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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: JaXanim on May 17, 2004, 09:05:55 PM
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Thanks to spirantho's generosity, I now have the makings of a PC. I need this to process my WaveGuide stuff. Hopefully, my teething troubles will be very brief.
I've hooked everything up as I think it goes, but the BIOS screen indicates something like:
'Primary slave Hard Drive - fail.'
The system has a Hard Drive on channel 1 and a CDRom on Channel 2. I've not looked at the device jumpers cos they should be OK with this same setup.
I suspect I've fitted the IDE cables wrong but it's not obvious which is Pin 1 in the sockets. Same goes for the floppy drive, which doesn't activate atm.
It won't boot from a bootable floppy, so I think this is connected wrong as well. Should I just fit the IDE ribbons in the other way around?
Cheers,
JaX
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Hi
The IDE cable has a one red cable fit this onto the hard drive towards to power connecter to the harddrive.
The red cable indecates pin 1.
On the motherboard connector the socket has a notch in the middle on one of the sides like below:
|--------------|
|------ -----|
1
Put the red end when pin one is.
same with the floppy cable.
connect the floppy to the end of the cable after the twist.
then setup the hard drive in the BIOS.
Hope this helps.
P.s A goog indication if the floppy is connected wrong. The floppy light will stay lit.
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The IDE connectors usually have a notch in them, so they would be impossible to mount the wrong way around...
However, if the notches are missing, the red wire ( pin one ) on the cable should be closest to the power connector.
The floppy could be trickier.. I have encountered a bunch, and none of them seemed to have the same standard... :)
Some wants to be connected to the first connector on the cable, some on the second... And pin one seems to vary depending on manufacturer as well, but just try all the possible combinations... You wont damage anything, so long as the computer is powered off while you disconnect/reconnect cables.
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After checking cables:
Primary slave Hard Drive - fail
In the first section of an older type bios you usually have four rows for setting IDE devices, if you have one device for each cable they should be set as the master using the jumpers on the back of the drive (jumper settings should be clearle marked, even on PB gear ;-)). As they are both masters, looking in the bios the first and third entried should be set ('auto' is fine), and the 2nd and fourth (the slaves) should be disabled - if a slave is set and doesn't really exist you'll get the message you stated there ;-)
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OK, I've now got the floppy and HD ribbons connected properly and the floppy light stays on. I've disconnected the CDRom for now.
When the BIOS screen comes up and tells me about the primary slave HD failure, pressing F1 on the k/b brings up the configuration info.
This shows I have the HD attached to IDE Primary as Master. There are no other IDE devices listed. The Floppy device is also there, together with the PCI and ISA cards.
It then says 'verifying DMI Pool Data---
Disk I/O error
Replace the disk and press any key.'
What's all this about?
I swapped the HD for an old Amiga one but the same thing happened. If I insert a bootable floppy and reboot, nothing happens.
Going back to the end of the BIOS info...
If I press Del instead of F1, I get a CMOS Setup screen. This has a list of menus, but the k/b doesn't operate with this screen. I can't get anywhere with the CMOS screen.
Cheers,
JaX
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Hi
The CMOS is a chip which keeps the settings for the BIOS.
Pressing f1 when requested will take you stright to the relevent section section in the BIOS.
Try different combinations with the floppy and cable (i.e. change the cable round e.t.c).
If there is nothing on the hard drive then you will need to get the floppy working or try changing the BOOTUP settings in the BIOS to boot from CD, then try booting with a bootable CD.
Good luck
The settings in the BIOS for the HDD, are they the right settings for that drive?
If not they will need to be changed. If the motherboard is a new board then there will be a setting in the BIOS to auto detect the settings.
You'll need to navigate around the BIOS via K/b, so if the k/b aint working properly then you'll need to try another one.
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@amiga_noob
I just tested the CMOS battery to make sure it wasn't flat. It is OK, tho' I guess I've lost anything that was in the CMOS memory (?).
Anyway, if I could alter any of the BIOS settings I think I'd get somewhere. The problem seems to be with the keyboard and this mobo. The k/b is definitely OK, I was using it with another PC.
This 'new' mobo has a Pentium II/400MHz and appears to have two k/b sockets. Well they look identical, but one seems to work as described earlier. The other socket doesn't do anything with this k/b. Could it be that the old Packaged Hell k/b is no good with this mobo? The PC I was using it with is a very old 386/Win3.1
I have another PC k/b on my Amiga. Would that be worth a try?
