# ICH5, 875P, P4C800: Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility



## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

Title: ICH5, 875P, P4C800: Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility
Posted: 09-13-2003 11:47 PM

_I originally wrote this article to help Asus P4C800 users avoid the pitfall of not installing an important chunk of software. I decided to try to phrase it more generally, to apply to any user having a motherboard employing any Intel(R) ICH-family chipset. Hope you find it useful...

-clintfan_


INTEL CHIPSET SOFTWARE INSTALLATION UTILITY
If you look for the latest drivers for your Asus P4C800 series motherboard on the Asus download site, besides the drivers for Promise, LAN, ATA, etc., you may notice a mysterious "Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility". Mysterious to me, anyway. There it is found under the "Utility" tab, but effectively it gets you access to drivers: several drivers, in fact. (Note that the Asus download site does not currently provide the latest version, which can be obtained directly from Intel.)

Actually, when bringing up _any_ motherboard that uses a modern Intel ICH chipset family (e.g. 875P/ICH5-IHC5R), the Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility *should be the FIRST driver to install, and it should be installed immediately after installing your Windows operating system.* Asus just provides it because Asus makes motherboards. I wish I had realized all this when I installed my XP Pro! If you don't discover it until later, your options are to live with the problem, reinstall the O/S, or follow the "after" process outlined below.

The purpose of the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility is to give Windows proper knowledge of all the Intel-specific devices internal to your chipset, by providing the needed .INF files, one of Windows' usual configuration mechanisms. Even without these files, many versions of Windows or their Service Packs will by now have acquired enough knowledge to operate chipset devices, but they are forced to run them in _generic_ fashion, which may not yield the most optimal settings. With the aid of this utility, the following generic "Standard" devices appearing in your Windows Device Manager can now be properly configured:

1- PCI Standard Host CPU Bridge
2- PCI Standard ISA Bridge
3- PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI Bridge
4- Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
5- Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller 
6- Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller 
7- SM Bus Controller

Their drivers are already built into Windows, but this utility lets you get them recognized as the right devices, respectively:

1- Intel(R) 82875P Memory Controller Hub
2- Intel(R) 82801EB LPC Interface Controller
3- Intel(R) 82875P Processor to PCI to CSA bridge and 
Intel(R) 82875P Processor to AGP Controller
4- Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
5- Intel(R) 82801EB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
6- Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller
7- Intel(R) 82801EB SMBus Controller

In more general terms, according to Intel the benefits of applying this utility include:

- Identification of Intel(R) chipset components in the Device Manager
- Core PCI and ISAPNP Services
- AGP Support
- IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support
- USB Support

NOTE: If your computer's Device Manager does _not_ appear to show a lot of "Standard" devices off its PCI bus, but instead displays numerous "Intel 828xx" devices, it means you either may not need to, or may already have, run the utility, and do not need to run it again.



GET THE RIGHT VERSION FOR YOUR SITUATION
The utility is Intel-specific, not motherboard-specific. To obtain the latest version, visit the Intel INF site. As of this writing, version 5.0.2.1003 [one of the web titles is wrong] was released August 27, 2003. _(In contrast, Asus' version 5.0.1.1015 [Asus omitted a "." dot] was released on July 28-- Intel claims most versions should work fine, but when we are dealing with their very newest chipsets, it may make sense to get the very latest.)_

From the above Intel site, first click "Get the latest driver". On the second page which appears, choose your O/S from the pulldown then click "Go". On the third page, Intel has provided two downloads and Readme files. Two variants of the same utility are offered: an EXE format and a ZIP format. Each also has an English (en) and multilanguage (autol) version. Click on and save to disk the appropriate version, eoch of which is intended for a specific usage:


Get the EXE version IF you have JUST installed Windows, and are lucky enough to NOT have yet installed any other device-specific drivers for your motherboard, such as Promise, ATA, RAID, video, sound, etc. _(Note this is the same type of install Asus provides for download; although everything on the Asus site is in .ZIP format, don't be confused-- if you unzip that one, you will get the multilanguage EXE, "infinst_autol.exe".)_

Get the ZIP version IF you ALREADY installed Windows _and_ drivers, and now need to backtrack to update your chipset device drivers, or if you already installed the chipset utility and want to update (probably never necessary). Using this version is much more involved than the EXE version, but you're forced. Most people reading this forum thread will likely be in this category.



