Windows 2000, NT, or XP Fresh Installation Tips 

1. If your PC has a modular hard drive controller card (usually Adaptec SCSI or Promise IDE) or if it has a 'secondary' on-board drive controller (usually promise or highpoint IDE controller) download the latest driver.inf files ahead of time and put them on a floppy disk so you can have them ready for the initial 2000/NT/XP installation. Drivers for modular controller cards should be downloaded from the controller card manufacturer's website. On-board 'secondary' controller drivers should always be downloaded from the motherboard manufacturer's website, not the controller manufacturer's website. (Some customers are surprised that we recommend that they download the latest drivers rather than relying on the drivers that ship with the product. It is ALWAYS best to download the latest drivers because the drivers that come with the product are almost always outdated.)

2. *Note for NT users only - Your Windows NT 'boot partition' must not exceed 4 gigabytes under NTFS (2 gigabytes under FAT-16). This is because Windows NT has a 4 gigabyte limitation for its boot partition (although this can be expanded using a 3rd party partitioning utility once you have installed the service pack update).

 
3. Boot your computer from the CD-ROM drive using the Microsoft 2000/NT/XP installation CD. You may need to set your BIOS to have your system boot this way. (Don't forget to reset you BIOS to boot from your hard drive when you are finished with the CD-ROM installation!)
 

4. The very first screen you will see will say "Press F6 now to install a third party mass storage controller". As soon as you see that (you only have a few seconds), start tapping on the F6 key until you get a screen pertaining to installing the third party controller. Then place the floppy disk containing the third-party driver that you should have already downloaded into the A:floppy drive. The O/S will load this driver and continue with the installation. Follow the screen prompts and instructions. If you don't have a third party controller (modular or on-board) ignore this screen and continue with the install.
 

5. Install the 'latest' Windows 2000 service pack or Windows NT service pack or Windows XP service pack updates from Microsoft.
 

6. Determine what manufacturer and model number of motherboard you have and also find out what 'chipset' your motherboard uses (probably from Intel, VIA, ALI, SiS, or AMD). For your convenience, we have listed below most of the motherboards that PCs for Everyone has sold over the last few years along with motherboard chipset information.

7. Install the correct motherboard driver/patch. Always do this AFTER you install the service pack update.
 

8. Install all the other drivers that you need such as for video, network and other I/O.

Windows 9x, 2000, NT, XP Driver Update Tips

1. Determine what manufacturer and model number of motherboard you have and also find out what 'chipset' your motherboard uses (probably from Intel, VIA, ALI, SiS, or AMD). For your convenience, we have listed below most of the motherboards that PC Bits n Bytes sold over the last few years along with motherboard chipset information.
 

2. Pay attention to the driver update instructions provided below. Some O/S's may have different installation instructions and use different driver files.
 

3. From the list driver list below follow the correct internet link and go to the website for the motherboard driver or save it to disk and then execute it.
 

4. Choose "open from existing location" and follow the screen prompts.
 

5. After finishing the driver update, reboot your PC.
 

Windows 2000, NT, XP Driver Update When Installing New Motherboard

We don't recommend it. It almost never works! If you are installing a new motherboard with a different chipset than the old board, our experience has shown that in almost all cases, in order to achieve a very stable and well-running system, you will need to either reformat your hard drive and perform a 'fresh install' (described above) or re-install your operating system onto the existing installation, which will leave your data files intact, but requires that you re-install all of your programs. If you install a motherboard with the same chipset you have a better chance of not having to kill your existing installation.

If you are not installing a motherboard with the same chipset as your old motherboard, and you have to 'kill' your existing O/S installation, to save your data files (not your program files, they will have to be re-installed) re-install the 2000, NT, or XP software and choose NOT to re-format the partition. Of course some users will insist on trying to just update the motherboard drivers without re-installing the OS, but our experience has shown is that this almost never works.
 

Windows 9x Driver Update For Installing A New Motherboard

Okay, this is possible. Use this method for Windows 95 (Version B or C), 98 or ME. There are two generally accepted methods to do this.

