Installation Help

SCALEO E, SCALEO H, SCALEO X, SCALEO L, SCALEO P

Moderator: ModTeam

armesd
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 20:42
Product(s): ScaleoE

Installation Help

Postby armesd » Thu Feb 19, 2009 20:48

Hi Folks,

Just bought one of these as a barebones from Maplin (£149)

Had some problems with a 500GB SATA II drive (Maxtor) so have dropped in the Maplin recommended Hitachi 320GB model instead. When I try to install either XP MCE 2005 or Vista - it finds no disks and asks for the drivers for the SATA controller.

I have tried to get to the driver section for the Scaleo E, but everytime i put in my serial number it goes into an eternal loop and I never get to the drivers.

Has anyone else got sufficient files/know how to get this box up and running - ideally with MCE 2005?

Thanks

Dave

hawkeye101
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 21:49
Product(s): Scaleo e

Re: Installation Help

Postby hawkeye101 » Sat Feb 21, 2009 21:58

Having EXACTLY the same problem. from what i gather the drivers needed to be loaded from a floppy which is handy. have found this product hilarious so far, like having to press 'Enter' to start installation before you can install the wireless keyboard they supply! Genius!
don't know if this sheds any more light on it, but when trying to install xp where normally it gives you a list of drive to create partitions on, it lists 4 unkown drives. none of which are can you actually select....

Starting to realise why Maplins knocked 100 quid off the price!

james61267
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 14:19
Product(s): Scaleo E media player

Re: Installation Help

Postby james61267 » Sun Feb 22, 2009 14:32

Hi,
I've had the same problems as you, there is very little support out there for this barebones. I devised a work around to get started. :twisted:

I've used a sata dvd player instead of a normal ide and used an ata(ide) HDD in place of a sata HDD, by doing this you don't need the sata drivers for windows xp or vista to detect your hard drive upon installing your OS. :D Now your sorted !

armesd
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 20:42
Product(s): ScaleoE

Re: Installation Help

Postby armesd » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:23

Guys,

Thanks for the validation that I am not completely mad. Have already done the IDE hard disk fix to get the machine installing (just wanted to see if it was worth it before investing too much more time).

XP MCE 2005 installed ok, but as soon as I try and install the graphics accelerator files from the included CD, first of all the install locks up, then I keep getting error messages from the media center services, also noted that the control panel install file says its for Vista...

I think I am gonna have to take this (and the 320GB disk) back to the shop and let them keep it. At £150 for a system that I have the disks - the DVD writer, the OS and additional memory for, it was a good deal - if I have to invest another £150 to get it working and spend probably another £100 on the premium rate support line, then I guess a new core2duo laptop starts to look much easier as a media center PC for the lounge.

Any more suggestions before I throw this fishy back in the water?

Thanks
Dave

armesd
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 20:42
Product(s): ScaleoE

Re: Installation Help

Postby armesd » Mon Feb 23, 2009 19:55

Folks,

Another update to save someone else some time.

Spoke to customer services today and they said that the machine only support up-to 250GB Sata drives.... They have now updated their information to stop everyone at Maplin trying to sell you a 320GB drive with the unit...

Purchased a 250GB Hitachi drive from PC World this evening and guess what - exactly the same thing happens... I guess this is something about older SATA drives versus the new SATAII, but have no way of testing this since I can't get hold of an older drive. Going to take this back to the shop tomorrow and will try one more to make sure it is not a problem with the one I have.

I Hope it will work and if anyone who has a fully working machine can share some drivers etc to get me started it would be a great help.

On the assumption that 49 people have looked at this and not commented - I am assuming that at least 50 people have these machines working with XP MCE?

Yours hopefully - Dave

Enlightened
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:06
Product(s): Scaleo E

Re: Installation Help

Postby Enlightened » Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:36

Hi,

I had no problems with the drive but then the one I had lying around was a 250. It did state that it could only handle up to 250 so they must have updated the site!

All of the rest works fine on my Vista setup except for the fact I have no sound either through SCART or through the headphone socket on the front. Device manager says the card is working...

Anyone have any ideas for correcting this?

thanks

Owen

armesd
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 20:42
Product(s): ScaleoE

Re: Installation Help

Postby armesd » Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:56

Thanks Owen,

Found a very helpfull system builder who helped me get grip on this. These systems seem to have a strange issue with windows installation media and SATA drives

Samsung and Hitachi - don't appear to work
Seagate, Western Digital, Maxstor - appear to work ok up to 320GB
Seagate, Western Digital - appear to work at 500GB

Obviously I have only been able to do limited testing on this, but it appears to match my own findings.

The other option is to install onto a working drive (see above or IDE) and then Ghost (or driveimage-xml) the resulting onto the required SATA drive.

As for your issues with sound - i will let you know if I have any problems once the system is up and running, but I am also planning to install an ATI HD3450 which will give video and sound out over HDMI so I can integrate into my amp.

These are available for £40 from res_computers on eBay - Rob was extremely helpfull.

Hope it helps

Dave

Enlightened
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:06
Product(s): Scaleo E

Re: Installation Help

Postby Enlightened » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:56

Dave,

I updated the Vista drivers on my sound card and now have sound to my headphone socket but not the rear phono pins. I will do some more work before following the Maplin support advice of returning it under warranty!!!

