system locks up when i install Via 4-in-1 drivers

[soulm4tter]

I'm upgrading a friends computer. Its an old PII 350 and i'm installing a new hard drive and some more RAM. I took out the old Seagate 4.3GB HD and put in a new Seagate Barracuda ATA-III 7200rpm ATA100 drive. After i install the Via 4-in-1 drivers the machine refused to boot. I can boot in safe mode, but can't uninstall the drive so i just format. I'm tryin to install Win98.

The motherboard is a FIC KA-6100.

Should i just forget about installing the VIA drivers??

 

[majewski9]

Don't Install the drivers. Your system should work fine without them! My did! Although I installed them and it improved poerformance. There are some VIA boards that recommend you install older version of drivers and not the newest versions. Check to see if yours applies.

 

[majewski9]

Don't Install the drivers. Your system should work fine without them! My did! Although I installed them and it improved poerformance. There are some VIA boards that recommend you install older version of drivers and not the newest versions. Check to see if yours applies.

 

[soulm4tter]

oh ya, the OEM system came with a VIA patch diskette. It says "VIA 596 Patch files ver: 1.1. Which i think is "VIA Chipset Patches

VIA USB Filter Driver and Mini Port Patch only adds chipset information for VIA-based Slot-1 models, such as KA-6100, VB-601-V and other. Owners of Super 7 motherboards not need download v. 1.3 if v. 1.1 is already installed on their system." From which I found at FIC.

The system seemed slugghish, so I benchmarked the HD with HD Tach. I got terrible results.

14.5ms access
read speed 7mb/s
burst speed 8mb/s
cpu utlilization 90%

I wanna get this new HD performing better than that. I benchmarked this drive on my other system and got:

11.8ms access
read speed 29mb/s
burst speed 68mb/s
cpu utilization 13%

Obviously i'm not going to get 68mb/s burst speed. I achieved that on an ATA100 channel.
I'm not even sure what ATA interface this south bridge chip supports.

 

[soulm4tter]

Well i finally got it fixed somewhat with a combination of old VIA drivers and getting DMA enabled. But now my access time is higher.....wt

access 17ms
read speed 20mb/s
burst speed 28mb/s
cpu utilization 5%

Any ideas on this one?