I have installed Win98SE on the first (2 GB) partition of a SATA drive - after experimenting to find the right BIOS settings (IDE configuration set to Compatible Mode, drive on SATA-2). However set-up cannot find the graphics or sound card. When I install the nvidia drivers (despite being told the hardware is not there) the system crashes. This means I only have the Standard VGA drivers and no sound.

I read in this forum, that Win98 does not support PCI-Express. Is this really true? Any workarounds?

If true, this would explain the graphics card issue, but not the sound card.

How can I let Win98 access the hardware?

Mobo: ASUS P5GD2 Deluxe
Graphics: PCI-Express: ASUS Silencer w/ nvidia GeForce 6600 chipset
Sound: Soundblaster Audigy (PCI slot)
2 optical drives on P-ATA

Look at the below site.

Note:You do have DX9.0
installed don't you?

http://www.jungo.com/windriver_windows.html

Hey!I didn't notice your username Agapanthus.......

Beautiful blooms on an Agapanthus.

Lily of the Nile.

http://www.agapanthus.org.uk/

First, have you made the necessary adjustments so 98 will run stable with a gig of RAM? Secondly you need to make sure you have the 98 motherboard/chipset drivers installed.

If the PCI express card came with 98 drivers then I'd think the card would work OK with 98.

I think I have another problem. I have an ascentia 950-N AST 1995 laptop (it was a gift, I cannot afford another one) There are a few useful keys in its keyboard, I started using an external keyborad an mouse, I had to configure in its setup, but since the battery is broken its impossible for me to configure it.

Question: Is there any way to start my laptop using the external mouse and keyboard by default? I don't know, using a rescue disk or any kind of program. It has WIN98

Thaks in advance
billy@cristal.hlg.sld.cu

Thank you

Again, it's probably a good idea to start a new thread on that.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

1. DirectX 9.0
My understanding is that you install the graphics drivers, then the audio drivers and then the latest DX. Since I have been unable to install the drivers I have not yet updated to the latest DX.

2. WinDriver by jungo.com
Looks like I have to write my own driver here. If all else fails, I may give it a go, but would like to try simpler solutions first!

3. Agapanthus.
Actually named after an ogre (whose hair is blue, like that of all ogres, except of course that of his daughter Vermilion). Thanks for the link though. I’d never seen the flower before and I think in future I will say I chose the name for the flower - rather than an ogre ... ;-)

4. Necessary adjustments for 1 gig RAM
What adjustments are those?
Having checked the Microsoft KB I have now added MaxPhysPage=1FFF (i.e. 512MB) in System.ini as instructed in KB181966. On rebooting, the OS found all sorts of new hardware devices for which it tried to find drivers (e.g. PCI card, PCI bridges, Unknown Device etc.). I would estimate there were 20 to 30. After some, it rebooted, once into a blue screen warning me about 32-bit Real Mode Drivers (?), after which it could no longer read the CD-drives and therefore could not find the drivers on the Win98SE install disk!

So maybe this is the right approach - for the moment though, it leaves me with a very unstable Win98SE (and still no graphics drivers etc.). KB253912 mentions reducing the size of the file cache, but that appears to be a Win95/WfW3.11 issue.
What adjustments need to be made - and when?
(Is there a way of adding the MaxPhysPage line while installing the OS for the first time?)

5. Chipset drivers
The CD that came with the ASUS motherboard claims not to run under Win98SE. Instead I have downloaded and installed the latest drivers for the 915P chipset from the Intel website.

You can download some screen shots of RAM modifications here:

http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=371311

And check Whitphil's comments here:

http://computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/165152.html

Usually when you intend to use a lot of RAM with 98 the best way to get windows installed is to just temporarily remove some of it. Then install windows, make the changes and add the ram. Then install the motherboard/chipset drivers.

As you found out, many motherboard manufacturer's don't supply 98 drivers. They then say the motherboard 'is designed for windows XP'. Of course all you need to do is locate the necessary drivers through another source.

The problem of not being able to access the cdrom to load drivers can be solved by copying the cd to the hard drive using a bootdisk with cdrom support. Boot with the bootdisk and choose cdrom support. Pay attention to the last few lines that load prior to the final a:\> prompt as that will indicate the cdrom drive letter (most bootdisks temporarily change that letter).

Then at the a:\> prompt type md c:\win98 and enter. That creates a directory on your hard drive named 'win98'. Then with the 98 cd in the cdrom type copy X:\win98\*.* c:\win98 and enter, where X: is the cdrom drive letter indicated when you booted up. That will copy the necessary files from the cd to the hard drive.

Then whenever the driver installation process asks for the 98 cd just click OK or NEXT or whatever gets it to the next page. It'll respond saying it can't find the file and ask where else to look. Type in c:\win98 (the directory you created with the 98 files) or browse there and it'll find the drivers it needs there.

Once you get all the motherboard drivers installed the OS should see the cdrom and you can install the other drivers--video, sound, etc. in the normal manner.

I have now done the following:

1. Copied Win98SE installation files from CD to HD.
2. Copied appropriate chipset files for ICH6 (Intel 915 Express Chipset family) to the same directory, as recommended by Intel for "Installation before OS".
3. Run Win98SE setup. (One blue screen while seeking PnP hardware, after that no problems).
4. Modified System.ini to allow for 1 gig RAM (cannot reduce RAM because just one 1G stick)
5. Rebooted

The result is a running Win98SE system ... which is still flawed.

a. I cannot load the Nvidia drivers (says: „Graphics chipset not found“) for PCI-e graphics card
b. The Soundblaster software claims to install the drivers for the PCI audio card, but there is still no sound and the Device Manager does not list an audio device.

Any more ideas?

If the video drivers you're installing are the correct ones I'd think perhaps 98 needs additional PCI-E drivers. That ought to be part of the chipset drivers but maybe not. But check nvidia's site for newer drivers. That may be all you need to do.

Before installing new drivers you need to have the current video adapter as one of the generic ones. That means either go to add/remove programs and uninstall the current adapter drivers or, if they don't show there, manually change the adapter. Check my #3 here:

http://computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/156610.html

to do it manually.

For the soundcard, device manager should show either the sound card setup OK or marked as (usually) 'PCI multimedia audio device' accompanied by a yellow ! or ?. In the second case the drivers obviously need to be installed. If neither shows I'd think there's a problem with the sound card. Check to make sure you've got the right drivers.