Jump to content

joe tweaker

Member
  • Posts

    60
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 
  • Country

    United States

Everything posted by joe tweaker

  1. Well, this Amazon review confirms I am not the only one seeing this issue with AcomData. This doesn't prove the drive is at fault, but it certainly lends support to that idea. http://www.amazon.com/review/RS8PPLA6BGJ2X...t#RS8PPLA6BGJ2X
  2. You are correct that I have only tested one flash drive and one USB drive (AcomData) on my system. I have not tested her WD Book Drive on my system as we live miles apart and she has too much data stored on it to "loan it out." But I can state that neither of her TWO external drives exhibit the issues on her system that the AcomData exhibits on mine AND on hers.
  3. I don't think it is actually trying to boot from the USB, because if I do a Step-by-Step confirmation during a restart, it processes my Config.sys, Autoexec.bat, and loads all windows drivers before a BSOD appears. If it were attempting to boot from the USB drive, all these files would be missing as there are no files saved to the USB drive yet. The exact error is listed in post #1 of this thread, third paragraph from the top. I went back and highlighted it just now to make it easier to find. It appears more likely to me that this drive just isn't designed to work correctly OUTSIDE of windows. It refuses to "play nice" when powered ON anywhere OUTSIDE the windows desktop. ie, DOS, BiNG, or while windows is loading. This makes it all but impossible to use third party tools with this drive outside of windows.
  4. But I don't have PM 8.01. I haven't used PM since v3.0. I use BiNG for most jobs now, but for some reason this AcomData unit causes EVERY system I've tested to LOCKUP when it's powered ON outside of windows. Within a windows environment, it's A-OK. But outside windows (ie, DOS and BiNG) it's instant system LOCKUP. So it appears the only hope of resizing it is with a partitioning tool that handles USB from within windows, OR removing the disk from the AcomData enclosure and installing it on an IDE cable in a system with a newer BIOS than mine (ie, one that can "see" a drive > 128GB). Unfortunately, I don't have such a system available whenever I need one! On my ABIT mb it seems the BIOS detects anything > 128GB as a 128GB disk. Apparently the BM6 BIOS also limits what BiNG can do, because BiNG would not permit more than 128GB to be used when it partitioned the 160GB disk.
  5. USBD.SYS 18,928 bytes 09/08/1999 12:46PM <-- version is 4.10.2224 98se restarts without incident when the Memorex Thumb Drive is left in a USB port during a restart. Scandisk reports no surface defects in the first logical drive on the AcomData.
  6. I've learned by a private message that the version I have installed is most likely NUSB v3.1. The USBSTOR.INF in C:\Windows\Inf is 20,771 bytes, and dated 05/12/2007 at 8:48pm. Since I don't know how to remove v3.1, I hope installing 3.3 over 3.1 won't cause any harm.
  7. Yes, I am running BiNG from a floppy on my friend's computer. On mine it is installed on the hard disk, but I get the same result on my computer (AcomData not visible on USB 1.x ports) from the hard drive or the floppy. I'm guessing it's a chipset issue at this point, but I'll probably never be 100% certain. I have no other USB devices except for a 128MB Memorex Flash Thumb Drive, and it has never been plugged in during any tests on the AcomData. I don't think I've ever performed a restart with the Thumb Drive plugged in. I'll give that a test tonight, see what it does, before I start the surface scan.
  8. If I understand right, you have a shutdown problem when your Acomdata USB drive is connected. Have you tried ScanDisk on your USB drive? It doesn't crash while it's shutting 98se down. The crash occurs on the restart, just before the windows desktop should appear, AND ONLY WHEN THE DRIVE REMAINS POWERED ON DURING THE ENTIRE RESTART. When the drive is OFF, windows restarts without any complaints. The drive has NOT caused any abrupt or unexpected errors WHEN IT IS SWITCHED ON AFTER WINDOWS HAS LOADED. Nor has it ever lost any data, or caused windows to shut down while using it. Fact is, at this point, I have not even copied any important data to it, other than for testing purposes. I copied a video to it and then played the video back from the USB drive as a test. And it played the video smoothly and without errors or stuttering. All I desire, that I do not currently have, is to be able to leave the drive POWERED ON when I restart windows, without seeing a BSOD just before the desktop should reappear. A quick scandisk says each partition has no bad blocks and is ready for data storage. I have not yet run a thorough surface scan due to the the time required and because it has not lost any test data copied to it. Since I haven't done this yet, I will start a surface scan on the first logical drive when I go to bed tonight, and let it run while I sleep. But I really don't expect to find any surface defects.
