Petr

It works fine now. Petr Still failing to respond. Timed out again! Etither they have some intermittent problems or you have some incompatible setup. I just successfully downloaded this file by Mozilla 1.7.12, by IE6.0 on WXPSP2, and by bare ftp command on Linux: ftp ftp.heise.de Connected to ftp.heise.de. 220 Hallo auf ftp.heise.de. Name (ftp.heise.de:petr): anonymous 331 Please specify the password. Password: 230 Login successful. Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp> cd pub/ct/ctsi 250 Directory successfully changed. ftp> get setk6v3.zip local: setk6v3.zip remote: setk6v3.zip 200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV. 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for setk6v3.zip (155463 bytes). 226 File send OK. 155463 bytes received in 0.353 secs (4.3e+02 Kbytes/sec) ftp> quit 221 Goodbye. No other idea what could be wrong. Petr

It works fine now. Petr

I have also found this MSKB article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;ja;418116 (in Japanese only) describing the function of these drivers: Petr

Are you sure? I have looked into these files and it looks like they do just power manageent, not microcode update. While UPDATE.SYS contains references to \REGISTRY\MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\SYSTEM\CENTRALPROCESSOR\ Update Status Update Signature Previous Update AMDK6.SYS and AMDK7.SYS just to \Registry\Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\AmdK7\Parameters Petr

As I already reported here, PCI Express graphics boards works very well in motherboard with Intel 955X chipset. I have tested Nvidia 6200, 6200 TurboCache, 6600 and ATI X300SE. All that is necessary to select the right driver manually. Now I tried this with a bit older motherboard with Intel 915GM chipset and there are troubles. ATI X300 board work well, but Nvidia boards not - the device manager reports "The device cannot find any free Input/Output Range (I/O) resources to use. (Code 12). This is really strange because there are no conflicting ports that these boards use. If I try to assign resources manually, the following list of resources appears: so the only problem seems to be with memory ranges: 00000000 - 0FFFFFFF (256 MB) 00000000 - 03FFFFFF (64 MB) 00000000 - 00FFFFFF (16 MB) 00000000 - 0001FFFF (128 KB) The graphics board ic conncted correctly to the PCI Express Root Port: the memory range assigned is: B0000000 - CFFFFFFF: Windows XP on the same computer shows the same range for the PCI Express Root Port but also assigns correctly the four memory ranges for the graphics board: B0000000 - BFFFFFFF (256 MB) C0000000 - C3FFFFFF (64 MB) C4000000 - C4FFFFFF (16 MB) The fourth range (for 128 KB of RAM) is not present in Windows XP, but the same situation is for ATI X300SE so probably it is OK. I tried to disable all integrated peripherals and left just the harddisk and the video card, and the conflict has not disappeared. The on-board Intel graphics is always disabled. I also tried both Windows 98 SE and Windows Me with the same result. Of course, I can use ATI board and forget this problem but I like to see things working Does anybody have any idea how to assign the right resoures or find any possible conflict? Is there any debug mode in which it would be possible to find the root cause? Petr

It is described here: http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/cs-015001.htm http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/...b/cs-009319.htm http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/...b/cs-001410.htm This is really interesting. The installer really refuses to install IAA2.3 on these systems, but the driver itself recognizes PIIX, PIIX3, PIIX southbridges and what's real surprise, IAA2.3 package contains hidden INF file for these chipsets: [INTEL_HDC] %PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1230.DeviceDesc% = DUAL_GOOD_IDE, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1230 ; Device ID for Intel PIIX (DUAL_GOOD_IDE) %PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7010.DeviceDesc% = DUAL_GOOD_IDE, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7010 ; Device ID for Intel PIIX3 (DUAL_GOOD_IDE) %PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7111.DeviceDesc% = DUAL_GOOD_IDE, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7111 ; Device ID for Intel PIIX4 (DUAL_GOOD_IDE) %MF\GOODPRIMARY.DeviceDesc% = GOOD_IDE, MF\GOODPRIMARY %MF\GOODSECONDARY.DeviceDesc% = GOOD_IDE, MF\GOODSECONDARY Does anybody know if there are any problems with these older chipsets and IAA? I tried to install it on older BX board and everything looks fine so far. This results in two benefits - 48-bit LBA support - real disk names in Device Manager (not DISK TYPE47) Any drawbacks or compatbility problems? Petr

