Running Windows 2000 on modern motherboards - USB issues

[Tommy]

This might be it for my Windows 2000 journey sadly. Not quite sure yet though.

I built a new (to me) system and it's quite sweet. I'm running a Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 motherboard and the problem is lying in the SMBus driver along with the USB drivers. While browsing Blackwingcat's site on it last night, some of the stuff I'm finding doesn't seem to pertain to the issue I'm having. Essentially, none of the USB items work, nothing at all. And with the SMBus driver (chipset) not seemingly working correctly, I can't get the network driver working either. The stuff is detected but I end up with yellow circles with the black exclamation point. Not the way to start a new system build!

With all that, I tried Windows XP Pro x64 bit edition, especially because I have 16GBs of RAM installed in the system and it's working just fine and flying like a top. I'm tempted to try the latest HFSLIP disk with Windows 2000 and see if it works by unplugging my XP drive and installing it to my future Windows 7 drive before I actually install Windows 7 to see if it happens. But I'm almost tempted not to try it because even if it worked, I still can't properly use Windows 2000 with all the RAM in my system and therefor it's sort of a waste of money. So I'm very stuck on what I'm going to do. Windows 2000 has always been my favorite and if it's not going to work properly on the system, I can't use it. I'm not even sure if getting a separate USB card/network card would help either so I'm quite stuck indeed! I've used Windows 2000 for over 15 years and almost 10 years after it left support of Microsoft. It's been a great run, I'm hoping it's not quite over but it just might be unfortunately.

[bluebolt]

15 hours ago, Tommy said:

Essentially, none of the USB items work, nothing at all.

On newer hardware such as your Z68, you will need to use a PS/2 keyboard to enter Device Manager and install the USB drivers manually (working drivers are already present on your machine).

Start by forcing Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller.  From there, use Windows Update to go after the yellow marks in Device Manager and install the remaining complement of USB drivers (but don't let it take you back to the original / non-working ones).

As I've said before, it can be a bit of a runaround.

Edited July 25, 2019 by Tommy
Bolded important information

[Tommy]

13 minutes ago, bluebolt said:

On newer hardware such as your Z68, you will need to use a PS/2 keyboard to enter Device Manager and install the USB drivers manually (working drivers are already present on your machine).

Start by forcing Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller.  From there, use Windows Update to go after the yellow marks in Device Manager and install the remaining complement of USB drivers (but don't let it take you back to the original / non-working ones).

As I've said before, it can be a bit of a runaround.

I'm an old hardware fanatic, so I already use a Dell AT101w keyboard. (:

Are there drivers present online that someone has placed in an archive since I can't yet get online with it?

[bluebolt]

7 hours ago, Tommy said:

Are there drivers present online that someone has placed in an archive since I can't yet get online with it?

I wonder why you can't access the internet...are you using the driver from Realtek's website?  Better by far than trying to wrestle with the Gigabyte driver.

As for solving the USB problem, you don't need internet access--the drivers are already on your machine.  The trouble is the default W2k Pro selections, which are wrong and must be overridden using Microsoft Windows Update in Device Manager (not online).

After all the years and all the times this has come up, I'd like to go through one example of the installation procedure, which varies based on motherboard, mouse, the particular OS package and God only knows what else, but this site's not letting me post the pics (there are 18 of them).  If I can load them a few (or even one) at a time, I will do so.

[bluebolt]

1.  right click properties / update driver on one of the yellow bangs beneath "Universal Serial Bus controllers"

2.  choose "display a list"

3.  instead of the default choice pictured, choose "Show all hardware..."

Edited July 25, 2019 by bluebolt

[bluebolt]

4.  choose "Standard USB host controller..."

5.  choose "Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller" (click "Next")

6.  W2k Pro warns; click "Yes"

[bluebolt]

7.  and so

8.  then this

9.  usb root hub and usb generic hub can be seen installing (click "Next")

[bluebolt]

10. choose "Microsoft Windows Update" and proceed

11. the installation continues

12. allow the restart

[bluebolt]

13. looks like this after rebooting; right click on yellow bang "Standard Universal..." to update driver

14. here W2k Pro tries to regress to the original (non-working) drivers

15. Choose "Install one of the other drivers" and go with "Standard Enhanced..."

Edited July 25, 2019 by bluebolt

[bluebolt]

16. Allow Microsoft Windows Update to do its thing

17. finishing up it looks like this

18. now plug in a USB stick and get USB Mass Storage and Disk Drive notifications as Microsoft Windows Update continues to automatically install the appropriate drivers

Instead of "Wellsburg" (X99) your Z68 will refer to "Cougar Point".

[Tommy]

Title changed to "Running Windows 2000 on modern motherboards - USB issue"

Topic Pinned

[win32]

I wonder if deleting the offending chipset USB driver installers (wellsburgusb.inf, cougarpoint.inf etc.) from the installation media would force win2k to install the generic drivers in setup?

In any event, a hassle-free installation experience with Windows 2000 is possible with X58 (and its derivatives, 5500/5520). Hex-core Xeons for these boards are cheap and competitive with many newer CPUs in multi-threaded performance (due to Intel sticking with quad-cores for consumer-grade stuff forever).

Unfortunately, Windows 2000 boot time increases with the number of threads because it doesn't load drivers concurrently like XP and above; with 12 threads you will add a minute. Another issue is that my CPU warms to nearly 80 C after a few hours of use, even with the KB919521 reg tweak. That is why I'm moving over to the Windows Server 2003 OS family.

However, it would be very nice to stay on Windows 2000 for its 20th anniversary, which is coming up very soon.

[bluebolt]

1 hour ago, win32 said:

I wonder if deleting the offending chipset USB driver installers (wellsburgusb.inf, cougarpoint.inf etc.) from the installation media would force win2k to install the generic drivers in setup?

That has long been a wonder of mine, as well.

Or maybe the BIOS could be modified--the ASRock motherboards I use actually have an option in the BIOS called "USB Compatibility Patch" to deal with it...but when tested its application has been unreliable (YMMV).

In my case the boot-up time is no problem, and though I have read of the CPU temperature issue over the years, have never experienced it myself.

[Tommy]

I went ahead and tried out your guide and I can verify that it works, perfectly. In fact my USB items started instantly. I also tried different drivers for my network adapter and that too works perfectly!! Amazing!

But now if only I could utilize all 16GBs of RAM because PAE plays havoc with my sound card. If that worked, I'd be back on 2000 in a heartbeat.

[bluebolt]

41 minutes ago, Tommy said:

But now if only I could utilize all 16GBs of RAM because PAE plays havoc with my sound card. If that worked, I'd be back on 2000 in a heartbeat.

re: my sound card
Are you referring to the integrated audio chipset (Realtek ALC889)?  As with the LAN, if you're trying to make the Gigabyte driver work, your better bet may be the Realtek website drivers.  I use R.274.  I notice they also have an older one (A.4.06), which I have never tried.

Softpedia appears to have some earlier Realtek audio driver versions for W2k Pro that you could try:

https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/SOUND-CARD/REALTEK/Realtek-HD-Audio-Codecs-Driver-222-for-2000-XP.shtml

Seems you're on a roll, so...keep rolling!