Cheers,
JaX
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Hi
The 2 ps/2 (k/b) sockets: one for the keybord and the other is for the mouse.
What type of connector is on the k/b?
Are you using a 5pin din to ps/2 k/b converter?
I have no idea about the amiga k/b, cuz im new to amigas.
But it could be worth a try.
Yes you've lost the settings in the bios.
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@amiga_noob
Ah, k/b and mouse sockets, OK.
The Packard Bell system used a three button mouse with a joystick type connector. I have this in COM1 (I think) and it works OK.
I swapped the P-B k/b for an old but sturdy IBM one and that works fine. I can now get around the CMOS menus OK, so it all started looking good. In fact I've now got my sound and video cards installed and it's booting into Win98 without a hitch.
The only problem I see is the lack of free space on the HD. It's a 6-7Gb drive and seems full of dross stuff installed by the Packaged Hell vendor. I'd like to wipe most of it but it's not clear what is what.
How does one delete applications that aren't needed? Is there a proper Uninstall program? Do I need to download something to do it properly?
Cheers,
JaX
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Yes, Packard Bells have hideous HD installs from the factory. Go to 'Control Panel' (under settings on the start menu), and 'Add/Remove Programs' - you can remove programs using an automated system from there, provide you havn't accidentally deleted the script that usually sits in with the program itself. Most Windoes programs put files in system folders, and make changes to the Registry (a database of everything in windows), so if you remove a folder you're only getting part of the space used back.
Also remember to empty the recycle bin (right-click on it) as that counts as used space when checking disks. You should be able to free some space by getting rid of programs, but the only way to make Windows 'lean & mean' (comparatively) is to format the harddisk and re-install carefully - Win95 with sound, video and Internet can be cut back to about 50Mb. Don't try that without being sure what you're doing though, as getting Windows to run well is an art form (getting it to run shabbily is easy, lol).
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Hi
Glad you got your computer up and running. You just need to do a bit of tweaking here and there.
Like Holley said you can uninstall most of the programs you don't need.
Or if it's a genuin PB system, there should be a program on there that uninstalls the software you dont need.
If it's a packard bell computer you may be able to reinstall windows and drivers without the aditional s/w.
Providied you have the master disks, or your hard drive has a hidden partition with the image still intact and a PB boot disk.
What PB system is it?
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It's old enough to not have space for one of those horrible hidden setups, and for the system restore to come on 2 CDs and install loads of rubbish as standard ;-)
Because it's no longer an all-PB system using a system restore wouldn't be a good idea - they don't take into account that you may have changed hardware, not usually a problem but it may try to force chipset drivers for the motherboard (or it might just crash out, lol). Also the old PB system restores that work from CD usually undo any custom partitions, which is one of the perks of blanking the harddisk in the first place (cue: aaargh!).
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Yes, I deleted lots of irrelevant documents written by the previous owner. I also deleted some other stuff with the Progam Deletion system. This gave me enough space to install a slim version of Lotus SmartSuite (the system used for my important WaveGuide stuff).
By the time I'd imported the main document, I was getting messages that memory was getting very short again. Taking a closer look indicated the HD is only 750Mb not the 7Gb I had assumed! Doh! What's the use of a Packaged Hell running Windows98 with all its whistles and bells, plus Internet stuff on a 750Mb drive!....? OK as long as you don't intend creating anything I guess.
I'm now gonna attempt to fit a slave HD and use that for my Lotus stuff. The boot drive (Maxtor) is apparently jumpered (J20) as Master/Single ON, Slave OFF. This is stated on a sticky label. It doesn't have the jumper MA/SL/CS system I'm more familiar with. Do you think attaching a Slave jumpered HD to this system be OK, without rejumpering the Maxstor?
Cheers,
JaX
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If it's 750Mb I'm not surprised it's full! It possible this was a smaller than standard drive with a hidden partition, or that only the first part of the drive has been partitioned. To find out try and get your hands on a copy of 'Partition Magic' - it's kinda like HDPrep ;-)
'Master/Single' means the same as 'master' so thats fine BTW
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@Holley
Yes, it's full alright. The Maxtor model number identifies it as 850Mb and I have around 10Mb to spare. Not much use, eh!
I fitted another HD (Ex Amiga) jumpered as slave on the Channel 1 IDE cable. Because of physical restrictions, I have to attach this slave to the first connector from the IDE interface. Will this work with PCs? The reason I ask is 'cos I couldn't see the drive in the device listing in 'My Computer' after apparently setting it up using the CMOS IDE Hard Disks menu.