Method 1

1. Before installing the new motherboard go into safe mode and device manager and uninstall all the motherboard-related resource drivers such as chipset drivers (they will have names that begin with the motherboard chipset name) , all USB devices and all IDE devices that have the IDE controller chipset name in them.

 
2. Do not reboot. Shut off your PC
 

3. Remove the old motherboard and put in the new board.
 

4. Turn on the system and let the 9x operating system find all the new resources from your new motherboard.
 

5. Reboot your system again but this time go directly into safe mode by repeatedly tapping F8 as the system boots up (after the BIOS screen appears and before the system says "starting Windows 9x".
 

6. In safe mode, Right click on my computer and scroll your mouse down to 'properties' and 'left-click' select.
 

7. Click on device manager and 'double-click' each device-type listing and look to see if there are any exact duplicate entries in any of the device types. If there are remove both of them. Do this throughout the entire device manager.
 

8. Reboot your PC again into normal mode.
 

9. Use the motherboard chipset guide below to install the latest version of your chipset drivers.
 

Method 2

1. Right click 'My Computer', scroll down and select properties.
 

2. Select 'Hardware Profile'
 

3. Select 'Original Configuration' and then select 'Copy'.
 

4. Add a '1' next to the name (or pick any name you want) and click 'Okay'.
 

5. Reboot your PC with the new motherboard installed.
 

6. You will get a menu asking you to choose a profile, 1 or 2 or the name you have used above.
 

7. Choose 'None above' and your PC will begin its hardware detect mode and refind all the resources from your new motherboard.

Special note for upgrading to the new 'Palomino' and 'Morgan' core AMD Athlon and Duron processors:
 

Since these new processors use a CPU core that contains additional features/instructions you absolutely must re-install your operating system from scratch in order to load all the new DLLs etc that your OS needs to run these CPUs correctly. Installing Windows on top of the old installation will not work. Just bite the bullet and do a fresh install. Also, you will most likely need to flash your motherboard's BIOS as well. Go to the motherboard manufacturer's website and check the BIOS update page. Check your existing BIOS version on the website to determine whether or not it has the new Palomino/Morgan support.

Intel chipset based motherboard drivers

Use the latest Intel INF Utility for all current and most past Intel chipset motherboards. This driver will support the FX, HX, TX, LX, BX, ZX, GX, 810, 810e, 815, 815e, 815ep, 820, 850 iintel chipsets. We recommend the i850 driver because it is backward compatible to just about every Intel-chipset based motherboard used over the last several years. We don't recommend that you seek out the specific driver for your exact intel chipset because Intel does not seem to update those drivers very frequently.

Operating systems notes for Intel chipset motherboards:
1. All Windows 9x (98, 98SE, ME) systems use the Intel INF Utility and 800-series chipset motherboards also need the IDE Storage Driver from Intel.

 
2. Windows 2000 systems need to have the latest service pack update from Microsoft installed (unlike Windows NT, Win2000 distribution CD's often already contain the latest service pack update). Then load the Intel INF Utility. 800-series chipset motherboards also will need Intel's latest IDE Storage Driver.

 
3. Windows NT systems need to have the latest service pack update from Microsoft run first. Then load Intel's IDE Storage Driver only. Do NOT run the Inf Utility for Windows NT!
 

4. Windows XP systems use the Intel INF Utility and 800-series chipset motherboards also need the IDE Storage Driver from Intel.

VIAchipset based motherboard drivers

Use the latest VIA 4-in-1 driver for all VIA-chipset motherboards. Pentium and Athlon boards use the same patch!

*Special note regarding VIA 4-in-1 drivers: On the VIA website, they have a complicated grid that breaks down the 4-in-1 driver for the various subsets such as AGP, IDE, IRQ etc. You don't have to concern yourself with which subset category your system requires. There is no such thing as overkill with the 4-in-1 driver. Just load the whole 4-in-1 driver, not the individual ones even if you think that you don't need some of the subsets. The driver installation utility is smart enough to know what to add to your O/S installation.

Operating systems notes for VIA chipset motherboards:

 
1. All Windows 9X, (Pentium and Athlon) systems use the same 4-in-1 patch from VIA.
 

2. Windows NT systems need to have the latest service pack update from Microsoft run before loading the latest 4-in-1 patch from VIA.
 

