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First post, by d1stortion

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Greetings everyone 😀 I've been working on a Win98 SE gaming machine here. The specs of the system are as follows: ASUS P3B-F 1.04 (1008.004 beta BIOS), PIII 500, 128 MB PC133 SDRAM (tested with memtest86), Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, AWE64 Value, NEC ND-4551A DVD drive, and a Transcend 16GB 133x CF card connected through an IDE adapter. I also used to have a generic PCI network card in there, but it seemed to cause problems at bootup so I left it out for now.

Now, I'm trying to install 98 SE through a boot disc. I make a partition with fdisk, format C: and then run setup.exe. It goes into ScanDisc, finds numerous errors and fixes them. After that, it says its checking the registry and then something like "copying files needed for setup" and the drive spins up for a few seconds; then it basically hangs. Restarting with ctrl+alt+del works though.

Tried numerous fixes which I read about: turning off the virus detection in the BIOS (no avail); unplugging the Sound Blaster, underclocking the CPU and sticking the RAM into a different slot didn't help either, and lastly, I tried to copy the CD (the drive is being detected as R:, is that normal?) to C: through the command line, which was weird because it produced corrupt folder names and stuff on occasion. I could access the folder sometimes though, but running setup would only hang the computer just after pressing enter... and each time after rebooting, none of the files are to be found on C. So I'm guessing it's a driver issue or something, because I can't imagine that a brand new CF is bad after just formatting it a few times. OK, this message may be really convoluted, but I would be glad if some of you guys could help me 😁

Reply 1 of 4, by Mau1wurf1977

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So after formatting the CF card, scandisc finds errors?

Well that's a very bad sign 😒

I would test that CF card on another computer (with a card reader) because it might be faulty.

CF are compatible with IDE, so I doubt it's a driver issue. This is low level stuff.

I would try the other IDE controller (secondary) and also check if your master / slave settings are correct.

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Reply 2 of 4, by d1stortion

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Yeah, Scandisc talks about a missing FAT media byte and whatnot. Brings up an error for every point in the list basically. Sadly, I don't have any PC with CF interface, if I had I would've tested the card of course.

I uploaded an image showing how the CF is recognized and one where the corrupted files are seen. The hardware error message is due to me using a newer ATX 2.3 PSU as far as I understand btw, it shows the -5V rail as -6V in the BIOS.

Well, if the CF is really bad that's not a big tragedy; seeing as I bought it just recently, I can send it back for a refund. But since I bought it from a seemingly reputable seller from Amazon, you would really think that it would work fine...

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Reply 3 of 4, by d1stortion

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Update: Through switching the adapter and the drive I figured out that it's not the card causing the problems, it's the secondary IDE port. Since I'll have to get a new adapter to make a Master/Slave configuration work I'd like to know if it's worth it speed-wise, or do I have to get a new mobo?

Reply 4 of 4, by Mau1wurf1977

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Ah nice find!

Just hook up the CD drive to the primary then and the CF card to the secondary. See if this lets you install W98 without any issues.

Also check your cables and maybe try other ones?

My website with reviews, demos, drivers, tutorials and more...
My YouTube channel