I have come to the same conclusion as Bob in regards to the FIC 503 +
....particularly using AMD CPUs and Win98

I suggest you read the FAQ for the 503 at FIC....http://www.fic.com.tw/. My
experience has been if your particular setup on the 503+ works then
great...but if you have problems then look out.  I had one setup ...233MMX
and 64 megs of SDRAM that installed and ran flawlessly and another setup
AMD K2 400 with 128 megs of P100 that was so much trouble I finally gave
up. AMD has a special download page for patches for their VIA chip set and
98 at http://www.viatech.com/drivers/index.htm which should give you some
idea that maybe this board is problematic. If you read the 503 FAQ at the
FIC site you see subjects like this
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------

Q: When I try to install Windows98, the system hangs up. Windows95 runs
without problems. Why?

A: Try to use more conservative BIOS settings. Also, try to Disable the
setting Spread Spectrum Modulated. Also, make sure you followed the proper
install procedure for Windows98 on VIA-based motherboards (see Windows98
FAQs for more).

Q: After updating BIOS to 115JE33, IRQ#5 is unavailable. Why?

A: After BIOS kernel update from Award v1.13 kernel to v1.15 kernel, device
using IRQ5 are no longer detected because IRQ5 is removed from IRQ routing
table in kernel v1.15 of Award BIOS; FIC reserve it. Users who have device
on IRQ5: if modem, disable the COM port used (in BIOS), then uninstall the
modem, enable the COM port, install the modem by letting the system auto
assign whatever port is available, or manually set resource to any avail
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------

.....as you can see they acknowledge a problem with 98....and IRQ 5 may be
unavailable.....what are they nuts.....5 has been the SB16 standard for a
decade.

I think they just tried to do too much on this board and in the process
created fundamental problems that are not resolvable for certain
configurations.....or at least they do not have the inclination to spend
the time and or money to develop a BIOS that would resolve the majority of
these problems.

As to new Super Seven Boards I have heard good things about Tekram and
Tyan...I believe both of these manufacturers use the same VIA chip set as
the 503 but only the 503 will allow you to use old EDO SIMMS on it's old 66
MHZ BUSS. In my own experience I was not able to make this work using SDRAM
DIMMS...in other words 66MHZ RAM and 100 MHz BUS.

However I have found that NT4 Workstation installs and runs great on the
same board where 98 refuses to run stably......I am writing this on that PC
right now. This of course is because NT handles hardware much differently
then 98. If you do install NT4 make sure you disable PNP OS and Automatic
IRQ routing in the BIOS. This is the only problem I have had with NT4 and
the 503...with the BIOS set to IRQ AUTO the sound card won't work
correctly...set it up manually and everything is fine.

rode

>Thanks Bob.  That's a different perspective.  i, for one, am glad you
>took the extra time and did some investigative work.  I'll get the
>latest BIOS -mine's almost a year old- and see what happens.  May end up
>building a new system for myself and reload Win95 on this one and turn
>it over to wife and 2yr old.  Neither will use it very hard.  Now if I
>could only get a copy of Win95 OSR2 -I only have Win95a-.  We'll hafve
>to see.
>Do you have a motherboard to recommend for the K6-2 300 and Win98 that
>performs well?  What are you using now (in your builds?)
>
>
>Rick Poepping

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