All right, so how do you move IRQ's around?

[McRhea]

Heh heh hehe... I'm really sorry about the messed up numbers on the BIOS...

A question about the IDE cable, are they all the same? They should be, right? Are there different types I need to know about?

Well... there's nothing more I can do tonight... Except go to bed. Hehe. Thank you Bixler, I'll try to get the IDE cable as soon as possible... it's a good thing one of my friends' older brother works in a computer store! If all goes well, I'll get the cable tomorrow!

Ok, it's late here... and my heard hurts from all this computer stuff (not really), so I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Bye!

Thanks Bixler and Jordan. And all the guys that are following the progress (progress? ) Good night.

McRhea

[Bixler]

Gotta be a bad Promise...We'll know soon, but my guess is, McRhea, that some physical damage could have occurred while you were swapping about. Must be very careful...always.

When you've got the IDE back on the mainboard, be sure to have your Win98 disk nearby, you'll need it. And be sure to follow Jorden's advice about the sequence of events as you are changing.

And by the way, it's spelled JordEn with an E!!

[RAB]

McRhea,
Now you know why its called "Plug and PRAY"
RAB

[space7]

RAB. The PLAG AND PRAY expression was invinted from mac users to describe the PLAG AND PLAY of PC.

[Jorden]

Taking the lead again, Bixler?? Seems at least you can still internet from work... Me not

First Holly: I couldn't help you further on my hunch that it was the PnP BIOS, because this is part of the BIOS that's never updated. All PnP Bioses are still at v1.0A or something alike It might have been your Promise from the beginning, but we won't know, as the problem has cleared itself (or didn't it??)

McRhea: The blue IDE-flatcable that's on your HDD now is an ATA/66 80 wire cable. You should ask for a standard 40 wire IDE-flatcable.

The erratic mouse moving around could be another conflict on your mouseport. Question: Do you use a serial mouse (big, 9-pin female (so holes in it) connector) or a PS/2 mouse (small connector, round) or maybe a USB mouse (flat, square connector)?? Did you look at what IRQ your modem is now?? As I have seen in your other thread, you still have PnP OS in your BIOS set to Enabled...

Disable it ASAP, like in NOW !!!

Oh: You can call me just Jord as well. Holly has another name for me anyway

Jorden.

[Bixler]

Lead on, my man, lead on.

I'm watchin--Whew!

Nothing to add on the BIOS--You've seen the obvious, I'm sure.

[The PIT]

God this is a long epic so no doubt
I missed something. Presuming the ide cabling has been sorted out. Have you tried the easy option of just removing windows and starting again.
It's quite possible that Windows has just picked up rubbish over a period of time.
Copy the windows can files from the win9x folder into a folder on the C drive call it what you like. That way it doesn't matter if the Cdrom goes walkies during install.
To make sure that you got enougth base memory to run the setup copy himem.sys from the windows directory or the windows\command depending where it's hiding on to the root of your C drive. Also copy deltree.exe from the command directory to the C root.

Go to start > find > files or folders to locate them.

Edit the config.sys so it has a line like this.
device=c:\himem.sys
rem out anything else.
e.g rem device=c:\billgatessucks.

do the same for Autoexec.bat.

Remember we're not using the Cd drive so you don't need to load the drivers for that.
Restart 9x and press F8 and choose command prompt only. You can type deltree Windows.
Windows will be nicely destroyed.
Go to the directory where put you're win cab files and type setup.
Install the promise drivers when prompted. Then re-install the Matrox drivers sound etc.
If you don't like the idea of messing with the config.sys Gateway may have provided you with a windows bootup diskette. If it loads up your Cd drivers you can either run the windows setup program and try install over the top (Hardly ever works) or again delete the windows directory and start afresh.

After the clean install and if it cures hanging problem you know it's something thats got corrupted at sometime. If it doesn't well thats another post.

Oh if you haven't a boot disk make one by typing format a:\ /s

copy himem.sys and your cdrivers plus mscdex.exe to the floppy.

Then create a config.sys so.

device=a:\himem.sys
devicehigh=a:\cddrivername /d:mscd000

for the autoexec.bat

lh a:\mscdex /d:mscd000

Cddrv is the driver for your cd depending on the manufactor.

[Bixler]

Step by step The Pit.

We're still in computers 101 here. What about the many hours to reinstall all of the applications and data files??? I know it sounds simple but....

McRhea is finally now learning how to follow instructions, and the consequences of NOT (etc. etc.), but stay tuned...when we're done we might get some pictures. I think we are owed. Eh Jorden?

Lurking and waiting to learn!

Tim

[Jorden]

Pictures Tim?? How about some money??

But to answer The PIT: His system isn't that old yet. It's in my guess nothing to do with Windows98. He's not seeing any BSODs, GPFs or Internal errors. The system just hangs for some seconds then continues.
That points to a hardware error.

Btw, can anyone check this data I just received? It seems that ATA/66 on a Promise card cannot be achieved. Because of the speed-limitations of the PCI-bus. It's 32bits all the time. So, if you want to reach 66Mb/sec (ATA/66) you must have a direct connector for it on the mobo, or use a PCI-2 slot or AGP2x slot at least to have use of the Promise Ultra66.

