NForce IDE Drivers Windows98/ME

[JMP]

When I tried installing Windows 98 or ME on an Asus A7N266 for the IDE controller I get Standard PCI IDE Controller with the channels showing up as single fifo, hard disk usage pegs the CPU at 100 %.

Tried changing the channels to dual fifo - same result.
Tried changing the controller to the Standard Busmastering controller, I can no longer see the CDRom.

Tried Windows 2000 All works great !!! (I HATE WINDOWS 9X)

This machine needs Windows 98 or ME but not if I IDE is not going to work.

Does anyone have any experience with NFOrce chipset.

 

[Tea]

No experience at all, I'm afraid, JMP. But seeing as your post has been up for a day or so now, and no-one else has responded, looks like I'm all you get. Knowing nothing about the nForce chipset boards, what can I tell you? Well, the obvious: the chipset post-dates Win98SE and probably ME as well, so there won't be built-in drivers for it. Whereas Win2000 being newer will have the correct drivers. (Or did 2000 come first, then ME? I forget.)

It sounds as though you are messing about trying to get the thing to work properly and don't have an existing install to protect, so that makes things easier. I think I'd go to nvidia.com and get the current IDE drivers, then start afresh. Install 98SE, then install the downloaded drivers before you do anything else. Don't try anything fancy, like changing the controller type. It's just that sort of thing that tends to break drivers, because the manufacturer expects you to do everything the "normal" way and probably hasn't tested other scenarios properly.

Not much of an answer, but at least it's a bump for your post.

 

[Cliptin]

I agree, it sounds like you need to install the 4in1 drivers.

I bellieve James has that board but I have no idea what OS he is running. He doesn't seem to have a lot of time to read the baords these days so you might PM him.

 

[JMP]

Tea said:

I think I'd go to nvidia.com and get the current IDE drivers

Makes sense, however there is no mention of IDE drivers at Nvidia.com, the chipset driver package contains nothing for IDE at all.

I was wondering if some other manufacturers IDE drivers worked with it?

Jeff

 

[Tannin]

Hmmmm. You are right. I checked too, and did a small Goodle search. I see tht they don't support anything earlirt than Win98SE. I guess that means that SE has Mircosoft-supplied IDE drivers for nforce, and earlier OSs have nothing. What happens if you just clean install SE and tick DMA?

 

[JMP]

What happens if you just clean install SE and tick DMA?

Tried that both with 98SE and with ME, both times disk tranfers put CPU to 100%, other than that it works fine.... Maybe thats what they mean by supported - Works but poorly :-?

Jeff

 

[CougTek]

It's probably not related, but the nForce motherboards had a problem with the "writes" on the ATA channels not so long ago. The cure came in the form of a BIOS update IIRC. I know now that all the Asus A7N266-C I sell have respectable IDE transfer speed once I install the latest BIOS revision.

I've also put the link to the latest (v1.05 currently) driver version for the nForce chipset in the download section of the front page, so in case it's not the version you use (doubtful, it's pretty old already), you can just download it from there. Anyway, you can get all the utilities you wish for this motherboard on Asus' web site.

But if your problem is OS specific, then I doubt it depends on a BIOS or driver version. I let a tear go when I'll think about poor JMP tonight before I close my eyes.

 

[CougTek]

Again, just in case : the installation manual for Win98. Apparently, it's more complicated to install the nForce drivers under that OS than on the more modern versions of the all-beloved bloated OS. Read even if you think you already know all this, it might light a candle on a slight mistake you did.

Note that I never installed Win98 on a nForce-based motherboard, only Win2K. I like things that at least have a chance to work more or less properly ;-)

 

[James]

I bellieve James has that board but I have no idea what OS he is running. He doesn't seem to have a lot of time to read the baords these days so you might PM him.

No, I only have a Tyan Tiger MP and a ECS K7S5A, plus some ancient (P166 era) Intel boards around the place and of course my Sun Ultra 5. And various touchscreen or handheld units... but anyway, the point is no, no NVIDIA mobos.

 

[JMP]

I did read through the entire driver installation method for Windows 98 (after I discovered the problem as it is no fun to Read The Manual First :lol: ) there is no place in there where they discuss the IDE Drivers, a search of ASUS, NVidia and the web in general turn up no information om IDE Drivers for NForce at all.

Response from ASUS so far has been install the chipset driver package, I have checked every .inf file in this package none of them are for IDE.

I am beginning to think Nvidia decided to not worry about this as most people would install 2000 or XP, it is however annoying when tranferring a large file causes the system to be unusable until it is done. It reminds me of my old 486.

Jeff

 

[Tea]

Plug in a Promise card?

(Runs and hides.)

 

[James]

The NVIDIA drivers for the mobo include all the required drivers, you can't download (for example) the IDE drivers seperately. Sort of like the (ugh!) VIA 4-in-1s.

 

[James]

Except obviously you can actually download those seperately. Well, anyway, you get the idea. :mrgrn:

 

[JMP]

Tea,

Good Idea but I think I'll just convince the Customer to Go Win 2K or XP everything works fine there.

Jeff