[old-fart]

First Post

 

Hi. I'm putting togeher various old computers (because I want to see what they are like and want to see what older versions of windows are like) out of a stack I've collected.

 

The one I'm fiddling with at the moment is a p4 with a 540mb hd and win98se. (I do have a 255MMX that prob is better suited but win98 seems tro really like this setup.

 

I found, not from a direct source but buried in a discussion in a forum about the onboard video, a driver and hence got the video to display more than bare bones.

 

The main problem at the moment is figuring out whether I can get the USB to work. In device manager usb controller (sis7001) has no warning but the pci usb, ethernet, audio, are all yellow warning.

 

The MB is acer E661FXM , 256 ram, hd 540mb

 

I can't get any info on the MB and hence drivers. Belark only tells me what windows knows.

 

I began to suspect that the USB on the MB is 2.0 and win98se doesn't have a driver for it but came across a discussion indicating it does but no links work. Perhaps the plethora of firefox addons like ghostery plus the settings for cookie handling are too 'strict'?

 

Anyway, any hints on how to move this 'project' along will be much appreciated.

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  old-fart

 

Have you checked in the BIOS that the USB ports are enabled.

 

Perhaps the plethora of firefox addons like ghostery plus the settings for cookie handling are too 'strict'?

 

 

Does the above mean that you have the MB connected to the internet using the ethernet device.

 

If yes, run DriverMax to see if any driver updates are suggested.

 

Please note that you are only allowed to download two drivers a day for free and be sure to uncheck the “install AVG toolbar” option box.

Remember to always create a new restore point before updating any drivers.

 

[phillpower2]

  old-fart

 

Have you checked in the BIOS that the USB ports are enabled.

 

Perhaps the plethora of firefox addons like ghostery plus the settings for cookie handling are too 'strict'?

 

 

Does the above mean that you have the MB connected to the internet using the ethernet device.

 

If yes, run DriverMax to see if any driver updates are suggested.

 

Please note that you are only allowed to download two drivers a day for free and be sure to uncheck the “install AVG toolbar” option box.

Remember to always create a new restore point before updating any drivers.

 

[old-fart]

I'm using a linux box for the web.

 

I'm hesitant to use the 98 box on the web to avoid any bugs though I've read it's not much of a problem for fat32 these days. Also I'd have to go through figuring out setting up dsl or dial-up before I really want to as well as bneing not sure I want to at all. Plus given the hd size limits I'd rather strip windows and install various period software and keep it standalone with the poss of later going through networking it to other systems. (I enjoy this kind of 'problems')

 

Nevertheless, the idea of an online scan is one I hadn't thought of.

 

I guess the firefox addons and security etc is a question that I can figure out by changing things on this computer for the session.

 

I'd prefer to find a solution for the win98 box without connecting. For the moment I can burn things onto CD on this linux box to set up in the win box. I'd like to simplify that by enabling the USB in win98se for now.

 

The bios has USB enabled.

[phillpower2]

Drivers from acer are almost none existent and other Google searches tend to end up as a blag 

 

If the USB drivers need updating there is a good chance that so do the chipset drivers and they should be updated first.

 

Without biting the bullet and hooking up 98 to the ethernet as a one off I am not sure of any other way of getting the drivers I`m afraid. 

[old-fart]

Yes, thank you. I will work towards that. I'm assuming the onboard ethernet is not working ? is this correct given device manager warns about the pci ethernet is not correct ( I don't get why they depend on each other but it seems they do.). The usb root hub is loaded but pci usb not. A bit of a tangle for me. I have an old modem (pci) that should enable dial-up so it'd be worth doing and saving the drivers as found and reinstalling everything later to set up as standalone.

 

Another thought I had but could not find a compatible utility (I tried sisoft, belark and a couple of oythers. belark installed but is not really that good/ I find.) is to find one that's compatible with win98se that will give me a true readout of all MB devices and then seeking the specific drivers while keeping the box standalone.

 

Another thought is downgrading the MB (I've got a selection, but win95 seems to scream along on this setup and the other MB would necessiatate a downgrade in memory type and size so I'd rather not go there.

 

edit add, come to think of it, I could install xp and a compatible device detector and keep that data for looking for win98 drivers. ?

Edited by old-fart, 21 May 2014 - 04:23 AM.

