Try installing the UESP 3.1 update pack, it made a world of difference on my high-spec 98 systems,

SRQ wrote:

Try installing the UESP 3.1 update pack, it made a world of difference on my high-spec 98 systems,

Hi SRQ. Thanks for the reply. By UESP do you mean the Unofficial Service Pack for Win98SE? If so, is there any particular reason you recommend version 3.1? I've noticed there are newer versions available, but I suppose they might be unstable.

You could probe your system's DPC latency with DPClat, but I'm not sure it runs on 9X.

Triton wrote:

SRQ wrote:

Try installing the UESP 3.1 update pack, it made a world of difference on my high-spec 98 systems,

Hi SRQ. Thanks for the reply. By UESP do you mean the Unofficial Service Pack for Win98SE? If so, is there any particular reason you recommend version 3.1? I've noticed there are newer versions available, but I suppose they might be unstable.

Yes, and I had no idea there was a newer version! Go for it. I always instal the basic updates as well as the optimization package.

Snayperskaya wrote:

You could probe your system's DPC latency with DPClat, but I'm not sure it runs on 9X.

Hi Snayperskaya, sadly DPClat doesn't seem to work under 9X, I'm getting a DLL error when I try to execute it. Maybe it'll work after I install the USP.

I should also note that it was pointed out to me that 41.09 drivers have the best compatibility. I have no source, but it's better than trying them all on your own.

SRQ wrote:

I should also note that it was pointed out to me that 41.09 drivers have the best compatibility. I have no source, but it's better than trying them all on your own.

That is exactly what I discovered during my attempts at diagnosis. It really is the fastest driver that I found (seems to be missing options to change the refresh rate though - that's pretty odd!!).

Alas, no success. The Unofficial Service Park did not fix the problem.

Triton wrote:

SRQ wrote:

I should also note that it was pointed out to me that 41.09 drivers have the best compatibility. I have no source, but it's better than trying them all on your own.

That is exactly what I discovered during my attempts at diagnosis. It really is the fastest driver that I found (seems to be missing options to change the refresh rate though - that's pretty odd!!).

It's very annoying but if your monitor has an EDID or you have an INF for it you can do it through display settings.

A few suggestions:

1- Be sure that DMA is activated for the HDDs and optical drives
2- Are you using the VxD or WDM drivers for tre Sound Blaster Live!? Try using the other.
3- Put the SBLive! in a different PCI slot. Try using one where it doesn't share an IRQ with anything.

I would try to remove the VIA USB 2.0 PCI controller card as a first step.

I would disable the secondary IDE channel if you are not using it and also disable every port you are not using. A clean install is also a good idera as by now your system probably is littered with different bloat that diddnt solve the issue.

If this dosnt fix the problem I would start looking at the PCI settings in the BIOS setup and check online for Win 9x PCI latency fixes for the i815 chipset + SB Live!.

I've got an update. I formatted Windows 98 SE and just installed graphic and sound drivers. The problem happened. Then I formatted the system and installed Windows XP and just installed graphic and sound drivers. The problem didn't happen. That suggests to me that the problem is either with how well Windows 98 SE plays with my hardware...or it's with the drivers.

Skyscraper wrote:

I would try to remove the VIA USB 2.0 PCI controller card as a first step.

I would disable the secondary IDE channel if you are not using it and also disable every port you are not using. A clean install is also a good idera as by now your system probably is littered with different bloat that diddnt solve the issue.

If this dosnt fix the problem I would start looking at the PCI settings in the BIOS setup and check online for Win 9x PCI latency fixes for the i815 chipset + SB Live!.

Hey thanks for your suggestions.

I tried the removing the VIA USB 2.0 card, I even tried removing the Sound Blaster and just going integrated. I didn't try disabling the secondary IDE channel (it's just got a single DVD-RW), but it didn't look like there was a conflict.

alexanrs wrote:

A few suggestions: […]
Show full quote

A few suggestions:

1- Be sure that DMA is activated for the HDDs and optical drives
2- Are you using the VxD or WDM drivers for tre Sound Blaster Live!? Try using the other.
3- Put the SBLive! in a different PCI slot. Try using one where it doesn't share an IRQ with anything.

Cheers Alexanrs

I made sure DMA was enabled for everything and also tried moving the PCI card.

From where I'm looking, I think your suggestion about changing the drivers between VxD and WDM might be on the money. I actually wasn't aware of this but the SB0220 driver disk comes with both VxD and WDM drivers. I'll have to try them both after I put Windows 98 SE back on and see what happens. I also found that the integrated sound comes with VxD and WDM drivers too.

Sound Blaster Live! is kind of weird with the drivers. After years of headaches, I always use Liveware 3.0 CD, with as less bloat-crap installed as possible.

Re: SB Live! Liveware 3.0 CD

Triton wrote:

I've got an update. I formatted Windows 98 SE and just installed graphic and sound drivers. The problem happened. Then I formatt […]
Show full quote

I've got an update. I formatted Windows 98 SE and just installed graphic and sound drivers. The problem happened. Then I formatted the system and installed Windows XP and just installed graphic and sound drivers. The problem didn't happen. That suggests to me that the problem is either with how well Windows 98 SE plays with my hardware...or it's with the drivers.

Skyscraper wrote:

I would try to remove the VIA USB 2.0 PCI controller card as a first step.

I would disable the secondary IDE channel if you are not using it and also disable every port you are not using. A clean install is also a good idera as by now your system probably is littered with different bloat that diddnt solve the issue.

If this dosnt fix the problem I would start looking at the PCI settings in the BIOS setup and check online for Win 9x PCI latency fixes for the i815 chipset + SB Live!.

Hey thanks for your suggestions.

I tried the removing the VIA USB 2.0 card, I even tried removing the Sound Blaster and just going integrated. I didn't try disabling the secondary IDE channel (it's just got a single DVD-RW), but it didn't look like there was a conflict.

alexanrs wrote:

A few suggestions: […]
Show full quote

A few suggestions:

1- Be sure that DMA is activated for the HDDs and optical drives
2- Are you using the VxD or WDM drivers for tre Sound Blaster Live!? Try using the other.
3- Put the SBLive! in a different PCI slot. Try using one where it doesn't share an IRQ with anything.

Cheers Alexanrs

I made sure DMA was enabled for everything and also tried moving the PCI card.

From where I'm looking, I think your suggestion about changing the drivers between VxD and WDM might be on the money. I actually wasn't aware of this but the SB0220 driver disk comes with both VxD and WDM drivers. I'll have to try them both after I put Windows 98 SE back on and see what happens. I also found that the integrated sound comes with VxD and WDM drivers too.

If you can (and I mean more like "if you have it laying around already"), you could opt to install Windows ME instead of 98SE.

Some members have reported running a Tualatin rig with ME resulted in fewer problems compared to running a Tualatin with 98SE. Not trying to say that ME is teh most obvious choice for such a rig btw, but you might as well give it a try as it probably won't take very long to setup (only need to install ME, tweak it a bit (disable that system health/restore thingy as it's a source of a lot of problems) then install drivers and see how it goes, you might actually end up liking it 😀