Hi all, Have Acer Extensa e264. Came preinstalled with Linpus Linux. I am trying to get rid of this and install XP I have reformatted the drive completely, but when I start the XP install I get a BSOD. I think my problem maybe because I need to install ahci drivers at the start of the installation. I have looked on Acer's website and they only have drivers for vista. Can anyone advise how I can get xp installed. Could I take the drive out and put in another machine to install XP?

If you can get into the BIOS you could try changing the SATA mode to IDE-then you wouldn't have to install the ahci drivers.

thanks - have already looked, but cannot find an option to change the mode. In the meantime I have found sata drivers for a different model that are possibly doing the trick - I'm halfway through the install now without any bsod!! thanks for the reply

some where in the advanced config there is an option to make sata drives act like raid or act like ide. For the installation they need to act like ide. After install you can switch back to raid, but windows xp was made before raids were popular so it doesn't really like them during installation. you may also be able to use your bios utility to set up a proper raid, but single drives configured as raid have problems. Intel DP35DPM Socket 775 Motherboard Intel Quad Core Kentsfield 2.4Ghz Q6600 CPU Ultra 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel 2X1024

So Simon Cleaver, please let us know if your install was successful. Rich Gu

Hi all, thanks for the help. I eventually got the os installed by using acpi drivers for a different model from the asus site. Problem is they don't supply XP drivers for e264 machine, but from an italian forum I luckily managed to translate that the drivers for the veriton M264 would work ok. So, XP is installed and my local vet (who's machine it was) is very happy!!!!!!!!!!!!! many thanks for the help