I know this doesn't help but Ive had the same issue with Vortex cards, specifically the Diamond Monster card. some PC's it just locks up on me when I'm triyng to install it, other machines it installs with no problem whatsoever.

Try the INF driver tweaks from VOGONS driver archive. There is one for PCI detection. Though when I had to do this, I always got an error message on the screen.

I have had Aureal chips do this usually it is a hardware conflict for IRQ or no PNP in the BIOS. What motherboard are you using? if it is not plug and play you will have to set IRQ manually in the BIOS but it sounds like you've tried that. Make sure PNP OS option is turned on in your BIOS you could also try turning PNP OS off it seems to vary on the motherboard

Motherboard is AX6BC with the standard Intel i440 chipset: a very popular and ideal setup from back in the day which is how I cannot conceive why there would be such a critical motherboard compatibility issue. All BIOS settings are set to PnP though I tried tweaking them a bit with no change in the results. This problem seems to never have been officially-documented by Aureal or Microsoft, another unpleasant surprise considering how I am far from the only person to experience it. I tried a reverse approach by installing the driver without the card inserted, and that step worked; but as soon as I inserted the card (surprise) Windows locked up, and when I restarted it went back to square one with PnP hardware detection as if the driver never got installed in the first place.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Try the INF driver tweaks from VOGONS driver archive. There is one for PCI detection. Though when I had to do this, I always got an error message on the screen.

Not sure I am finding what you are referring to. What exactly is it called and how does it work?

Meanwhile I will make another attempt with the Aureal support drivers from the archive; thus far I have been attempting the install using the supplied Aureal support CD which may not be providing the most current set.

Haven't had this problem. What's the graphics card you're running it with? Suppose it could still be a specific IRQ one of your components is super protective of. If you didn't do it yet, one of the first things I'd try is toggling the PnP OS setting as suggested already.

Edit: Read the manual for that thing. The BIOS options are a little different. A little arduous, there's probably some IRQ that you need to reserve manually. Noticed there's a toggle for ACPI, which you might look into disabling for your next 98SE installation.

Now that my semester is wrapping up (finals this week) I'm getting more time to spend supporting these cards.

If you can, make sure the card itself is okay by installing it into an XP or Windows7 machine and use this attached driver. If it works then it's most certainly a hardware conflict on your retro machine, since you've tried the obvious solutions it also might be the driver version you're attempting to install, so try with the 2041, 2048 and 2050 drivers.

firage wrote:

Haven't had this problem. What's the graphics card you're running it with? Suppose it could still be a specific IRQ one of your components is super protective of. If you didn't do it yet, one of the first things I'd try is toggling the PnP OS setting as suggested already.

Edit: Read the manual for that thing. The BIOS options are a little different. A little arduous, there's probably some IRQ that you need to reserve manually. Noticed there's a toggle for ACPI, which you might look into disabling for your next 98SE installation.

Yes, tried that already; the BIOS frontend and documentation make it abundantly clear it was designed with Windows 95/98 in mind, and while it defaults to PnP OS being on, for compatibility purposes I would prefer it off. In any case, while I had it on I checked and Windows 98 was set to handle IRQ bridging which conceivably should have kept things from happening (that is, if IRQ conflict is the actual cause here). Doubt the graphics card is the issue: getting the same results whether I use a Voodoo Banshee in the AGP slot or ViRGE 325 in a PCI slot.

Where do you seen an ACPI option? I could not find one.

ZanQuance wrote:

If you can, make sure the card itself is okay by installing it into an XP or Windows7 machine and use this attached driver.

Not an option, my modern desktop has only PCIe bus, while my XP-era machines are all laptops.

Okay then, try with the later drivers and see how that goes.

BaronSFel001 wrote:

Where do you seen an ACPI option? I could not find one.

'ACPI Function' at the top of the Power Management Setup menu, if the manual can be trusted.

BaronSFel001 wrote:

philscomputerlab wrote:

Try the INF driver tweaks from VOGONS driver archive. There is one for PCI detection. Though when I had to do this, I always got an error message on the screen.

Not sure I am finding what you are referring to. What exactly is it called and how does it work?

http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … =443&menustate=