Windows 98SE on Shuttle SN41G2 - need help with drives \ VOGONS

Windows 98SE on Shuttle SN41G2 - need help with drives

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First post, by markjw

Posted on 2021-02-20, 11:07

markjw Offline

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Hi All,
First off, I'm new here so hi to everyone!

Got myself a Shuttle SN41G2 (FN41 motherboard) that has an Athlon XP 2700+, nForce2 chipset, 1GB RAM and has ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb AGP and Creative Audigy 2ZS PCI cards fitted. My plan is to get Windows 98SE running on the system for old games however I have an issue with drives and have had nothing but bad luck so far.

Drive #1 - Deskstar 400GB HDT725040VLAT80 - seems to be OK and is correctly detected by the BIOS - however only appears as around 50GB to 98SE and the jumper settings only offer a 32GB clip option
Drive #2 - WD1200JB 120GB - incorrectly detected by the BIOS as 8447MB - doesn't seem to be a jumper to limit the drive size and will not format so either not compatible or the drive has gone bad
Drives #3 & #4 - Samsung SV4084H 40GB - neither of these are detected by the system and a very noisy so suspecting they are both bad.

So as you can see I'm not doing that well so far! Options I can see going forward are:
1. Live with the 50GB'ish on the Deskstar
2. Find some way of making the Deskstar appear as a 120GB drive to be within the 98SE limits
3. Locate and purchase a used 120GB IDE drive off somewhere like eBay
4. Get a SATA to IDE converter and find a 120GB SATA drive

Would like anyone's thoughts and opinions and am open to other options, however there are no free PCI slots in the machine unless I remove the Audigy (which I would rather not have to do)
thanks, Mark

Reply 1 of 5, by Warlord

Posted on 2021-02-20, 11:11

Warlord Offline

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did you try flashing the bios. You need a patch to to use such a large hard drive on 98se but it wont fix BIOS limitations
PATCHATA
http://lonecrusader.x10host.com/rloew/rloew.html

In addition to that you need to use something else besides the default fdisk and format to make those partitions like gparted

personsally while my advice is good if you want to cheap out and just make it work since it will. I would never do that id just get a SSD.

Reply 2 of 5, by markjw

Posted on 2021-02-20, 12:06

markjw Offline

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Joined: 2021-02-20, 10:50

Warlord wrote on 2021-02-20, 11:11:

did you try flashing the bios. You need a patch to to use such a large hard drive on 98se but it wont fix BIOS limitations

Doh! flashed it to the latest (FN41S032) and Windows 98SE is now reporting 381GB - thanks Warlord, always good to have a 2nd pair of eyes look at a problem
Mark

Reply 3 of 5, by markjw

Posted on 2021-02-20, 19:19

markjw Offline

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Joined: 2021-02-20, 10:50

well after all that it looks like bad luck strikes again - machine will not keep its' BIOS settings after being disconnected from mains power - new CMOS battery tried as well - looks like my initial issues with the drive might have been something failing in the machine and the CMOS being corrupted. Checked the CMOS reset jumper and it is in the correct position so maybe old age has got the machine

Reply 4 of 5, by Repo Man11

Posted on 2021-02-20, 19:34

Repo Man11 Offline

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markjw wrote on 2021-02-20, 19:19:

well after all that it looks like bad luck strikes again - machine will not keep its' BIOS settings after being disconnected from mains power - new CMOS battery tried as well - looks like my initial issues with the drive might have been something failing in the machine and the CMOS being corrupted. Checked the CMOS reset jumper and it is in the correct position so maybe old age has got the machine

Check it outside of the case - I once had a similar problem where the cause was an unnecessary motherboard standoff that was grounding out the board. In another case, there was hard to see corrosion on the CR2032's battery holder contacts.

"I'd rather be rich than stupid" - Jack Handey

Reply 5 of 5, by markjw

Posted on 2021-02-20, 21:06

markjw Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: 2021-02-20, 10:50

Repo Man11 wrote on 2021-02-20, 19:34:

Check it outside of the case - I once had a similar problem where the cause was an unnecessary motherboard standoff that was grounding out the board. In another case, there was hard to see corrosion on the CR2032's battery holder contacts.

no luck I'm afraid - cleaned the battery contacts (they looked fine, very shiny silver), stripped the machine down to its' basics, ie 1 stick of RAM, no drives and no expansion cards - also tried reseating the CMOS reset jumper - odd though, it will keep the CMOS settings fine as long as mains power is connected, just will not keep them when unplugged. Also had a check of all the electrolytic caps and no signs of bulging or leakage.

Have to get a multimeter and see if I can trace power from the battery - anyone know which chip holds the CMOS setings on the FN41?
Mark

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