what model motherboards had intregrated ATI RAGE 128 graphics

Boston

The type that used k6 chips, and were sold by time, i friend is having problems with usb port drivers and i want to find the drivers

Celt

Tell him to unscrew his case and read it off his motherboard maybe?

Inspector Gadget

Boston:

I don't recall which motherboards they were, I'm afraid; I think there were quite a number of K6 mobos sold with that type of integrated graphics on board.

It may be useful to note that the majority of K6-2 etc. motherboards sold used a Via MVP4 chipset, which means that to get USB drivers (assuming your OS - Windows something, I'm presuming? - supports it) - aren't they in the Via 4-in-1s? (http://www.viahardware.com/download/index.shtm - also look for the "USB Filter Driver" in case that's relevant)

Failing that, as a possibly helpful note, the model number of the board is usually written in large white letters between some pair of ISA (big, black)/PCI (smaller, white) slots on the board. The manufacturer's name may be written on the Northbridge chip HSF; otherwise, possibly on a sticker on the BIOS chip, or somewhere else relatively obvious. Is there anything you can see on the board that might help its identification?

Gadget
P.S.> Certain Via USB controllers (VT83C572 & VT82C586) have a known hardware fault and are not supported under Win2k and later. if your board uses either of these, and you're using Win2k or later, you're scuppered (see Q233163 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more).

Boston

well i dont really want to get him to take his board out, whihc means it would be a 2 hour job for me striping down his case and building it back again.

IG it is win2k pro thats causign the usb problem, thing is he can so into divice manager and set the usb drivers to windows defualt manualy and everything works but each tiem he reboots it goes to something else.

so i figure its jsut that the drivers are outdated. ill give him these and hope they work.

KdjaCL

go to www.motherboards.org
and use the aptly named mobocop to find out what board he has.
Alternitivley check the BIOS on boot up .
or use SISofts Sandra program .
or even motherboard monitor .
all those programs will give the mobo manufacturer and bios version number .
then just go the makers site and get either a bios upgrade or win2k drivers.
Kdja

Celt

Originally posted by Boston
well i dont really want to get him to take his board out, whihc means it would be a 2 hour job for me striping down his case and building it back again.

IG it is win2k pro thats causign the usb problem, thing is he can so into divice manager and set the usb drivers to windows defualt manualy and everything works but each tiem he reboots it goes to something else.

so i figure its jsut that the drivers are outdated. ill give him these and hope they work.

It takes you two hours to unscrew 6-8 screws, pull of the case and shine a light on to the motherboard and READ what it says?
For example I have had 2 Time mobo's, one a pentium2, other k7. Both had the mobo name written in LARGE WHITE LETTERS clearly visible without having to do anything except take off outer case.

Then again, I guess this is advanced stuff for some people.

Gerry

An incredibly vague question for someone who thinks they know so much. Not only might it be any one of many via mvp4 boards, if it is a low speed k6 (say up to 266mhz) it could be an intel 430vx/hx/tx chipset, or maybe the sis 5598, I know time used the sis chipsets a bit.

Inspector Gadget

...should we all start donning our asbestos suits?

To be fair here, I know a lot of people that are gifted at operating computers, two programmer friends of mine spring to mind, but they wouldn't know which end of a soldering iron you're supposed to hold, even though one of them (allegedly) has a degree in electronic engineering.

Anyway, all I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of people who happen to be good at using things without necessarily having a notion about how they work. A good example of this is cars; point a person at a diesel engine, and say to them "here's a plug spanner; take out one of the spark plugs so that I can have a look at it", and I'd wager that at least 95% of the population won't be able to tell you that diesel engines don't use spark plugs.

Just a thought...
Gadget

Boston

gerry dont annoy me, if this continues ill ask for outside intervention. It not my pc, i can only tell you what im told.

Celt, the name isnt printer on the motherboard so id have to remove the motherboard and look around for a serial number.
these time cases arnt the best.

Inspector Gadget, i dont have a problem with understanding this, just ive very little background in pre athlon amd boards, because they werent that good back then.

Gerry

Alright, cheers m8. Don't annoy me either btw. Did you go to motherboards.org? That requires only the bios id string, and no motherboard removal.

