First Build Done and Running - Questions

[akaji]

Put together my first gaming PC and was fortunate enough to have it run the first time (so its all downhill from here).

Components

Asus A8n32SLI, BFG 7900 GTX 512 MB, 2 Gig Corsair Ram, Win XP Pro, 320 Gig WD HDD x 2 SATA, Plextor DVDRW, ASUS DVDROM, PC Power and Cooling 510 PS, Aspire X-Discovery Case, Samsung 204 B LCD, Soundblaster X-FiXtreme Music

A few questions that are probably stupid:

1. I didn't configure my hard drives in a RAID - just attached them to nvidia controller Sata1 and sata 2 and they work fine. In device Manager, it has a yellow question mark next to RAID controller and an exclamation point, I guess because I haven't configured either the Nvididia or SI RAID. If I don't plan to, should I be concerned about the non-configured controller in device manager or just ignore it.

2. What is an easy way to tell what version of NForce4 chipset drivers I have currently installed? I downloaded 6.85 from the website but haven't installed. Should I? If it ain't broke should I fix it?

3. Same question for the BFG card - went to bfg website and they refer me to nvidia website for drivers. Drivers listed there are for the 7800 GTX and the 7900 is not listed yet. I have driver 8.3.9.0 installed but how do I know if this is the latest and if it isn't should I update?

Sorry for the questions. Any help appreciated.

[kram 2.0]

1. If you don't need to use RAID, ignore any questions about it altogether.
2. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
3. Yes, go ahead and update to the latest nForce drivers from nVidia. In general, the drivers that come out of the box are a few months old.

kram

[akaji]

Thanks for the reply. I'll leave the RAID as is with the question mark unless someone else tells me its a problem.

I figured out I have graphics drive 83.xx for the 7900 GTX and I downloaded 84.21 from the SLIZone part of nVidia so I guess I'll update to that. Would you recommend I update the platform/chipset to version 6.85 as well? Any downside?

[jayb1234]

I would hold of on the driver updates for a while untill you see if the machine runs OK with the current versions.

[glc]

If nothing is connected to the Si SATA/RAID ports, disable the Si controller in the bios and the ? should go away. Otherwise, you have drivers to install.

I personally would install the latest NForce and graphics drivers.

[akaji]

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

I was having BSOD's every hour or so the second day I was running - was pulling my hair out. When I disabled all TSR's it stopped. When I restarted McAfee they came back - hopefully problem solved. Replaced McAfee with AVG (looking for something with fewer tentacles than MCAFEE or Norton)

I have updated chipset and graphics drivers without catastrophe.

Have been unable to update BIOS - posted my issues in the MOBO forum.

If I'm not mistaken the SI RAID controller is disabled by default in the BIOS, but I will check.

If the nVidia RAID controller is enabled, can I disable it since I am not using a RAID, or do I still need to have it enabled since I have HD' connected to SATA 1 and SATA 2?

[glc]

I don't have the details of your exact bios, but on other boards, you would set the controller to emulate IDE or to "enhanced" - and disable only the RAID function.

[akaji]

BSOD's still with me unfortunately - looks like it wasn't McAfee. Updated Mobo Bios to latest 1103.

Crashing randomly naming nv4_disp.dll most of the time as the culprit.

Nice.

[Alaron]

Follow dll issue here: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=158237