2,176

(5 replies, posted in Feature Requests)

Welcome back!

Thanks for sharing your ideas, it is always wise to consider all of our options. Let's consider.

DriverPacks primarily targets professional users. Users who could have any machine at anytime in front of them, not the home or individual users supporting themselves and a PC or two (they don't donate wink)... Admins that care for hundreds or thousands or the bench tech who has eight machines on his bench. People who have to work on a POS machine because it's next in line. they have to take what is in front of them wink not what they chose to buy or use just what they are stuck fixing. Sure you can decide you are only going to have Intel at your house... but DriverPacks was not written just for you...

If you want a disc with just nvidia drivers on it please make one... we will even be glad to help you.
We even have a forum for those... We call them 3rd party DriverPack. Anyone can make them - Even you... Please do we might even get some users to give you feedback on them!

No, we are not going to restructure the DriverPacks just for you...
Since you are the only one who has even asked in five years.
Thanks for asking.  - Sorry, No -

Since we target an audience that wants to put their install disc in ANY machine and have it work...
Your ideas would not benefit our target audience nor our primary goal.
In fact it would be detrimental to having all the packs work together. This is the opposite of our goal. You may remember our goal is to support all hardware. not some or a certain machine or a certain chip.

All means all... smile

Why it is not feasible to split them as you recommend...  Many drivers are not compatible with each other.
So we would be forced to put two similar drivers (that cannot coexist) in two separate packs, and if a user were to use both packs that set (pair) of drivers would fail. You would create a situation where you could use one pack or the other but not both. this is because most drivers are very poorly written. Hey your idea looks good on paper but it would take dozens of people months to even get it anywhere close to working. (nothing is impossible but why kill yourself if there is no benefit)


If you believe this is impractical then I will guess that you are not a professional technician, and therefore DriverPacks was not intended for you... and you don't have the life experience to understand why it needs to be as it is. However if you were willing to donate a couple of grand to the project we might reconsider

You CAN do what you want to do... You just have to do it yourself!   
If you need help just ask. We are eager to help you to help yourself!


I have a tool in beta with the testing team right now that may help you. it is a HWIDs based installer...
It extracts only the drivers from the pack that are compatible with the local machine.
By capturing the tools output someone could easily put the drivers in a 3rd party DriverPack.
thus a user like yourself could make their own 3rd party DriverPack of machine specific drivers from the DriverPacks.
So although we don't support your idea directly i think we (will) provide a tool that makes doing what you desire a breeze.

PS RogueSpear suggested per machine packs at one time which is a similar idea to yours but much more practical. It was never followed up on because there will always be an addin device you did not count on wink. It is truly better just to have all the drivers ready to go every time... anything less would be uncivilized!

Your idea is based on the fact that you know waht hardware you have in your machine... Techs never know what is going to be in thier machines wink

PSS CD rom is a dead technology... DVD or bust!

2,177

(51 replies, posted in Software)

Yeah i thought about UBCD4Win too... but thought they might be a little much...

The other thing I thought it might be; Since he is so shy about popping the lid, it is VERY likely given the age of the machine that the cooling fans are just clogged or failing and the darned thing is just overheating wink

2,178

(51 replies, posted in Software)

I really think your problem is hardware based... so avoiding opening the case is probably just prolonging your pain...

try this Memtest.exe

Testing the DVD is not very productive... So i am not surprised that tools for that are scarce...
Since a new burner is $20 it will cost you more to test it than to replace it.
I charge a $50 bench fee for diagnosing hardware... you could buy two DVDs and a mem stick for that wink.
I also noticed that you have two DVD drives - did you try installing from just one, or did you try to install from the the other one too?
Have you tried your install Disc on any other PC?

I am leaning towards RAM as your issue... Since you have mismatched RAM (two 1G chips one 256M)
The very first thing I would do is pull that pesky 256M chip (RAM was at the top of the list in the MS KB...)
Then i would start eliminating other devices... Pull the Modem, Pull the cables off the two CD drives, pull the videocapture card, If it has onboard video pull the 6200, etc...

