You must have 1 512Mb DDR module. As the backup. If the Win9x setup start rebooting constantly.
/maxmem= is working only AFTER the install.

NamelessPlayer wrote:

I also don't know how it'll react to the sheer speed of the Pentium 4.

It'll be fine (except for Display as Web Page, that'll always be slow as hell). P4 3ghz w98se user here.

One potential issue is that the ISA slot might not be a full implementation. Is it an industrial board of some sort?

Gamecollector wrote:

You must have 1 512Mb DDR module. As the backup. If the Win9x setup start rebooting constantly.
/maxmem= is working only AFTER the install.

I've got two 256 MB DDR-266 and three 512 MB DDR-333 DIMMs for the initial Win9x installation, so no problem there.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

One potential issue is that the ISA slot might not be a full implementation. Is it an industrial board of some sort?

Only industrial boards even bothered with ISA slots by the Pentium 4 days.

This is the motherboard support page. Let me know if you dig up something I might have overlooked.

I don't see why it wouldn't be a full ISA implementation; either you go all the way or you don't bother with such an old interface, right?

Only way to know is testing it with your AWE64. I remember past posts on Vogons that they couldn't get Sound Cards to work in such boards. But you never know!

Some of that may have been psu voltages required by some old cards [-5v], but those boards can have a lot of bios settings to decipher too.

Would one even be able to utilize an ISA card, like a Sound Blaster or Gravis in an industrial board like that? I wanted to get one a few years back, but was wary of compatibility issues. I figured, what the heck- might as well use several separate PC builds. All the industrial m/b's I found were most heinously expensive :\

The chipset for the PCI-to-ISA bridge claims full compatibility, so it should work in theory. Some of the later industrial boards specifically state ISA DMA is not supported which soundcards usually require.

I got the motherboard today, but I'll still have to wait a bit longer to put it to the test because the CPU and HSF aren't here yet.

The HSF's due on Monday, but tracking info on the CPU isn't telling me anything beyond the creation of a shipping label, so I have no idea how much longer I'll be waiting on that.

We'll have to wait a bit longer before I can verify that the ISA slot is any good for sound cards...

EDIT: The CPU tracking info finally updated; looks like it'll be delivered tomorrow. USPS really slacks on the tracking when something isn't shipped using Priority Mail or better...

Unfortunately, I don't have any other Socket 478-compatible heatsinks lying around, and there is no way I'm going to let a Prescott of all things toast itself without cooling, so we wait until Monday.

You might not be able to get a lot of conventional memory available under Real DOS unfortunately.
I don't know why, but sometimes drivers just don't want to load in the upper memory and instead opt for conventional.
I've only experienced it in "fast" machines and/or machines with OEM boards.

You think it's the way that more modern chipsets allocate memory?

I suppose I'll find out for myself soon enough...oh, and now that I think about it, is it possible to outright prevent the Aureal Vortex SB Pro emulation from trying to load? On my current Win9x box with the BP6, it attempts to load (and seems to cause BSoDs in doing so after patching Win98SE past a certain point), but I went and disabled the SB Pro emulation device in the Device Manager to keep it from actually loading (but not before popping a message on my screen saying it couldn't load). There's no point in having it when I'm also throwing in an AWE64 Gold specifically for DOS game support.

If you disable it in Windows it won't load under Real DOS, however you will also lose MPU-401 support 🙁

All right, finally got the HSF and have everything put together, installing Win98SE as we speak. XP can wait.

-I saw an entry in the BIOS that should have a CPU multiplier adjustment, but all I see is a "BIOS Flash Protect" option. The "spread spectrum" option isn't there, either. What gives? Did BCM actually remove the option in their latest BIOS (1.06 for this board)?

Whatever the case, I guess common overclocking/underclocking options were too much to expect out of an industrial motherboard, the sort of market that wouldn't care about overclocking. (Then again, my real concern is UNDERclocking in case it's way too fast for certain Win9x games.)

-The Montego II's driver installation complained about it not being plugged into the primary PCI bus, something I haven't seen before. How the heck am I supposed to figure out which PCI slots it wants, short of trial and error?

Sound Blaster Pro emulation certainly isn't working because of this...not that I need it, but it also affects MPU-401 and the gameport too, as the message said.

-Seems like the ISA slot is indeed usable for sound cards...or it was until I installed the Intel chipset drivers and Win98SE complained about not being able to find certain files in the Windows directory or the CD for installing the PCI-to-ISA bridge driver. I might have to re-install Win98SE all over again if I can't find the files it's looking for.

The Primary PCI Bus thing on Vortex 2 cards is a classic bug. It occurs on i815 chipsets, but I guess it may also occur on later Intel boards.
You can find a solution here :
http://members.optusnet.com.au/kirben/vortex2.html#How to prevent 'Your Vortex adapter is not plugged into the primary PCI bus' error on Intel i815/e/ep chipset motherboards

I'll have to try that, thanks.

Also, I figured out what the driver install issues were; turns out that somewhere along the line, it stopped noticing the Win98SE CD's base5.cab automatically, where it keeps most of the driver files. Once I figured that out, I got everything else up and running again.

EDIT: 98 SE Service Pack + Vortex SB Pro emulation = BSoD every single time, even when it's installing straight from the drivers. I don't know why. Maybe I can just disable that part through the .inf files while leaving everything else?

EDIT 2: Decided to reformat and install 98 SE again. For all the conveniences said unofficial Service Pack might bring, it just makes life hell with the Vortex SB Pro emulation if I don't think to have that installed and disabled BEFORE installing said service pack.

I've been fiddling around a bit with the MaxPhysPage and MaxFileCache settings in SYSTEM.INI; turns out I need to set them lower than what most of the MSFN topics suggest with 2 GB of RAM installed. I'm still not exactly sure which does what, but with MaxPhysPage = 15000 and MaxFileCache = 196608, Win98SE sees 336 MB of system RAM. Doubling both values makes it see 768 MB, where it'll still boot, but have all sorts of nasty instability.

Further experimentation reveals that MaxPhysPage = 10000 and MaxFileCache = 100000 result in 256 MB of usable RAM, while doubling those values results in 512 MB. Doesn't seem to matter whether I have 1 GB or 2 GB installed, either...okay, I take that back, the doubled settings + 2 GB of RAM = unusable Win98SE.

Anyway, these motherboards do indeed have ISA DMA support, so you should be able to use whatever ISA cards you wish.

EDIT 3: STILL having stability issues with MaxPhysPage = 10000 and MaxFileCache = 100000. While it reliably boots, doing things like waking up from standby or even changing resolution can cause a hang followed by a BSoD. What a pain.

I'd prefer not to dig in and switch up the RAM all the time when switching between 98SE and XP on this system...at this rate, I may just have to pay up the $21 for that patch.