?

1. How old is the video card? If I remember right, AGP 8x slots may not be backwards compatible beyond AGP 4x cards.

2. Do you have drivers for the serial ATA controller to load when Windows 2000 boots via F6? I know SATA wasn't finalized when 2000 was, so it probably lacks the drivers.

I didn't see any BIOS options about AGP beyond aperture size or something like that.

The video card I want to use is a GeForge4 Ti4200, which, I think, means it's either 4x or 8x. The mobo manual claims it can deal with 1x, 4x, or 8x, as long as it's at 0.8V or 1.5V and not 3.3V. It also claims that 3.3V AGP cards are keyed differently, and mine definitely fits, so that's not it, I think.

You mean that F6 you've gotta hit if you want to install SCSI or RAID drivers? I might be able to install SATA driver there? I'll give it a shot.

I haven't gotten around to trying to install Linux or BSD on the thing yet, as if Windows doesn't work, I figure any other OS has basically no chance of working.

Give Linux a try -- Windows can be troublesome with hardware that "just works" on Linux (though usually it's more a backwards compatibilty thing). Of course, the opposite is true as well, as you've assumed, but it's worth a shot.

1) Be sure that the card you're installing is the correct AGP voltage!!!
The voltage specs for AGP were changed somewhere when the P3 was popular (I believe when they went from AGP 2x to AGP 4x).
If the card isn't recent enough to support AGP 4x, the card AND possibly your motherboard too could be seriously damaged!!! So check this before continuing!

2) Before doing ANYTHING else when installing your disks, install Intel's Application Accelerator first !!!
This little utility will enable you to use your disks past the 137gig barrier that windows 2000 has. Without it, you would also be able to partition and format your disk, but at the first reboot all sorts of weird error messages would appear.
It will also enable RAID0 & 1 for your chipset on windows 2000!
Thirdly, it will enhance the overall performance of your system.

I hope this helps.

Make sure you have "Assign IRQ to VGA" ON, this is the cause of about 90% of weird video card problems that pop up in my experience.

I see no such option in this BIOS, but thanks.

Okay, so I downloaded a Knoppix CD overnight, only to realize that I didn't have any 80min CDs to burn it to. So I had to burn it to a 74min one and hope it got enough data to do something. As it turns out, just. It got to X Windows in a definitely different resolution and timing. Of course, it was using VESA modes, but I can't imagine that the Windows installer wouldn't be at that point in the install, other than simply a different resolution. So it looks like it's not the video card and it's not AGP compatibility; it's just Windows being screwy.

BTW, Knoppix looks incredibly well done. I'll have to reburn it on an 80min CD and play with it.

Turns out my assumption was incorrect. I tried installing my video card in a friend's computer and it freaked out there as well. He had an AGP4x card lying around, so I borrowed that and now all is going well.

So nevermind.

Oh, and the suggestion to install drivers during Win2k install was accurate. Worked great. Even allowed me to use the RAID stuff. Now to see if I can see the RAID under Linux....