  9. Thanks for that link, dencorso! Now all I need is some way to repartition that drive from within windows since it locks up everywhere else!!! Any chance you could also provide the correct way to upgrade to the latest Maximus-Decim Native USB drivers from an earlier version? Risk_Reversal said I need to remove the old drivers first, but neither of us is certain how that should be done (since they're NOT listed in the Add/Remove window).
  10. Thanks to both of you for the additional info. There seems to be some confusion between you about whether or not data corruption can occur on a USB drive beyond the 128GB address barrier (137+ Billion bytes per marketing depts). Risk_Reversal says he has surpassed this limit without any problems, but further down says he has a dual-boot system with a Promise controller installed. I have only a 10 year old Abit BM6 motherboard with two internal IDE channels, and two USB 1.x ports on the backplane. So what worked for him *may* not work for me. If either of you could point me to an existing thread on MSFN where this was previously discussed, I'd be happy to do more research on this. As for my Logitech Mouseman Cordless Mouse, it's NOT USB, nor does it share an IRQ with the USB Host Controller. It's a cordless PS/2 mouse, and I don't know why it would be the last device successfully loaded in the BOOTLOG.TXT when my system hangs with the Fatal Exception 0E on restart with the AcomData external USB drive ON. It just ends there when the system hangs. It's my Sound Blaster Live! Value sound card that shares IRQ 11 with the Intel82371 USB Host Controller and IRQ for PCI Steering, NOT the Logitech Cordless PS/2 Mouse. So, I have no idea why I'd need to enable USB Keyboard Support in the BIOS for my PS/2 mouse, but I could give it a whirl just to see what happens. I tried running the latest BiNG from a floppy the last time I was at my friend's house with my AcomData external USB drive. I started BiNG with the AcomData OFF, enabled support for USB 2.0, then turned the AcomData ON. As soon as I turned it ON, BiNG FROZE and all the icons on the screen disappeared. When I turned the AcomData OFF, the icons returned, and I was able to function normally in BiNG again, but my drive was no longer available since it was OFF. For comparison, I loaded BiNG on my friend's computer with only her Western Digital Book Drive and SimpleTech [re]drive attached. With her two USB drives, BiNG didn't freeze, recognized both drives, displayed their partitions and offered to let me resize, format, or delete them. Because they were not mine and had data on them, I didn't actually test these commands, but they were available and BiNG wasn't locked up as it was when the AcomData was attached and turned ON. So, after loading the Windows desktop on ANY version of windows with 1.x or 2.0 USB ports, the AcomData works, flawlessly. But turn it ON anywhere else (outside of windows) and everything locks up until it is turned back OFF. On her system, turning it OFF enables one to continue (as if nothing happened), but on MY much older system things stay frozen until the "reset" button is pressed. I've heard of Puppy Linux, but never worked with it. I might give it a whirl someday when I have more time.