I then made it a slave to the CDRom on Channel 2 and put it on the furthermost connector. Same result.
How do I get the system to 'see' the new drive so I can FAT32 format it?
I'll tell you one thing for sure. Windows is a real PITA!
Cheers,
JaX
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Gotta partition it before windows will pick it up (unlike Amigas it won't list anything at all if it's not the right kinda partition).
Open a dos box and type 'fdisk'
You get asked if you want large disk support (Yes ;-)), you then get a text menu. 1st thing is to pick the second drive (option 5 IIRC), then delete any 'non-windows' partitions, and create a new one - should be self-explanatory, but if in doubt close the dos box (changes are only saved when the program quits) and ask for help.
When creating a Fat32 partition up to 8Gb has a cluster size of 4k, over is 8 (so stick with 8Gb partitions if you want to keep a library of icons, lol).
After doing that you can reboot and format the new disk, move as much as possible to the new partition as Windows likes loads of swap space ;-) 10Mb will make it crawl!
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@Holley
Many thanks for your advice. I guess I'll get the hang of this thing before long, but what a kerfuffle!
I'll let it rest for now, it's well past midnite and I'm just sick of hearing those bloody beeps!
More later no doubt!
Cheers,
JaX
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Yes, it's full alright. The Maxtor model number identifies it as 850Mb and I have around 10Mb to spare. Not much use, eh!
I fitted another HD (Ex Amiga) jumpered as slave on the Channel 1 IDE cable.
If it were myself, (which it was yesterday), I (would & did) just Norton Ghost from the small drive to the large drive, then pitch/recycle the small drive.
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Finally getting somewhere!
I managed to set up a slave drive to run Lotus SmartSuite and leave the old C: just for the Win98 system and misc stuff I've yet to explore.
The only problem was, out of three spare HDs (a 17Gb, a 4.3Gb and a tidgy 256Mb, only the latter would show up under the BIOS-CMOS/Detect IDE Devices gizmo. The bigger drives definitely had some bad sectors and the PC wouldn't have any of 'em.
So, SmartSuite is fully installed on the 250Mb drive, half filling it. However, that should leave enough for WaveGuide atm.
The frustrating thing now is the use of drive C: for temporary stuff. I'm still getting low space warnings when editing my stuff on the other drive.
Is there a way to use the other drive for the temporary stuff?
Oh, and the graphics card will only let me have 16 colours. I guess it's a pretty basic model, but I'd have expected a little bit more, colour-wise. (?)
Cheers,
JaX
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Hmm either that card is from 1989 or you just need some video drivers. :-)
-Jamie
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@graffias79
It's a 3D Labs Inc. AGP card dated 1999. It has the number PCB125B1 if that means anything to you. I set the CMOS/Init Video setting to AGP, but whether it's set to AGP or 'PCI Slot' makes no difference to the screen resolution or the number of colours.
This leads me to another query about Windows. Why are the menu frames larger than the screen? I have to scroll everything around to see what's going on. There doesn't seem to be anything related to increasing the screen resolution. The default setting of 680x420 pixels (or something like that) can't be changed.
Do I need a better video card?
Cheers,
JaX
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@JaXanim
Do I need a better video card?
Nope, just the correct driver will do, if it's still supported.
You just need to determine your model number of your video
card. If it's built into the mobo, look for it on the chip or usually found in the mobo manual that shoul come with it.
If not, check the card if such model is etch on it.
If you're still not sure of the model, then try to get a new agp card with a cd driver bundled with.
as soon as you found it, check this site (http://www.3dlabs.com/drivers) if
it's still available.
Everything else fails, still get a new AGP card. If it's built in. Try to Disable it under CMOS(usually).Hope that helps. :-D
Good day to all Amigans! :-D
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Yes 3DLabs has a lot of previous generation cards. Check what's written on the video card's main chip. Maybe it's a Permedia 2? Something like that should be listed on the chip. Then check the site link in gizz72's post. Believe me you wont get out of 4-bit vesa mode without a driver! Hope that helps!
-Jamie
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Given that this was going to an Amiga user I figured it right that I should send him a Permedia II card - given that was the last chip used in a dedicated Amiga graphics card (the CVPPC)! It can do 1600x1200 in 24 bit AFAIK, though I can't remember how much memory is on it.
You need the drivers for the card, though, just like any PC graphics card:
http://www.3dlabs.com/support/drivers/permedia_drivers.htm
should do the trick.
