Win98SE slow boot

[what?]

I just built a Win98SE based system with Epox 8KHAL, 133fsb 1G Tbird, 256meg micron DDR ram, 32 meg ati radeon le, linksys nic, and chaintech-xcel av512 sound card. Problem: system booted normaly until I added the AV512 card which is a CMEDIA 8738 based card. The card added 70 seconds to my boot up time. I have tried various slots to no avail. If the card is not present the system boots normal, that includes using the on-board sound. The on-board sound is appropriately disabled when the other card is in placed. Any suggestions?

[userserver]

Clear NVRAM so configuration info is removed for the onboard audio. Make sure you have LPT sharing enabled on the sound card. The extra boot time is in the resource allocation. (You should be grateful for the extra 60 secs of boot time--you have that much longer to reflect upon the power and the majesty of windows.)

[what?]

Thanks for the info. How do you clear the NVRAM and enable the sound share as you suggested.
Thankyou very much.

[userserver]

I recommend that you record your BIOS settings ahead of time if you are new at this kind of thing.

If you have the manual for your motherboard, look and see if there is a jumper to clear the bios. Usually it will be labeled CLEAR NVRAM, CLR CMOS, or something similar. Not all are labeled. On older motherboards with alkaline batteries, the jumper header is where the battery is connected.

It will be a 3 pin header and the jumper (a shorting device) should be on 1 and 2. For most systems, place the jumper on 2 and 3 for about 2 minutes, then return the jumper to pins 1 and 2.

This is to be done with the AC power cord disconnected from the computer.

When you boot the system afterwards, get into BIOS and select the option to Restore Default Configuration, save and exit. If your system doesn't boot into windows, reboot, get back into BIOS and change the settings to match those you recorded.

(If this doesn't work for you, holler back and we can go into the other methods of clearing NVRAM.)

[what?]

Thanks,
I am pretty comfortable with the bios/cmos and have no problems working in it. I have not before encountered what it was you were alluding to. Simple enough, I will do that and let you know.
thanks.

[XT]

Try assigning a IP address to your nic card, windows boots slower without a ip because it searches out when windows boots. Try giving your nic a ip of 192.168.0.1 and subnet of 255.255.255.0 good luck

[userserver]

The extra boot time is probably associated with enumerating and allocating resources for the sound card. You might try remarking out the real mode drivers in autoexec.bat and disabling the soundblaster legacy emulation in windows. This will give windows and the BIOS a better chance of agreeing on resources.