hi foilks i have acquired a new AMDX64 500 with sli motherboard so i statred to load windows home edition and it prepares the initial installation drivers etc then just before the agreement page you know where you press f8 to accept term etc it goes into a blue screen. could this be drivers or is it more likely to be hardware. Any input from a knowlegable source would be most welcome.

Try slipstreaming your motherboard drivers into your windows CD using a program called Nlite.

Also ensure that in the BIOS, SATA RAID is OFF, and SATA is set to IDE Emulation Mode. Also ensure that Bootsector Virus Protection is OFF.

i have a ? when you do this ,"SATA is set to IDE Emulation Mode" do you turn it back on after you install winxp ,thanks ,sorry to butt in

if its not in emulation mode, you cannot install xp unless you nlite in the chipset drivers
thats because XP does not natively support SATA

that i realize ,my question was when i set it to emulate ,do i change it back in the bios after the install of xp

yes. install windows, install the chipset drivers then change it.

do it before anything else as sometimes it BSODs

getting full SATA support in XP is tricky

Going the F6 route is easier than using IDE Emulation for XP installation, and then switching back, because if you do not alter the reg and copy in the drivers before changing the BIOS modes you will get a bluescreen. Quite naturally, the procedure is well [as in profusely, not necessarily finely] documented on the web... but at least for Asus mb with Intel chipsets it is much simpler than they make out....

F6 method is the same as nliting the drivers. Its better to nlite as most rigs dont have a floppy any more.