About these pages.

In response to all the emails and newsgroup postings I end up responding to regarding AGP conflicts, bus mastering IDE drivers and support for various Intel chipsets, I've decided to post all the information on GWeb. Most of the information on this page comes directly from Intel, specifically the excellent Troubleshooting Common System Configuration Issues document they've published. Check out the following links for each of the GWeb Intel pages.

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Bus Master IDE Drivers

This one has caused a lot of confusion over the years ... whether to install Intel's bus master IDE driver or not. The whole thing started because Intel built logic into their 430 and 440 chipsets which basically reduce the load on your CPU when reading or writing data to IDE disk drives. As with the INF updates, earlier versions of Windows 95 simply didn't know how to 'talk' to these features, so Intel released their own bus master IDE drivers to solve the problem. Consequently, you only need the Intel bus master IDE driver if you're running versions 4.00.950 or 4.00.950a of Windows.

All versions of Windows from '95 OSR 2.0 onwards (that's 4.00.950b and later) already have bus mastering IDE drivers (from Microsoft) built in. Both Intel and Microsoft state that the drivers built into '95 OSR 2.0 and later should be used for the most efficient drive performance. If you're running an UltraDMA/33 hard disk drive, check out page 18 of the Troubleshooting document, which describes how to enable bus mastering using the native Microsoft drivers.

If you're using a Pentium III- or 4-based system and have an Ultra ATA drive, you'll want to use Intels' Application Accelerator.

Which Windows ...?

To work out which version of Windows you're running, either right-click your My Computer icon and select Properties or select the 'System' item from the Control Panel; the System Properties window that's presented will show your System version. These versions can be 'translated' as follows:

Removing the Drivers

If you've previously installed the Intel Bus Master IDE Driver and need to remove it - for example, you're going to upgrade to Windows 98, which doesn't need the driver, then simply run the Setup program from the Windows 95 driver and select 'de-install'. This procedure will also work within Windows 98 (if you've already upgraded). If you think you need to remove the driver, or you're just not sure, grab a copy of the Troubleshooting document and check out pages 15 onward - it should answer any questions you have.

Intel Resources

So, if you're running 4.00.950 or 4.00.950a, here are the links you'll need to get hold of the drivers from Intel.