Once the drivers are installed, you'll be able to change the desktop size and screen resolution - either go into the Control Panel and open Display or else right click on the Windoze background when there's no windows open, and select Properties.. that has the same effect.
As for the temporary space, you need to tell windows to use the D: drive for swap space. It's in the Control Panel somewhere, and it's not where you'd expect, so do a Google search for it. It's in the hardware performance section or something daft!
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All hail Spirantho!
Provider of my PeeCee makings.
Behold, P2-400/RAM-alot/Sound'n'Vision'n'Mobo to boot.
Win98 plugged and played! Epson printer prints!
All hail Spirantho!
Saviour of the WaveGuide texts!
JaXimus WavGydimus Maximus
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Glad to hear it's all working now! And respect to Spirantho's generous nature :-)
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@Holley
It's....almost fully working.
I'm still bemused by the video. I've got the 3D Labs/Permedia II card in the AGP slot, but I get only 16 colour VGA output. I can't get the system to see the card.
I've downloaded the drivers as recommended by Spirantho and tried to get the system to accept them, but it insists in saying the best VGA driver is in use for the 'Standard VGA adapter'.
Is there a VGA switcher-offer somewhere? I've set the Init Video to VGA in the BIOS/CMOS interface (was ISA-slot), but I can't get any better output.
The system which searches for new hardware doesn't detect the card at all. It sees the sound card and the new mouse and the alternative keyboard, but not the 3D Labs card. Could it be faulty?
Cheers,
JaX
PS: Oh, and atm all this stuff is hanging inside and outside the old Packaged Hell desktop case. The new ATX power box is too big to fit where it should and the second HD is dangling on the end of the cable insulated from the rest with a copy of the TurboPrint manual. Other than that, it's not so far off.
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a new case can be got for £20 ;-)
Basically with 'a' driver installed (ie. the default 4-bit VGA one) it won't pick up that an updated one is needed. You can go into device manager (one of the tabs under 'system' in the control panel), find the display adaptor, go into it's properties, and click on 'update driver'. The other thing is to check for in an auto-setup program (setup.exe) in the drivers you downloaded, which will do the updating for you - I know NVidia and ATI drivers will only install that way most of the time!
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@Holley
After a fifteen minute scout around, the Add Hardware Wizard doesn't actually see the 3D Labs/Permedia card, that's what I don't understand.
The only way to get any signal to the monitor is via the graphics card, yet the system says it's running a 'Standard VGA Adapter'.
There appears to be a 3D Labs/Permedia driver on the Win98 CDRom, but it says this isn't specifically written for VGA the adapter I'm using and advises against using it. In fact it doesn't appear to want to use anything but the Standard VGA adapter driver.
I assume running the standard VGA driver will simply pass a 16-colour video signal through the card? That's what seems to be happening and there appears to be no clear way of changing it. Running the driver update system simply gives me the one I have already.
Any ideas?
JaX
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ok, first off, check the driver you downloaded and see if it has a file called 'setup.exe' in it - if so run that and it should update. If not then the best thing to do is what I said before (not the 'add new hardware' bit!!) - go to 'System' in the Control Panel, go to the 'Device manager' tab, find 'Standard VGA Display' under display adaptors, go into it's properties, click on 'Update Driver', when it gives you the list of drivers click on 'Have Disk' and point it at the driver you downloaded, if it doesn't like that then you probably have a driver for a different version of Windows or something ...
(note that if it's an achive you'll have to uncompress it first).
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I'll tell you one thing for sure. Windows is a real PITA!
I know! I swear by Amigas. I swear at Windows.
Anyway, did you try right clicking on the desktop and clicking on properties? You can then click on sewttings and play with the colours and screen resolution there. Maybe you've done that already?
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NOt sure if this applies to your motherboard, but
maybe a jumper instead of the bios controls the vga-init
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Yes, I think I'm missing something on this.
I managed to install the 3D Labs/Permedia 2 drivers as suggested earlier. However, when I try to use the 256 colour option in the Control Panel settings, I get a message saying my video adapter will not run with the Permedia driver and goes to the 16-colour screen.
The video card doesn't appear to be seen under any circumstances, so I'm wondering if there's a physical switch which needs altering? Where would I look for this?
The BIOS/CMOS setting AGP/PCI Slot doesn't affect the outcome.
