A question about all motherboards ?

[Roy Wilkins]

I'm just curious, most or all motherboards came with a CD containing its drivers sometimes its call (service pack). Does it really necessary to install them after installing windows,like winME or win98? My wins ME or 98 is working fine w/o installing them,what is the main purpose of this CD? Does it makes the computer better?.Any response is greatly appreciated...

[Bovon]

The manufacturer of the chipset for a motherboard will write software for the controllers specific to their own chipset. Windows will quite often have 'generic' drivers that will usually do a decent job, but when necessary, its always best to look for updated drivers for the motherboards chipset because quite often, the drivers on a cd have been upgraded between the time the cd was made and the time it gets out to a user. If a system runs good for me, I do not bother with the specific drivers, but if there is a glitch with the controllers, ect...I get the latest drivers from the web and install those.

[Etruscan]

I'm not entirely sure, because I installed the brand name drivers right off the bat when I installed win98 on my computer (so I don't know how the windows drivers work), but I don't think windows installs Bus Mastering. The drivers that came with my board say for win95 - 98 and the allow DMA66 and Bus Mastering. If you have AGP you might also install the AGP drivers for your board. Again, I'm not sure how much Windows covers the AGP for AGP controller. I don't think it does. The point is everything works without the drivers, but it probably works a lot better with them.

Maybe someone can clarify this point for us. Do Windows98 and WinME provide full DMA 66 and DMA 100 support with Bus Mastering and AGP controller?

[NDC]

Yeah, I would install them. On my ABIT VP6, if I don't install the VIA 4 in 1 AGP patch, AGP texture acceleration is greyed out.