[Win98]

Hey, A week or two ago, I picked up an Asus A8-LE motherboard (From a scrap yard, actually) I tried installing 98se, and it couldnt find my HDD, When trying 2k, it would start the install, but get stuck at about 55% on "Installing Devices", and does the same exact thing with XP.. I dont have any hardware plugged in, so it shouldnt be conflicting with anything. Are there any settings in the BIOS I need to change? Or what? Thanks!

Motherboard Specs:
Asus A8-LE (Came out of a Compaq desktop)
AMD Athlon 64 (Also have a semphron I can drop in place if needed)
1gb ram (Can change this as well)
185gb Hitachi DeskStar, IDE.


Also, It wont recognize my IDE DVD drive, but it will recognize the sata one out of my newer computer..

[jaclaz]

Win98, on 19 September 2012 - 06:16 AM, said:

Hey, A week or two ago, I picked up an Asus A8-LE motherboard (From a scrap yard, actually) I tried installing 98se, and it couldnt find my HDD, When trying 2k, it would start the install, but get stuck at about 55% on "Installing Devices", and does the same exact thing with XP.. I dont have any hardware plugged in, so it shouldnt be conflicting with anything. Are there any settings in the BIOS I need to change? Or what? Thanks!

Motherboard Specs:
Asus A8-LE (Came out of a Compaq desktop)
AMD Athlon 64 (Also have a semphron I can drop in place if needed)
1gb ram (Can change this as well)
185gb Hitachi DeskStar, IDE.


Also, It wont recognize my IDE DVD drive, but it will recognize the sata one out of my newer computer..

Is this the same board or you have found a scrap yard full of Asus boards?

What you report NOW sounds a lot like a "botched" IDE bus.

jaclaz

[submix8c]

...OR the BIOS is incorrectly set up. If the same board here you indicate

Quote

When i try to boot 98SE on it, it gets to the clouds screen and the bar at the bottom endlessly scrolls. I left it overnight to see if it would overcome it, and it wont. Does the same thing with ME, But Boots XP, 7 (Both on a SATA HDD), and even 3.1
---
35gb Pata (IDE) HDD

Bad/incorrectly jumpered Drives? Bad cables?

[Win98]

That the same board. When It was stuck on the cloud screen, that was already installed from a different computer. Cables are fone, as I have been using them for years.. I don't know what in the bios would keep it from installing.

What do you mean by a "botched IDE" bus?

Thanks!!

[submix8c]

You DO realize you can't just "swap" Win9x HDD PC->PC don't you? Chipset Drivers are the first to fail. Win3.x/DOS has no clue as to that and will "work". WinXP has some "generic" drivers that will function, as does Win7.

That was mistake #1.

BIOS - does the IDE channels/Devices have "Auto" set in them? If they (ANY of them) are "disabled" (or "none") nothing will get detected. Have you entered the BIOS and looked around? Usually there's a Function Key that you can press to get "defaults" or "setup" settings.

And the Cables have to be good. And the Device must be in the correct position on the Cable and the Jumpers must be set accordingly. IOW, if the PATA HDD functioned then the CD/DVD should function unless it is bad. And to BOOT to a CD/DVD, you MUST set (again in BIOS) the CD/DVD as the FIRST boot device.

[Win98]

Ive swapped HDD's from computer to computer many times with little issue. All i was doing with the 98 HDD the first time was seeing if the board would recognize a hard drive, before i did anything else with it.

As for the channels, it says
First Channel Device 0 [My hard drive]
First Channel Device 1 [None]
Second Channel Device 0 [None]
Second Channel Device 1 [None]
Third Channel Device 0 [HP CDDVD]
Fourth Channel Device 0 [None]

There is no option to set it to "Auto". It seems it already figures out what is there on its own.

Cables are good. I already specified that. I dont know what jumpers to check, nor do I know why they would be moved. Pata DVD drive works fine, and it boots from DVD...

[submix8c]

OK - an A8-LE is a Notebook. Yours must be an A8AE-LE here.

The following are conflicting statements.

Quote

It wont recognize my IDE DVD drive, but it will recognize the sata one out of my newer computer..

Quote

Pata DVD drive works fine, and it boots from DVD...