This is for Czechia only, I know for sure that there are similar statistics for USA but I don't remember where. Petr

Juat an idea - what about disk drivers? SuperPi extensively uses the hard disk, so maybe there could be the difference? Do you have DMA switched on? Is the raw disk speed measured by HD Tach 2.70 the same in Windows 98 SE and in Windows XP? Is the filesystem the same? Is the caching the same? What about to try it to run on RAMdisk? Second idea - I don't know K7 processors, but K6 processors had some optimizations that was necessary to switch on in BIOS, and if BIOS did not supported these features, there was a separate utility called SetK6. Some internal settings of both Intel and AMD processors can be found in Everest, just right-click on the bottom frame of the Everest windows, there are things like CPUID and MSR dump. The latest beta version has also additional item in Tools menu - cache and memory benchmark. You can play with these tools and maybe you will be able to find the weak point. Petr

I don't know how it is in your country, according to this statistics it is 77% in average. http://www.toplist.cz/global.html Petr

Not too bad: Petr

Do you have this product: http://www.creative.com/products/product.a...7&product=14184 ? I see: Minimum System Requirements * Microsoft Windows XP (SP2) or Windows 2000 (SP4) Have you tried to look at http://www.creative.com/language.asp?sDest...pport/downloads ? What is exactly the model you have? What PCI ID it has? You will in registry under [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\PCI\ - my Soundblaster Live! 1024 has the ID: VEN_1102&DEV_0002&SUBSYS_80271102&REV_08 - it means Or you can use Everest - http://www.lavalys.com/ - for the identification (In Devices -> PCI Devices). Or you can try to use DriverAgent - http://driveragent.com/ to see if they know about the driver for your OS. The scan works with IE (ActiveX installed), Firefox (extension installed), Opera (extra program installed). Does not work with Mozilla Suite and Mozilla SeaMonkey. Always it is possible to use the search - http://driveragent.com/scanorsearch.php Petr

OK, so I was able to test Nvidia 6200 PCI-E in i955X motherboard and it works fine with manually selected driver: I have also created INF files for i955X Express chipset: http://www.winpack.org/petr/i955X.zip and now everything looks correctly in the device manager: Warning - Nvidia GeForce 6200 Turbo Cache does not work in Windows 98 SE!! It seems that just GeForce 6200, 6600LE and 6600 are supported. Petr

I forgot where I found it, so I put it here: http://www.winpack.org/petr/usb2-ow-2.04.zip Petr

I think if you install DOS UDMA drivers, it should be much faster... Do you mean this no longer maintained project?: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/...dos/udma/devel/ ? Have you any experience with combining this driver and Windows 98 SE? Do you know about any benchmark results comparing this driver and ESDI_506.PDR? I will try how it works on my 915 board. Do you know about any good utility for measuring disk transfer rate? For native devices I use HDTach, but it does not work for disks in DOS compatibility mode. Petr

Hello Roman, thank you for your ideas. I have tried the following OrangeWare drivers with no success: DriverVer=4/01/2003,1.01.0000.2 DriverVer=08/01/2003,2.01.0006.2 DriverVer=10/15/2003,2.01.0007.1 DriverVer=1/15/2004,2.01.0010.0 DriverVer=3/15/2004,2.01.0011.0 DriverVer=8/01/2004,2.02.0002.0 DriverVer=11/15/2004,2.03.0000.0 DriverVer=1/15/2005,2.04.0000.0 Yesterday I've got the following reply from OrangeWare: But the difference between ICH5 and ICH6 seems not to be big, maybe some easy trick can enable the USB2.0 functionality, I don't know. Regarding SciTech, I almost forgot that they exist. I have used their driver 15 years ago very often. Unfortunately they support VEN_8086&DEV_2582 = "Intel® 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family" only and not VEN_8086&DEV_2592 "Mobile Intel® 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family". Bad luck. Petr

e) Delete ESDI_506.PDR e) may have big impact on performance, my test on Intel 915 board shows that the speed without ESDI_506.PDR (i.e. in DOS compatibility mode) may be up to 20x lower. Petr

