Creative DVD/Win98 SE/ASUS

[Guest]

I've had my system for a few years, and had no problems. It's an Asus P2B MB with a Celeron 300A overclocked to 450, with 128MB of RAM. MY OS is Win98SE. About 2 weeks ago I bought the Creative Labs Encore 12X DVD-ROM. My problem is this...

If I plug the DVD drive into the IDE cable, Win98 will not finish loading. The drive is recognized during the initial boot, but as soon as Win98 should pop-up, I get a blue-screen error. Simply unplugging the IDE cable and rebooting fixes the problem.

My friend has the same core system/OS as me. We tried the drive in his machine and had the same problem. We then tried the drive in an un-related machine running Win98...it worked fine.

I've flashed the BIOS, and re-installed bus-mastering drivers(I think...they're hard to find...and I can't be sure if I found the right ones). None of this has worked.

This is driving me crazy...any help would be appreciated.

Domm

 

[amdchuck]

Hey, I hope this ain't it but the minimum system requirements for that drive are a P2 400 Mhz

I do not think your Celery 300 quite cuts the mustard even if it is oc'd to 450 it is still a Celery 300 at it's core.

 

[Guest]

Really? That doesn't seem logical to me. I would have thought that as long as the MB/processor are set to 450, Win98SE and the drive would behave as if the chip were sold as 450MHz.

Domm

 

[amdchuck]

I am just advising you of what may be the problem.

It may recognize it as a "Celeron" 450, but the minimum system requirements clearly state Pentium 2 400Mhz.

Even though Creative's support sucks really really bad, I can only suggest confirming through them that a Celeron 300 oc'd to 450, meets the minimum system requirements for that drive.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your advice. Although I don't clearly understand why it's detected during the bootup, but then fails to load Win98, I think you may be right.

I've decided it's time to upgrade my board/processor. I'll be getting an Asus/Athlon combo soon. Any suggestions?

Domm

 

[amdchuck]

I would like to suggest a C Athlon with DDR memory but that is a tricky situation right now (not to mention expensive).

Frankly I am still running technology from a couple of years ago, I have a Slot A "Classic" Athlon 700Mhz that really has no problems with power (thanks to Corsair and Soyo). It works so well, I may wait another year before I go DDR as I am sure the situation will have stabilized by then.

Cost vs. Performance? A T-bird 800 would be more than enough power as well as really really affordable. Include the low prices for quality PC133 SDRAM and you can build yourself a heck of a system for the price of a weekend getaway.

No complaints with Asus, most Athlon overclockers swear by the A7V I believe it is, I however have found a friend with Soyo but I seem to be pretty much alone on that one.