p5e3-d: not enough space to copy pci option rom; windows unable to find vol/criteria

I decided to enable the raid function on this motherboard..

I was able to raid up 3 of the 4 drives at one point.. i also have a 500gb seagate and a bluray burner on the motherboard..

It seems that one of two things occurs.. (see sig for full hardware list)..

If i disable jmicron esata controller.. i can see the intel matrix manager.. although sometimes the drives have question marks next to their model info like sts9392?????

If i leave jmicron enabled.. i get this:

option rom will not be loaded (right when intel screen should appear) and at very end.. "no enough space to copy pci option rom" [00:1f:02], yes it says "no" instead of not

So, if i leave the jmicron connected, i can boot to the Vista DVD and attempt to install to the harddrive (C drive)..

I end up with a "windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria".. it seems it does this no matter which volume i pick or whether i delete and format them.. they always show primary next to them after formatting too..

I even tried to use the add disk option in acronis to get around this error, but it was a no go.

I was able to format vista when i had the bios sata set to either IDE or ACHI.. but not raid..

So..

Is there a workaround for disabling the jmicron.. or for the unable to find disk criteria error..

I'm baffled by this..

I still think it could be ram related (( ocz3g16004gk 8GB total at 1333 out of 1600)).. i dont think the OCZ i bought likes this board and vice versa.

I'm about ready to throw the board and ram out the window and go with an EVGA SLI 790i series board, yes i know its SLI and I have ATI's, but i wont be doing crossfire... It also has a higher native DDR3 speed which may match the OCZ ram, if the ram is actually ok...


Thanks