# Compatibility Mode Win98SE



## tycorbett (Feb 29, 2004)

Hi guy's, I recently built a new PC with Win98SE as the OS. I have used 98SE for a number of years and have built numerous systems around it. 

System spec's:

ASUS A7N8X-X mobo
512 DDR Ram
Athalon CPU
Optirite CD Rom
Three removable bays
Western Digital HD (Master) 40GIG
Several other HD's (WD/Maxtor...no smaller than 20GIG)

I first encountered the "Compatibility Mode" problem shortly after a clean format and install of the OS. (Incidentally, I had never come across this error message with ANY other systems I have owned ) It also worth noting that the mobo/HD/CPU/Memory are brand new, but using HD's with existing AUDIO data files 

The initial crash came about as I installed a third HD to transfer data. I received the following message:

"Your multi-function device (Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller) has some child devices using 32-bit drivers and others using computability-mode drivers. This configuration is not supported, so your computer has been halted to prevent corruption.

After you restart your computer, Windows will use computability-mode drivers for each child like device attached to this multifunction device. If you want to use 32 bit drivers, you may be able to obtain an updated driver for the device that caused the problem by contacting your hardware manufacturer, or you can disable the device."

Upon receiving the message, I could no longer access my CD-Rom drive. After trying a number of fixes, I settled on re-formatting the drive. Again, when adding the third drive, I received the "Compatibility Mode" error. 

To make a long story short, I re-formatted the system several times. Not sure why the system had difficulties recognizing the third drive, I simply left well enough alone and started working without accessing the third drive bay. After about a month of no problems, I swapped AUDIO drives ( standard practice) and again received the "Compatibility Mode" error. In this instance, I was not accessing the third bay, but the second which I had success with since the initial problem.

I am unclear as to why this problem is occurring as well as what to do to prevent future occurrences.

Prior to this, my experience with 98SE had been rock solid! Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Tyrone


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

Windows 98 isn't playing well with new hardware, and most manufacturer's don't care too much as XP is being picked up by most users sionce its a big step up from 98.

One thig that you want to make sure is that you have installed the latest Nvidia Chipset drivers from ASUS, not Nvidia. Its also important that you do not put a hard drive with an O/S on it as the boot drive - I know you said you formated your drives so I say that just as a tip. Also make sure the drives are jumpered as Master and Slave accordingly.

Nvidia Drivers - under Utilities: http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N8X-X&Type=Latest


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## tycorbett (Feb 29, 2004)

Man, I wrote a response and hit post and poof it disappeared! I'll try again.

Thanks Triple6 for your response and the link to the Asus page....much appreciated. A couple of questions. First, could you clarify not placing an HD with O/S as a boot device. I am assuming you mean not the first boot device listed...and why is that?

I aslo think I may have misled you a bit...I have yet to format my Master drive this time around, because I wanted to get a better understanding of what I may have done wrong before proceding with yet another system re-build. Is it possible that the chipset update will correct the problems I'm encountering without a re-format?

Prior to building this system, My setup was as follows:

Primary IDE Controller = O/S HD and CD Writer (master/slave)
Secondayr IDE Controller = HD/HD (slave/slave)

I have checked all of my Audio drives (8) and all had jumpers set as slaves with the exception of one HD which had no jumper. I'm assuming I should place a jumper for "slave" on this drive as well.

I greatly appreciate your assistance!

Tyrone


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## A Hawk (Feb 11, 2003)

Primary IDE Controller = O/S HD and CD Writer (master/slave)
Secondary IDE Controller = HD/HD (slave/slave)
Theres your prob, the primary ide is ok but the secondary should be changed to 1hd as secondary master 2nd hd to secondary slave, via the jumpers. Also set your boot sequence in bios as ide 1 (primary) as 1st boot device and cd as second. You can have it the other way around if you wish (cd 1st) but it will prob boot quicker if the hd is 1st.


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## tycorbett (Feb 29, 2004)

Thanks Hawk, I questioned myself whether the Secondary IDE Conroller should be master/slave as well. Are the jumper settings on the Secondary IDE Controller any different than the traditional master/slave settings...and why was this not an issue with my other Win98SE system? I was using the same hard drives/same jumper settings. Also, the last time I received the "Compatability" error, I was swapping a single drive from the Secondary IDE Controller...I had done this humdreds of times prior to this morning. 

Is there any way to recover short of refomatting at this point? I am still receiving the "Compatability Mode" error despite disconnecting the CD Rom and other HD's. I assumed if I disconnected all other devices the system would "like me". If the aswer is yes, how do I get the system to recognize the CD ROM drive? 

Thanks


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## A Hawk (Feb 11, 2003)

I take it that the 2 secondary drives had the os on them when you installed them, if so what you need to do is either reinstall or repair win on these drives or install the software that came with the mobo. The reson for this is they have drivers on them for another mobo, which are not compatible with the mobo you are now using.