PS i just noticed that one of your DVDs is SCSI...
That may require that you do include mass storage textmode drivers if you are using that drive to install...
If the SCSI ODD is connected to an addin card pull it out with the modem and tv/capture cards.

PSS the Belarc report is basically useless to me... I can only assume you wish to provide good info, if so then please try supplying the info specificaly requested. 
  HWID's Tool - link in my signature.

2,179

(18 replies, posted in News)

{applause}

Thanks for the feedback!!! Excellent!

2,181

(51 replies, posted in Software)

there is a HWIDs Tool in my signature... It will dump your Hwids into notepad so you can then paste them here...
Your issue does not seem to be driver related though... the HWIDs are only useful for troubleshooting Driver issues wink

The manufacturer of your drive will determin which test tool you need...
If you have a SeaGate drive the you will use Seatools to diagnose.
If you have a Western Digital drive then you will use DLGTools to diagnose
etc...

first you must open your case and determine the HDD manufacturer...

Did you try swapping memory chips as recomended in the one KBArtical

2,182

(51 replies, posted in Software)

I don't know which mass storage controller is in your machine (since you have not posted your HWIDs)
I get the impression this machine is older... if it uses a standard IDE then no you don't need it.
if it finds your HDD then you don't need it...

It is not failing because of the way you installed DriverPacks...
(IE Not installing DriverPack MassStorage is not the reason why you are having this problem)


PS I always add DriverPack MassStorage textmode... BUT Again, doing so will not solve your problem....

You have an issue with your Hardware not your software...

2,183

(51 replies, posted in Software)

That clears things up a little...

Your install is failing at the TextMode setup phase...

i found these clues useing google "could not be loaded The error code is 7"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812580
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330181
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f138/hard-disk … ws-192463/


I belive all the articals have one thing in common they refer to bad hardware or Incompatable BIOS settings.
HDD testing and Memory testing were both recomended in those posts / articals as well as a bad (dirty) ODD...

I belive you have issues at the hardware level...
if you have any add in cards (modem sound etc) remove them temporarily.

I personaly belive in cheapest easiest first
reset BIOS defaults
replace HDD and ODD cables...   try hanging a known good ODD on the machine
use seatools or WDdiag or whatever to verify your HDD is good.
IE good ol basic troubleshooting wink

2,184

(51 replies, posted in Software)

the machine reboots automaticaly during an install twice... this divides the install into three very distinct sections.

Textmode...  reboot
   Textmode is a plain blue screen
WinPE...        reboot
   PE has the progress display (IE 36 min remaining)
GUI...  (you login for first time)

I really do need to know which section failed...

2,185

(3 replies, posted in DriverPack Mass Storage)

We apprecieate your help...
Can you please post your DPs_BASE.log and your HWIDs
- since your details are incomplete

2,186

(51 replies, posted in Software)

the first portion of the install is textmode. did textmode setup finish? (were you able to select the HDD)
after the first reboot is WinPE stage of setup... is this where it fails?
after the second reboot is GUI stage of setup... is this where it fails?

2,187

(9 replies, posted in Software)

Hey Ken... Nice to see you again.

Please start a thread in the appropriate forum (Graphics Lan Mass) Use [REQ] To start your title with.
State BASE and Pack versions or include your DPs_BASE.log, State the HWIDs of the offending devices.

Have a great day... and i am going to jump the gun a little on this one - Thanks for posting wink

2,188

(51 replies, posted in Software)

did you start with a hologramed OEM XP CD to start with?

2,189

(51 replies, posted in Software)

ODD is a an acronym for Optical Disc Drive. I meant a CD Rom or CD burner or DVD reader or DVD writer. But requires much less typing

the question is - is the disc reader a tested known good unit and Just because it may be new does not mean it is a good unit.

2,190

(51 replies, posted in Software)

What guide? tinyurl is blocked at my house...

Nm.. I used a vm to scope it out...

sure sounds like your source is corrupted based on having almost zero details about the issue.
Burn a new CD/DVD at a slower speed and see if that fixes it. Is the ODD known good?

2,191

(11 replies, posted in DriverPack Sound)

could you please use the HWIDs Tool in my signature to report your HWIDs in a post here.

Which driver did you say was the one that worked for you? (Link or location in the packs...)

