Remember having all kinds of strange HDD and audio related problems with my KT133 rig back in the day, until VIA 4-in-1 4.42 was released. IIRC 4.43 is the version usually recommended today.

Can't hurt to try updating the driver if it supports your chipset I guess 😀

kaputnik wrote on 2024-05-05, 08:01:

Remember having all kinds of strange HDD and audio related problems with my KT133 rig back in the day, until VIA 4-in-1 4.42 was released. IIRC 4.43 is the version usually recommended today.

Can't hurt to try updating the driver if it supports your chipset I guess 😀

Thank you, I'll give it a shot. I kept reading that the earlier the version, the better, but there doesn't seem to be a consensus as to which version. I will try 4.43 and see what happens. This rig is also very fickle about the IDE cables used, as well. I always have a unique issue or two with every build, I swear! This particular error is more prone to Windows 95 builds, so finding info for it on Windows 98 rigs has been challenging. Many posts on VOGONS are about how unstable SS7 builds can be, though for me, everything but this slave drive (and IDE cable) issue seems to be working good, so far.

Unfortunately, VIA 4in1 4.43 did not solve the problem. Bootlog.txt lists ndis2sup.vxd, MTRR, and VGARTD as having failed with either version of the drivers.

I tried changing out the dual CF-IDE drive for two separate single CF-IDE drives, and a single CF-IDE drive (master) and a mechanical 80GB IDE drives (slave). I am still getting the IOS error and ONLY with non-safe-mode Windows 98 SE boots. MS-DOS mode and Safe Mode lets me access both drives, both reads and writes.

What the hell...

UPDATE:

I reinstalled Windows 98 SE using 98Lite 4.7 and go the error after rebooting right before the "Setting up hardware and finalizing settings" portion of the install where it detects PnP devices and all of that. On a whim, I unplugged the secondary IDE cable. Attached to it are two of nearly the same DVD dual-layer burners (same company, model line, and faceplates, slightly different revisions.) Upon booting, the error did not occur and Windows is wrapping up the installation. Whatever the issue is, Windows 98 on this board does not like 4 IDE devices connected. So it is either 1 Master IDE and 2 Slave IDE, or 2 Master IDE and no Slave IDE (I haven't tried one Slave, yet, because this is FRICKIN' STUPID.) This doesn't make any sense! When I first got it, I know it was working with four devices. The ONLY change was removing the Creative CD-ROM which came with the system and adding a second DVD burner... I am at a loss as to what to do next, other than swap out drives, which I would rather not do, if a solution can be found. I even undid the OC back to 550Mhz and double checked voltages and it has nothing to do with what is going on...

UPDATE 2:

I grabbed another (non burner) DVD drive and set it off to the side and pulled out the twin DVD DL burners. The jumper on the Slave looked a little weird, to me. I mean, the drives were working and reading discs from both as long as there was no Primary Slave, but you know how it goes with these sorts of things. Anyhow, noticing that I am out of spare jumpers and need to order some, I stole the jumper from that 80GB mechanical drive. Poor drive. I then put that on the second DVD DL burner, hooked it all back up with the Voodoo5, got the "HEY, THERE IS NO VIDEO CARD IN HERE, DORK!" beeps and then I said "!@$%*&(@#^&%!!!!!!... Oh yeah, I forgot to give it power."

So, I connected a molex connector to the Voodoo5 and booted up and got into Windows 98 SE / 98Lite Sleek version and all four drives are present and accessible. I let out a sigh of relief because this crap, as many of you know, happens to all of my builds. My fiance said, "See, I told you that you would figure it out. You always do." I smiled, and we lived happily ever after.

The End (until the next build...) Dun-Dun-Dunnnn!!! (That was the piano effect from a Roland SoundCanvas SC-55)

I spoke too soon... Dammit!

EDIT: Okay so without any more ideas, I swapped out a molex splitter and booted up first without my 5.25 1.2mb floppy drive powered on, and then again with everything connected to the PSU, and had a successful boot, both times. I see nothing wrong with this other splitter other than the replacement feels like a more "heavy duty" splitter. DAMN, this entire situation has to have been the most frustrating one I have ever experienced since joining Vogons eons ago...

Now the only issue is that the HD light is on and is staying on. However, besides that, everything seems to be functioning - for now.