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## tycorbett (Feb 29, 2004)

To the contrary, all secondary drives were/are without OS (simply slave drives). I purchased a new HD and installed O/S as the master drive.

In the past I have toggled drives between master and slave though. Would a drive that has an O/S but set by jumpers to be a "slave" create problems? I have done this in the past numerous times without any fall-out.


Tyrone


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## A Hawk (Feb 11, 2003)

Would a drive that has an O/S but set by jumpers to be a "slave" create problems?
It shouldn't but maybe you need to try setting it to master. Is this drive on the secondary ide?


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## tycorbett (Feb 29, 2004)

...yes, I have used a drive with an O/S as a slave (with appropriate slave jumper settings though). I would think that if a drive has an O/S and is set as a master on the secondary IDE could cause conflict, no? Or would the difference be due to the fact that it is not set as a boot drive in the Bios?

Tyrone


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## A Hawk (Feb 11, 2003)

Whether its the primary ide or the secondary ide one hd needs to be master and one slave. In bios you can set the boot sequence to 1st boot ide 0 or ide 1 which ever your main drive is and set the 2nd boot to cd. And no it shouldn't cause a conflict set the above way. I would think there would be more conflict with them both set to slave.


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

It doesn't matter if any drive other then the C drive have on O/S on it, so that won't cause a problem. A lot of people take a hard drive from one computer and put it in another with the O/S still on it and have it as C (the boot drive). This causes problems as it has all the old drivers still there and they can cause issues. You should not have this program as you said you formated your C drive.

You must have one drive set as Master on each IDE channel, and the other drive set as slave if it exists. 2 Masters or 2 slaves on a single IDE channel will cause problems. 

Windows 98 does not have any proper support of Nvidia Chipsets - Nvidia motherboard chipsets did not exist when 98 was released. Therefore you must install the NVIDIA chipset software, and new newer releases generally fix problems that may have existed with older releases. ASUS recommends using the software of their site as opposed to software downloaded from NVIDIA's website - ASUS drivers support their boards better then NVIDIA's releases.

If you have trouble booting Windows, ie can't boot into Windows, go to the Command Prompt Option in the Startup Menu and type SCANREG /RESTORE to replace the registry with an older working copy.


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## cshajkur (Sep 1, 2001)

Get rid of the Radeon 9600SE video card and replace a NVidia anything. Install the Asus Update Ultility that came with your motherboard and use it to update the Bios settings. Install as many drivers as you can with your Motherboard CD then the video drivers. Connect your hard drives as shopwn here: Note I had the same problem about two weeks ago and got rid of my new Radeon 9600SE video card, replaced it with NVidia and everything worked fine.

Operating System System Model 
Windows 98 SE (build 4.10.2222) No details available 
Processor a Main Circuit Board b 
1.73 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7V8X-X REV 1.xx
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7V8X-X ACPI BIOS Revision 1008 12/29/2003 
Drives Memory Modules c,d 
93.50 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
80.22 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

_NEC NR-7700A [CD-ROM drive]
ATAPI CDROM [CD-ROM drive]
LITE-ON COMBO LTC-48161H [CD-ROM drive]
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")

IOMEGA ZIP 100 [Hard drive] -- drive 255, rev 14.A
Maxtor 9 1360U4 [Hard drive] (13.60 GB) -- drive 0, rev MA54
WDC WD80 0JB-00FMA0 [Hard drive] (79.91 GB) -- drive 1, rev 13.0 1022 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DDR 1' is Empty
Slot 'DDR 2' has 512 MB
Slot 'DDR 3' has 512 MB 
Local Drive Volumes

c: (on drive 0) 13.60 GB 12.73 GB free 
d: (on drive 1) 32.04 GB 28.35 GB free 
e: (on drive 1) 47.87 GB 39.14 GB free

Network Drives

Users Printers 
No details available Microsoft Fax Driver on FAX: 
Microsoft Fax Driver on PUB:

Controllers Display 
Standard Floppy Disk Controller
Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 [Display adapter]
Default Monitor
GATEWAY VX900 [Monitor] (17.7"vis) 
Bus Adapters Multimedia 
Silicon Image SiI 0680 Ultra-133 Medley ATA Raid Controller
VIA PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller
VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller Gameport Joystick (no joystick connected)
REALmagic Hollywood Plus
SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
STB TV PCI FM Tuner Card
Wave Device for Voice Modem 
Communications Other Devices 
Intel(R) 536EP V.92 Modem
VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
Network Card MAC Address: 00:0C:6ED:32:C8
Network IP Address: 68.50.250.31 / 25 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
A4Tech PS/2 Port Wheel Mouse
USB 2.0 Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub


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## tycorbett (Feb 29, 2004)

Thanks for all who assisted...much appreciated!

The problem I encountered was due to a ribbon cable that did not support UDMA drives in the master/slave position.

Again, a very kind thanks to all.

Tyrone


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## A Hawk (Feb 11, 2003)

Your Welcome Glad to see you sorted the prob.


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