I recently purchased an LG GGC-H20L Bluray/HD-DVD combo drive from Newegg.com and installed the Cyberlink software bundle (and upgraded to a full install of PowerDVD 7.3 as well). I have been able to play Blu-ray DVDs however when I attempt to load an HD-DVD I get an immediate blue/screen reset (running WinXP SP2 obviously).

I am running an HTPC built on a Tyan Thunder K8WE-S2895 (dual Opteron) motherboard:

http://tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=151

and an EVGA 8800GTS 512MB PCIe card.

I am currently using a Sony KDL-40XBR4 as a "monitor" via HDMI... there is a quirk w/ this LCD-TV where I need to connect both the PC and HDMI inputs (and configure the 8800GTS for dual+cloned monitors) however I don't think this is significant.

I have updated the firmware for the GGC-H20L (v1.02) and will be verifying the SATA drivers for the motherboard as well (they were up to date as of a couple months ago).

Has anyone else experienced this problem & if so, is there any known software workaround for this as I've limited space left on the board for adding PCI SATA converter cards and such...?

HELP!

BTW also, the GGC-H20L is connected to via my K8WE motherboards integrated SATA port...

This is a NF-4 SATA controller is it not? This is not good news.

Your BSOD message should include a file name for the offending driver. With a NF controller, all BIOS settings must be right, and the right driver installed.

You might consider installing a PCI SIL-3114 controller as the shortest route to a trouble-free HTPC.

In addition to CDan suggestion... From the above bold text, which one is correct, are you able to play Blu-ray or play DVD?

If you are able to play Blu-ray without issue then you should be able to play HD DVD. Which HD DVD titles that give issue?

From other forums there are reports that a few HD DVD discs are defective, ie Bourne Ultimatum, and some members reported that they have to exchange their disc a couple of times since their standalone player cannot recognize or playback properly.

I think my motherboard uses an older Nvidia chipset for SATA... NVIDIA nForce Professional 2200 (CK8-04)... is this what you are referring to?

My problem is that I have my ARC-1120 RAID card already riding on one of my PCI-X (133Mhz) slots, my lone PCI is taken by the Hauppage tuner card, leaving only a pair of PCI-X (100Mhz)... I could possibly place the SIL 3114 on one of these but this may slow down or conflict with my existing ARC PCI-X card and since this carries my primary OS partition I'd like to avoid this particular path if at all possible...

...and besides I feel that I should be entitled to use at least one of the existing 4 integrated SATA ports... I mean, jeez, the GGC-H20L cost me 300+ bucks it should at least be compatible...

anyways

I found a thread:

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewt...r=asc&&start=0

that seems to suggest download a UDF driver for HD-DVD:

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7971

but I'm not sure if this is relevant to my issue and my installation of XP is up to date and the issue I'm having seems to be a basic hardware conflict more than an OS issue... although I've been wrong before.

"Your BSOD message should include a file name for the offending driver. With a NF controller, all BIOS settings must be right, and the right driver installed."

I will look the next time I get a BSOD and see what driver it singles out.

What BIOS settings specifically should I pay attention?

It is compatible, it's the controller that's not. Varies a little by board. All settings should be for "IDE mode", with the appropriate driver installed. In device manager, you can alternate between the NV driver for the listed IDE channel and the default MS driver. Whichever works best.