HOW TO INSTALL BEFORE LOADING OTHER DRIVERS
This is used if, unlike me, you were smart enough to learn about the chipset utility _before_ installing any other Windows drivers. I cannot verify this, but Intel docs suggest you simply launch the EXE utility from its current location on your fresh O/S installation, "follow the on-screen instructions, and use the default settings to complete the setup, once the operating system has rebooted". All the grunt-work will be done. Also, if you have already installed this once, it apparently will prevent a second attempt, to save you from yourself (use the "after" method below instead).

Afterward, install the appropriate driver updates for your other devices, which you either downloaded and unzipped from the motherboard download site (using a different PC with LAN access), or by using your motherboard's install CD to apply temporary base versions with which you can then perform downloads.



HOW TO INSTALL AFTER ALREADY LOADING OTHER DRIVERS
*The rest of this thread pertains to use of the ZIP version of the install,* also called the "Have-Disk" method. This is used if you already installed other Windows drivers before realizing you needed the chipset utility first. The following is a restatement of various Intel instructions, which I found misleading and/or incomplete. There may be more than one way to do certain of these actions...

1. Download the .zip file though the Intel site given above (not the .zip at the Asus site).

(If all you have is the EXE version, there is supposedly a way to force it to extract files too: skip step 2, and in step 5 below, run the EXE file instead of Setup, and use "-A -A" instead of "-A".)

2. Using Winzip or built-in O/S tools, extract all zipped files; this will create a DISK1 folder on your HDD containing about 5 O/S-specific folders plus about 12 other files, including an important Setup tool. Except for Setup.exe, none of the files are usable in their present form-- Setup must be run first. For these examples, extraction created the folder "C:\Asus\DISK1".

3. Create a new target folder to stage your new INF files into; for these examples, folder "C:\Asus\INFInst" was created.

4. Exit all open application programs on your PC, so Setup can be run.

5. Click on Start- Run- and then type,

*C:\Asus\DISK1\Setup.exe -A -P C:\Asus\INFInst*

and click OK. 

The INF setup program will now run under Windows. Although Windows Installer runs, it will not actually install anything, just create some files. Accept all of the confirmations. The program will then fill your new INFInst folder with about 8 new folders, one per chipset, plus several new O/S-specific folders under each. Within the O/S folders will be the needed INF files.

(Note that for 875P chipsets, this creates some files with "865" names instead, but don't worry... somehow Windows still figures out yours is an 875.)

6. Insert a blank formatted floppy in A: 
(It is also possible to direct Windows to the correct HDD folder, but the Readme suggests a floppy; it works, and requires much less clicking and typing).

7. Now, open Explorer window(s) and navigate to the 
"C:\Asus\INFInst\ICH5" folder, since all Asus P4C800 series motherboards have versions of ICH5 chips. If you run Windows XP, now open the "XP" subfolder under this (if you use a different chipset or different O/S, open another appropriate folder\subfolder instead). 

Note:
- the Windows XP folder name is "XP", not "WinXP" as Readme says. 
- the ICH5 folder also supports ICH5R. 
- the same utility supports many other Intel chipsets besides ICH5/875P.

8. Copy all files contained in that subfolder, onto A:\ at the root level. Typically about 9 files will be copied across, and no folders.

9. Again close all open application programs (e.g. Explorer windows).

10. Click on Start- Settings- Control Panel- System- Hardware tab- Device Manager. 

11. Select View- "Devices by connection". 

12. Click on "ACPI Uniprocessor PC", "Standard PC", "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC", or whichever one of these PC type names is displayed above the PCI bus, in the tree for your given system. 

13. Under the PC item, click on "PCI bus" and click (+) to expand it and show the attached devices. 

14. You will now repeat several steps for as many of these chipset devices as you have, about 10 times through:

- PCI Standard Host CPU Bridge
- PCI Standard ISA Bridge
- PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI Bridge
- Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
- Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller 
- Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (up to 4 of these)
- SM Bus Controller

Work your way down the above list, Right-clicking on each instance of each device (this line will become selected). Note that the "SM Bus" device may be marked in (?) yellow as unknown, but you should still select it.

