Asus M4N78 Pro SATA driver issue for Windows 7

Hello,

I just recently purchased an Asus M4N78 Pro motherboard, and was building a system, installed Windows 7RC 64bit and I am running into a bit of an issue. The install went fine and everthing, except for the SATA ports 5 and 6 do not detect the drives attached to those ports. According to teh manual I need to install a driver from the disc, and that is teh problem. The disc apparently will not run under windows 7. Does anyone happen to know where I could get teh particular driver I need? It would be nice to actually use all six of the boards SATA ports. The Asus website was not much help, nor was their customer service line. According to the manual the chipset is NVIDIA GeForce 8300 .... did a search on their site as well and was unable to locate what I need. Any help you guys could throw my was shure would be great.

Thanks,
Brad

Hi Brad,
welcome to the forum..
Wow these drivers are not easy to find but basically you need the (v10.3.0.21) WHQL SATA drivers
http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...hp?t79369.html

These drivers from Nvidia contain the required SATA driver:
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/nforc..._15.16_uk.html


You'll then have to extract the SATA driver part and burn it to disk.

Any problems, let me know...

I was reading the first link and the version mentioned was the version released with the CD.
If the CD is not Installing the required drivers. There is a good chance Windows 7 could be pointed to the driver folder on the CD. If I am reading the data correctly the second link is the same version as the CD driver. However I did not find a Windows 7 64Bit driver. The only driver I found was a Vista 64Bit driver that may need to be install in Vista Compatibility Mode.

True but I'm just assuming the the OP has already tried this and something may be wrong with the original disk... Also I don't think that anyone has released any 7 SATA/RAID drivers yet although vista versions work just fine. (well it does with my set up anyway). Trying the compatibility mode though is at least another option...

Just to add, I find using a floppy is the easiest way to install the drivers which I have to do at the start of a fresh install..Although I have used a DVD disk before now... I'm pretty sure though that Asus boards don't have a floppy connection?

I don't believe so no it doesn't. (no biggie....I don't have a floppy drive anyhow. I tried Ross's link, and since it was a .exe (and I only had a few min before I had to leave for work) I tried running that and it SEEMED to install teh drivers I needed (and a couple others) but no go. I know it isn't a matter of a bad drive as I swapped a another drive I had on one of the other ports and it stilol did not show up) Not quite sure how I would extract the drivers anyway. (hardware I'm good with....software not so much)

This isn't a super huge deal for me as I can work around only having 4 SATA ports until they actually release Win 7 drivers, but man would it sure be nice to have the other optical drive and the other hardrive up and running.

Yes...the actual support disc would not run in Windows 7 64bit for me.....got an "unknown oprating system" type message (or somegthing to that effect)



I appreciate all the feedback though.....if nothing else this is proving an interesting yet frustrating learning experience for me.

I'm trying to remember how you extract the drivers... It's ages since I've had an Nforce board.
When you installed the drivers it should have put a folder somewhere maybe your C drive or Documents. If you look in that the drivers are in there or should be.
You could always try through Device manager and try installing it manually? I've just upgraded my RAID drivers today and thats how I did it. Just remember to click 'have disk' and look for the 'inf'.. (it should 'inf' written in the folder bar below anyway)


Edit: I just reread your post... If the drivers are definately installed (check through device manager) and there's still no go then check your bios. You may need to alter a setting. Not knowing your exact bios i would suggest using your mobo manual as this will point you in the direction for using SATA/RAID set-ups.

All I am really wanting to do is be able to use those two ports to add additional storage to the system. Maybe I'm just a little n00bish here, but can I actually do that with those ports?

Bios-wise I know that was able to update to the latest version...that was one of the first things I did. I've read thru the manual a couple of time actually, and didn't see information that would point me in the direction I needed.

I do appreciate the help though.....I just keep telling myself...learning is fun!

Checkout the screenshot I took of the manual. You'll see some instructions on the bios set up as the ports need to be enabled in the bios otherwise they won't work. It also states that there must be another manual?

I downloaded the manual from here: http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us

This link also contains your drivers ect.. You just have to use the pull down menus to get to your particular board.
I also found a guide here: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD

Well shoot. Tried those drivers last night, and the computer still did not recognize the drives. It does look like those were the correct drivers, so it is obviously operator error on my part somehow. Betcha that I have something set wrong somewhere, or havent changed something that needed to be changed.

I can get a fairly inexpensive card to install into a slot on the mobo that will give me the two ports I need, but no reason to do that if I can get the two working on my mobo. I like a good challange and this is proving to be a doozy to my limited skills!