QUERY: Looking for motherboard still support Windows 98...

[Petr]

Sorry, Petr, but I think that you're wrong (both are compatible).

Please read what is written both in the reviews you have posted and on the ASRock website:

OS - Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit / Vista™ compliant

At least, there is no support for UAA (Universal Audio Architecture) in Windows 98/98SE/Me so the on-board audio cannot be used.

Do you see any Windows 98/98SE/Me drivers here?

http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp...el=939Dual-VSTA

http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp...el=775Dual-VSTA

Compatible boards like 775i65G have clearly written:

OS - Microsoft Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP compliant

and there are also Windows 98/98SE/Me drivers:

http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp?Model=775i65G

Petr

[rainyd]

Sorry ,Petr, I'm afraid you haven't read my previous post carefully enough.

For most if not all motherboard makers the Win9x family is dead (especially since July 11 when Microsoft officially ended support for those systems) what results in Win2000 as minimum requirement.

That's the reason that ASRock doesn't mention the drivers for Win98SE/ME.

This is not however the case of chipset makers:

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageI...&CatID=1110 for 775Dual-VSTA

http://www.nvidia.com/page/uli_drivers.html for 939Dual-SATA2 and 939Dual-VSTA (both on the same chipset)

In the case of 939Dual-VSTA there may be a problem with audio codec. It uses C-Media CM6501 7.1 while 939Dual-SATA2 uses Realtek 850 7.1channel AC'97 (which supports Win98SE/ME - http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlac97...;Software=True)

[rainyd]

Sorry ,Petr, I'm afraid you haven't read my previous post carefully enough.

For most if not all motherboard makers the Win9x family is dead (especially since July 11 when Microsoft officially ended support for those systems) what results in Win2000 as minimum requirement.

That's the reason that ASRock doesn't mention the drivers for Win98SE/ME.

This is not however the case of chipset makers:

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageI...&CatID=1110 for 775Dual-VSTA

http://www.nvidia.com/page/uli_drivers.html for 939Dual-SATA2 and 939Dual-VSTA (both on the same chipset)

In the case of 939Dual-VSTA there may be a problem with audio codec. It uses C-Media CM6501 7.1 while 939Dual-SATA2 uses Realtek 850 7.1channel AC'97 - http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlac97...p;Software=True

Sorry for posting twice.

Edited August 23, 2006 by rainyd

[Petr]

Sorry ,Petr, I'm afraid you haven't read my previous post carefully enough.

For most if not all motherboard makers the Win9x family is dead (especially since July 11 when Microsoft officially ended support for those systems) what results in Win2000 as minimum requirement.

That's the reason that ASRock doesn't mention the drivers for Win98SE/ME.

This is not the case of ASRock, as I wrote in my posts. Even for the newest motherboards, if it is Windows 98/ME compatible, it is written in the specification and there are drivers in the drivers section: http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp?Model=775i65G

939Dual-VSTA contains C-Media CM6501 7.1 channel audio compliant with UAA architecture

775Dual-VSTA contains Realtek ALC888 7.1channel audio CODEC with High Definition Audio

Both are not supported in Windows 98SE/Me.

Petr

[rainyd]

Petr, you're stuborn but so am I! Motherboard you've mentioned is not a good example: I don't know when it was released but its chipset was introduced in September 2003 (at that time Win98SE/ME was quite popular).

Btw, it's quite interesting that ASRock has removed drivers for 939Dual-SATA2 for Win98SE/ME (probably in relation with the upcoming release of Vista).

Both motherboards will work with Win98SE/ME when you use drivers of chipset makers but without integrated sound and in that respect you're right. Personally, I prefer using a "normal" sound card instead of built-in sound.

The quality of integrated sound has greatly improved over the last few years therefore for most of users it's satisfactory.

[Albuquerque]

Just to add a second opinion -- Rainyd is correct. The drivers that ASRock provides are nothing really more than the bare chipset drivers that are re-packaged with their own logos and verbiage.

Indeed, using the standard chipset drivers from either NVIDIA or VIA would allow those motherboards to work correctly (and normally) on a Windows 95/98/ME platform. The only detriment would be the missing UAA audio driver, which is not actually supported (as RainyD has mentioned in his last post)

[Petr]

The only detriment would be the missing UAA audio driver, which is not actually supported (as RainyD has mentioned in his last post)

This is exactly what I mentioned because RainyD did not mention this in his first post.

There are either boards that are fully supported in Windows 98SE, it means ALL hardware components are supported, or boards that are supported partially only. Partially are supported almost all today boards, missing drivers are sometimes for High Definition Audio, somentimes for SATA controllers, sometimes for USB2 controller, sometimes for integrated graphics, etc.

Petr