There is a conflict between BIOS 6 and higher and the Intel Bus Master IDE drivers that are available on Intel's site. Before upgrading to BIOS 6 or higher, I suggest uninstalling the Bus Master IDE drivers. An uninstall utility is available from Intel at http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/drivers/busmastr/. With BIOS 6+ and the Bus Master IDE drivers installed on my machine, Windows 95 would hang during shut down or when restarting to MS-DOS mode. There is a workaround for this at the end of this page.
 

To upgrade the BIOS:

1. Uninstall Intel's Bus Master IDE Drivers.

2. Create the BIOS update disk. Make sure the files are placed on a DOS boot disk, and NOT a Win95/98 boot disk. The BIOS upgrade will not function on a Win95/98 boot disk. Intel includes the mk_bootz.exe utility to create a DOS boot disk as part of the BIOS upgrade file.

2. Reboot your machine, and update your BIOS to P06 or higher (I recommend P09).

3. Once the BIOS image has been loaded, turn off your machine.

4. Reset the configuration jumper (J8B7) to pins 2-3 (CONFIG).

5. Restart your computer and enter the BIOS setup by pressing F2 during the boot.

6. In the BIOS setup, press F9 to load the system defaults. Press F10 to save and exit. The BIOS should prompt you to shutdown your machine and reset the configuration jumper.

7. Turn off your machine, and reset the configuration jumper to pins 1-2 (NORMAL).

*NOTE: Check the CPU speed setting in the BIOS. Occasionally I've noticed this gets reset to a lower setting. If it does, go back to step 4.

8. Enter the BIOS setup again by pressing F2. From the Advanced menu, set "Reset Configuration Data" to "Yes," then save and exit by pressing F10. This will clear the writeable area of the BIOS that Win95/98 stores PnP configuration data in.

9. Reboot your computer, and enter the setup utility one last time. Make all of your custom settings to the BIOS now. If you are using BIOS P08 or lower, I suggest disabling Advanced Power Management from the BIOS, allowing Windows 95/98 to handle APM If you are using BIOS P09 or higher, I suggest that you enable power management, but disable each power saving mode, such as the Inactivity Timer. In BIOS P09, you must have APM enabled if you want Windows to shut the computer all the way off or the ability to enter standby. However, it is better to have Windows manage the inactivity timers.

10. If you encounter APM related problems (shutdown, suspend, etc) after upgrading your BIOS, delete the entries for APM from the device manager. Reboot your machine. If Windows does not redetect the hardware automatically, force it to do so with the Add New Hardware wizard.

I have found better performance results using Microsoft's Bus Master IDE drivers, but if you want to use Intel's BMIDE drivers and have shutdown problems, there is an alternative. The problem with BIOS 7/8 and the BMIDE drivers seems to affect the secondary IDE channel only. If you install the BMIDE drivers, then change the secondary IDE driver to the standard driver, things seems to work alright. To do this, open then device manager, select the secondary IDE channel, then select properties. Under the Drivers tab, click on Update Driver. Windows will ask you if it should check for an updated driver. Tell it no and select one from the list. Click on Show All Hardware, then Standard Hard Disk Drivers. From this list, select the Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller.  I've also been able to use the Standard Bus Mastering Hard Disk Controller, but I don't know if that buys you any advantage.

If you're using a Matrox Millennium II 8MB AGP card, I suggest you try the following if you're experiencing shutdown problems under BIOS 7. The first time you install MGA Powerdesk, it will let you make some alterations. You have to resist the temptation to bump up the color depth or resolution and instead go to the advanced settings. Here you need to turn off all the fancy extras, then reboot. This seems to clear things up, and also appears to be closely related to the Bus Master IDE Driver problem, as one of the accelerators is called "Bus Mastering." (Thanks to David Ashton-Cleary!)
 

That should do it. If this process doesn't work for you, please write me and let me know. I'm trying to keep this site as up to date as possible and your input is appreciated.
 
Back to the main page...