Setup:
KT7 RAID
4a BIOS w/ 2.0.1019 HP BIOS from Viahardware
2.0.1019 HP drivers for 98se
1G Tbird
2X 30G WD HD (not raid now. was b'fore)
384M Crucial pc133 CAS2
SBLive! (Value pci#4 slot)
Voodoo5 5500 AGP
USR 2977 modem
History:
Had RAID0 array. All well with 98SE. Buddy kept having stripe errors, scared
me. Deleted the array, went with boot disk and other drive on IDE 3 & 4. All
went well installing WinME. Family didn't like ME so went back to 98SE.
This is important since it shows install work.
Format and install XP. Went well. Several games won't play, so I decide to
go dual boot with 98se. Got all info from Microsoft. Sounds easy, and it
was. Tried it on old computer at work with WinME. Went well, works fine.
Tried it on my computer. Created 2 partitions (15G each) on #1 HD. SEEMED to
go well. After XP installed, discovered 98se had no CD ROMS. "System" showed
that the Primary and Secondary IDE channels were gone. Also the Highpoint
controller. Yellow exclamation points.
I tried repeatedly to reinstall drivers. It either said "best drivers
installed" or it goes through the motions, restarts but accomplishes
nothing.
After several tries, I tried to get back into XP. "Unmountable boot drive"
or somesuch. Something had hosed the partition info. Standard Fdisk unable
to read the drive, just locks up! Fortunately, booted up from WinXP CD and
it's utility was able to read and delete the partition. It was reporting it
as 1 30G partition when it had been two 15Gs, 1 FAT32, the other NTFS. After
that standard fdisk from WinME CD could deal with the drives again.
Reformatted and installed 98se again. It happened again WITHOUT any XP.
Never even got around to XP. (I was installing drivers and such from the
other HD 1st time. Never used CD ROMs in 98se until late)
For short time I thought that the SoundBlaster Live! Ware download I was
using to install the sound card was the culprit. It happened once right
after installing them, and went away right after uninstalling them. However,
during the THIRD format/install attempt, I did NOT use that download. I used
the factory CD for the SBLive. All seemed well, no problems. After some more
work in 98se, it happened again. I uninstalled the sound drivers and
creatives utilities. No help.
It is still possible that they were causing it. I removed the sound card
completely, set it beside the computer, and also installed it in other pci
slots. All were of no use.
At this point, I gave up. Reformatted again and installed straight XP. I
have installed 98se and WinME on this system several times. XP also works
fine. Now, 98se won't work correctly. I used the original disk for 2
attempts, and two other backup copies that I have for the others. All showed
exact same results
XP is currently on this system, working fine. Same drive, same IDE plug (3),
same BIOS, same everything. Except it works.
Is it possible XP did something to my motherboard, sound card, modem??
Flashed an eeprom?
Any ideas?
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