Owen

nigelbedord
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2009 16:48
Product(s): scaleo-e media center

Re: Installation Help

Postby nigelbedord » Wed Feb 25, 2009 17:08

hi guys,guess what i,ve got one of these bare bones off ebay,but had same problem with 320gb hitachi sata hard drive,tried everything in the end 80gb sata straight in loaded vista,will use the 320gb in external usb case to store films,etc as know from previous computer losses its not worth having all your stuff on one large hard drive,still have to test sound etc,i have vista driver disk with user manual,front panel display driver ,on board vga driver,tv tuner driver,and wireless network driver that came with the unit,if any one wants a copy for i,ll do you one for the cost of post and packing materials
pm me here and will get back to you
regards
nigel

jimsey
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 0:24
Product(s): Scaleo-E

Re: Installation Help

Postby jimsey » Thu Feb 26, 2009 0:33

Guess what? Same problem. Bought one off e-bay.

I have a 500GB and 1000GB Samsung Spinpoints, windows recognises neither.
Ubuntu recognises the drives perfectly and installs fine, but I can't get TV out to work correctly (just a green mess on the screen)

I can tell you the problematic device is PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2651&CC_0101
I think windows would normally load pciide.sys (the regular pata driver) for this so it seems that is why no intel F6 floppy driver i have tried works


Any luck with Vista?

gadgetfadget
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:41
Product(s): Scaleo e

Re: Installation Help

Postby gadgetfadget » Thu Feb 26, 2009 0:38

don't hold your breath waiting for help from Maplin tech support! They don't have a clue at the moment. It appears that the MB on this system doesn't like the Hitachi drive. People are reporting some success with Seagate and Western Digital drives. I bought a WD drive from Maplin last night or so I thought until I got home to find it was an easystor! :evil: It didn't work either.

Last try tomorrow and then it is getting thrown back at Maplin for a full refund.

abu
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 0:33
Product(s): scaleo E media center

Re: Installation Help

Postby abu » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:05

Hi guys,

i spent the last three days and nights trying to sort the same problem like all of you. i have the same problem. It Maplin that they should have done something about it. i was reading on the Artisan equivalent of this before, and noted that it may not accept disks larger than 250. The HDD that Maplin previously sold as OEM 320 was in fact WD (Western digital). this may explain why previous customers had no problem. the OEM they sell now is Hitachi. I tried everything possible including downloading the chipset drivers from Intel 915 ICH6. and i streamlined them using nLite into vista but did not work. i tried tens and tens of Chipset drivers, but none worked. i tried Win XP and Vista, premium and ultimate etc.. even legacy OSs no effect. i read hundreds of pages for help including the useless FIC website, and Fujitsu-siemens. the serial number on the Maplin one does not work but this refrence worked on Fujitsu-siemens site for all drivers, which they seem to be the right ones according to the accompanying details of the chipset, but i have not tried them to be sure as i could not obviously install the OS yet. here is the refrence number which takes you to all drivers including sound, but ONLY for xp refrence: YSSD010531.

i will take the HDD 320 Hitachi i got from Maplin back, as there advice was wrong and swap it for WD or Seagate 250 as some of you advised.

anybody interested in adding another HDD internally there are some very useful forums on ebuyer that are very helpful. two spaces can be used for additional HDD, under the DVD and behind the DVD under the card riser (needs some drilling holes).

back to installation problem. please keep the post active and updated to help others please. i am sure everyone else is having the same problems.

one of you mentioned about the keyboard not working. it works fine, but you need to push both buttons (the one one keyboard with the wireless waves at left top) and the connect button under the front cover simultaneously to get connected. when idle for few minutes it goes off and will need only to push the wireless button on the keyboard for re-connection.

despite the above if i get this system working, it looks reasonably good with the advantages of being very quiet, can add other hard ware and cards including full height graphics (but limited compatabilties, see ebuyer post for Artisan / scaleo e).

abu

nowhere man
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:00
Product(s): SCALEO E

Re: Installation Help

Postby nowhere man » Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:19

hi, I also bought one of these as a barebones from Maplin and the 320 gb hitachi hard drive, having the same problems downloaded all the drivers but still no joy, so im going down the sata dvd drive and a pata hard drive route, ordered a dvd from ebuyer for £19 and going to fit a hitachi 80gb hard drive, tryed Ubuntu 8.10 and loaded first time.

WinnebagoNut
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 19:12
Product(s): Scaleo E

Re: Installation Help

Postby WinnebagoNut » Thu Feb 26, 2009 19:26

Hi, I also brought one of these units as well, with the hitachi 320gb hard drive. The only way I got it to work was to use the Hitachi feature tool, to adjust the drive interface speed from 3.0Gb/s to 1.5Gb/s. Then I put the hard drive into another PC with a Sata interface and installed the OS onto it there, before putting it back into the Scaleo E Barebones unit. Then I installed all the drivers on the provided CD. It worked for me :wink: . All the Best Vic.

P.s. Use the audio drivers off this site, the ones on the windows disk, don't seem to work.

gadgetfadget
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:41
Product(s): Scaleo e

Re: Installation Help

Postby gadgetfadget » Thu Feb 26, 2009 19:43

Guys

I took both drives back to Maplin for a full refund. I bought a WD 320gb from another supplier dropped it in and hey presto Vista install saw it no problems. :D Model no is WD3200AAJS Maplins information that this machine only support up to 250gb drives is also rubbish! I guess it serves us all right for going to Maplin for PC gear!

The WD 320Gb only cost me £41 to boot. Now to fight with the drivers.

Will keep you posted.


Return to “SCALEO”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest