dencorso

Dave's board is the X5DAE. Attached here's the motherboard manual. It may be of help at this point. @Dave: please confirm I've got the right manual. You might: Turn the machine off. Remove the powe cable. Wait 60 s for all capacitors to discharge. Open the case and use the jumper JP40 to disable the onboard sound. Then boot to safe mode and remove all sound drivers. Then go to add/remove and remove the sound driver there also if possible. Reboot in normal mode in 98 and make a backup. Then, turn the machine off. Remove the powe cable. Wait 60 s for all capacitors to discharge. Open the case and use the jumper JP40 to enable the onboard sound. If all goes well, this time, when you go into 98, you'll have the big yellow question mark at the sound device. Check that everything else is working all right. Then install the sound drivers, as if it were the first time, preferably using the manufacturer's install program. Take care *not to boot* into 2k during the time the sound is disabled, to avoid unecessarily messing with 2k that is working all right. If this doesn't work, we might try to force the sound card into another IRQ, using the 98 device manager. MNL_0680.7z

Yes! Below BIOS level, at PCI Bus level, in fact. Craig's PCI Programs. They're console apps. Generate a report by redirecting the output to a file. Use v. 1.6 in 2k and 1.1 in 98, and compare the logs. Let's see what it finds. If you wish, you may zip the logs and attach the zip here, so we all may muse over them and see whether we find something useful. If that doesn't lead us anywhere, my next suggestion is for you to remove ACPI altogether (after a backup, of course) to see where it leads us. By now, I'm becoming short of ideas, sorry. But, just for the record, and for what it's worth: you're right in thinking that 2k (but not 98) detects all devices independently of what the BIOS says. And to deduce that if the sound works in 2k its hardware must be OK.

Just a long shot: search for MFC42LOC.DLL and, if found, rename it to MFC42LOC_DLL.BAD. Reboot.

hi rik! welcome!

Welcome onboard!

Norton Registry Tracker never worked right. Look out for RegShot 1.8.

IMHO, it's not really off topic. The thread title itself became outdated in view of the developments that unfolded from the Card Reader installation. So, I think we should concentrate into helping you solve your system's issues, but maybe also update the thread title, when we come up with a more adequate one. I don't think "problems arrising from installing nusb" is a fair alternative, because nusb not always lead to such complicated issues. Most of the time it does not. And I agree with Multibooter that a big part of what made this really complicated was the lack of suitable backups. Whatever the title we agree to, I think the thread must be renamed like this: "New Agreed Title (was: Problem Installing Card Reader)". But that's not a pressing matter, and solving Dave's system issues surely is.

Dave: Backup your registry, as always. Then explore the various cobinations of settings under these two tabs: Be aware that some combinations ma render the Win 98 unbootable. If so, just restore the backed up registry from DOS and proceed. The solution may lie here. You might start by disabling IRQ Steereing altogether. If this idea leads nowhere, then I think the next step is to try the idea Multibooter proposed in the above post.

You may have the solution at your hands, Dave... Remember you said: OK, then make another full backup of the present state of your 98 boot partition. Then manually, from DOS, substitute system.dat and user.dat by the ones in your recue disk. Reboot. Lots of things won't work anymore, but probably your sound will work ok. Test it. In case it's ok, go to the device manager and copy the setings it has for the sound card. Then manually, from DOS, restore the up-to-date system.dat and user.dat. Reboot. Enter Device Manager and use the manual configuration to put in place the correct settings for the sound card. Reboot. Hunt for conflicts at the Device Manager. That should be it. Good luck!

The thread pointed to by jaclaz is quite informative and merits careful reading and reflection. So, to add even some more info I take this opportunity to quote one of my older posts, that I thing is relevant here: In any case, Dave-H's Supermicro X5DAE USB sub-system is based on a Intel ICH-4 southbridge, which shouldn't have problems with either USB 2.0 stacks mentioned above. So, I'm sure whatever problems there currently are must be fully software-related, and so, that a good tweaking and experimenting is all that is needed to have everything working as it should.