Hi Rudolf, just a few notes: 1. Win98 SE SP already contains an option to install Adaptec ASPI layer 4.60 (1021). 2. ESDI_506.PDR does not support disks bigger than 137GB, if you want to use 200GB disk, you have to a) use the first 137GB only by defining partitions to fit fully below the 137GB border (and lose 63GB), or B) use vendor specific IDE driver if exists, or c) use commercial 137GB+ patch for ESDI_506.PDR, or d) use add-on IDE controller board. Petr

Does it mean that the right driver is not autodetected? 77.72 Win9x driver contains just one device, with PCI Device ID 00F2: NVIDIA&DEV_00F2.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA GeForce 6600" While 2K/XP driver contains two IDs, with PCI device ID 00F2 and 0141. NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0141.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 6600" NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F2.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 6600 " What is the PCI ID of ASUS EN6600 SILENCER? Is it 00F2 or 0141? Edit: I just recognized that "BR02" means AGP bridge, then it is clear that your device ID should be 0141 and therefore you had to select the diver manually. Very good news is the fact that it works OK. Petr

Hi Fiodor, It's not correct for Windows 98 SE. If you look into ICH6\WIN98SE\ subdirectory,915.INF contains the following devices: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2580.DeviceDesc="Intel® 915G/P/GV Processor to I/O Controller - 2580" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2581.DeviceDesc="Intel® 915G/P/GV PCI Express Root Port - 2581" nothing more, but the same file in ICH6\WIN2000\ subdirectory contains 915.INF with the following devices: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2580.DeviceDesc="Intel® 915G/P/GV Processor to I/O Controller - 2580" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2581.DeviceDesc="Intel® 915G/P/GV PCI Express Root Port - 2581" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2584.DeviceDesc="Intel® 925X/XE Memory Controller Hub - 2584" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2585.DeviceDesc="Intel® 925X/XE PCI Express Root Port - 2585" This is exactly the same for INF utility ver. 6.3.0.1007 and 6.2.1.1001. It means that 925X/XE northbridge is supported by Win2000/WXP/WS2003 INF files only, not by Win98SE and WinME. But still you will get support of ICH6 southbridge. Petr

I have tried to install Windows 98 SE on PC with 915GM Speedster-FA4 motherboard made by MSI and I'd like to share my experience and ask if anybody got better results with motherboard based on Intel 915 series chipset. What are the items that need driver. 915GM + ICH-6 chipset. This is officially supported in version 6.3.0.1007 of Intel INF Update Utility. USB 2.0 controller - Without any driver, all 8 USB ports are fully functional in USB 1.1 mode, I tried OrangeWare driver (version 2.04.0.0) that is necessary for motherboards with ICH-4 and ICH-5 southbridges, everything looked fine, USB2 EHCI controller was found, USB2 hub was found, usbview utility shows USB2 controller+hub with 8 ports - but it is not switched to USB2 mode. SATA/PATA disk controller It contains standard ATA100 interface suitable for connecting of two PATA devices (HDD, CD-ROM) and SATA controller for connecting upto 4 SATA devices. It can be switched (in BIOS) into three modes: 1. Disable SATA. In this mode just PATA devices are recognized, ESDI_506.PDR is used and speed upto 100 MBps can be achieved. 2. SATA Only. In this mode the SATA controller operates in legacy mode, Windows 98 SE see SATA disks as standard ATA devices (ESDI_506.PDR driver) and with enabled DMA the tested transfer speed was upto 135 MBps. The PATA devices are disabled in this mode! 3. Enhanced mode. In this mode both controllers work in native mode. It means that PATA devices are served by ESD_506.PDR, and SATA controller has yellow excalamtion mark - therefore all disk drives connected to SATA ports operate in compatibility (16-bit) mode. Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900 It has no driver supplied by Intel. It can work as standard PCI graphics controller in 640 x 480 x 4-bit resolution only. There is no possibility to switch it off manually. If PCI-E graphics card is inserted, it is switched off automatically, but if PCI graphics card is inserted, it is still present. I tried Nvidia 6200 Turbo Cache PCI-E board but it even does not work as Standard PCI VGA, it works as standard VGA only (again 640x480x4). Then I tried some old S3 Trio64V+ PCI board and it works fine in 1024x768x16bit. I plan to try other PCI-E boards. Intel® High Definition Audio It seems there is no support for HDA bus in Windows 98SE, Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) High Definition Audio class driver is available for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 only. The codec used is Realtek ALC880 and Realtek also offers no solution. This board contains also two Marvell 1000 Mbps Ethernet controllers - the Windows 98 SE driver works fine, but sometimes it was not able to obtain the IP address from DHCP server, but there is visible delay also in Windows XP on the same computer. The box I tested had 1024 MB of RAM and it was not necessary to do anything special to install Windows 98 SE from the original CD-ROM to this computer. The summary so far: - SATA disks in legacy mode and PATA disks in native mode works perfectly, but not concurrently. - USB works in 1.1 mode only - On-board graphics controller works in VGA mode only, add-on PCI board works correctly - On-board audio does not work at all What drivers are needed: - Intel ICH6 SATA controller - Intel ICH6 USB 2.0 EHCI controller - Intel 915G(M) GMA900 Graphics controller - Intel ICH6 HDA controler + Realtek ALC880 codec Maybe somebody was able modify some existing driver to work or has any other workaround. I did this test just to see how easy it is to operate Windows 98 SE on newer motherboards with Intel chipset. I plan to try also next generation motherboard, Gigabyte GA-8I955X Pro with Smithfiled processor but I don't expect big differences. If anybody has any (better) experience please let me know. Petr

