• Registered: 2010-01-20
  • Posts: 3

Topic: HELP!!! eMachines EL1210-01e Windows XP SATA/AHCI Driver needed

I am helping a friend downgrade her eMachines EL1210-01e from Windows Vista to Windows XP using one of the few unused Windows XP SP3 COA I have in my drawer.  Problem is that every single SATA driver I have tried blue screens on me during startup of Setup with the typical error associated with not being able to detect the SATA controller 0x0000007E.

I first went to the manufacturer's website and saw that they had XP drivers for this partucular model as shown here:
http://support.gateway.com/us/en/emac/p … ber=EL1210
first note I did, there was no "SATA" or any equivalent categories, instead, they have the SATA driver included as part of the chipset, well I downloade the nVidia chipset off that site, slipstreamed the driver using nLite, set to Text Mode all SATA drivers and burned the CD, Result: 7E blue screen - didn't recognize SATA controller.

I have done intensive research online, I have spent 7 days googling, I have seen other forums where a guy claims to have success downgrading his eMachines EL1210 series to Windows XP using the nVidia chipset driver 720a found in nVidia website.  Well, I went there and all what I could find that was relevant to 720a was the 8100/720a driver which I downloaded and used nLite to slipstream the sata drivers and I chosed Text Mode for the two drivers found on those folders, result: 7E blue screen.

Then, since the computer says nVidia 8200 and not the 8100 (from the 8100/720a) which was the first driver I tried, I downloaded the 8200 one, but that one says 8200/730a, well not much of a difference between the guy's recommendation of 720a (which didnt work for me) and the 730a while having the 8200 one correct.  I tried it, result: 7E bluescreen.

Some one posted few drivers for this model here: http://www.mediafire.com/el1210-09drivers
which was recommended by a poster on:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r215743 … -~start=20
downloaded all 5 parts (including that last RAR file starting with "ESS...." which this last part was only some other software).  I slipstreamed these drivers, TextMode'd all SATA/AHCI drivers, and result was: 7E Blue Screen upon trying to boot the XP cd.

I dont know what to try.  I even considered just puting there one of my PCI silicone based SATA controller, but upon opening up the case, I realized that there is no PCI slots on this motherboard!!  sad!! man! I have lost many hours trying to get XP to install on this eMachines EL1210-01e with no success sad and the latest driverpacks for Windows XP doesn't have the SATA drivers for this machine.

does any one here have a working SATA/AHCI driver that I can use for this computer? 
The BIOS has no option to use IDE mode.  If you know how to force, somehow, to use IDE mode, please let me know as I am open to that as well.

Thanks.

Last edited by FranciscoNET (2011-04-03 15:09:08)

  • TechDud
  • Researcher & DriverPacks Moderator
  • Offline
  • From: Fraser Valley, Canada
  • Registered: 2010-11-23
  • Posts: 2,270

Re: HELP!!! eMachines EL1210-01e Windows XP SATA/AHCI Driver needed

Is this eMachines EL1210-01e still under warranty?  If so, they were bought by Acer.  http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2 … teway.html
You may have a legal right to downgrade, you should have a right to support within the warranty period.  http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensi … ights.aspx
                                                                                                                                                 http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensi … ights.aspx
You might want to enquire with them if eMachines division are dragging their sorry butts (much like a dog with worms! mad) just because the desktop was only ~$300.  Of course, the longer you have to deal with their support services, the greater the cost to them.  Remind them, they may hasten an answer to their website to prevent further losses.

Perhaps there is a 'F6' driver disk that you need for the SATA controller.  What is the HWid of your SATA controller?
A USB floppy drive may be necessary - or a thumb drive.  I'm not sure which way this will work with XP, unless you have an old floppy drive (that reads/writes PROPERLY) & a port to plug it in.

This attempt at an answer has been brought to you by, the need to remove eMachines BIOS from any & every desktop board available to me, personally!!! mad:D:mad:

Last edited by TechDud (2011-04-03 17:58:22)

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  • Registered: 2012-12-01
  • Posts: 1

Re: HELP!!! eMachines EL1210-01e Windows XP SATA/AHCI Driver needed

All,

I had a very similar experience with nVidia RAID software.  I was using a Gigabyte Motherboard, I believe that some of the eMachines use the same Motherboard or a similar board.

The problem you are having is related to "when" the driver is being applied and/or if it's a text based driver or a PnP driver.

What is happening is the driver you downloaded from nVidia is PnP.  The system is trying to load a text based driver upon boot and then applying the PnP driver afterward.

I spent 7 days downloading drivers and banging my head against a wall on this one. Below are a few solutions. These worked for me, but may not work for you:

For both methods, In the BIOS, make sure nVidia's onboard RAID is off.  You can even turn off nVidia SATA functionality(SATA will still work, the Motherboard manufacturer isn't the greatest at explaining this).

1. Download Intel's most current ACHI/SATA driver, integrate it into your XP CD.  This should give you all the text based driver support you need to load XP.  Once XP is loaded THEN run the nVidia software.

2. Make an image of an existing XP installation/VM with the nVidia software loaded, using SYSPREP for XP and the Windows 7 image tools(imageX, diskpart, windows 7 usb bootable install).  Push the image to the system, using diskpart and imagex, the system should load, freak out, then find the PnP drivers and settle down.

I have tested both of these methods, they work for what I do with Gigabyte Motherboards, hopefully this helps you!

-Randy

Last edited by Randilicious (2012-12-01 04:15:56)