boot floppy

[runzwithsizorz]

having a dickens of a time firing up a computer I just put together,{ecs k7s5a}.trouble started when none of my
boot disks would drive the cd for me to load 98se; tried 6 different cd's.Funny the oak
drivers have always worked before;(aprox.50 diff.hardware configs.),rather than picking
just one cd,finding the drivers,and augmenting a boot disk,I went on line and downloaded
various boot configs;(one can never have too many); till I found one that worked.So far so
good,the only difference I saw was just before running the os setup from the dos promp,this
was written;"dos is in low memory";---I ignored this and proceded to load the os,figuring
once windows was loaded I could deal with any probs.later; WRONG! windows will only run
for 2 min.at best,before freezing.safe mode?ditto; so no way of me loading the sis drivers.
I have tried every type of memory config.;(100,133, 2100),checked the cpu 1200 duron,
hd was fdisk,scanned,formatted,& partitioned;psu should be ok,JGE 350 watt.
ME thinks something was amiss with the boot floppy; what are your thoughts?
I tried moving the cd drivers on the disk that did work the cd on to a fresh boot disk,but to
avail. Also should I leave bios cashable off? Over at driverguide someone posted a boot disk
he claimed would fire up anything;and all of the comments were positive; but alas they,or he
removed the link.

 

[Zepper]

Win98 doesn't properly configure some things on it's own. You should have a config.sys file in the root dir of drive C: with the following lines (plus any others specific to your system - don't type in the notes in parenthesis!) :

device=c:\windows\himem.sys /testmem:0ff
device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems
lastdrive=Z
stacks=9,256
dos=high,umb
fileshigh=100
buffershigh=30
fcbs=16,4 (this line isn't necessary unless any DOS program(s) you run in DOS windows needs it.)
shell=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:1536 /P (there is a space between \ /)

I also use an autoexec.bat file as follows, but it isn't really necessary - if you still have probs w/o one, try it) - add any other lines specific to your system between SETs and LH DOSKEY:

@ECHO OFF
SET PATH=.\;%PATH%;C:\UTILITY;C:\ (change everything after PATH%; to whatever you need in your search PATH)
SET PROMPT=$P$G
SET TEMP=E:\TEMP (change drive letters to suit where you keep your TEMP and TMP directories)
SET TMP=E:\TMP
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T2 (use your own parameters, if any, or leave the line out if not needed)
LH DOSKEY /B:768

Also I recommend going to the - www.ocworkbench.com - forum on ECS mobos and check out the K7S5A
FAQs (right at the top of the forum) - the best on the web, IMO!

.bh.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

thanks much for your respond;zepper tho I don't feel a custom boot disk
is nessessary in this instance.Down loaded the UBD;ultimate boot disk,
if you don't have it;get it!! Reformatted,etc. reloaded windows;still
same results.Tried a different psu; nope. Believe it or not I think it's
the hard drive,the customer gave me even tho scan disk reports no errors,the #'s I've got here
and the #'s at the Fujitsu;(can you say class action), site don't match;i.e. 4 gig difference.
Gonna try another hd,I'll let you know on this thread.

"They shoot horses don't they"

 

[Zepper]

HD Mfrs spec hard drives as MB=1000000 Bytes when we all know that a MB is 2^20 (1048576) Bytes (note the approximately 5% difference - just about exactly your discrepancy). File a complaint with the FTC.
.bh.
:Q

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Hey, Zep; if your still listening? the customers hd I refered to was their old one,which I KNOW was a 6 gig;after saving their stuff,
and formatting,it read a 2 gig; tho scans showed no problems. Tried a different hd; and still would lock up on os install, or shortly
there after.The class action was in reference to what the company (Fujitsu) is going though now. Anyway, had an older s5a laying
around and and it fired right up! still don't know what happened to 3 boot disks all corrupted;(magnetic drivers on work bench?);
their hard drive;or why the newer s5a wouldn't work. Think I'll flash the new s5a back to the bios of the board that did work. Not that
it should matter,but that older one; I had installed a fan on the chip. IMO the reason there is such a cult following of this mobo is because
of it's problems, and not the lack of them. Thanks for listening looking at the KT 400a ;your thoughts?