I connected ONE CF card and ONE dvd burner, formatted and reinstalled Windows 98SE via 98lite, and then installed all of my drivers (the only thing I didn't install as I normally would on a fresh install is Alcohol 120%.) I then backed up the CF card to an image via Macrium on my main PC, because I am not going to keep reinstalling Windows 98. Everything went smoothly and I was able to reboot into Windows multiple times. I then attached the 2nd DVD burner and rebooted successfully a few times. I then added a second CF card with Unreal Tournament on it and played a bot match at 1024x768 and it ran GREAT. After I won the match against 16 bots, I shut down and tested my CF-SD adapters and that is when the problems began.

The one adapter makes the HDD light stay on, perpetually. I didn't test it further. The other one seemed to behave normally, and I could access it and create, edit, open, and delete a text file. However, I got errors with every file I tried to open, such as that the format wasn't recognized or the path was missing. When the IOS errors were happening before this install, it was either when IO had one of these adapters slaved, or without it in the machine but after it had been and after an IOS error occurred (I think when it occurs, it breaks something in Windows.)

So I am, for now, diagnosing this ordeal as an SD/CF adapter incompatibility problem, because I doubt that both adapters are going bad at the same time. However, this sucks because I NEED a 120+GB slave drive storage solution for CD/DVD images and other files (it isn't big enough to cover everything, but that is the max support.) I could buy a 128GB CF card, but they are pricey and there are a lot of scams out there. I also considered an Icy Dock, but I would have to paint it and I don't think that they make 8GB SSDs which I need for the MS-DOS/Windows 3.11 drive.

My diagnosis was wrong, it was not the SD-to-CF adapters (though those are still a problem with this system.) Something about this system, I am now assuming the motherboard, doesn't like it when I install Windows with two CF cards installed. I even swapped out the dual CF-to-IDE drive for a Startech single CF-to-IDE drive and slaved the PCI slit CF-to-IDE card that came with the system I harvested the parts from. So every single time I have tried to install Windows with two CF cards and the two Magicspin DVD DL burners installed and all connected to the IDE ports on the motherboard, the IOS error occurs after the first reboot. Windows successfully installs and I get to the first normal boot which installs the monitor driver and displays the Windows 98 welcome box with the funky music. After shutting down/powering back on or rebooting from this point, manifests this IOS error and I usually end up having to reinstall Windows again after trying everything I can think of to diagnose the error and fix it.

I recently successfully installed Windows 98 by having only one CF card and one burner installed, and then installed VIA 4in1 4.35 (the later revisions did not help,) DX7 and the Voodoo5 driver, backed up the Windows CF with Macrium, and then added the second CF card and burner and the Audigy 2 ZS. I was playing games and everything with multiple reboots at this point. However, I was having difficulties with the VXD driver and was tryinhg to fix that which started causing Windows to reboot whenever trying to switch between VXD and WDM drivers. I removed all but the Audigy 2 ZS and the Voodoo5 when coming across this thread and reading it and saw I may have screwed up by having my AWE32 installed when I tried to deal with the Audigy:

Guide: Installing Windows 9x and DOS drivers on Audigy cards (version 3.1)

I downloaded the ISO, but it was giving me errors when trying to install the first part as per the instructions, and then the reboots, so I figured something broke and that I need to reinstall Windows again. However, I forgot to remove the secondary IDE devices and the IOS error came back, which sucks but I am glad to get closer to figuring out what is going on and know that it wasn't the SD-to-CF adapters. No one has replied to any of these, so I assume that I am dealing with an extremely unique and isolated issue. I know others on here have the same motherboard revision and have not had these problems. I will say that my DVD burners act strangely when Windows is working and take forever to let me access discs when they are first put in, with the drives going VRIM-VROOM-VRIM-VROOM for a long damn time before I can access them, and turning off DMA reduced this problem, but did not eliminate it. Maybe these "Magicspin" drives are the culprits. Another thing is that only one of them appears in device manager. So, either the IDE ports/controller is messed up (but works under the right circumstances,) or these DVD drives have something weird going on...

I am still hoping for insight and/or answers, but for now I am reinstalling with ONE CF card and ONE drive... (A complete different DVD-ROM, at least for now.)

I just noticed that in my BIOS settings, while I have the IDE ports set to autodetect, Primary Slave was set to LBA while everything else was set to Auto. Not sure if that matters, but I will see. So far, with just one CF card and the alternative DVD (non-burner) drive, everything is working as it should. Of course, this isn't going to fly as I need a second HDD and optical drive...