In article , Baldy
wrote:

I posted a message here about a week ago about a new A8N system,
non-SATA and non-Raid. Just a single HD on Privary IDE and 2 DVD
devices on Secdondary. The problem was that WinXP would take 2 or 3
attempts to boot with each failure occuring at the same place where
the black Windows screen would appear. Disconnect the secondary
devices and Windows would boot just fine. All other system settings
and hardware were checked out OK. The problem sounds like hardware
(bad contoller) but since the reboot always occured at the same spot,
it sounds like a corrupted or bad driver to me.

I now have an answer for my problem but it still has me puzzled:
un-install the nVidia IDE drivers and the problems all go away. Go
figure.

These were Sony devices but just to rule out hardware incompatibility
I also tried other generic devices on the secondary and the failure
remained regardless of brand.

Am I really losing any performance advantage by sticking with the MS
drivers from Windows rather than using the nVidia IDE drivers? Of
course, the remaining nVidia chipset drivers are still installed.
Thank God for nVidia having the sense to offer an un-install option
for each rather than an all-in-one, take-it-or-leave-it
install/un-install.

Baldy

The non-MS drivers frequently include their own RAM
cache for disk access. This gives an apparent boost
in performance.

However, as you've discovered, compatibility is a lost
art. Whether it is Intel IAA, a SIS, Via, Nvidia etc
driver, they all have problems to one extent or another.
Usually, where the s*** hits the fan, is burning CD/DVDs.

Another benefit of using the default MS driver, is if you
migrate your boot disk to another new motherboard, there
is a good chance the driver will allow the system to boot.
At least, switching to the default MS driver, before
changing motherboards, allowed me to migrate my disk on
my last upgrade (using Win2K). You might still want to
do a repair install, as the results can be less than
spectacular (I had video card problems).

HTH,
Paul