SoundStorm, A7N8X DELUXE and slow Windows 98...

[theshodown18]

Hello. Just switched over to a Barton 2500+ and Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev 2.0 combo and I'm having a couple problems. I did a fresh install of Windows 98 SE, fully updated with 512mb RAM fix. Using 2x 512mb value select in dual channel, geforce fx 5500. Anyway, here are my probems:

1. 60 second boot up time. Im staring at the Windows 98 startup screen for like 60 seconds, an unwelcome change from the 10 seconds of my previous A7A266 1ghz Tbird combo. Prolly a BIOS setting that Im missing but how can I chop this down?

2. More "20 second freezes" than I care for. Its already happened a handfull of times where I thought Ive locked up then I start moving smoothly again.

3. Things seem slower overall from my previous combo (1ghz tbird and asus a7a266). As I type this I have a game running in the background and mouse scrolling is extremely choppy (no performance hit with last system).

4. NO SOUND! Grrrrrrr I've been messing with this onboard sound all day and I cant get it up and running. I dont have the mobo CD, but Ive tried a multitude of drivers from both Asus and nvidia but nothing works. Everything checks out fine in device monitor but I cant access NVmixer I get the "could not detect nvidia nforce hardware on your system). Its enabled in BIOS and I have not tried a pci card yet so there shouldnt be a driver conflict. Im fresh outa ideas on this one.



A couple things, plz no UOGRADE WINDOEZ! comments I know 98 blows and I plan on upgrading to xp when I can scrap together $150 for the OS and a new HD. Ive ran this thing in both 166/200 fsb settings with the ram coinciding. 2.7v for the ram as well. Everything else is default. 2.5-3-3-8 I believe. Ive done 2.5-3-3-7 as well.


Thanks in advance. Ill check in regularily and answer any questions. Hopefully you guys can help me out. 🙁

 

[theshodown18]

btw. if anyone could jot down the speed, voltage, multiplier settings, etc I should be using for a stable system it would be great. Some of the "default" settings the BIOS provides are highly suspect so I would like to make sure.

Thanks.

 

[mechBgon]

1) if you have both NICs enabled, disable one.

2) you said you didn't want to hear the answer to this 🙂

3) what antivirus and firewall do you have?

4) download the latest nVidia driver package, install a trial version of WinZip, start WinZip, and use it to extract the contents of the nVidia driver package to a folder. Now manually try to feed the drivers to Device Manager on the stuff that is 😕 .

5) make your RAM run sync'ed to your FSB speed, is the key thing.

 

[theshodown18]

1. plz elaborate on NIC? My head hurts from fighting so hard today.

2. No antivirus using Sygate personal firewall.

3. Ive tried the manual feeding process for every driver pack Ive downloaded without luck. The thing is, I just did a quick swap of the mobo/pcu using my old hard drive and I think everything was aok. I didnt really mess around with anything but I dont think I got sound although I could access the nvmixer.

4. switched over to single channel mode for the ram to see if it will improve things. havent noticed anything and the game i was playing already crashed within 1 hr of screwing around on it. Never crashed in the 20 or so hours I played it on my old rig.

thanks.

 

[Aenslead]

I thought that nVidia stated that nForce 2 plataform would NOT run on Win98/Me/95 anymore. You need either Win2k or XP.

 

[RajunCajun]

I don't know what Nvidia's official policy is, but I do know that Win98 drivers are readily available for nForce2 mobos. I built a system with an ECS NF2 Ultra board and XP2000+ that runs under Win98 very well. FSB is 266 (133x2) and I down clocked the 512mb of PC3200 memory to run at 266mhz also.

It seems you're getting a major conflict somewhere. Remember, Win98 is not as smart as XP is and needs all the correct drivers for it to run OK. Just check the manufacturer's website and you should find everything you need. Also, my Win98 drivers came on the install CD.

 

[Fern]

I've been running 98se with no problems on the NF2 rig in my sig.

I did experience a little glitch in installing chipset drivers, but its no biggie. If your having that prob let me know. However, I was using the abit install disk, and I beleive it may be glitch of abit, so you may not experience it.

Sounds like you've got 2 x 512MB sticks. I'd suggest using only one 512MB stick until you get the problems sorted out. 98se CAN have probs with ram in excess of 768MB. There is a fix for this from MS.

The sound is a well-known problem with this chipset. No biggie, there is a MS fix for this. I use it and have no problem with sound. Go to this THREAD, scroll down to the second post and click on the link for the MS sound patch.

Go check your device manager, make sure there are no yellow "!" marks there. Check the drivers to make sure they actually installed.

Make sure your gfx and chipset drivers are updated. Some with NF2 mobo's and 98se find it easier to forget the driver disk provided with the mobo, and just d/l and install the newer drivers off of the nVidia site.

Keep[ at it. 98se runs like a champ on my rig. Bootup and shut down are way quicker than either win2k sp4 or winXP. (I've got a triple boot system).

Oh, to make sure you've got everything else working, run memtest on your ram. Also run some gfx benchies (aquamark , 3Dmark) to make sure all the chipset/gfx driver are in and working. I'd prolly run Sandra (the performace wizard or whatever it's called) to make the HDD and ram controller drivers are in and working too.

Fern

 

[KGB]

shodown,

One thing to definitely do... go back to the standard M$ IDE drivers.
The nVidia SW-IDE drivers are notoriously flakey.