"98 Guy" wrote in message ...
| Ok, I've just finished installing Win98se on this motherboard:
|
| Asrock 775Dual-VSTA
|
| http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.as...l=775Dual-VSTA
|
| This board has:
|
| - Via PT880 Pro/Ultra northbridge
| - Via VT8237A southbridge
| - Realtek ALC888 7.1 channel audio codec with high-def
| - VIA PHY VT6103 lan (only 100 mbps)
| - 2 Dual Channel DDR slots
| - 2 Dual Channel DDR-2 slots
| - 4 PCI slots
| - 1 PCI-express slot
| - 1 AGP slot 4X/8X (supports only 1.5V boards, not 3.3V)
| - 2 SATA connectors
| - this is a socket 775 board.
|
| CPU: Celeron D, 3.46 ghz, 533 fsb.
| Memory: 2 x 256 mb DDR
|
| I might replace it with a 3.6 ghz version which I think was just
| released by Intel last month (probably the fastest Celeron that will
| ever be made) and will probably swap the DDR memory with DDR-2.
|
| Anyone considering building a high-end system soley for win-98 use
| would probably be wasting their money with a Pentium that does
| hyperthreading, or any of the dual or quad-core CPU's as win-98
| apparently can't make use of those features. On the other hand, the
| Celeron D's apparently do overclock very well, with some accounts of
| running stable at up to 4.9 ghz.
|
| This would seem to make a great board to use as a dual-boot platform
| though.
|
| Hard drive: 160 GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA).
|
| Hard drive was partitioned with On-Track Disc Manager (Seagate Disc
| Wizard). Two partitions (32 gb and 121 gb). Both partitions with
| FAT-32, both using 4kb cluster size.
|
| Video card: ATI Radeon 7000 (dual head output). 128 mb, PCI bus.
|
| I will (soon) install a primary display driver in the AGP slot. It
| might be an ATI all in wonder radeon 7800 that I already have. The
| 7000 will then be the secondary driver, and in total I'll be able to
| hook up 3 monitors to this machine.
|
| I have 2 500gb Western Digital SATA drives coming in about a week that
| will be installed in place of the single 160 gb Seagate.
|
| Ok, so win-98 installed relatively easily. After messing with various
| drivers, here's what I get:
|
| In Device manager, I'm seeing 2 unknown items under "Other Devices":
|
| - item 1 is listed as a PCI card
| - item 2 is listed as an Unknown Device
|
| Using a program called "unknown device identifier" it seems that item
| 1 is this:
|
| - High Definition Audio Controller
| - Chip Vendor: Via Technologies inc
| - Device: PCI card
| - OEM Vendor: ASRock Inc.
| - PnPID: VEN_1106&DEV_3288&SUBSYS_08881849&REV_10
|
| I have no idea what Item 2 is. There are no resources listed for it
| in device manager, and the unknown-device-identifier does not list an
| "unknown device".
|
| The joystick driver is also listed as being a problem, and there is
| also a PCI bus listed with a yellow (!). This is what device manager
| is saying about this PCI bus entry:
|
| "Windows could not load the driver for this device because the
| computer is reporting two PCI VXD bus types (Code 2)."
|
| It's listed as using I/O resource addresses 0CF8 - 0CFF, which
| apparently can't be changed. This is conflicting with the other PCI
| bus entry right above it in the device manager list.
|
| Would that be the PCI-Express bus slot? I am seeing a "Via Standard
| PCI to PCIE bridge" entry that appears fine.
|
| All other motherboard resources appear to have been found and drivers
| installed. This includes the USB 2.0 drivers, the AC-97 audio
| drivers, the on-board NIC, and the SATA drivers (again, the SATA
| controller appears as a SCSI driver in device manager).
|
| So, I take it that there is no high-def win-98 driver for the realtek
| codec - is there?
|
| Anyone know what this PCI problem is, and how I can solve it?

BIOS:
Okay, what BIOS update did you install or are you at?
Looks like the 2.50 is the latest for DOS systems. 02/06/2007
http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.as...75Dual-VSTA&s=
ftp://download.asrock.com/bios/775/7...VSTA(2.50).zip

DRIVERS:
Looks like you'll be searching the NET for modified drivers.

VIDEO:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/vga.asp?Model=775Dual-VSTA&s=
Better make sure whatever video card you get has a 98 driver.

PCI CONFLICTS:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...98&btnG=Search -
113 hits
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...98&btnG=Search -
211,000 hits
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/apic.mspx - The Importance of
Implementing APIC-Based Interrupt Subsystems on Uniprocessor PCs [explains
the features and problems associated with IRQs, steering, other]
http://www.smartcomputing.com/editor...7r01.asp&guid= -
Basic Troubleshooting- Graphics Cards [deals with issues/conflicts]

Doesn't HARD answer your question does it? But I don't have the system to
play with, so your the experimenter, you'll be the discoverer of what it
takes to make it work.
Looks like a nice board though, with the dual bus overclocking abilities.

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"Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth.
Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if
nothing had happen." Winston Churchill
Or to put it another way:
Morpheus can offer you the two pills;
but only you can choose whether you take the red pill or the blue one.
_______________