  11. First, let me thank you, risk_reversal, for being the first to respond! The only choices are BIOS or OS. It is currently set to OS. Disabled is not a valid choice. The BM6 owners manual says choosing BIOS turns ON support for a USB keyboard via the BIOS. So I assumed choosing OS was equivalent to DISABLING said support via the BIOS. I use a PS/2 keyboard. Would you leave this setting at OS? Or change it to BIOS? External usb enclosures are not subject to this barrier. Are you certain about this? How is that accomplished? Are addresses above 128GB handled by a second BIOS in the USB enclosure instead of the BIOS on the motherboard? Should each partition still be limited to 128GB when using 98se as the O/S? FWIW, when I created the current partitions, the drive was not in the USB enclosure. It was on the internal IDE cable, and I used Bootit-NG from Terabyte Unlimited, which includes a partitioning tool, to create and format the current partitions. Bootit-NG can also work with hard drives that are connected to a USB 2.0 port, but the USB ports on my aging BM6 motherboard are 1.x, not 2.0. Thus I had to do the partitioning on this drive via the internal IDE cable, and apparently that limited me to the first 128GB of the drive. How exactly would I repartition within the USB enclosure to use the rest of the drive? Especially when the USB enclosure itself CANNOT BE TURNED ON under 98se (or XP) until AFTER the windows desktop is loaded? What partitioning tool works with USB drives from WITHIN a windows environment? Obviously, if going beyond 128GB is possible ONLY when the drive is within the USB enclosure, I would never be able to remove that drive and connect it directly to the intenal IDE cable again without risk of data corruption, but perhaps I could live with that limitation in exchange for the extra storage. Having built my own systems for more than a decade, and having used Partition Magic and Bootit-NG for years, I know very well that creating up to four primary partitions is possible. But I also hate having the O/S rearrange my drive letters whenever one or more of my hard drives is swapped or removed from my systems. Placing all logical drives in extended partitions EXCEPT for the BOOT partitions on the first internal drive makes it much easier to manage the drive letter assignments. I've just never employed this strategy on a USB hard drive before. So how do I uninstall my older version of NUSB before installing the newer one? The older one (which was installed using the Soporific AutoPatcher in 2007) isn't listed in the Add/Remove applet in the Control Panel. Would I open the Device Manager and remove all the USB Root Hubs and then the Intel USB Host Controller? If I do that, won't it just reinstall the existing older driver on the next reboot? Can't see why it is a problem to just disconnect via the NUBS systray icon. I also occassionally forget and sometimes get a BSOD. It's a problem because it's not always possible to disconnect via the systray icon before a restart. ie, When the power suddenly goes out, or the system has frozen or locked up. And, when I'm in a hurry, I have a tendency to forget and just reach for the reset button. In situations like these, it would be much less aggravating if my system would just restart without these damned BSODs. You didn't comment on the shared IRQ situation. Thus I'm still wondering if either that, or the Logitech Cordless Mouse, could be causing the BSOD when I restart my system (but ONLY when the external USB drive is ON)? I failed to mention earlier that in addition to her Western Digital Book Drive, my friend also has a SimpleTech external [re]drive attached to her XP system. Neither of them have to be turned off when she reboots, and I don't think she installed any proprietary software that came with either of them. She just plugged them in, and they stay ON all the time. Without any need to be powered OFF when she restarts or reboots her system. This is only a guess, but I suspect her system halts earlier than mine, and recovers easier when my drive is attached, because her motherboard has a newer BIOS than mine, and has USB 2.0 ports, whereas my older motherboard only supports USB 1.x. I'm willing to live with the slower transfer rate of 1.x, but still puzzled by the fact this AcomData drive has restart issues on BOTH systems, not just on mine. ie, By failing on more than one system, even in slightly different ways, it looks more like the problem is in the drive itself, and not in my BIOS. Perhaps this is just an illusion, but without feedback from others, I have no way of knowing. I'd still like to restart my system without having to turn this drive OFF, then ON again EVERY TIME. But without more input, I'm drawing a blank on how to proceed.
  12. Some additional info: I checked the BIOS to be sure there was no option set to boot to a USB drive. No such option exists. I tried A,C,SCSI and C,A,SCSI and nothing changed. Support for USB keyboard is set to OS. I have a standard PS2 keyboard. There is no BIOS setting for "Legacy USB support" (The last BIOS was written before USB 2.0). The last entry in the aborted BOOTLOG.TXT says "[00028E20] Dynamic load success lmouhid.vxd" The previous 12 lines appear to be loading drivers for my Logitech Mouseman Cordless PS/2 mouse. If I hunt for the next line after that in a sucessful bootlog (external USB OFF during restart), it says "Starting Logitech-compatible Mouse (PS/2) (BIOS\*PNP0F13\0A). Does this mean my cordless PS/2 mouse has a conflict with my external USB drive when it's ON during a system restart? But it's not in conflict once the desktop is loaded? And how could this tie in with the freeze at the video card logo on the XP system? Ideas? Anyone?
