I'm guessing it's because Windows has not been started, maybe that's what made the difference to get this working.

As you can see windows setup works much better than dpinst... again I am not sure why...

I just know that it does.

Glad all is well for you now!

Anyway..... it works . Added all the packs to my almost (as you can see) up-to-date XP dvd. No unknown hardware, sound works, both NIC's too, and the GPU is recognized as well, yay!

I just noticed one weird thing. When I first created it, I noticed (a bit late) that the command for the DriverPacks Finisher came second in the winnt.sif at the guirunonce part. My batchfile was run first, but since it had a reboot command in it, XP wasn't able to boot completely because the DriverPacks Finisher took some time. Anyway, I switched the command for the DriverPacks Finisher and my batchfile, causing the DriverPacks Finisher to start first (which I intended) but then I did not see the actual DriverPacks Finisher window. I did see a black rectangle (same size as DriverPacks Finisher window) where the window was supposed to be, but it did it's job okay.

Anyone know why?

Besides that I always check RAM before I put it into use (like I did with this particular computer), it's the same drivers with all attempts that don't work, plus that the OS on the main HDD works perfectly fine. Doesn't really sound like RAM problems to me....

Another possible source of error? Hmm, every time I burn a cd/dvd I let Nero do a verification, to rule out that cause...
Installing from USB might be an idea, I'll keep that in mind , thanks for the tip!

Hmm, okay.

Some error huh , no idea what that's about. You would think someone would have noticed it by know....

I really need to loiter around in Skype way more often...
Missing all the great discussions.

At least I got your mail about the radio show (which, naturally, I still need to listen to...).

The tutorial is quite old but the features, options and step by step instructions have not changed since then. (for a Disc install). SAD and BartPE have been added and the instructions for those are not relevant to slipstreaming the drivers to a disc . So while the screen shots show an old version i think you will find that the screen shots still match the selections on each of the pages. The feature to download the DriverPacks directly from the site was also added but I don't think that that requires explanation . YES it is the same as in version 8 of BASE LOL.

I don't know why DPINST.EXE does not work as well as windows SETUP.EXE... You will have to ask MicroSoft who wrote both of those executable programs. (SAD is simply a wrapper for the MS supplied file DPINST.EXE.)

Wow... Yeah that is a wild error

As for the RWs:
I know it might not be the most clever idea to just introduce another possible source of error when you are troubleshooting but if you've got a spare USB stick with about 2 GB of capacity, http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/120444- … -with-gui/ might actually help you save on the RW.
Been using it quite successfully myself for a while and I found it to be more reliable than an RW, as DVD readers may dislike them.
OTOH, it requires the BIOS to boot from USB, but most of those post 2000 offer such an option.

Just tried SAD M2, the 2nd (the onboard one) NIC is now recognized and installed too, soundcard as well but that one does not work. Windows claims there is no audio device present :S. The GPU is not recognized.

Out of curiosity, what causes SAD to not work (completely) on a "vanilla" system? The dev and ven ID's of unknown devices are available, so it's not about recognition of unknown hardware I think. Or is it because what you mentioned in post "2010-05-04 03:09:15", the (absence of) reboots.
If it's just that, can't the SAD-installer do an automatic reboot after installing chipset-drivers and continue? (Or is this to complicated to implement, not a clue if that's the case.)

O well, Disc method it is, now if I could just find a store which sells 1 DVD+RW. It's always 5 or 10-packs, I only need one .

edit: regarding the soundcard, this is one h*ll (huh? I can't say h-e-l-l?) of a weird error:

Translation: Soundrecorder can not record or play because there is no sounddevice installed. Click on Printers and other hardware in the configuration screen and then on add printer to install a sounddevice.

Like huh/WTF?

That will absolutely work, and is the way DriverPacks is intended to be used for OS installation.
there is better than a 99.9% chance of success if you use DriverPacks the way it is outlined in the tutorial .

SAD is intended to update drivers on a running system

Anyway, that method had the exact same result (and the same missing file errors) that I mentioned in my 1st post.

Gonna try M2 later today I think.
If that also does not work, I think I'm just gonna fully integrate the LAN, WLAN and (for the text-based setup) massstorage drivers (for AHCI-mode) in my XP disc, see if that helps. And download the remaining needed drivers manually after that.

Why is it there? We did not see any reason to delete it .

SAD is the alternative... see the tutorial (linked in my signature) for "normal" usage. [Slipstreamed useing M2]

Hmm, I wanted to use it for an initial drivers installation.... So if a SAD-disc is not designed for that, are there alternatives that are? (If I can't get this to work completely.)

I'll try M2 later, and just making a cpu SAD-disc + extracting everything after that too, see if one of those makes a difference.

Uhm, extracting instead of cabbing? All files (a little over 1GB and about 10,493 total) where already extracted on the SAD disc (I did not do that), no cabbing was done.

try creating a M1 SAD source with only CPU pack...
then extract all the drivers to the properly created folder structure.
That may work

Dpinst.exe does not do as good of a job as windows setup the prefered method of using DriverPacks is slipstreamed with M2 for best results.

if you have no drivers installed it may take several passes with reboots in between to be successful. IE if chipset is not installed it must first be installed then the machine rebooted and the remaining drivers that are dependent on chipset may be installed... Some drivers will not install at all with DPinst.exe...

the main usefulness of SAD is to update drivers on a fully running machine... not to do an initial installation of them. This may work some of the time.

Again to get the best results use BASE to slipstream the DriverPacks with M2.

More... DPInst.exe is a Microsoft provided Redistributable file and as such we can not "fix" it if it does not work properly .

Even more... some of these drivers may have failed do to the M1 Cabbing that is done... By extracting them rather than Cabbing them with M1 you can prove if it is a cabbing issue or a DPINST issue.

Thanks for your feedback  and welcome to DriverPacks!

Jeff