After dithering for a while, I finally decided to go with the a7n266 and try the new chipset, rather than go with the tried-and-true VIA KT266A or its successor, the KT333A. The system will be used for normal 2D applications and for audio applications, so I decided to at least try the on-board video and sound.
Except for the CD/RW drive, which I ripped from an older system, all the parts are new: AMD 1900 XP, 2 sticks of 512M DDR SDRAM, 80G IBM hard drive. Everything went together easily and the system booted right up.
My first problem occurred when trying to format the hard drive. I want to install Win98 (because I have a license for it, I was going to save $99 by not buying XP). However, the FDISK and FORMAT commands on my Win98 boot floppy seem to think the IBM drive is only 13G (the BIOS correctly shows it as 80). A boot floppy from ME lets FDISK see the whole disk, but FORMAT still can't see beyond 13G. How do I get past this problem without partitioning the drive?
OK so just to get around the problem temporarily, I partitioned the drive and installed the OS into an 8G partition. It came up no problem. However, I can't seem to find any way (under ME) to create an additional partition for the rest of the drive. How the heck are you supposed to do that?
OK ignoring that problem, I put in the CD that comes with the mobo, and it's got all the drivers starting with the nForce drivers. I installed those, and now my system will not boot, I get thrown into the screen where you can choose
"safe mode" and the only way I can get the system to come up is in safe mode now. Aaack! Help!
Except for the CD/RW drive, which I ripped from an older system, all the parts are new: AMD 1900 XP, 2 sticks of 512M DDR SDRAM, 80G IBM hard drive. Everything went together easily and the system booted right up.
My first problem occurred when trying to format the hard drive. I want to install Win98 (because I have a license for it, I was going to save $99 by not buying XP). However, the FDISK and FORMAT commands on my Win98 boot floppy seem to think the IBM drive is only 13G (the BIOS correctly shows it as 80). A boot floppy from ME lets FDISK see the whole disk, but FORMAT still can't see beyond 13G. How do I get past this problem without partitioning the drive?
OK so just to get around the problem temporarily, I partitioned the drive and installed the OS into an 8G partition. It came up no problem. However, I can't seem to find any way (under ME) to create an additional partition for the rest of the drive. How the heck are you supposed to do that?
OK ignoring that problem, I put in the CD that comes with the mobo, and it's got all the drivers starting with the nForce drivers. I installed those, and now my system will not boot, I get thrown into the screen where you can choose
"safe mode" and the only way I can get the system to come up is in safe mode now. Aaack! Help!