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P5A-B Problems under Win95B
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Hubert Harris
Jan 14, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/14/99
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I am trying to get an Asus P5A-B MB to work under Win95 OSR2. The OS
installs fine, but I am having erratic hardware problems. The serial mouse
comes and goes with reboots/restarts. Occassionaly, the PC will freeze
while doing nothing (screen saver). The other nusance is that I see a
"other device" called a "PCI Bridge" but I can't locate a driver for it on
Win95 or on the ASUS CD. What is a PCI Bridge and how do I install a drive
for it?
installs fine, but I am having erratic hardware problems. The serial mouse
comes and goes with reboots/restarts. Occassionaly, the PC will freeze
while doing nothing (screen saver). The other nusance is that I see a
"other device" called a "PCI Bridge" but I can't locate a driver for it on
Win95 or on the ASUS CD. What is a PCI Bridge and how do I install a drive
for it?
I visited the newsgroup after I purchased 5 of these boards for use on a
network. I now see that there are a number of problems using this board
under power user configurations. I am not running anything high-tech
(Pentium 166, 32MB SDRAM, Aopen 10/100 Network card, Creative Ensoniq
soundcard, Cirrus Logic PCI video), but I am still having problems. What's
the solution???
the fly
Jan 17, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/17/99
to
The file you need to load from the Asus CD is called "M7101
Patch." It will say something about advanced power management, but
also modifies some files to help Win95 recognize the ALi chipset on
this board. Loading this will remove the "?" from the PCI Bridge.
It's also advisable to update the BIOS and IDE driver for this
chipset. It appears that Asus released the P5A and P5A-B before they
were really ready for prime-time. After the latest round of updates,
my two P5A-Bs are (finally) running quickly and well.
The BIOS version you should load is 1005, now available on
Asus' site. Make sure you get the proper one: WITH or WITHOUT
onboard sound.
The IDE drivers have been a source of frustration for early
users of these boards. The latest version is 3.12, available from
www.ali.com.tw. Don't use version 3.10 or earlier, they'll slow you
down, and may crash. The latest ALi driver also seems to work better
than native MS drivers in Win95, though I'm still using MS drivers in
NT 4.0.
One other thing that helped my two machines IMMENSELY, is the
addition of an IDE "Ultracable." Shielded/Grounded 40-pin hdd cable
makes a huge difference in data-transfer speed and accuracy. The main
board is apparently very "noisy," electronically. Cable is available
for purchase from www.ultracable.com.
Patch." It will say something about advanced power management, but
also modifies some files to help Win95 recognize the ALi chipset on
this board. Loading this will remove the "?" from the PCI Bridge.
It's also advisable to update the BIOS and IDE driver for this
chipset. It appears that Asus released the P5A and P5A-B before they
were really ready for prime-time. After the latest round of updates,
my two P5A-Bs are (finally) running quickly and well.
The BIOS version you should load is 1005, now available on
Asus' site. Make sure you get the proper one: WITH or WITHOUT
onboard sound.
The IDE drivers have been a source of frustration for early
users of these boards. The latest version is 3.12, available from
www.ali.com.tw. Don't use version 3.10 or earlier, they'll slow you
down, and may crash. The latest ALi driver also seems to work better
than native MS drivers in Win95, though I'm still using MS drivers in
NT 4.0.
One other thing that helped my two machines IMMENSELY, is the
addition of an IDE "Ultracable." Shielded/Grounded 40-pin hdd cable
makes a huge difference in data-transfer speed and accuracy. The main
board is apparently very "noisy," electronically. Cable is available
for purchase from www.ultracable.com.
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