Thank you so much for reporting!

I knew the answer would be posted at msfn... Thanks for the links and details soo_smitty - Well done!

Can you describe the difference between a duck?

I am going to guess that the method you are useing is running winnt32.exe and not setup.exe... that will fail.

if in fact it does use winnt32 then take a look at RogueSpears AutoImage... (RIS)
AutoImage will make DriverPacks somewhat compatable with winnt32 based installs.

PS I am not surprized you found no documentation here
- your method is not supported smile - But thanks for using the search feature!
Please take a look over at the MSFN forums... I am sure you will get lucky there!

DriverPacks does not charge for the help we offer wink and we are proud of that.
We will be glad to help you through this forum at the rate of... Free!

I am however a self employed computer consultant by trade... smile
My contact info is not tough to find
E-mail under my avatar and by following the link to "my" Web Site (A client of mine).
all of my IM clients are posted in my profile too wink You are allowed to contact me if you wish wink.

I always recommend MSFN for reference material
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/
That guide is the most complete Unattended XP guide I have seen to date.

I belive if the end result of your UXPCD is a finished product then you may not even need sysprep...
however if you were going to use sysprep you just cut your work in half at least wink

I much prefer a master per machine type. IE if i have 100 similar machines I run my UXPCD (extensively tested and known good source) to one machine test it to death Burn in over night. if all checks out reinstall the machine with the known good source and Ghost cast to the remaining 99 like kind machines... {please note that i did not use sysprep at all} Ghost casting does actually use multicasting... that means one packet feeds 99 machines. So you will not saturate your network no matter now many clients you are loading... no reason to keep the image since a newer one can be made at any time wink. if you have a one off machine NBD just make it the master for that type smile tongue
(one additional note here: RIS)


if you are a crazy sysprep guy then I belive this is your best place to start...
If you automate creating your master you save yourself every time you need to update your master.
It eliminates human error from creating / updating a master
it eliminates uninstallers and related junk.
It eliminates Registry issues (increased size, useless uninstall info, info created by you tweaking the image)
If you must SysPrep then the cleaner your starting image the better...

2,196

(7 replies, posted in Universal Imaging)

That message indicates that you chose a "location" that has no OS (Platform) that is compatable.

IE if you chose Disc then it was looking for a copy of XP or 2K3 or 2K.j
If you chose BartPE then it is looking for the BartPE Plugins folder.

I assume you did not "Browse" to your BartPE 'plugins' folder on the Select A Location page ov DriverPacks BASE...

BartPE tut is in my signature and it is also in the docs folder of BASE...

If you do not yet have BartPE... I think you are in for a treat... Please Download UBCD4Win and build a Disc smile

2,197

(7 replies, posted in Universal Imaging)

did you look in the testing team forum too - there are some more recent posts about sysprep there wink

PS OffLine Sysprep is MUCH more than 'just a GUI' especialy where mass storage is concerned... wink

Many of the guys are fond of mysysprep for HAL...

2,198

(7 replies, posted in Universal Imaging)

Well you can deal with adding mass storage on an as needed basis... Just use Galepos OffLine SysPrep to add them at any time smile.

as far as advanced tips - you will have to wait for one of those other crazy sysprepers to show up... I am not fond of SysPrep at all...
My knowlege of sysprep is general in nature. I only use it as a last resort. (migrateing a machine to a new platform when a clean load is not possable [perhaps because of an existing program that can not be installed on a new PC]) We have some real SysPrep Masters lurking in the shadows... I am CERTAIN they will show up and defend sysprep as a deployment tool (and that is why they are crazy wink) and provide you the finer points of using it. There is more than one way to attack each obstical you may encounter lets see what the masters offer as they come out of the woodwork. We will learn together smile


PS jsut because i hate it does not mean i am not interested in learning all i can about it wink

I had no idea you needed to add the PnP driver as well, thanks

That explains the BSOD when you reboot into WinPE...

Thanks for following up with  Excellent  details!!! I stickied the topic for you!

Have a great day

And thanks for 'helping us to help you' as Jaak always says...

2,200

(8 replies, posted in DriverPack Chipset)

Stickied..