Check if ACPI is inbstalled by Windows, this could also cause an performance decrease.

If you want to get rid of ACPI:
There are two ways to prevent Win98SE/ME installing ACPI or disable ACPI:

1. Fresh install, use "setup /p i"
2. Tweak the registry of a running Win:
In the Registry should under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Detect

stand a DWORD by the name of ACPIOption, that contains the value 1.

If not, create it.

If you set the value to 2 and start the hardware-recognition, Windows should readjust, after the restart everything on APM and Plug&Play-bios and recognize all hardware again.
BTW: Copy the Win98 cab files onto your harddrive. The hardware assistent needs to replace the ACPI bios driver with the P'n'P bios driver, so that all hardware could be recognized ( w/o bios driver no IDE controller and no CDR ;-)).

Best way is of course N° 1, a clean install of Windows.

Jason

: : : Yes. I changed to this driver but it made no difference, so I changed back to the SIS drivers. Does my problem sound like one that is typically caused by the SIS drivers?

: : SiS hardware show all sorts of issues inre USB. Sometimes they're fine though.

: : Try unplugging all USB devices and reinstalling Windows over this installation.

: : Bill

: Thank you for your suggestion. I ran Windows setup this past weekend but the IBM PC camera was not unplugged. I will try again with all the devices unplugged.

:
: : :
: : : : : Installed IBM PC Camera and Wingman joystick (both USB).
: : : : : The devices run so slowly that they are essentially useless.
: : : : : The camera produces a picture totally out of sync with audio.
: : : : : The joystick responds so slowly, Microsoft Combat Flight Sim can't be
: : : : : played.
: : : : : Both devices function well on an older Celeron machine.
: : : : : I have updated to newest mobo bios. (020112L)
: : : : : I have updated to newest 109 agp drivers from ECS.
: : : : : I have installed newest approved Nvidia display drivers.
: : : : : I have installed Microsoft Win 98 SE patch for USB.
: : : : : I have removed the SIS USB controller drivers and tried default drivers.
: : : : : I have turned off USB error correction.
: : : : : I have eliminated all "ghost devices" in Device Manager from Windows "safe"
: : : : : mode.
: : : : : USB IRQ's are not being shared with other devices.
: : : : : Newest drivers and software from Wingman.
: : : : : Newest drivers and software for IBM camera.
: : : : : On board LAN, sound and modem disabled in MB bios.

: : : : : Except for this issue, my system runs very fast and very stable.
: : : : : I'm going NUTS with this!
: : : : : Any help from anyone is most welcome.

: : : : : Configuration:

: : : : : ECS - K7S5A - motherboard with LAN (newest bios)
: : : : : 1.33 Athalon T-Bird
: : : : : 256 Mb PC133 SDRAM (2x128)
: : : : : 40 Gb 7200 RPM, ATA 100 W.D. HD
: : : : : Hi-Val PCI Aureal Vortex A3D sound card (newest Aureal drivers)
: : : : : Rockwell PCI modem (newest Conexant/Rockwell drivers from manufacturer)
: : : : : NEC 1.44 Floppy
: : : : : Buslink 52X CDROM
: : : : : Cendyne 8x4x32 CDRW
: : : : : Mid-Tower case with Codegen 350 watt PS
: : : : : Visiontek Xtasy GEForce2 GTS-V AGP 32MbVideo (newest approved Nvidia
: : : : : drivers)
: : : : : Win98 SE (all updates applied)
: : : : : Direct X 8.1

: : : : : Thanks for reading this long sob story.