[phillpower2]

Are either of the following MBs what you have, here and here

[old-fart]

The link leads to same page. The boards look very similar except for color and location of a handful of capacitors and the cpu power. Belarc and Bios tells me instead of Award the bios in the box is phoenix 2006 instead of 2009 and the bus clock is 200 instead of the fsb 800 on the page. I wonder how the acer board and the ecs board is related. Thank's for finding that. Tomorrow I'll dig into the board and jot down some chip and other prints on the board. G'night for now.

[phillpower2]

Acer and other brands use OEM MBs from brands such as ECS and possibly the biggest supplier Foxconn, the drivers can sometimes be the same for each type of board but not the BIOS, as pointed out by yourself above, the link attached here shows different revisions of the MB with some boards listed as coming from Acer computers, they do appear to be later revisions though.

[old-fart]

With your help, Phill, I've found http://www.ebay.com/...=item20e53c9422 which matches is what is stamped on the MB (unlike belarks readout putting an E before 661) and the components are located the same.

 

661FX-M7 Rev:1.2A (on MB)

 

Through that I found manuals and a sound driver from ECS. I'll spend some time now studying this. I also found a site that points to drivers and lists them but provides no working download links.

 

I assume the belark readout of "bus clock 200" doesn't refer to FSB ? is there a 'multiplier' that actually means it is 'FSB 800 from a 'bus clock' of '200'. ?

 

Anyway, seems a good step in the right direction. Many thanks.

 

edit formatting

Edited by old-fart, 21 May 2014 - 11:23 PM.

[phillpower2]

That is good news and well spotted 

 

Would the drivers here be what you are looking for.

 

P4  = 4 X 200MHz 

 

You are welcome btw 

[old-fart]

That's it. Some of the drivers are not for win98 but it's a long way better than where I was a couple of days ago.  I also found a detailed schematic of the boards electronics with chip identifiers. I feel confident now in putting the box back together and trying the various drivers etc I have now. I don't see any point of updating the bios but will download same for future use. Once I've got the bits needed I'll save everything plus some notes on the process on a cd and when it's all working put the box aside with the cd taped to the side and start cobbling together the next box.

 

Later and thanks again.

[phillpower2]

Sounds like a plan 

 

Let us know how it goes or if we can help in any way.

 

You are welcome btw 

[old-fart]

Making progress.

 

I downloaded a set of red hat linux 9 cd iso's on the linux box and burned them in K3b, put the box together again (a bit apprehensive as components are old, but they seem very robust. HD likely way past its MTBF. Started up nice) so far ...

 

The red hat installation recognises the usb mouse and keyboard so clear that the usb works well.

 

I'll complete the installation and see what Red Hats device recognition lists and use that to see about locating the right usb drivers for win95se.

 

I realise my reasonings around things may be flawed and appreciate any comments to point any of this out. As stated, my main interest is to learn stuff while doing this (have learnt a lot with the paitent and friendly advice on this forum) and all will be useful.

 

___

 

In between I started on a second box which previously had win xp on it. I tried the RH9 cd1 in it but its DVD drive failed to run the RH9 cd while the win95se box CD drive doesn't have that problem while the xp box DVD drive has no trouble recognising other cd/dvd 's. Strange. ? Any ideas about seeming CD/DVD's and cd and dvd drive incompatibilities?

 

edit typos and add :

 

Obviously (in hindsight) RH9 is much too big an installation for a 540mb hd. . So will try same with a small linux distro. Any experience with a small one. (DamnSmallLinux seems the one recommended most)

Edited by old-fart, 23 May 2014 - 09:10 PM.

[old-fart]

Add :

 

I downloaded Helix3 Live CD and got a list of the drivers needed and found and downloaded same (win95se).

 

Helix is a debian based diagnostics/forensics distro. Very impressed with it so far. Will try it out as default on this comp for a while. (the download allows for live, install and a couple of system tests off the cd and has all the usual opensource gooodies plus a swathe of diagnostics tools for local and remote.

 

I've become aware of the limitations of a 540mb hd but that was huge once. I remember when (snooze for the next couple of sentences) squeezing win 95 + programs onto a 100mb hd. Ah, those were the days. The oldest pc I had was a zenith running win 1. ?x off two one-sided 360kb floppy floppies.. What about the XP8088 at 1MHz with a blazing turbo boost to 2Mhz. .. bla bla . Anyway. Running win95se on a P4 with 32 m video (shared) and 512 m ram is interesting. No doubt rediscovering some of the programs used then. Finding them might be hard.

[old-fart]

so far :

 

The sound is on (win98se box) ac97 did that

 

cannot find drivers for usb nor ethernet

 

nic : RTL 8169sc 8110sc ?