All cleaned, thermal pasted and the mighty "titi" installed

This is the only IDE drive I have, I will be swapping it out for a SSD when a PATA to SATA adaptor turns up

Picked up an SB Live 5.1 retail from ebay, its a SB0060, hopefully wont have too many problems with dos sound.

V5 5500 pci. These are my pride and joy, mac versions with pc bios' that I have had since new, the one that doesnt need a clean is going in...

New 350w psu

The case, new cheap coolermaster cantrememberthemodel (TM)

Build went in without a hitch

And now the fun begins.

First minor hick-up. Although everything seemed fine with the single 512mb dimm in, Windows setup keeps crashing, so I am back down to the 256+128mb dimms.

Weebob wrote:

First minor hick-up. Although everything seemed fine with the single 512mb dimm in, Windows setup keeps crashing, so I am back down to the 256+128mb dimms.

Windows 98 doesn't like 512MB of RAM and higher.

PcBytes wrote:

Weebob wrote:

First minor hick-up. Although everything seemed fine with the single 512mb dimm in, Windows setup keeps crashing, so I am back down to the 256+128mb dimms.

Windows 98 doesn't like 512MB of RAM and higher.

I thought it was >512MB that Win98 doesn't like. I've always run 512MB without problems.

Think it's the stick. The system is really flakey with that in, fine with the other two dimms.

The OS is installed fine, drivers on and the unofficial service pack. All gone ok, ish so far

Seem to have two problems...

1. When you exit windows to 'restart in dos' my usb keyboard doesn't work. It is fine if you boot to command prompt 'F8' on start up. Legacy usb is enabled in the bios.

2. The dos drivers for the SB live are enabled and work fine, unless you start a dos game in Windows where it sounds awful, like some of the channels are missing and all the levels are turned up to 11. Booting straight into dos it sounds fine, windows games also sound fine.

1. If you are using a USB keyboard you must enable USB keyboard support in BIOS in order to use the keyboard under DOS environment!
2. check you installation; you must install all the extra software when installing Creative drivers!

nd22 wrote:

1. If you are using a USB keyboard you must enable USB keyboard support in BIOS in order to use the keyboard under DOS environment!
2. check you installation; you must install all the extra software when installing Creative drivers!

Hello,

With the keyboard, the odd thing is it works if booted to dos first.

Everything is installed for the sound card, works fine again if you boot to dos first.

Been reading about win98 not giving up its grasp on usb host controllers... Is that a thing?

The 815 chipset wont work with over 512mb of ram, so that may be partly why you were having issues with using that stick.

Also, if you lack a ps/2 keyboard may I suggest a ps2 to usb adaptor? That may solve your keyboard issues.

ODwilly wrote:

The 815 chipset wont work with over 512mb of ram, so that may be partly why you were having issues with using that stick.

Also, if you lack a ps/2 keyboard may I suggest a ps2 to usb adaptor? That may solve your keyboard issues.

Cheers fr the reply, The machine is down to 384mb now and is rock solid.

I have picked up a couple of usb to ps/2 adaptors and will give them a go. This isn't the major problem as I have just added the tweakui boot menu so can boot straight to DOS easily.

The main thing that is bugging me is running DOS games in windows and the audio being messed up, wish I had something other than the SB Live to test with...

PS/2 adaptors didn't work, just acted like a key was being pressed all the time. Also tried a could of different keyboards just in case.

However, I have worked out what is causing the keyboard not to work after "Restarting in dos". I used "nusb33e.exe" to install mass storage drivers for USB sticks. After installing drivers one by one turns out its this thats breaking DOS mouse and keyboard support for me. Is there another method I am missing?

On to getting the soundcard sorted...

I'm not a Windows ME fan but it does have better USB support if you really do need the mass storage drivers.
Personally I'd keep Win98 but throw in a network card and copy files over the LAN

If you want I'll clean up that other voodoo 5 for you? I'll even do it for free, may take a while to arrive back though 😉

chinny22 wrote:

I'm not a Windows ME fan but it does have better USB support if you really do need the mass storage drivers.
Personally I'd keep Win98 but throw in a network card and copy files over the LAN

If you want I'll clean up that other voodoo 5 for you? I'll even do it for free, may take a while to arrive back though 😉

I am living without it at the moment and just using an SD card to IDE adapter. Not sure I can bring myself to install ME but it could be a plan.

As for the Voodoo 5's, I am having a slight problem with one of them, 9/10 times its fine just every so often I dont get Video from it. I was looking to sell them on but wont be doing unless they are 100%.

Having a major problem now.

The PC crashed while playing Carmageddon (not that thats related) in software mode, ended up with black screen and a slight smell of burning, so I powered it off and now its just not booting.

Power doesn't seem to be getting to the mainboard. I have tested the other components, PSU, all except the processor as I dont have another s370 board to test in and everything else it fine. Most importantly the Voodoo 5 is fine.

The PSU didnt smell like it had blown and looks "fine" upon opening it up, I cant find anything thats popped on the mainboard...

hrrrrrrrrrrrrm

This the end im afraid. The board is lifeless.

The good news is I have the retro bug now so its time to build something else, time for a new thread...

It's a shame I didn't see this earlier.
Your board was (or perhaps is) a very nice one as it supports Tualatin natively.

Your PSU is a modern one and it has relatively weak 5v rails. I don't know the build quality of your Antec PSU, but some PSUs have some trouble with heavy crossloads.

You may want to find out what went wrong with your build. Even if you can't fix this, it may help prevent any future losses.

Tetrium wrote:

It's a shame I didn't see this earlier. Your board was (or perhaps is) a very nice one as it supports Tualatin natively. […]
Show full quote

It's a shame I didn't see this earlier.
Your board was (or perhaps is) a very nice one as it supports Tualatin natively.

Your PSU is a modern one and it has relatively weak 5v rails. I don't know the build quality of your Antec PSU, but some PSUs have some trouble with heavy crossloads.

You may want to find out what went wrong with your build. Even if you can't fix this, it may help prevent any future losses.

Agreed, The psu is in the bin, my knowledge of such things is very limited beyond "it looks fine", so I just can not risk using it.

I am going to pick up a cheap s370 processor to see if the board has any life in it, but I really doubt it as there is nothing when you turn it on, fans connected to the board dont spin up. its like the on button isnt being pressed (I have checked this by bridging the pins). This is with a different Coolermaster 550w PSU.

A little gutted about it really, had it in a good state. But it didnt cost me anything and I enjoyed it, so its not the end of the world.