Tried with 1 soundcard only?

From my experience, the unofficial Windows 98SE service pack is very buggy and unstable.

The best option IMO is to install only the Microsoft Windows 98SE updates and be done with it. Seems to work a lot better for me.

cyclone3d wrote:

From my experience, the unofficial Windows 98SE service pack is very buggy and unstable.

The best option IMO is to install only the Microsoft Windows 98SE updates and be done with it. Seems to work a lot better for me.

I only use the main updates, Tweak UI and the 2000 theme (needed for Firefox to look acceptable) So far, I have not had issues with P2/P3 systems.

gdjacobs just told me on another thread "K8T800 has the advantage of chipset support for DDMA whereas an nForce3 will be non viable for PCI audio in DOS." and I think I remember hearing that for older NForce2 also, that it won't play nice with anything prior to XP for PCI cards.

Also the last win98 install I had went whacky when I went from 256 to 512MB of RAM, it just didn't seem to know how to manage it. Not to mention having to wait for it to resize the swap file like 20 times before it believes you it should be bigger than 16MB

BitWrangler wrote:

gdjacobs just told me on another thread "K8T800 has the advantage of chipset support for DDMA whereas an nForce3 will be non viable for PCI audio in DOS." and I think I remember hearing that for older NForce2 also, that it won't play nice with anything prior to XP for PCI cards.

That reminds me, I had used the 'no detect pci' driver for the Vortex2 the second time around. The first time, I used the standard ones and there was an error about the primary pci bus? I didn't write it down. I also don't need DOS drivers anyway.

Guess I should give the ASUS board a go again. I really should stop using my good Thermal Grizzly thermal paste as this would be the second time I've removed it off that CPU (its $30 per 11 gram tube).

My asrock am2nf3 had stability issues with an sb live, and also won't boot to 98 if there's a usb stick plugged in. Not the best chipset for trouble-free 98'ing, though with what it works it works.

Are you using 2041 driver with no PCI/SB emulation option(s) ?
Example : LINK
I wouldn't be surprised if Audigy 2 didn't like Vortex 2 too much (IRQ/reasource conflicts).

agent_x007 wrote:

Are you using 2041 driver with no PCI/SB emulation option(s) ?
Example : LINK
I wouldn't be surprised if Audigy 2 didn't like Vortex 2 too much (IRQ/reasource conflicts).

First run no, second run yes using the drivers from PCL's site.

Do you know if Vortex2 works in WinME?

It works fine Win 98 SE and Win2k (at least mine does), so I don't see why it shouldn't ?
(I did not tested it under ME)

I've made progress but I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.

So I did it in this order:
- Only had Quadro and Audigy installed
- Instal DirectX 7,8 and 9
- Installed nForce drivers
- After reboot, disable the Universal Serial Bus. It still has a yellow question mark but if you refresh the driver, it installs the nvidia USB driver and causes problems.
- Install the Quadro drivers, 81.98
- Install Audigy drivers (used CD from the VOGONS driver library, full install, causes issues, see below)
- Insert the TB Aureal Vortex
- Install the TB Montego drivers from philscomputerlab.com without the DOS drivers (the 46m2_9x1)
- It might be a Dell version and although the readme says to not use these drivers with the Dell version, it seems to work fine *
- Install the generic USB drivers
- Install the Unofficial Service Pack, just Main Updates, TweakUI and the ME/2000 Theme
- THEN refresh the nForce USB device in Device Manager. nForce USB driver gets installed

At this point, everything seems good. I don't think it is the sound cards causing the problem, I think its the USB 2.0 drivers.
Flash drives work but I'll need to test USB controllers.

After all that, I played Half-Life and Unreal with nGlide without issues except Half-Life might not be working right with the A3D. On the TRAM ride, if I get close to the edge and look out the window on the front or back, I don't hear the announcer. Anyone know if that is normal?

I think I will tryout Windows ME. Might be more stable where USB 2.0 is concerned.

Yes ME has built in support for USB which is nice.

Take Win ME as the first priority. 98 is much buggier than Me on morden system, especially for Athlon 64 platform. Up to 1.5GB of memory can be supported by ur rig with Me, which means a dual-boot system with ME & 2K/XP is a better combination available for u (512MB is not enough in XP IMO). Unofficial patched 98se is very unstable according my experience

Which chipset is highest suitable for Windows 98 SE?
KT600 is still ok? KT880? nForce 2?

For socket 754/939 machine, and 64 bit processors, have they all problems?

What about onboard audio. Does VIA chipset drivers still works for windows 98, behind KT400 chipset? Up to which one? (I've heard nForce 3 onboard audio is out of question, and it will not support Windows 98)