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Windows* XP Professional and Home Edition
After installing the operating system and the latest Service Packs, it is highly recommended you install the drivers in the order they are presented here.
Setting up a RAID System
A list of Intel® Desktop Boards that support RAID is found HERE.
Intel® RAID Technology for Serial ATA is supported with Microsoft* Windows XP. The RAID driver MUST be installed before the operating system is installed. The following steps outline how to build a RAID system with Microsoft Windows XP installed on a RAID Volume using two SATA hard drives.
- Assemble the system using a motherboard that supports Intel RAID Technology and attach at least two SATA hard drives.
- Enter System BIOS Setup; ensure that Intel RAID Technology is enabled. When done, exit Setup.
- Upon re-boot you will see the Intel RAID BIOS status message on the screen - press CTRL-I to enter the Intel® RAID Option ROM user interface. Within this UI select option #1 'Create RAID Volume'. Enter a volume name, press enter, select the strip size (128KB is the default), press enter, press enter again, then press 'Y' to confirm. Once this is done, exit the Option ROM user interface.
- Begin Windows XP Setup by booting from the installation CD.
- At the beginning of Windows XP Setup, press F6 to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver. When prompted, insert the floppy disk containing the Intel RAID driver. After reading the floppy disk, the 'Intel® 82801FR SATA RAID Controller' will be presented - select this driver to install.
- Finish the Windows XP installation and install all necessary drivers.
- Install the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager software via the CD-ROM included with your motherboard or after downloading it from the Internet. This will add the RAID utility that can be used to manage the RAID configuration.
For additional RAID information, refer to Troubleshooting Serial ATA / RAID Issues.
Loading Un-Signed Drivers
Windows XP looks for a driver "signature" before loading any third party drivers. A digital signature verifies that Microsoft has validated the driver for use with Windows XP. Device drivers that have not yet been certified by Microsoft will pop up a message stating so. If the 'Digital Signature Not Found' dialog appears, click 'Yes' to continue installing the driver.
Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility (INF Update Utility)
There are resources in Intel chipsets that are not automatically recognized by Windows XP. It is critical that the INF utility is installed in order to enable chipset features and optimize performance with Intel® Pentium® 4 processor-based systems.
Note:
It is also critical that the INF utility is installed first before any other drivers. The INF can be installed from the Intel® Express Installer CD or you may download the latest Intel INF utility from Download Center.
Integrated LAN
The drivers for the on-board LAN adapter can be installed from the driver CD or you may download the latest LAN adapter driver from Download Center.
Integrated Audio
The drivers for the on-board audio can be installed from the driver CD or you may download the latest audio driver from Download Center.
Integrated Graphics
The drivers for the on-board graphics can be installed from the driver CD or you may download the latest audio driver from Download Center.
Intel Matrix Storage Manager (RAID)
Intel Desktop Boards that support RAID use Intel Matrix Storage Manager. If you are using Parallel ATA (IDE) hard drive(s), you should be able to use the Microsoft native storage driver built into Windows. The Microsoft native storage driver supports both Serial ATA and Parallel ATA hard drives.
Additional information:
Enabling Hi-Speed USB 2.0
Windows XP Service Pack 1 must be installed to support Hi-Speed USB 2.0. Windows XP Service Pack 1 is available from Microsoft's support web site at: http://support.microsoft.com.
† Hi-Speed USB 2.0 must be manually enabled on Windows XP systems that have been upgraded to Service Pack 1.
To manually enable Hi-Speed USB 2.0 once Service Pack 1 has been installed, complete the following steps:
- Open the Device Manager for Windows XP.
- In the Other devices list, double-click the Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller.
- Select the Driver tab at the top of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller Properties window.
- Click on the button labeled Update Driver.
- Click on the Next button.
- Click on the Finish button.
- Click on the Close button.
Hi-Speed USB 2.0 should now be enabled. Close the Device Manager and continue to install the necessary drivers using the Intel® Express Installer CD.
Microsoft* DirectX 9
Installation of Microsoft DirectX version 9 or later is strongly recommended in order to take advantage of the additional SSE2 instructions of the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor. However, Windows* XP Professional and Home Edition include DirectX v8.1 by default so a software update is required to take advantage of these new instructions. For the latest version of DirectX, go to the Microsoft* DirectX website.
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To view the current version of DirectX loaded on any given platform, use the Find option under the Start menu and locate DXdiag.exe. The DirectX Diagnostic tool can help you troubleshoot your DirectX installation as well as display the version of DirectX that is installed on your system.
Power Management Settings
The Power Options applet in the Control Panel dictates sleep operation. Here are some common settings:
Power Schemes tab:
- Power Scheme: "Home/Office Desk"
- Turn off monitor: This setting can be any desired time. If this setting is a time greater than the "System Standby" option, Standby will occur first, making this setting unused.
- Turn off hard disks: This setting can be any desired time. If this setting is a time greater than the "System Standby" option, Standby will occur first, making this setting unused.
- System Standby: The amount of idle time before the system enters the sleep (S1 or S3) state.
Advanced tab:
- "Power Buttons" option: Change the "When I press the power button on my computer" option to "Standby". This will enable the system to go to standby (S3) state instead of shutdown when the power button is pressed.
IEEE 1394 (Optional)
A Microsoft patch for 1394a is required for Windows XP. The patch has been included in the Windows XP Service Pack 1 release and is available from Microsoft's support web site at http://support.microsoft.com.
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Third Party Drivers
You'll need to load the drivers for any third party hardware components you plan to install in your PC. Refer to the documentation that comes with such hardware for complete instructions on installation.
Click here for operating system troubleshooting.
† This link will take you off of the Intel Web site. Intel does not control the content of the destination Web Site.
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