Try SP2 and post the results.Apparently,SP3 has some problems with old systems,and probably that's why.

Managed to launch WinXP SP3 in safe mode, then managed to launch full XP after downgrading the HDD to PIO mode.

Looks like XP works while the HDD is in PIO mode, but crashes in DMA mode 😵 . Isn't theoretically this GA-5AX board ATA66 able?

see here:

Re: Socket 7 mobos; what are the IDE-based HDD options?

you have a 4.1 board, maybe it has the ata33 chipset.

also see here:

gigabyte 5ax-rev5.2 sux in windows2000!

regarding other issues with 2000 etc on that board

My Rev 4.1 board is ATA33 and not ATA66, so keep that in mind.

Maybe it would be easier just to buy a cheap ATA66/100/133 PCI card? I'm not sure which is the best, but i hear good things about the Promise PCI IDE controller cards (thinking about getting one for my Intel SE440BX-2 board 😀).

PowerPie5000 wrote:

Maybe it would be easier just to buy a cheap ATA66/100/133 PCI card? I'm not sure which is the best, but i hear good things about the Promise PCI IDE controller cards (thinking about getting one for my Intel SE440BX-2 board 😀).

I have that thing onboard and it completely refuses to run with my CF card.

No way man 😵 .

Tried DMA modes 2, 1 and 0 in for the HDD in BIOS. Crash, crash, crash 😵 . Even if I disable DMA and leave only PIO enabled in BIOS for the HDD, XP crashes while installing ('cause it always automatically sets for DMA, whatever I set in BIOS).

Only after setting 'PIO only' for the HDD while in safe mode does Win XP start and run correctly (at a crawl 😒 ).

The crazy thing is, XP sets the DVD-ROM in the second IDE at DMA-2 (ATA-33), as I see in device manager. And it works OK! 😕

So there is ATA-33 support in this board, but only works for the DVD-ROM at IDE-2, not for the HDD at IDE-1. 😕

I have another Super-7 board, PC-Chips M577 (supossedly a piece of crap compared to the mighty GA-5AX) and WinXP installs and works perfectly @ ATA-33, damn it.

Maybe some special drivers are needed for the GA-5AX to work OK with WinXP?

Don't know what more to try, short of throwing this board out the window 🤣 .

And you are really sure, you jumpered the drives correct and plugged them to the correct connector on the cable?
Master has to be at the End and Mainboard at the other End, Slave on the middle connector.
The longer cable part between mainboard and slave...

I suppose it doesn't help to ask - what do you need XP on a socket 7 for?

Any game [or indeed other software] requiring XP is going to need a lot more than a socket 7 cpu to run well?

As the GA-5AX rev4.1 is ATA-33 tops, I'm now using 40-wire cables (not 80-wire).

The HDD is jumpered 'master', plugged to the middle of the cable, which is then plugged to board IDE 1.

DVD-ROM is jumpered 'slave', plugged to the end of the second cable, which is then plugged to board IDE 2.

As per these instructions: http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/howto_con … ect_ide_hd.html

That is wrong, as the Master terminates the cable.
Also a Single Slave on one cable is an undefined configuration.

The DVD-ROM works equally OK, either jumpered 'master' or 'slave', at the end of IDE-2 cable. All the time working ffine in DMA-2.

The HDDs crash equally bad, either at the end or at the middle of IDE-1 cable, either jumpered 'master' or 'slave', whenever 'DMA if available' is selected in device manager.

In 'PIO only' the HDDs work OK, if only 'quick as a russian meteor'. 🤣

I throw the towel 😢 , unable to make the HDDs work in DMA mode with the GA-5AX board under Win XP.

Searched for chipset drivers, but apparently neither Gigabyte nor ALI ever released XP drivers for the GA-5AX. The ones I can find are only for 98/NT/2000 and don't even install under Win XP.

It's a real pity 'cause the K6-2+ scales fairly well with little extra voltage.

I don't see the point, why you stick with this rather exotic setup to the much more modern XP and complain about unreleased drivers.
I also would like to note that overclocked IDE can cause HDDs to die or behave unreliable.

There is http://alter.org.ua/soft/win/uni_ata/

How sure are you that the board is stable? I'd try memtest86 at a 3% bus overclock, if that fails then it won't be reliable and could have all sorts of weird problems. You could also try mprime (similar to Prime 95) on the "Ultimate Boot CD".
I've had machines that produced some particular glitch every single time while trying to install Windows, and it turned out to be caused by hardware instability. You'd think such errors would be random, but they end up being rather deterministic.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

There is http://alter.org.ua/soft/win/uni_ata/

Thanks, that's a very interesting link. Unfortunately the universal drivers didn't solve it and the problem persists: With 'DMA if available' after some seconds of WinXP splash screen, the HDD makes a nasty low-pitch scratching sound four times, then BSOD. Then after safe mode and 'PIO only' XP starts OK.

I've tried half a dozen different IDE cables, so it's not the cable.

The two HDDs I'm trying are both Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB. Both work OK in DMA in other ancient comps (i440BX, PC-Chips M577).

The crazy thing is: The DVD-ROM works OK at 'DMA if available' DMA-2 ATA-33, plugged either in IDE-1 or IDE-2 channels 😲 😕 😵 .

The system passes one hour of memtest without errors and Prime95 stable both at 6x100 and 6x110.

It's just the HDDs while in DMA breaking the party. 😒

I personally installed XP on a GA-5AX and it ran fine. I don't know if it had the same revision as yours. FWIW, a K6-III+ ATZ worked with 1.6V, maybe you can deduce the revision from that. (If absolutely necessary I could look up the revision but it might be weeks until I have access to that box.)
I don't remember if SP3 was installed at some time, I'm pretty sure that I didn't have SP3 integrated with the install CD.
Drive was quite old, below 10GB, so it probably hat no ATA-66 support.

About the driver: I thought I installed the 2000 drivers in W2k but maybe I'm remembering that wrong. I also may be possible that I upgraded from 2000. (2000 might be a better choice anyway, depending on what you want to use it for.)

i had two 5ax boards, both rev5.2 and rev4.1. i never bothered installing xp on them but they both had no ide issues in 2000.
the rev5.2 has m1543c b1 southbridge which supports udma66 mode and performs very well, actual reading speed varies between 40-60mb which is almost the maximum of the attached drive(80gb).
the rev4.1 has m1543c a1 southbridge which supports only udma33 mode, and actual performance is disappointing, with reading speed sticking at around 10mb, which is far below the 33mb theoretical limit. i wonder whether udma support in all m1543c a1 southbridges are defective or had buggy driver support in 2000/xp, or is it just my board.