The way to unhide hidden devices in 98 is by going into safe mode. Do it, and delete *all* sound related drivers that show up. Then reboot into normal mode and install the sound card software using the manufacturer's setup program, not the update drive option, which, BTW, at this point, should not be available to you anymore, if you really removed all existing sound drivers to begin with. It may be necessary to reboot into safe mode more than once, to be able to rid the system from *all* sound drivers, before you can return to normal mode and install the drivers with the manufacturer's installer. Good luck!

Hi, Dave! I'm glad you've solved it! : When jaclaz began participating in this thread I was confident we'd solve the pendrive issue, because, he's the best at it. And at many other difficult and obscure matters, too. jaclaz rocks! But I think you might describe in a little more detail how to recover the pendrive, just for the record. Now, if I'm not mistaken, two issues remain: to get your sound in 98 back to working condition and get nusb working in your system, without removing the manufacturer's drivers for the Phison pendrive and for the card-reader, isn't that so? Well, before we begin any other procedure I recommend full backups of both the system partitions. This is the best backup procedure I can think of. I wrote about imaging software above, so I'll just quote it below: In any case I'm positive you'd be in a much safer position by having one of them and mastering its use. The main advantage is that you make a known-good image, burn it to a DVD, and then you can mess-up your system partition seven-ways-to-Sunday many times in a single day, and every time just fall back to the good image in about 20 minutes, and be ready to start again experimenting.That said, I think Multibooter can be of great help with setting nusb alongside with other drivers. He's got much more experience than I do in this type of setup. But I sure will remain participating in this thread and contributing to it as far as I can.

I agree with you, and disagree with jaclaz, about this. By now I'm positive whatever little blotch there may remain in either registry IS immaterial, at this point. So, jaclaz, please, bear with us and proceed to the low level repair of the pendrive. Sure. It is blotched. But nothing a low level manufacturer tool cannot repair, or, at least, so I hope. But, in the process of repair lets turn it in a garden-variety one-volume pendrive, since you're gonna use the manufacturer's tool. The one-volume device can always be partitioned by normal means, afterwards, if you feel like it, after all.

Sure. Maybe it should be the next problem to resolve. But the best one of us to guide you in the recovery of the pendrive is surely jaclaz, and seeing he's just arrived online, I'll leave you in his most capable hands for now. But do backup your 2k registry before cleaning it. Better safe then sorry. Later we address the remaining issues.

Actually, a better "unxp.reg" file ought to be:: REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion] "Version"="Windows 98" "VersionNumber"="4.10.2222" Dont forget to leave a blank line at the end of the reg file.

@beats & PROBLEMCHYLD: Yes, I can now confirm 7-Zip is able to open .msi and .msp, thanks for the heads up. Last time I tried it, it could not... then I updated 7-Zip many times, but never again tried to open such a file with it, so I wasn't aware of it. Thanks a lot, you both rock!

Sure. Because, normally, NUSB will mount multi-partition HDDs without complaining, but you need to manually tick the removable box in device manager for it to work. I have had a two-partition USB HDD working OK for a long time now, and Multibooter has had success with his multi-card card-readers, after a lot of experimenting.

I think he cannot. But with MsiX.EXE he can all right!

@jaclaz: OK, I believe you. I've seen you succeed at that before. But which manufacturer tool? More info about the Integral ICE USB 2.0 Flash Drive: problema-montando-memoria-usb-ubuntu. It's in Spanish, and the gist of it is that it generally further confirms what we have already found out. @Dave: I'd bet on this one: Kingston 4GB Datatraveler USB Flash Pen Drive (DTI4GB).