Cheers,
JaX
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okay, if you're getting the option to use 256 colours then somethings installed. There isn't a video connector on the motherboard, is there? if so it'll need to be disabled with a jumper on the motherboard, or another setting in the bios somewhere (uhoh!) - note thats not the AGP/PCI setting ;-).
In Add/Remove programs is there something listed for the graphics chip that was on the old motherboard? If so that'll need taking off.
BTW Do you get the option to use more than 256 colours?
After all this it's probably going to be something to do with the driver itself, as a slightly different model of graphics card or one for a different version of windows can cause this kind of behaviour.
It's also possible that the PB install of Windows might be broken so that not all of the new driver is going in right - if /that/ is the case the best thing to do is start with a fresh install of Windows (which would also give you more space ;)), but you'd need to collect all the drivers and put them in a safe place before trying that! (plus you'd need a proper copy of Win98 and a serial number).
This is all I can think of off the top of my head :-? Of course it's easier when you've got the computer in front of you ... this kinda rubbish isn't unusual with old PCs :-(
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@Holley
No, there is no on-board video connector.
After installing the Permedia2 drivers, the control panel display interface allowed a maximum of 256 colours only. So the options became 256 or 16 or 2. When I set it at 256, the reboot gave the message that my display adapter wouldn't run with this setting and reverted to 16 colours.
The drivers I installed came from http://members.driverguide.com and contains the 3D Labs reference Permedia2 3D Accelerator driver. Written for Win95 but said to work well with Win98. It's the same driver I was recommended earlier. Perhaps this needs another look at?
The Hardware Wizard found no 'added' video adapters. All I get are references to the 'standard video adapter'. I guess this wouln't be influenced by the monitor setting?
The control panel monitor interface doesn't have the exact Packaged Hell monitor I actually use, so I've messed around and got nowhere better with this bit.
I'll not look at a reinstall of the OS until/unless I really have to. Maybe I should look for an alternative Permedia2 driver?
Cheers,
JaX
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Funilly enough my other half has just had this EXACT problem on her Win98 machine, which has an ATI card in it. I've checked everything, and it looks like I'm going to have to re-install - I doubt there's anything wrong with the driver, just that Windows won't accept it.
I can run you off a copy of Windows if you like, but you'll have to find your own serial number for it - you should have one that came with the PB, that'll work with a regular copy of windows too.
Re-installing isn't too bad as your drives are ready etc, and you have your drivers, it will make it go quicker too!
If anyone else can think of a different solution to this let me know :-?
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@Holley
I finally seem to be homing in on the problem. I managed to add the Permedia card manually, tho' it did say afterwards that this card is a P'n'P gizmo. Whatever, it's now asking for a specific driver, which isn't on the Windows 98 CD nor in the drivers.zip I downloaded.
The required driver is:
pmedia32.dll
I can't find it on the Drivers website. Could you see if you have it? That would seem to be the answer to my problem (I hope!).
Cheers,
JaX
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Friggin' PCs!
I finally managed to get all the driver files it was looking for and installed them OK.
Then I set the display to 256 colours and allowed it to reset. But it didn't!
Now, I get the Win98 boot picture, then a blank screen with DOS message:
Sector not found reading Drive C.
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?
Pressing A causes the machine to switch off.
What do I do now?
Could my C drive be full? It was pretty near full with all the PB dross. Now I can't get Windows to boot!
What a friggin' malarky!
Any advice before I reach for the friggin' Greecian 2000?
Cheers,
JaX
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Sounds indeed like it's time for the ultimate Windows advice, format and reinstall completely :-(.
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Take a close look at the card itself, take a note of every model, serial number, anything you can find. Google them all.
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@odin
OK, I have the Win98 CD, but do I need any mobo drivers as well?
I got this old mobo courtesty of Spirantho, but there was no software with it. I read somewhere that the AGP slot, etc., need some software. Do I need anything other than the emergency boot floppy I created right at the start of this Journey into the Unknown...?
And when I do take the Ultimate Plunge and reformat the C drive, do I need to make any special instructions?
It's only an 850Mb drive, so will the simple 'Fdisk' command do it for me?
Cheers,
JaX
Cheers,
JaX
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ok, a PC should work ok without any motherboard drivers, they just speed things up (enabling any custom abilities in the chipset). It's something you can worry about later, and of course your current Windows install will by trying to load the drivers from the old PB board ;-)
The following instructions are written from Win98 'Second Edition' so may not be exactly the same for a first edition ...
