How big is the USB?

Did you install that W98 storage driver?

Yes yes, if I insert the USB stick (8GB btw) on the onboard USB 1.1, it works good. ISO mount, large file transfer ok. But is sloooooow...

The USB stick is 100% compatible. The problem must be something on the BUS, driver related etc. But is annoying for sure!
The transfer becomes problematic after some 5-30 seconds, not after 20 minutes of transfering, but also not immediately.

Tried installing XP on that machine. Everything is installed properly, no weird things on the control panel also.
But when inserting a USB stick on the aforementioned USB ports, I get an INSTANT restard. WTF is going on here?

Maybe the USB card is bad?

Have you tried pulling other PCI cards? Try that card alone and in every slot.

I suggest experimenting on XP to reduce variables since 98 can bring its own issues when it comes to USB 2.0.

What is the motherboard again?

It's a qdi advance 10e, with via 694x chipset.
I'll try that, but removing any of the other pci cards is a no go for permanent use. 😀

My guess is that you experience the old problem of SB Live! not playing nice with VIA chipsets. (Can result in sound problems or data corruption for other PCI devices.)
The problem was at least partially solved in certain versions of the VIA 4in1 drivers, it might also help to set PCI latency registers. It is possible that there is no perfect problem because according to other posts here (IIRC) the SB Live! relies on PCI bus parking which the Intel chipsets implemented but VIA didn't (not a mandatory PCI feature).
That said, I used an SB Live! with a VIA 694T mainboard and didn't experience trouble myself, even burning DVDs from an external USB 2.0 hard disk (connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card) with an internal IDE DVD writer. But I read about those problems before and I'm pretty sure I followed the common tips at the time.

The other pci devices play nice with the live!.
Anyway, I guess I'll have to find a s478 mobo with windows 98 support and intel chipset with onboard usb 2.0 or just remove the pci card as I've accomplished my file transfer needs with the ethernet card.

Well whatever but the reason I suggested trying all of the slots is because PCI slots share INT/IRQ with each other and with motherboard integrated PCI devices like IDE and USB 1.1. Not all devices play nice together. I described all of this in that other thread of yours.

Does the USB CARD get assigned a IRQ at boot? or does it post as NA?
Try assigning an IRQ manually in the bios to its PCI slot number instead of AUTO if that is the case.
Try different PCI slots as mentioned above, and try it without the LIVE!

You could also try to disable the IRQ for the onboard USB ports, set them to NA, which is the reverse of what your doing for the PCI card ironically.
Freeing an IRQ for the card.
DOS won't like this if your using legacy keyboard support on some boards tho.

Had the same problem with a nec based card, went for another brand (can`t remember the chipset) and the problem was gone.

Sorry for the late answer guys, I've been pretty busy these days. But I always read your answers. 😀

Swaaye, I read your answer in my other topic, don't you worry about that.
Alphawing, BIOS doesn't let me assign IRQs manually. 😢
Well, I guess the IRQ table is... erm super messy 😜 see below:

Disabling the onboard USB (and it's IRQ) didn't help a bit either. Actually, this way I get 5 NA IRQs (with 3 less serial bus controllers displayed)!!!! 😕
Upon inserting a USB stick in XP, it recognises it, identifies it as mass storage, but at the exact point of installing the driver, it collapses and restarts immediately.
Will try opening the case in a day or two to remove other cards and see what happens.

I also have a VIA VT6212L card available if the NEC fails me, but why? I've been using it on an even older systems without those hiccups...

Why SO many "Serial Bus Controllers" in there anyway?

Serial bus controllers are what the BIOS calls USB (universal serial bus). I think typically pairs of ports off the USB controllers show up on there. The motherboard probably has 2 pairs and the PCI card might have 3 pairs (or 2 pairs and a single lone port).

You will just have to experiment. I have had lots of trouble with USB 2.0 on old motherboards but the Belkin card (NEC chip) that I got works ok. PCI on these old motherboards can be really picky about devices (and devices sharing resources).

GeorgeMan got two cheap NEC chipset based USB 2.0 PCI cards from eBay.

It installed with the Windows 98SE drivers. I use the same USB storage driver that I have always been using. It detected the USB stick fine. Copied a few files over. Ran a benchmark, all good.

Onboard USB (AOpen AX6BC):

NEC chipset based PCI USB card:

Thanks. Yeah the speed differences are HUGE! 😁
I experimented with that PC, and it seems that if I remove some PCI devices it gets to work.
But since I just wanted to easily transfer some files, I got the job done via ethernet and uninstalled the NEC usb card.
My old Logitech gamepad is happy with onboard USB 1.1 anyway. 😀

(Updated)

Hello to any and all reading this post of mine. I realize this topic has long since been dry of activity, but I felt that this would be one of a few great places to share my knowledge regarding this subject of USB 2.0 support in Windows 98 SE.

And when I mean share it here, I mean redirect you to my knowledge from here. I originally posted it right here in this post, but have since moved it to an "official" topic, which you can find here: A (Very Short) Guide to Having USB 2.0 in Windows 98 SE with a NEC-Chipset USB 2.0 PCI Card.

I felt compelled to post this to try to help those who had the same problems that I had. For those who read my guide, good for you. Hoped it helped! 😀