Yeah! Well... We started troubleshooting a strange behaviour in 98. By now we've even cleaned up the registry of Dave's 2k alternate boot... While there's no harm in that, the 2k was working perfectly well. Problems in 98, then in 2k, for me point to the flashdrive. A brand-new DTI or DT100 is a well-know device with predictable behaviour. We cannot possibly trobleshoot all at once. I'm positive jaclaz can eventually get the Integral pendrive working OK, unless it's defective in the hardware. But, by now, I'm not even sure it wasn't that pendrive the actual origin of Dave's problems to start with. The first pendrive I ever bought died suddenly one day, but was perfectly reliable until that day. Hardware fails, and the worst type of failure is becoming defective while seeming OK, not dying suddenly. And this just might be the case here. As I understand it, Dave's 2k is working perfectly, even after our messing with it, but for how it detects the suspect pendrive. 98 is not perfect still, but back to working shape, and detecting the suspect pendrive just like 2k. And then there's these reports we found elsewhere that reinforce the idea the suspect pendrive is not your average garden-variety. So, I'm for putting it aside and getting one we can trust to test and troubleshoot 98 until its back to shape and to remove any shadow of doubt that may now be lingering over how OK is the 2k. And I'd also let the 2k alone, for if we mess up both systems Dave will be cut out from the forum for lack of computer to comunicate from, and that we surely don't want to happen. And yes. Of course, you were the first to suggest this line of action. And, by now, I agree 100% with you.

I'm finally back, after a quite long day. Let me see whether I undestood correctly: now both 98 and 2k see the pendrive as two different unpartitioned volumes, but 2k thinks they're removable and 98 thinks they're fixed disks? Does Lexar Boot-It detect it? I think we're dealing with too many variables at the same time. Would you consider buying yourself an el-cheapo Kingston DataTraveler DTI or DT100 pendrive of, say. 1 or 2 or 4 GB? It sure would help having a known alternative one-volume-only pendrive to help us sort things out. It seems the pendrive you've got is really a very peculiar one. Do read this. Also visit this page: is your pendrive the "Integral ICE USB 2.0 Flash Drive" (it's the last drive in the dropdown menu)?

Do one or both USB ports work in DOS? To me it looks like hardware failure.

upd ya bios

@Dave: [about 98] Haven't you perchance made some backup of your registry files from the time we were dealing with the Puzzling Registry Size Issue? Those would be newer and very handy right now. Look out for them, please. BTW, it's possible that, by just substituting SYSTEM.DAT (manually from true DOS) for the one you had saved will be enough to get your system working OK again! [about 2k] There may be a fast solution to the pendrive problem: get scrubber from KB277222 (it's intersting to note that the correct version of it, v. 5.2.3790.238, is offered for "Win 2k SP5"... ), install and run it. It's a comand line console app that will remove all relevant entries for all mass storage devices that exist in your registry but are not actually attached to the system at the time it's run. So, if you run it without your usb mass storage devices it'll do the necessary clean-up and then you may redetect 'em upon inserting 'em. I know it works and it's safe to do it. But you may wish to create a restore point or a manual backup of the registry files befor proceeding, just to be on the safe side. BTW, AVID stopped redistributing scrubber, so the links on my old post about it are outdated. It also stopped providing scrubber's 2k documentation, so please find it attached below. And last, but not least, scrubber does create and then compress the system file. But it doesn't actually install the compressed version. If you look into \Windows\System32\Config after you've run scrubber you'll find 3 files: SYSTEM, SYSTEM.SC0 and SYSTEM.SCC... now, from true DOS, you must rename SYSTEM to SYSTEM.ANT and SYSTEM.SCC to SYSTEM (without any extension). Then reboot into 2k and all should be well, and the removable mass storage devices removed. So, now, insert your pendrive and let's see what 2k does. Good luck! N.B.: Scrubber.exe v. 5.2.3790.238 works both for Win 2k SP4 and Win XP SP3. AVID_Scrubber_DOC.7z

@Dave: Multibooter is right: get chipgenius, run it with the pendrive in 2k and post a screenshot of it, please. And while you're at it, grab also the Lexar Boot-It here. Neither need installation, so you can just extract them each to its own directory and use them right away, afterwards. Before things went wrong, do you remember whether 2k gave you an "Eject" option in the context menu of the pendrive? I bet it didn't and the only way to stop it was through the "Unplug or eject hardware" icon in the system tray.