3. Windows 2000 Pentium systems need to have the latest service pack update from Microsoft installed.  (Unlike Windows NT, Win2000 distribution CD's often already contain the latest service pack update.) Then load the latest 4-in-1 patch from VIA.
 

4. Windows 2000 Athlon systems need to have the latest service pack update from Microsoft installed. (Unlike Windows NT, Win2000 distribution CD's often already contain the latest service pack update.) Then load the latest 4-in-1 patch from VIA. Finally, you need to install the latest Athlon Win 2000 patch (registry update) from AMD.
 

5. All Windows XP (Pentium and Athlon) systems use the same 4-in-1 patch from VIA.

AMD 750/760 chipset based motherboard drivers

Correct use of the AMD 750/760 driver is a little confusing. There are three AMD 750/760 drivers to deal with, depending on the operating system you are using. Read the operating system specific instructions below for correct installation.

Operating systems notes for AMD 750/760 chipset motherboards:

 
1. Windows 9x (95, 98, ME) notes: You will need the latest '9x' AGP miniport update from AMD, the latest IDE Bus Master Driver from AMD and the latest IRQ Driver from AMD. After installing your 9x OS, install these drivers in the order that we have listed them.
 

2. Windows XP notes: You will need the latest IDE Bus Master Driver from AMD.
 

3. Windows NT notes: After installing the latest NT service pack update from Microsoft, you will only need to load the latest IDE bus Master Driver update from AMD.
 

4. After installing Windows 2000 and then a Windows 2000 service pack update (if needed) install the following AMD drivers in the order that we list them. Load the latest 'Win-2000' AGP Driver update from AMD, then the latest IDE Bus Master Driver from AMD and finally the latest Athlon Win2000 patch (registry update) from AMD.
 
  

VIA/AMD hybrid chipset based motherboard drivers

Some of the newest Athlon motherboards use a combination of an AMD northbridge chipset (memory, processor and AGP) and a VIA southbridge chipset (I/O, IDE, etc). So, you will need to load motherboard drivers from both AMD and VIA.

*Special note regarding VIA 4-in-1 drivers: On the VIA website, they have a complicated grid that breaks down the 4-in-1 driver for the various subsets such as AGP, IDE, IRQ etc. You don't have to concern yourself with which subset category your system requires. There is no such thing as overkill with the 4-in-1 driver. Just load the whole 4-in-1 driver, not the individual ones even if you think that you don't need some of the subsets. The VIA driver installation utility is smart enough to know that your northbridge uses an AMD chipset and will only use the correct driver subsets that your hybrid motherboard requires.

Operating systems notes for VIA chipset motherboards:
 

1. All Windows 9X systems use the AMD AGP mini-port driver and the 4-in-1 patch from VIA. Load the AMD driver first and the VIA driver second.
 

2. Windows NT systems need to have the latest service pack update from Microsoft run before loading the latest 4-in-1 patch from VIA. You don't need anything from AMD for Windows NT.
 

3. After installing Windows 2000 and then a Windows 2000 service pack update (if needed) install the following three drivers in the order that we list them. First load the latest 'Win-2000' AGP Driver update from AMD. Then load the latest 4-in-1 patch from VIA. Finally, load the latest Athlon Win2000 patch (registry update) from AMD.
 

4. All Windows XP systems use the 4-in-1 patch from VIA.

NVidia chipset based motherboard drivers

*Special note regarding NVidia chipset drivers: NVidia chipset based motherboards are not supported under Windows 95, 98 (original), or Windows NT.

Operating systems notes for NVidia chipset motherboards:
 

1. Windows 98SE notes: You will need the latest NForce Unified Driver Package from NVidia. Please pay special attention to the installation notes for Windows 98SE installations!
 

2. Windows ME notes: You will need the latest NForce Unified Driver Package from NVidia.
 

3. Windows XP notes: You will need the latest NForce Unified Driver Package from NVidia.
 

4. After installing Windows 2000 and then a Windows 2000 service pack update (if needed) install the latest NForce Unified Driver Package from NVidia, and finally the latest Athlon Win2000 patch (registry update) from AMD.