[kilowatt1]

Recently a member posted a problem where the Plug and Play feature in Windows 98 was not working after a clean install on a new system using an ASUS mother board with an Intel chipset supporting Hyper-Thread Technology and a Pentuim 4 processor.

It seemed that no matter what was tried, Windows would not pick up any installed devices nor would it recognize the "on board" devices (sound,etc) so that the mother board drivers could be installed. After downloading a copy of the user manual and reading through it, I noticed a that in one section it said the following: "This motherboard supports Windows ME/2000/XP operating systems" . At the time, I did not pay much attention to it. However, when we asked the member to try installing the Intel Chipset Inf Update Drivers from the mother board CD and she got the following error " Information Intel (R) Chipset software Utility requires a supported Chipset platform running on a supported OS. Check the system requirements section of the README.TXT file"., it dawned on me that Windows 98 was not supported using this chipset or more importantly Hyper-Threading Technology. ( Actually, Jedi_Master made the connection to Hyper-Threading).

Since the member had a full version of Windows XP, it was decided that installing it would be the best solution. With the help of Jedi_Master this was accomplished and all appears well.

This whole situation intrigued me, so I thought I'd do a little research. This is what Intel has to say:


Hyper-Threading Technology†
Operating Systems that Include Optimizations for Hyper-Threading Technology



Note: Information on Hyper-Threading Technology † for Intel® Xeon™ processors is available here.

Microsoft* Windows* Operating System Desktop Based PCs

The following desktop operating systems include optimizations for HT Technology and are currently eligible to carry the new Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology logo:

Microsoft* Windows* XP Professional Edition
Microsoft* Windows* XP Home Edition

The following desktop operating systems are not recommended for use with Hyper-Threading Technology. If you are using one of the following desktop operating systems, it is advised that you should disable Hyper-Threading Technology in the system BIOS Setup program:

Microsoft Windows 2000 (all versions)
Microsoft Windows NT* 4.0
Microsoft Windows Me
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 SE

One would think that mother board manufacturers would include this tidbit of information instead of the generic "This motherboard supports............".

Below are additional links concerning this:

www.intel.com/support/chipsets/inf/ht.htm

www.intel.com/support/chipsets/inf/inf.htm

Bottom line:

If you buy a new motherboard that supports Hyper-Threading Technology, you apparently have two choices:

1) Upgrade the OS to Windows XP to get full benefits.

2) Disable the Hyper-Threading feature in the BIOS and hope for the best.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I though it might save a few headaches in the future.

Kilowatt