G400 MAX is STILL not working

[kjliew]

Your PCI IRQ steering is ok.

Your ALi EIDE controller is not recognized by the Win98 you used. That's why it's onyl using standard dual PCI IDE controller. Goto ALi web site and download the bus mastering EIDE driver for ALi.

Do you have DirectX 7.0? 3DMark 2000 needs that.

Are you using TurboGL or ICD to run Quake3? TurboGL may not work with the lastest PD5.41. You need PD5.30 to use TurboGL for K6-2/3.

Run ScanDisk if there is any file system corruption.

UT is working now, and I believe we are close to the solution.

[Muad'Dib]

Sorry, my mistake, I remembered my IRQ's wrong. I'm not on my comp so it's kind of a pain... Here are the corrections:

14 Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller
14 Primary IDE Controller (Bus Master)
15 Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE Controller (Bus Master)

All looks better now...

[kjliew]

No.

"Standard dual PCI IDE control" SHOULD NOT be there is Win98 properly recognized your chipsets EIDE controller. Every chipset has a name, and if Win98 properly recognized it, a proper name should be shown, such as
"Intel 82371AB Bus Mastering IDE Controller", "VIA Bus Mastering IDE controller".

However I think that should not be the major problem. Anyway, it's better to have everything checked up. You never know sometimes it can be a surprise.

[The PIT]

Yep the IRq's are fine. I would certainly download the bus mastering drivers from the Ali web site. If you've already installed them and windoze hasn't picked them up you can either remove them and then click on refresh or try clicking on properties and select show all compatable hardware. It may list the Ali drivers then.
Wish you luck.

[Muad'Dib]

Ok, fixed the IRQ labels. It now reads:

14 ALi Bus Master PCI to IDE Controller
14 ALi Primary IDE Controller (Bus Master)
15 ALi Bus Master PCI to IDE Controller
15 ALi Secondary IDE Controller (Bus Master)


Ok, yes, I'm using DX 7.0 and I've run scan disk and the system file checker and updated 194 files and restored 44 files. :O :O Apperantly I've been kind of lax in doing that for a while... Anyway, I'll try using pd 5.30 and see if that helps at all with the Q3 problem. Will that have any effect on the 3dMark 2000? Thanks

[kjliew]

Yup, PD5.30 has some problems with 3DMark2000, I think in some high-detailed modes (if I remember correctly). That's fixed in PD5.41. But PD5.41 cannot work with 3DNow! TurboGL. BTW, I still don't have this benchmark yet. Well, as long as all the games work properly, who cares??

Wait for the next release of Powerdesk, which will probably have all the neccessary TurboGL built-in.

So are you happy with your G400MAX now??

[Muad'Dib]

WOW!!!

Yes, I'm very happy with it now. It runs very well and very smoothly. I suppose I can wait for a while without using the benchmark programs cause they still don't work, but who cares...

Thanks all for your help

Dimitri

[Muad'Dib]

Ok, I'm almost very happy about it. Every once in a while, while playing either Drakan, Unreal, or Q3, It will freeze. I'm not sure why. I've tried every different AGP Aperture Size, I've everything I can think of. Oh, except AGP 1X (will try that now). The thing is, it varies on how long it will take (if it even does freeze (it seems completely randwom ???)).

Any ideas anyone? Thanks in advance.

[RAB]

I hate to ask, but when was the last time you wiped out your hard drive with a format and started from scratch? When all else fails, this will usually fix nearly anything. Its a drastic solution, but after doing it a few times, you get used to it.

I'm sorry to think this might be the only solution, but its beginning to look that way. Please tell me you've found another solution so you don't have to do this.

RAB

[Muad'Dib]

RAB - I haven't reformatted in about a year... I'm waiting to go back to school so I can do all the updates from the Windows site painlessly at a T3 connection. I was going to do it over break but it escaped me in my relaxation. I don't really care about reinstalling it though because I can back up all my imporant stuff on my secondary (20 gig) drive. I suppose I'll have to wait for that. Also, I always forget (one reason why I avoided it at home) how to get my mobo to recognize my cd drive if I don't have windows. Please remind. Thanks

[The PIT]

To get install windoze from scratch solution one.

config.sys

device=c:\himem.sys
devicehigh=c:\cddriver /d:mscd000

Autoexec.bat

lh c:\mscdex /d:mscd000

Note this is presuming that himem.sys, the cddriver(This should be supplied by the manufacturer) and mscdex.exe are on the root of the C drive. Or you can make a bootable floppy with the files on and just change the C's to A's.

Another way is to copy all the files from the win9x folder on your CD to a directory on your harddrive copy himem.sys and deltree.exe to the root of your C drive. Edit the config.sys to include himem.sys. Reboot the machine to Dos and make sure you've got enougth memory to run the window setup program by typing mem anything above 500 should be okay. Then deltree windows sit back and enjoy Bill Gates work disappearing then when is finnished change to the directory where you put the cab files etc and type setup.
This way keeps old programs on the hard disk so when you re-install them i.e msoffice they'll keep you're old settings.
Sometimes windows will detect newer files being replaced due to a later version of explorer being installed at sometime. Just tell it to overright.
I don't think I forgotten anything no doubt someone will tell me.

[RAB]

You can also just make a Win98 emergency start up disk. I'm using NT here at work, so I can't remember the sequence to create one, but I think its simply go into Windows Explorer, insert a 3.5" disk, right click on A:drive and select "Create emergency disk" from the menu. I made mine when I installed Windows. That will give you a disk with CD-ROM support and all the DOS commands you need to reformat, and start Win98 setup.

RAB

[The PIT]

Of course it would be nice if Microsoft gave you the option to create a backup basic registry at this point. Then if things do arse shaped you could restore this rather than having to re-install the full windoze.