Okay, so, asking here.
Basically had an old pre-built that was toxically flooded with bad caps, and given how limited it was, I was pretty much in a mental state where it wasn't worth my time to fix or repair. Scavenged what I could, and was able to source some parts for it.
Specs are as follows:
Using UBCD v5.3.7, CPU stress testing checks out, VRAM testing checks out, and memtest checks out.
However, I can't seem to get any Operating system to install on it.
With Windows 7 (x86, since I have a legit key to spare for that and I am still using x64 on another machine), I had an interesting... paradox. In short, if I put the hard drive on one of the native SATA ports on the board, setup detects it, but won't install to it, convinced that it can't boot from the drive. If I plug it into the add-in controller, whether it's set to RAID mode or just IDE mode, setup fails to detect it. Thinking it was just a driver issue, looking up for drivers for the Promise add-in controller and... can't find any. Can't even find any for it on Windows Vista.
So, researching for Vista as an option, but can't find any drivers for either controller. looking on VIA's archival site and basically it's a case of where VIA just "checked out" of making any more drivers for their chipsets after XP, and checked out of drivers altogether after Vista. So, I guess that just leaves Windows XP.
Using a disc that I had slipstreamed with Service Pack 3 from a long while ago (back when I had a lightscribe enabled burner from the looks of it), and... with four sticks installed, it just flat out hangs at the textmode part where it would get to "Setup is starting Windows..." not even Ctrl+Alt+Del works. 2 sticks, same thing. Down to just 1 stick installed? I then get to where I can select what hard drive to install (after F6 drivers), and... instant BSOD when I try to pick it.
So as it is, three different possible OS's I could have had on it, but I can't get any of them to install. And I don't even have an IDE hard drive big enough for an OS install. The most I have are some leftover 8GB hard drives salvaged from xbox consoles I've fixed up. Of course, nobody makes any new IDE storage drives anymore.
So, without basically having to buy more hardware, what can I do to get things to behave and work on this setup? I've not yet ruled out Linux, but please understand that I've not had a single version of any distro of Linux or *nix or *BSD that hasn't just outright pissed me off other than Mac OS.
Basically had an old pre-built that was toxically flooded with bad caps, and given how limited it was, I was pretty much in a mental state where it wasn't worth my time to fix or repair. Scavenged what I could, and was able to source some parts for it.
Specs are as follows:
- AMD Opteron 185 (s939) - 2C2T 2.6GHz
- Asus A8V Deluxe - VIA K8T800Pro chipset, BIOS 1017
- 4x1GB DDR400 RAM (two matched pairs)
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro
- Samsung 120GB SATA hard drive
- some Generic USB add-in card so I could use the companion card reader functionality on the floppy drive
- (not yet installed) Adaptec R1200 IDE card
Using UBCD v5.3.7, CPU stress testing checks out, VRAM testing checks out, and memtest checks out.
However, I can't seem to get any Operating system to install on it.
With Windows 7 (x86, since I have a legit key to spare for that and I am still using x64 on another machine), I had an interesting... paradox. In short, if I put the hard drive on one of the native SATA ports on the board, setup detects it, but won't install to it, convinced that it can't boot from the drive. If I plug it into the add-in controller, whether it's set to RAID mode or just IDE mode, setup fails to detect it. Thinking it was just a driver issue, looking up for drivers for the Promise add-in controller and... can't find any. Can't even find any for it on Windows Vista.
So, researching for Vista as an option, but can't find any drivers for either controller. looking on VIA's archival site and basically it's a case of where VIA just "checked out" of making any more drivers for their chipsets after XP, and checked out of drivers altogether after Vista. So, I guess that just leaves Windows XP.
Using a disc that I had slipstreamed with Service Pack 3 from a long while ago (back when I had a lightscribe enabled burner from the looks of it), and... with four sticks installed, it just flat out hangs at the textmode part where it would get to "Setup is starting Windows..." not even Ctrl+Alt+Del works. 2 sticks, same thing. Down to just 1 stick installed? I then get to where I can select what hard drive to install (after F6 drivers), and... instant BSOD when I try to pick it.
So as it is, three different possible OS's I could have had on it, but I can't get any of them to install. And I don't even have an IDE hard drive big enough for an OS install. The most I have are some leftover 8GB hard drives salvaged from xbox consoles I've fixed up. Of course, nobody makes any new IDE storage drives anymore.
So, without basically having to buy more hardware, what can I do to get things to behave and work on this setup? I've not yet ruled out Linux, but please understand that I've not had a single version of any distro of Linux or *nix or *BSD that hasn't just outright pissed me off other than Mac OS.