Quote

First Channel Device 0 [My hard drive] <-the PATA or the SATA?
First Channel Device 1 [None]
Second Channel Device 0 [None]
Second Channel Device 1 [None]
Third Channel Device 0 [HP CDDVD] <-the PATA or the SATA?
Fourth Channel Device 0 [None]

Channels for IDE/PATA come in "pairs" attached to a given connector om the MoBo (see specs link).
The Cable should have 3 connectors - one end for Mobo, the other end for Master Device, and the center for Slave Device.
Two connectors on MoBo + 2 Devices per connector = 4 PATA Devices.
Other two Connectors are the SATA Connectors - they are handled individually (no "chaining").
PATA Pairs1+2 are called Primary / Pairs3+4 are called Secondary.
Jumpers on the back of a PATA Device are used to indicate which position on the Cable. See documentation OR the back of/on top of the given Device for jumper setting. CD/DVD usually have a Jumper on either Master (MS) or Slave (SL) - ignore Cable Select (CS). Hard Drives also have this BUT some manufacturers require the Jumper to be removed as Master with No Slave in Chain.

Your BIOS may have someplace to "disable" the SATA if necessary. I believe having any SATA HDD will cause boot to it by default. "NONE" indicates nothing is there. You SHOULD (or maybe not) be able to select those items and "disable" them. Ther might be another place in it to "disable" the Controller (the PATA "pairs" and/or SATA). HP/Compaq BIOS are Phoenix-based and "altered" from the Maker of the MoBo to OEM specifications.

Notice the Chip ID's in the pic (above link) - Chipset Drivers more than likely caused the problems with your WIN98 HDD "swap". You CANNOT take a WIN98 Installed to HDD on an INTEL board and put it into (e.g.) a VIA Board and expect it to boot - DIFFERENT chipsets. Dig into what a "chipset" is...

More info here.

[Win98]

Those specs seem to comply with this board, but its definitely out of a desktop.

Ill check all of the jumpers and what not and see what i can do.

Also, I know what a chipset is. I'm not stupid (If you haven't figured that out). I'm just going off of what I have Successfully done. I have taken Windows 98 hard drives and put them in other computers that were not an intel chipset, and it booted. Thanks.

[Win98]

I changed around jumpers, and eventually got both my PATA HDD and DVD drive to show up, an 98se setup started fine, and now it sticks on "Windows 98 is now setting up your hardware and any plug and play devices you may have"....Damnit, I dont have anything plugged into the motherboard. What the hell is wrong with it..

EDIT: Finally, It got past that point... Took about 30 minutes total. When i was installing XP, it sat overnight and didnt change, so thats why I had little faith in this. Thanks!

This post has been edited by Win98: 19 September 2012 - 08:19 PM

[jaclaz]

Win98, on 19 September 2012 - 05:22 PM, said:

I'm not stupid (If you haven't figured that out).

I think noone said that, what has been said or just hinted is that you posted a series of contrasting statements and a number of plainly wrong data, i.e. you failed to fully comply with the Standard Litany:
http://homepage.ntlw...ard-litany.html
and/or you falled by slipping on a chocolate covered banana :
http://homepage.ntlw...red-banana.html

If you prefer it was a (kind) invitation to better organze your reports, so that people willing to help you will need not to use their crystal ball or guess which among the contrasting statement or among the provided data is the right one.
Mind you this will usually result in boith faster and "better" help/support provided, so ultimately it is an advantage to you .


jaclaz

[submix8c]

Win98, on 19 September 2012 - 08:09 PM, said:

EDIT: Finally, It got past that point... Took about 30 minutes total. When i was installing XP, it sat overnight and didnt change, so thats why I had little faith in this.

Worrisome... shouldn't take more than about 45min->1hr (guesstimate) overall with a "stock" install on that hardware. BTW, there's a limit to the HDD (see Sticky topics) partition size. This can hoke you up. Many "workarounds" available. Get all available drivers ready and waiting, particularly the Chipset drivers (always installed first). SATA devices will definitely mess you up on Win98, the reason I suggested IF POSSIBLE disable the SATA controllers entirely.

edit - hmmm. I misunderstood? The install was (at least partially) successful?

This post has been edited by submix8c: 20 September 2012 - 07:21 PM