With Win98 you need both the disk and the serial number, it's also a good idea to have a copy of DirectX as most modern graphics drivers require it - you can get it from here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a6dee0db-dcce-43ea-87bb-7c7e1fd1eaa2&DisplayLang=en).
You start by setting the Bios to boot from the CD (rather than disk, Windows 95 was the last one that /needs/ to boot from floppy). When you boot from the CD you should get a startup menu saying 'Boot from CD' or 'Boot from Hard Drive'. Once you choose boot from CD you get another menu asking to start Win98 setup, start with CD support, or start without CD support - choose the middle one.
in the startup text it should mention which letter is assigned to the CDRom (probably 'E'), make a mental note of that. Type:
[size=medium]
E: //or whatever CDRom letter
cd\win98
format C: /q // the q is to skip verifying BTW
[/size]
this will clear the 850Mb drive. After this you just type 'setup' and press enter, and the rest is in a GUI with instructions. (had you chosen to go straight to setup it would pick up the old install, and a full Win98 disk won't install over an existing install!).
Once Windows is done (200+Mb and about 45 mins later) you can install DirectX, try the video drivers again, install internet settings etc etc. Your second drive should show up fine without making any changes :-) IIRC I don't think SmartSuite needs re-installing, just the Shortcuts re-making.
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@Holley
Many thanks for the valuable insight to the underbelly of Windows 98!
Unfortunately, the DirectX file is around 35Mb which puts it beyond use for me. I have to download stuff to my Amiga and I can only transfer it to the PeeCee via floppies.
Just hope I can get by without it! ?
What do you reckon?
Cheers,
JaX
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It might work (for instance new-ish ATI cards will ask for DirectX, but if you skip it it works fine). If not I'll do you a care package, lol ;-)
If you have any recent PC magazine cover CDs they might have a copy on 'em (more likely on a games magazine).
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@jaxanim:
*Does* your PC boot from CD-ROM? If yes, then you won't need a W98 Emergency Disk to reinstall. If no, well..you guessed ;-).
And do you know what brand/type/part number the mobo is? Normally there should be some sort of marking on the mobo. Unless it's a very dodgy noname mobo ofcourse ;-). Usually mobo makers will have some software- and ROM- aka BIOS-updates available.
-edit-
Er...just like mikeymike said on the previous page ;-).
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To put it bluntly, I don't know what the hell is going on here any more, but two things that may be helpful:
Since nobody else had the sense to mail 3DLabs' support (http://3dlabs.com/support/contact/mlcontact.jsp) with the part number, I did, and a "Thomas Dorfler" was nice enough to reply with the following:
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your email.
Ok I think I have found out what card you have there.
If this is the partnumber, then you have the VX1-AGP card there.
You will find the latest drivers here:
http://www.3dlabs.com/support/drivers/oxygen_vx1_and_vx116_drivers.htm (http://www.3dlabs.com/support/drivers/oxygen_vx1_and_vx116_drivers.htm)
Thanks, Thomas. ;-)
(Remember, kids, in the PC scene, companies often still exist, and usually have enough corporate memory to help with anything made after 1995 or so.)
...
Since you say it's a Pentium II, chances are 98SE already includes reasonable support for the motherboard chipset (and thus AGP, etc, etc). The additional drivers mostly come into play with Via chipsets... which, to put it bluntly, you probably don't have. (One motivation for the launch of 98SE was to put out a version that wouldn't instantly crash on the hardware that MS/Via failed to hash out support for in the first run of '98... I can't remember how successful they were at that.)
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Hokee Dokee, maybe this will terminate this particular thread and we can all go back to doing what we enjoy most.
Anyway, I reformatted the C: drive which appeared to be full at the very moment I installed the Permedia drivers for the 3D Labs card so kindly included in by PeeCee makins kit by Spirantho. Still with me...? OK...
There was apparently a few bad sectors on the drive, which Fdisk (I think it was) fixed very nicely.
I then reinstalled Windows98 to the clean disk. This was a most salutary experience in efficiency. I must say I was very impressed for every minute of the 45 minutes or so it took. The running commentary was not only informative, it maintained my confidence that things were OK. There were no points at which I wondered whether I'd messed up or the thing was going to hang on me. Both familiar to Amigans no doubt.
Now when the Amiga OS..X gets installed with such panash, The World may Really Know! Let's hope it gets there.
Anyway, I'm still non-plussed over the graphics drivers, but will persist till I'm satisfied I've got the best I can get from Spirantho's generosity. More than that I cannot ask and will trouble you no more on this issue.
Cheers,
JaX