EX58-UD4 motherboard - Can't start Win98 setup from CD

EX58-UD4 motherboard - Can't start Win98 setup from CD - no drive detected

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First post, by xtreger

Posted on 2026-03-13, 13:44

xtreger Offline

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I have a Gigabyte EX58-UD4 motherboard with optimized BIOS default settings loaded. Here's the various IDE connections that show up during POST:

1IDE Channel 0 Master: (SSD1 model)
2IDE Channel 0 Master: (SSD2 model)
3IDE Channel 0 Master: (SSD3 model)
4
5Detecting IDE drives...
6IDE Channel 4 Master: TEAC DV-W516GA C4S6
7IDE Channel 4 Slave : None
8IDE Channel 5 Master: None
9IDE Channel 5 Slave : None

In the Integrated Peripherals settings, on top of the optimized defaults, I further disabled any unnecessary devices, so now the settings are:

1ICH SATA Control Mode     : IDE
2SATA Port0-3 Native Mode  : Disabled
3Onboard SATA/IDE Device   : Enabled
4Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode: IDE

Serial port, LAN, 1398, onboard audio, USB controller: all are disabled.

Now what happens in this case is: when I select "Start Windows 98 Setup from CD-ROM", the whole thing fails at the first step where it tries to load CD-ROM driver (OAKCDROM/OEMCD001 I think) - it just says no CD drives found. But if I connect a SATA CD drive to a different SATA port, so that it shows up during POST as

1IDE Channel 2 Master: ATAPI CD-ROM (I don't recall the exact model name)

then this drive does get detected and setup resumes. Why is this a problem? Because this same behavior happens in DOS - no matter what CD driver I use (VIDE-CDD, GSCD, OAKCDROM, etc.) with the motherboard's IDE connection - the IDE CD drive isn't detected but the SATA CD drive is. The latter is missing some very important functionalities - the front audio 3.5 mm jack and the audio out connector on the rear. So I really want to make the IDE CD drive work in DOS, but I've had no luck. Even tried out a couple of different IDE CD drives apart from the TEAC, but same result.

If anyone knows why this happens and how this can be resolved, I'd be very grateful for any pointers.

Reply 1 of 7, by Trashbytes

Posted on 2026-03-13, 13:55

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Sounds like ACHI is involved, pretty sure you will need to slipstream ACHI drivers into the 98 ISO so that it can identify SATA and IDE devices correctly, I vaguely remember needing to do the same with XP RTM too.

I cant remember but it may be possible to disable ACHI in the BIOS but that may cause issues later if you ever re enable it and drives will be slower without it.

Its honestly been a while since I last messed around with 98/XP ACHI stuff but I remember R Lowe having a fix for it.

Win98 on newer computer, what drivers are needed? might provide useful information.

Reply 2 of 7, by xtreger

Posted on 2026-03-13, 14:06

xtreger Offline

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Trashbytes wrote on 2026-03-13, 13:55:
Sounds like ACHI is involved, pretty sure you will need to slipstream ACHI drivers into the 98 ISO so that it can identify SATA […]
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Sounds like ACHI is involved, pretty sure you will need to slipstream ACHI drivers into the 98 ISO so that it can identify SATA and IDE devices correctly, I vaguely remember needing to do the same with XP RTM too.

I cant remember but it may be possible to disable ACHI in the BIOS but that may cause issues later if you ever re enable it and drives will be slower without it.

Its honestly been a while since I last messed around with 98/XP ACHI stuff but I remember R Lowe having a fix for it.

Win98 on newer computer, what drivers are needed? might provide useful information.

Thank you! So in the BIOS settings for both the SATA and onboard IDE, i.e. for these two settings:

1ICH SATA Control Mode     : IDE
2Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode: IDE

there are 3 possible values - IDE, AHCI and RAID. I've always selected IDE for these 2 settings. I think that probably is the same as disabling AHCI (I didn't see any other explicit AHCI-related settings in the BIOS)? Even in that case, would that mean that I need to do some extra tweaking in DOS? Would I need to use any specialized DOS CD drivers (apart from stuff like VIDE-CDD or OAKCDROM) to force DOS to detect the IDE drive?

Reply 3 of 7, by xtreger

Posted on 2026-03-13, 15:17

xtreger Offline

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Trashbytes wrote on 2026-03-13, 13:55:

Win98 on newer computer, what drivers are needed? might provide useful information.

This was useful! I followed this link, then in CD ROM drivers part of the second post, I saw a reference to GCDROM.SYS. Searching for that led me to freedos project's documentation page on this driver. In the related drivers section I found info on a bunch of other drivers like UDVD, UIDE, etc. I searched and found UDVD2.SYS - that's the one which is able to detect the CD drive without any issues. Used the /H and /D flags while invoking this driver in config.sys

Reply 4 of 7, by red-ray

Posted on 2026-03-14, 13:24

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xtreger wrote on 2026-03-13, 14:06:
So in the BIOS settings for both the SATA and onboard IDE, i.e. for these two settings: […]
Show full quote
So in the BIOS settings for both the SATA and onboard IDE, i.e. for these two settings:
1ICH SATA Control Mode     : IDE
2Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode: IDE

My ASUS P6T SE X58/ICH10 system offers as below, it has all of W98SE + WMe + NT4 + WXP-x64 + W10-x64 installations. The only real issue I have is that I can't get SMART to work on W9x, does SMART work on your W9SE X58/ICH10 system?

file.php?id=238287

To install I copied the CDs to an SSD with a 2GB FAT-16 partition, booted DOS and installed from the SSD. I did the install with 1GB of memory installed, patched it then installed more memory. I have one SSD with WMe + NT4 + WXP + W10 and a 2nd with W98SE.

Reply 5 of 7, by xtreger

Posted on 2026-03-15, 03:26

xtreger Offline

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red-ray wrote on 2026-03-14, 13:24:
My ASUS P6T SE X58/ICH10 system offers as below, it has all of W98SE + WMe + NT4 + WXP-x64 + W10-x64 installations. The only rea […]
Show full quote
xtreger wrote on 2026-03-13, 14:06:
So in the BIOS settings for both the SATA and onboard IDE, i.e. for these two settings: […]
Show full quote
So in the BIOS settings for both the SATA and onboard IDE, i.e. for these two settings:
1ICH SATA Control Mode     : IDE
2Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode: IDE
My ASUS P6T SE X58/ICH10 system offers as below, it has all of W98SE + WMe + NT4 + WXP-x64 + W10-x64 installations. The only real issue I have is that I can't get SMART to work on W9x, does SMART work on your W9SE X58/ICH10 system?

To install I copied the CDs to an SSD with a 2GB FAT-16 partition, booted DOS and installed from the SSD. I did the install with 1GB of memory installed, patched it then installed more memory. I have one SSD with WMe + NT4 + WXP + W10 and a 2nd with W98SE.

Hello! I also struggled a lot to try and get SMART working on Win98 in my system, with no luck. Tried different types of programs - nothing worked for me

Reply 6 of 7, by red-ray

Posted on 2026-03-15, 08:29

red-ray Offline

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xtreger wrote on 2026-03-15, 03:26:
I also struggled a lot to try and get SMART working on Win98 in my system, with no luck. Tried different types of programs - nothing worked for me

Thank you, when I checked SIV is doing all the setup so SMART should get reported, but it doesn't.

I wonder do you get the same Code 15 ? I suspect this is the root cause of the SMART issue and can't see what the resource conflict is, further the other panel says No conflicts

file.php?id=238340