I don't know if this is true!! It's something I got through a friend of mine who's tech-service checked the Promise Ultra66.

Jorden.

[Bixler]

Hey McRhea:
Lurking now and not telling anymore, but tell ALPBM and Jorden: Are you overclocking ANTHING???

Be honest.

Jorden:
According to the Promise Tech site you must be PCI 2.1 compliant.

Quoting from Promise FAQ's:

"QUESTION: What are the motherboard requirements of the Ultra66?

ANSWER: Is your motherboard, at least, PCI 2.1 compliant? The Ultra66 will not work on a motherboard that is less than PCI 2.1 compliant. You can get this information from motherboard specifications or the manufacturer of the computer. Other requirements would be a PnP BIOS on your motherboard and that your motherboard supports bus mastering. The Ultra66 will not work in your computer if either one of these requirements are not met."


[This message has been edited by Bixler (edited 23 November 1999).]

[Alfie]

While McRhea has gone off to buy a ide cable,perhaps this will be a good time to remind him about connecting the marked side of the cable to pin 1 on his mobo.
If anyone has mentioned this,I missed it and stand corrected.
It is interesting to note the difference between udma66 and udma33 is hardly noticeable,similar to 1x and 2x.
We all are learning from this thread,we all now know not to buy a promise card.

[McRhea]

Cool... it's 2PM here, and I just contacted my friends' brother. He said he’d just give me a 40-pin IDE cable for free. So that's cool... I just hope he gives me one that is WORKING! Hehe.

JordAn: ( I Finally got it right!)
I have a PS/2 Microsoft IntelliPoint Mouse.
And do you really think it could be a conflict that caused it to move around on it's own?? It's been working fine all this time, and it's never done that... Of course, I could be hallucinating or something!
I'll post all the IRQ's again:

0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 (free)
4 Communications Port (COM1)
5 (free)
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
9 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
10 Promise Technology Inc. Ultra66 IDE Controller
10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 Matrox Millennium G400 - English
11 U.S. Robotics 56K Voice Win
11 Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64D
11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
15 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller

The PIT: That is an idea I've been thinking about lately... but if I do that, I’ll have to download a ton of stuff and I’m going to wait until I get my Cable modem (I hope at the end of this month), I'm not really ready to go and do a clean install.... I'll try that if all else fails. I'll keep what you posted handy though. Thanks

Bixler: I can't overclock anything even if I wanted to! The mobo won't let me. I'm not overclocking the G400 either, or any other component. I never have. And until I get a new comp that I made myself, I probably never will.... All these brand name comps won't let you.

And one more thing, Is my motherboard PCI 2.1 compliant? It must be because Gateway installed it on my mobo, right?

I'm hoping I can go and pick up the IDE cable today, but we'll see. Thanks everyone for hanging around...

A side note, the IRQ list up there.... I'll come back and post it again as soon as I reboot and disable the PnP and the IDE channels. When I loaded up the System information to get that info, the system started to hang again... it's hanging right now... I'm rebooting right now....

[McRhea]

All right, I disabled the PNP OS in my BIOS and turned off the IDE ports on the mobo.
This is what my IRQ list looks like now:

0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 (free)
4 Communications Port (COM1)
5 (free)
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
9 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
10 Promise Technology Inc. Ultra66 IDE Controller
10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 Matrox Millennium G400 - English
11 U.S. Robotics 56K Voice Win
11 Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64D
11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
15 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller


One question... in Device manager, Under Hard Disk controllers, this shows up:
Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Busmaster IDE controller

If I click on it and open up the properties, there's a settings tab. In the settings tab there's an option to:

Both IDE channels enabled
Primary IDE channel enabled
Secondary IDE channel enabled
No IDE channels enabled

Should I leave this alone or disable both of the channels? Remember, this is NOT in the Bios. It's in Device manager. What do I do about that?

A report on the hanging issue, although the system is set to disable PNP OS and the IDE channels are disabled in the BIOS, the system still hangs.

McRhea

[Dyre]

This has got to be the largest post of all time! When my system did this when i got my MAX i gave up after a week and bought a new Motherboard and Chip. I had a VIA based motherboard and an AMD k62 300. I got a Intel based pIII 450 and it worked the first time i booted up. Have you tried to get any bios patches?
BTW congradulation on just getting the damn case open. I spent 2 hours today trying to get my friends Dell open to add an 8x CDR (bastard!!). It was the most cryptic thing i had ever seen!
Well the thread has probably already changed while ive been typing so ill read on. Hey, can we get some pics of your g/f? Just Kidding man.

:O

------------------
</list>
PIII 450 @ 464
generic BX6 motherboard
G400 MAX : )
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 33
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
Creative 36x CD-ROM
HP 2x2x6x CD-RW
64 megs PC100 RAM
Intel 10/100
Soundblaster 32 AWE
DiamondMAX 56k
Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
4 large fans.

[Muad'Dib]

Hey Dyre, when my dad couldn't get his case off he reverted to the Haks (sorry about the spelling, I just use them... ) saw after about 5 minutes. You should see his computer now... Really funny looking. Missing half the case and the cpu fan is hanging by a copper wire cause it's the wrong freakin size! Damn do I love old computers and the things you can do to them...