>>BTW, does your hardware support AHCI mode for the SATA controller?  Could you try it out?
>
> I will check this. I also want to change my Xen testing temporarily to the
> Dell 755 (VT-d), which also has a VGA monitor (not DVI) so that may
> make testing easier (assuming that the dom0 kernel can work on
> my 755 box).
>
> I'll report back more progress as I can

In the BIOS it has two SATA operation modes.
Normal and Legacy.

If it is set to legacy, the Xen kernel stops dead at
the initramfs prompt.

Xen boot of Normal and Legacy mode attached.

I will now try to copy my xen config over to the
VT-d (755) box.

Todd

-- 
Todd Deshane
http://todddeshane.net
http://runningxen.com