Boston

No , ive only checked back now, ill get the bios id string off him tomorrow and it should be all set.
thanks kdja

Inspector Gadget

Okay. Firstly, Boston, as I have no idea of who you are, what you're good at, or anything else, I had no inclination towards (or basis for) any assumptions that you know everything or anything; I was just trying to illustrate potential extremes so no-one would assume anyone else was stupid for not being familiar with something that, as you rightly pointed out, isn't exactly common these days; to be quite frank, I don't think anyone will shed a tear over the passing of the hot, power-hungry and slow AMD K6 family of processors into the obscurity they so richly deserve

However, getting back to the point, the BIOS ID string suggestion Gerry makes is an excellent one. This page shows you how to get the BIOS string for your PC (pretty much whatever type of BIOS it uses). A chunk of this string will identify the make and model number of your motherboard; the document at the above link shows you what's important within the number. A nice Windows alternative can be BIOS Wizard; however, like everything else, it's not foolproof; it can't get the BIOS ID number for the Phoenix-BIOSed PII-powered HP Kayak I'm typing this on, for example. However, this is an OEM board so I'm not terribly surprised.

Once you've got the relevant chunk, stick that into the search box here and you should be told who makes your board. The identification of the exact model is more difficult; generally it involves comparing the feature set your mobo has against what the manufacturer's range of relevant products says they do, which sucks.

Gadget

Boston

Inspector Gadget, thanks for the info, im getting him to do it now.
seems very handy, i didnt actually know about this because was previous bios's were Phoenix BIOS, and all my more recent systems i built myself so i knew the boards.

LoGiE

System i use is a k6-2 from Time with ati rage
The board is a micro ATX AL14 mainboard with an aladdin5 chipset.
I installed w2k and had a problem with the usb ports not being found when i booted up. I could install them in w2k and they would work but when it came to rebooting the same thing would happen..
Solution was turning off USB Legacy support in the Bios and this solved the all the problems with USB and W2k.
Hope that helps

Boston

hmm interesting, it was actually a microstarIMSI) board, man time really sucker punched him.

i found the right driver and im getting him to install them now, if it doesnt work ill suggest what you said logie

Gerry

ah its a lot of fun figuring out who made a motherboard as long as it isn't mission critical (i.e. your friends pc or whatever). I have an entirely generic pentium board here, and I needed a new bios for it, back when it was my main machine. I was foolish enough to flash the wrong bios onto it, which was a result of not enough comparing feature sets (the bios id string could not be found on any of the resources on the net, such as the excellent www.ping.be/bios ). Luckily it still worked enough for me to flash the right bios on when I got it I can't imagine that happening today, except in the case where an oem board is made by asus or another major brand, in which case the brand name bios might work. I found the right bios in the end by picking the closest board to it, I found that there were a few boards with the *exact* same bios, though the pcb's were made by different companies.

Boston

none of those worked, last resource will be to flash the bios.
but he doesnt seem to want to do that, could it be that this board is just to ****e to work right? imho yes

Gerry

any chance you could post up the bios id string up here?

Boston

ive got the right drivers for him because i had him install them on win 98 first and they worked. just doesnt seem to want to work on win2k pro

Inspector Gadget

I had a look at MSIs web site, and I sympathise; it's a pain in the [posterior] to find anything on it. I did, however find this:

(the beautifully-worded "How do you know your Products version") ...
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/mainboard.htm

It alludes to something I mentioned in an earlier post, and might be relevant if you haven't identified the exact model number of the board yet; even if you have, it will be useful in identifying the board's revision number, as this can sometimes be important. MSI's model numbers are short compared to most other manufacturers, and if you didn't know that you could easily miss it - I made that mistake once or twice myself trying to identify some "mystery meat" someone shoved in front of me.

Luckily for you, though, MSI are a relatively well-known manufacturer; ever come across a mobo manufacturer called "Lucky Star"? Until last week, neither had I...

This might also be relevant:

"Flashing the BIOS for Users using NON FAT file system":
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/ntfs_note.htm

...seeing as you're using 2k, and probably NTFS; however, there are a couple of good links on the page anyway.

Gadget