inf/ intel/gigabyte issue

[con2rol]

hi
i just bought an intel core 2 duo processor e6750 and a gigabyte motherboard (GA-P31-DS3L 1.0) and i installed an win xp home edition version but its not ACTIVATED yet.. i put in the cd that came with the mother board and clicked XPRESS INSTALL.. the first thing to install with yahoo toolbar then the next thing that came up was (INF file update) thingy.. that lasted for TOO Long about 30 mins (n.b there was a window add hardware wizard in the background that showed the screen where it says hardware installed click finish to close window so i closed it).. back to the INF setup window that lasted for 30 mins... when i gave up i shut down the computer from the start>shut down windows option.....

when i opened the computer again and put in the motherbooard CD or rather DVD.. it said "xpress install will CONTINUE installing) and it showed the list of things to install and INF utility had "driver installed" next to it ...(HOW COME.. i shutdown while it was running)....and then xpress installer finished through the list and rebooted....

then i go check in the device manager and every thing is fine, ie (no yellow question marks) and most of the items under "system devices show "wroking propely" in theur properties list including
intel (R) G33/G31/P35 Express chipset PCI Express Root Port -29C1
intel (R) G33/G31/P35 Express chipset Processor to I/O controller- 29C0


HOWEVER, the following items under system devices show in their properties " No drivers are installed for this device"
direct memory access controller
intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge- 244E
intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 family) SMBus Controller- 27DA
intel(R) 82802 Firmware Hub device
programmable interrupt controller
system board
system timer
system speaker
motherboard resources----------this one is listed 3 times
numeric data processor




but lan , USB , video card, SATA storage are working fine ( does this mean poor installation)



ALSO on the intel site it had some instruction to check if the INF utility has been installed propely or not which is and this is a quote"
Click Start.
Click Run.
Type in regedit and click OK.
Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Expand Software.
Expand INTEL.
Select InfInst.
To verify installation, if the "InfInst" key exists, look for the "Install" key to have a value of "success."

"


so i did that but the ther was no value of succes just the following "

(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
Infver REG_SZ 8.3.0

"


NOW WHAT TO DO???????

is the fact that win xp is not activated the reason? but then again i cant activate unless i connect to the internet through the realtek ethernet which is not installed unless the INF finishes first.. so i cant run the INF on an activated win xp since i wont be able to connect to the internet..

2- does the fact that there is no "success" value in the regesiter means i dont have a propely installed system even though it appears to function propely UNTIL NOW.


please help as soon as possible

thanks

[Cricket]

Cross post.

Cricket