Chkcpu wrote on 2024-10-27, 18:05:

Please run EXTBIOS with the non-patched BIOS and when you now see that the Int 13h extensions are supported, you know you don’t […]
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Please run EXTBIOS with the non-patched BIOS and when you now see that the Int 13h extensions are supported, you know you don’t need the “BIOS Patcher” BIOS and the 8GB issue is caused by something else.

This “something else” can very well be the CF card you used. Do you have an HDD or SSD you can try to see if this solves the 8GB issue?

Just my 2 cents…
Cheers, Jan

I think you might be right. At least based on the extbios output, seems like I should be fine for > 8 GB. Ran it with a 120GB SSD hooked up to IDE0 through a IDE/SATA adapter.

Hmm, so interesting little 'new' wrinkle. I've been able to get the BIOS to recognize both a 90GB and a 120GB SSD using a IDE/SATA adapter. Even been able to kick off a Win98SE install, have it fdisk/format the full drive, but after the initial format finishes and the windows install starts up, I get a "Fault outside of MS-DOS Extender." error and the install crashes.

I've tried two different adapters and both SSD's and getting the same crash. Also looked online and saw people saying it might be bad RAM. A few weeks ago I ran Memtest on this RAM for 8+ hours with no errors, but kicking off another test just in case they've gone bad since then.

Yeah, so after a day or two of messing with this, there's just something off about this BIOS. Compact Flash cards with a CF/IDE adapter will not recognize anything beyond 33GB, and will not fdisk/format beyond 8 GB. SSDs seem to be recognized up to at least 120GB (I've tried a 90GB and a 120GB) in capacity using a SATA/IDE adapter. I can even FDISK/Format them (using the 'updated' Win98 versions) and they seem to be recognized, but during a Win98SE install I either get that Fault Outside the MS-DOS Extender error (have tried different RAM and disabling himem.sys), or just tons of errors on Scandisk and it never gets past it.

I have ordered an 80GB actual IDE HDD to test, so we'll see, but this motherboard is going to drive me to drink. 😉

Well, it's been a long/hard road, but I finally think I'm at the end. After all the struggles with the BIOS and trying to get large hard drives working, it seems that the board just does not like any type of adapters...

No dice on getting any compact flash larger than 32GB with a CF-IDE adapter. No dice on getting any SSD at all to work (even though I could fdisk/format disks up to 120GB) with a SSD-IDE adapter. But...60 GB IDE drive...worked the first time, no problems.

I guess I'll get to enjoy the fun of Defragmenting my HDD again. Thanks everyone for all the help through the whole time.