  13. I can't find NativeUSB 3.x Uninstall anywhere in Add/Remove programs. Does #2 mean remove root hubs and Intel82371AB/EB PCI to USB Host Controller from Device Manager? Or is there another way to remove the existing NUSB 3.x? I know some version of NUSB was installed the last time I ran Autopatcher (summer 2007), but I'm not sure how to remove it? Will upgrading to 3.3 possibly fix the issue described here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=131193?
  14. I have a new AcomData Samba External USB hard drive, which is an enclosure containing a USB interface and a 160GB Western Digital PATA/IDE drive. To ensure compatibility with my aging ABIT BM6 motherboard and Windows 98se, I am only using the first 128GB of the drive. The drive was partitioned as follows while installed as the Master Drive on the secondary IDE cable, then removed and placed into the AcomData Samba External USB drive enclosure. I created NO primary partitions as this drive is intended for data storage only. It will never be used as a boot drive. I created ONE extended partition of 128GB (to avoid data corruption) and FOUR logical partions of 31.8GB within the extended partition. The rest of the drive is not used. Sometime in 2007 I used the Soporific Autopatcher to update 98SE to the latest patches. One of those was the Maximus-Decim Native USB drivers, but I have no idea what VERSION of those I have installed now. They have worked great with a 128MB Memorex Thumb Drive in the two USB ports built into the rear of my ABIT BM6 motherboard. Those ports are either USB 1.0 or 1.1, NOT USB 2.0. The BM6 owners manual only refers to them as "USB" ports, so they may only be 1.0. This doesn't appear to be a problem with either the Memorex Thumb Drive OR the new AcomData Samba / 160GB Western Digital combo. When I attach the AcomData to either USB port on the BM6 motherboard, the NUSB icon appears in the systray, installs each of the four logical partitions, and reads and writes data perfectly at whatever speed it is capable of. The problem is if I forget to STOP the external drive and POWER IT DOWN before every reboot, it is causing my system to crash with a "Fatal Exception 0E" at 0028: FF0328FC in VXD USBD(05) +0000169C when it reboots to windows. It does not appear to be losing any data when this occurs. I merely have to switch it off, reboot again, then switch it back on AFTER the windows desktop appears. I have saved a BOOTLOG.TXT during one of these restarts to see where it fails, and it appears to occur AFTER processing both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, and AFTER running my startup AVG virus scan, but BEFORE reaching the windows desktop. It crashes consistently at the same point anytime I forget to switch it OFF before doing a restart. My question: Could this have something to do with it not having a primary partition? I have internal drives partitioned the same way (so the drive letters are always assigned in the same order), and they never pose any such problems during startup. Could it be due to my motherboard's USB ports being older than USB 1.1? Again, if I don't switch the drive ON until after the windows desktop appears, the drive seems to work perfectly from then on. Could it have something to do with my using an older version of Maximus-Decim's NUSB driver? (I have no idea which version I have installed.) Or could it be an IRQ conflict? In the Device Manager it shows IRQ 11 is being shared by both the Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller AND by my Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value sound card, but it also shows an entry for IRQ Holder for PCI Steering on IRQ 11 as well. Again, it has no problem reading or writing to the external hard drive IF the drive is not turned ON until after windows has reached the desktop. The Fatal Exception 0E crash / lockup ONLY occurs if the drive is NOT powered off when I do a system restart. I have a friend who has an external 500GB WD Book Drive and windows XP, and she can leave it powered on throughout every system restart she does. When I attach my AcomData enclosure to her system, it stops her system cold just after it displays the video card logo when I reboot with it powered ON. eg, it doesn't even enumerate other devices until my AcomData is turned OFF. As soon as it's switched off, however, her XP system resumes without any help whatsoever. On mine, it appears to have no problem enumerating, and completing most of the boot process, BEFORE the Fatal Exception 0E appears, and then I'm "dead in the water." (I have to switch the AcomData enclosure OFF, AND press the "reset" button to get mine to continue.) FWIW, when I first rec'd this drive (as a gift from a friend) it exhibited the same behavior if powered on at startup, but my friend had assembled it with the WD hard drive jumpered to "Cable Select." The owners manual clearly states it must be jumpered as a "Master" so I took care of that when I had it hooked to the internal IDE cable and repartitioned it to avoid exceeding the 128GB limit with 98se. Since then it has been jumpered as "Master" but this appears to have had no impact on the startup issue. Anyone else ever face and resolve this issue? Or have any idea why it has to be OFF during a restart, but a WD "Book Drive" doesn't? I really would like to get this fixed so I can leave the drive ON during system restarts!
