NT 4 Workstation Startup Problems (Wierd issue)

I'm currently upgrading a kit from Windows 98 to Windows NT 4 (not 2000 due to a specific hardware / software compatibility issue).

The specs of the upgraded hardware are:

Soyo 6BA+ III motherboard (Intel BX chipset)
Intel PIII 450MHz
768MB PC133 memory (upgraded from 384MB PC100, memory is known good)
Quantum 40GB IDE hard drive (upgraded from 6GB Samsung IDE)
Matrox G450 video (upgraded from i740)
SYMBIOS chipset SCSI card
CD-ROM
Zip drive

I needed to upgrade the BIOS so the motherboard could recognise the hard drive; I used the most recent available on the Soyo website.

Whenever I make a configuration change in NT (installing drivers, service packs, applications etc) I get the following error message:

"Windows NT could not be started as configured. A previous working configuration was used instead."

Unless I go into the Last Known Good when prompted and press "D" to force the default configuration.

I have found a MS Knowledge Base article about it at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q135/5/27.asp?LN=EN-GB&SD=gn&FR=0 and I have tried it's recommendations but to no avail.

I have tried various things with taking out legacy (ISA) cards, fiddling with virtually all BIOS settings that might make a difference, but I have not been able to get a resolution to it.

Can anybody help me?

 

Win98 to NT4 is not an upgrade. Also, NT4 has certain hardware/software limitations.

With NT4, you will be limited to a 7GB system partition. That means at the least, your 40GB drive will end up partitioned into two drives, a 7GB C: drive and approx 33GB D: drive.

You also will not be able to use any USB devices with NT4. There is absolutely no support for USB.

 

Eddie5659: Thanks for the link; however, the thread refers back to the advice given in the Microsoft KB article I linked to in my initial question. All but "HDD Block Mode" were not available for modification in that particular implementation of Award BIOS.

Max19: Thanks for the post. NT 4 Workstation was being installed as a completely fresh OS on the cleanly formatted 40GB hard drive. I am well aware of the system partition restrictions in NT4. USB support is not an issue on this machine.

NT 4 is an upgrade because it is far more suited to the primary purpose of the computer, that of running a PostScript rasterising application with the output being sent via a proprietory PCI interface card to a digital colour copier. The kit was originally sold before the developers had full NT support. The developers still haven't developed the driver for the PCI card for Windows 2000, so that is not an option at this time.

Thanks for the help. In the end I had to revert the machine back to Windows 98 (although with the improved hardware) and trim the memory back to 512MB (as the machine wouldn't boot when the PostScript rasterisation software had been installed with 768MB installed).