Hi Gape and others, what do you think about this fix of Windows Explorer Freeze? Petr

No, this is not correct. The 137GB limit relates tho the physical disk size, not to partition size. The problem is with physical disk addressing, the ESDI_506.PDR uses 28-bit addressing of sectors (512 bytes each), so the maximum addressable sector number is 2^28-1 = 268435455 . If you try to address sector number 268435456, you will read or write sector 0 instead. Maximum partition size in Windows 98 SE is 2048GiB (2,2TB), just Windows Scandisk and Defrag will not work with partition size bigger than 137 GB because of the memory allocation problem. Petr

Maybe I'm blind but I don't see any file named "sesp21a-en_98.exe" on the above mentioned URL. The files available for downoload are (and were): sesp21a-en.exe sesp21en.exe sesp202en.exe sesp201en.exe etc. I've never seen any file named "sesp21a-en_98SESP2.exe", "win98se_sp202en.exe" or "sesp21a-en_98.exe" and that was why I asked you where you got them - to be sure that you really have the official files. Petr

This really looks like 137GB+ disk problem. Petr

Hello emarkey, may I know where you found the file named "sesp21a-en_98SESP2.exe"? I've never seen this name. Have you downloaded really the genuine file? Does it have 17.430.016 bytes and md5: 10cde8dc76f00e78e874094580b70d2d, as written at http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=61749 ? I have also never seen file named win98se_sp202en.exe. I know about hundreds of SESP installations and never any problem with registry. I remember I had the same registry problem long time ago with Soyo 6VBA133 with VIA Apollo PRO133 chipset, just at certain stage of installation I've got registry error and endless loops of rebooting and restoring the registry. I never found how to resolve this problem. It was without any unofficial service pack. There may be a problem with your 160 GB disk. I'm not sure but your disk controller is probably Intel ICH - 82801AA and this controller uses ESDI_506.PDR by default. ESDI_506.PDR does not support disks bigger that 137 GB and if you will write beyond this boundary, you will overwrite the data at the beginning of the disk. Then nothing than reinstall can help. Of course, you may use Intel Application Accelerator (IAA) 2.3 and then there should be no problem. You may also try to download the package with demo of 137GB patch from R. Loew - it contains some tools for determining if your computer really supports disks bigger than 137GB. This was just an idea. Nobody knows what may happen and that's why there is written on top of the page "ALWAYS BACKUP FIRST!" Petr