  15. Is there a quick way to determine which version of NUSB I have installed on my 98SE system? I'm thinking the last update I did was using Autopatcher around Aug-Sept 2007, but perhaps have got a newer version installed since then by other means. How can I quickly determine which one I have installed? Thanks!
  16. Add my vote for calling it the February 2008 release... it's less confusing that way.
  17. I've been away awhile, but keeping up with changes via email subscription to this topic. One thing I've had on my mind... back in the days before AutoPatcher, Gape's unofficial service pack for 98SE had something called a "windows 2000 color scheme" which was more pleasant than the default (gray) colors I've had since switching to UBCD and AutoPatcher. That color scheme was one of the few things Gape's service pack included that AP does not. Is it possible to add that "win 2000 color scheme" to AutoPatcher as an optional module? (It seems like overkill to reinstall Gape's pack AFTER running AP or UBCD - just to get that color scheme. It should be an OPTION in AP, so we don't have to run Gape's AFTER AP.) I am soo sick of this default gray scheme that 98SE comes with.... Joe
  18. Is there any concensus as to the best free firewall which runs on Windows 98/SE??? I'm currently running Sygate Personal Firewall build 2710, but it has a known issue with 98/SE. It works ok, but continuously writes entries to a log file about every 2 seconds. The last free build had an even bigger issue (on 98/SE only) where the firewall will occasionally terminate at random, ie, just shutdown without any warning. That isn't a problem with 2710, but the constant writing to the log file is annoying. Both issues were discussed on the old sygate products forum, which no longer exists. I'm thinking about trying Kerio 2.1.5 with the ruleset posted at dslreports.com. Are there any other good free firewalls with low memory requirements (ie NOT ZoneAlarm) that run well on Windows 98/SE???
  19. I for one would love to learn what apps and utilities others use every day, and consider the "top dog" in each software category. But I totally agree with Submix8c, that Galah's topic "Last Versions for 98SE" is a better place for that discussion. See you there.
  20. The last QuickTime Alternative to support 95 / 98 / SE / ME was 1.56, available here: http://www.codecpackguide.com/quicktimealt.htm direct link: http://codecpack.nl/quicktimealt156.exe
  21. Is there any concensus as to the best defragger which runs on Windows 98/SE??? I'm still using Norton Speed Disk from System Works 2002. I tried Diskkeeper Lite (the free one) and didn't like it.
  22. I'm not certain, but some of the REG files created by MDGX may already be in Auto-Patcher. Soporific would be the one to ask. Cacheman 5.50 has a feature similar to your REG file that creates "LARGE, HUGE, SUPER, and MAX" cache settings. I've played with those a little, but didn't notice a huge difference in my system performance. Other factors, such as memory installed, applications running, how system is used, play a role here, so results may vary. Joe
  23. Precisely why a disk of useful tools should be a separate project. Some people just want a fully patched system without 1000's of extra tools. Put your tools in separate project, and those who want both, can install both. No need for the two projects to merge. Joe
  24. Auto-Patcher's primary function is to fully patch an existing system. Perhaps a freeware utilities disk could be a separate project?
×
×
  • Create New...