98SE Problems

[pentachris]

My parents have a computer running 98SE. MSI motherboard with nVidia nForce 2 chipset. Windows hangs at the shutdown screen & (I think related?) Device Manager shows problems (yellow exclamation marks - device not present, not working properly or problem with the drivers) on both IDE controllers. I tried re-installing chipset drivers from the nVidia website - no difference. I tried removing the devices in safe mode - Windows found the devices on reboot and re-installed the drivers. They still show as a problem in Device Manager. Any suggestions?

[Jiggy]

Try new or spare IDE cable and/or hard drive on both channels. What happens ?

Also try an older driver.

[classicsoftware]

Do they have the orginal motherboard disk? Did you remove the devices in safe mode?

[Quantax]

Make use of the Win98 shutdown patch?

Don't know if this is related(probably not)but about a year and a half ago, when my drive was malfunctioning(but without the symptom you've indicated), the yellow exclamation marks also appeared along with a statement about MS DOS imcompatibility being present. When I spoke with a senior rep at Microsoft he also suggested the removal and reinstallation of the chipset drivers. Well, I wasn't tech savvy enough to know what he was saying, but as it turned out the drive was dying anyway. And the telltale sign was that it wouldn't write any DOS commands.

[ErnieK]

You can get the Win98 shutdown patch here. Try it and see if it helps.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,6794,00.asp

[Paul Komski]

Check the performance tab of system properties to see if MS-DOS compatibility mode is an issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/130179

PS Has the system been scanned for viruses?

[pentachris]

Thanks for the ideas, everyone.

To answer a few of your questions:

A/v software (Norton CE) is kept up-to-date.

I didn't check MS-DOS compatability mode (dad, if you're reading, do that by right-clicking My Computer and click Properties, choose the Performance tab and then maybe choose the File System button - I'm not on a 98 machine right now, and I can't remember exactly where it would show up, but it'll be somewhere in there...).

When I removed the devices, yes, I did so in safe mode.

We looked for the original mobo CD, but didn't find it.

I think he did install the shutdown patch - dad, if you didn't get that from the microsoft website, click the link in ErnieK's post and try that.

Would a problem with one drive cause both controllers to show up as having a problem in Device Manager?

[Quantax]

:



Would a problem with one drive cause both controllers to show up as having a problem in Device Manager?
Yes, as I recall it did in my case.

[B-CERT]

"If your computer contains a PCI IDE hard disk controller that employs serialization between the two IDE channels, this tip may help you resolve a MS-DOS compatibility mode problem in Device Manager.
To cause Windows to attempt to reinitialize the protected-mode IDE driver, remove the 'NoIDE' entry from the registry key below.

Settings:
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\VxD\IOS]
Name: NoIDE

After you update the registry, restart Windows. Windows will then attempt to initialize the protected-mode driver for the controller.
If no problems are encountered, the file system and virtual memory will operate in 32-bit mode, and Device Manager will not display an exclamation point in a yellow circle for the IDE channels."

Last Modified: March 25, 1999

[Paul Komski]

Thanks B-Cert for emphasising noide. There was a reference to noide in the link I posted, where the full secondary link referenced is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/151911/EN-US/