For instance, the first time through, Right-click on "PCI Standard Host CPU Bridge", then continue to step 14.

When no more Standard PCI devices remain, skip to step 24.


15. Choose "Update Driver" from the device pull-down menu. 

16. Windows XP will launch the Upgrade Device Driver Wizard. 

17. Make sure the floppy containing the Windows XP INF files you copied, is in the floppy drive. 

18. Choose "Install the software automatically", which tells the wizard to search the floppy drive.

19. Click on "Next". The floppy will be accessed. Then you will see "Please wait while the Wizard searches..." 

At this point, either the correct driver for your device will be located, or, if you have already installed a similar device, you may see "The wizard could not find a better match for your hardware than the software you currently have installed." Either way, you still need to perform this step on the device, to end up with the correct settings. But you should not get serious errors here, such as could not locate a driver, unless you have targeted a non-chipset device.

20. Click on "Finish".

21. If the system now prompts you to Restart, always click "No", 
because you will restart later.

22. You are now returned to the Device Manager tree.

The old "Standard" device name will disappear, replaced with a device name like "Intel(R) 82801EB Processor to AGP Controller -2579". The position of the device in the tree may change, and it may be hard to visually follow that. Don't worry. Just keep going.

23. Scroll back up to the first "Standard" device remaining under the PCI bus, and go back to step 13. Repeat the steps 14-23 process until all "standard" devices under PCI have been reconfigured. You will have to do this loop about 10 times.


- - - - - -

24. When all devices have been updated, close Device Manager, then close Control Panel. 

25. Restart the system by choosing Start- Shutdown- Restart. The PC should reboot successfully. If desired, re-enter Device Manager to inspect the finished configuration; it should look as before.


This completes the installation of the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility. Your motherboard now recognizes the Intel chipset's built-in internal devices properly.

----------------
_16Sep2003- updated with correct standard device names
02Nov2004- restore the lost list of new device names_


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## yours truly (Sep 21, 2003)

*Thank you Clint*

Wow, Clint, this was a really nice writeup you did. Thank you so much!

After reading this, I did go to the Asus website and couldn't even find the OLD chipset driver installation utility that you mentioned. The Intel site is so mammoth that I would never have discovered the missing chipset drivers.

Nice post, the step by step instructions made upgrading my chipset drivers a piece of cake!

I'll spend the next couple of hours retesting my memory now, to see if that has fixed my Prime95 stability problem (not OC'd)!!!

yours truly


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## jrabolli (Nov 3, 2003)

isnt this chipset software right on the asus disk?
when u first setup isnt it the first thing u load from the disk?
or is this an updated/better one somehow?
j


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

The main point of the article was to clear up the mystery about WHAT this thing was, most importantly WHEN to install it, and to expand and correct Intel's own instructions for HOW to apply it _after_ you had already forgotten to do so.

Yes you are correct, the install CD has a copy of the ICSIU. But it is just some random version, a snapshot in time. Plus, some people get their mobos second-hand and the CD does not come with it. 

Although Intel claims most any version should _work_, the very latest updated version will be available via download from Intel, and it pays to go grab that... the other point of this article.

-clintfan


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## slam (Sep 11, 2003)

pretty good explanation !
it's a pity that MB manufacturers neglect to inform their customers.
I was lucky with my Shuttle FB51, their documentation guides you step by step, and guess what, ... step 1 is indeed "install Intel Chipset driver"
Anyway I copied your explanations to my disk as refererence file.

Gr


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## jrabolli (Nov 3, 2003)

how do i know what version i put on from the disk and if its worth the trouble of putting a new one on

i do know this is an important thing to have right on your computer

clint is the man!

j


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## Judge_Fear (Jul 28, 2004)

*many thx*

clintfan: thanks alot for the explanation.

u sure helped me out there!!!


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## Khaoz (Oct 15, 2004)

How can I be sure if this program is installed right? I used the .exe because I had just installed windows XP and the only driver I had installed is the modem driver so I could come back to this website and read what else I needed to do to finish my Raid 0. How can I make sure this is installed correctly?


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