I have come like many others on this site looking for informations about today computer hardware which is working with Windows 98.

To make future searches of many others easier to find solution I will here write names of "modern" MBO which support Windows 98.

Conditions to enter this list are:

1) It is now in shops near you (not internet but in real shops)

2) MBO are supporting 2007 tehnology, Windows 98 SE and we can still find official drivers

UPDATE SUMMER 2011:

For this update it have been used information from Amazon because it is possible from this site to buy MBO in ulmost every state.

Biostar DDR2 Micro ATX Motherboard, with C7-D 1.6 GHz Processor, VIA CN896+8237S chipset (it is possible to download Win 98 SE official drivers for integrated graphics + IDE, SATA II from VIA web site). In theory processor C7-D 1.6 GHz is possible to change with Nano x2 because they are pin-to-pin compatible.

JetWay J7F4K1G5S-LF VIA C7 VIA NanoBGA2 VIA CN700 Mini ITX (SATA II, Max memory 1 GB)

Intel LAD865GVIPL Intel Celeron M @ 1.3GHz Socket 478 Intel 865GV (SATA I, Max memory 2 GB)

BIOSTAR P4M890M7SE LGA 775 VIA P4M890 (SATA I, max memory 4 GB)

AS ROCK AM2NF3-VSTA (support CPU until Phenom II X4 3.5 GHz, max 16 GB)

Earlier writen updates about MBO (2007-2010):

INTEL socket 775:

MBO ABIT, SG 80DC, SIS 661FX, BUS 800 MHz, VGA, SATA I (end of production december 2008)

*MBO ABIT, IP-95, VIA P4M890, DDR II, BUS 1066 MHz, SATA I (end of production december 2008)

MBO ASRock 775i65G R2.0, intel865, DDR I, SATA I

MBO ASROCK, 4COREDUAL-SATA2 R2.0, VIA PT880 Ultra, BUS 1066 MHz, DDR II, SATA 2

*MBO ASROCK, 4CoreDX90-VSTA R2.0, VIA® P4M900, VGA max 256 MB directX 9.0,

MBO ASUS P5SD2-VM mATX/SiS672/1066/DDR2/VGA 256 MB/PCI-ex Vista premium ready

MBO ECS P4M800Pro-M2, VIA P4M800Pro, VGA (rev 2.0) , DDR II,

*MBO ECS 662/1066T-M2, SIS 662, VGA 128 MB, DDR II, mATX

MBO Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH (rev. 2.0).

*MBO MSI P4M900M3-L, VIA P4M900, BUS 1066, SATA II (end of production in fall 2008)

Socket 479

*MBO INTEL SiS662, Celeron 220 + MBO BLKD201GLY2 DDR II - 667, VGA SiS662 (production started in winter 2008/2009)

Socket 478

MBO ASROCK P4i65GV, i865GV, DDR, zvuk, VGA, S-ATA, LAN, AGP, mATX, s. 478

AMD

Today in shops near you it is ulmost impossible to find AM2 socket MBO which are supporting Windows 98.

After looking very hard I have make this finding:

socket AM2/AM2+:

MBO ASROCK, s. AM2, AM2NF3-VSTA, NVIDIA nFORCE 3 250, BUS 2000 MHz, AGP, serial ATA (it is still in shops (2011))

MBO AsRock ALiveDual-eSATA2. This is hybrid chipset. Both original chipset are having Win 98 drivers, but together ?

Interesting is that in CPU support list AsRock has added socket AM3 Phenom II, but officialy socket AM3 is not supported ?

Socket 754.

MBO ABIT, s. 754, KV85, VIA K8M800, BUS 1600 MHz, VGA, serial ATA (end of production december 2008)

MBO MSI K8MM3-V. Only 1 IDE. (end of production in 2008)

Abit has gone out of business ( http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=3675 )

To MBO with sign * are having integrated GPU and it is not possible to add graphic card supported with official drivers because Windows 98 has not recieved PCIE support.

Summer 2010 situation:

INTEL socket 775:

ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 support processors until Core 2 Quad Q6700(G0), Core 2 Duo E7500(R0), Pentium Dual Core E6300(R0), Celeron E3300. It is possible to download Win98SE drivers (IDE, RAID, SATA and USB) from Via site. MBO is still in shops (Amazon and others)

Small number of laptops like Asus K50C are using SiS672+968 chipset for which is possible to download graphic card drivers

INTEL socket 478:

MB Asrock P4I65GV Zvuk+VGA+SATA+LAN

3rd section update (summer 2010). First has been in 2007

I'll have my 7900 GTO very shortly. So with that, I will have all the parts to make my ultimate 98SE PC. The catch is to have it as seamless as with my main, modern PC build, with as little part swapping as possible.

It will have these parts:

- ASRock H110M-DVS R3.0 motherboard with the latest 1.20 UEFI BIOS.

It has CSM and PS/2 Simulator options, it can run 98SE, as I've showcased in this topic (but it was running from USB flash drive at that time and was not usable too much)

Realtek LAN drivers for 98SE from their website works flawlessly with this motherboard as seen above as well.

- Intel Pentium G4560

With its high single core performance, it maybe(?) will compete with current 98SE kings in ranks of the Core 2 Duo E8600 and alike.

- 2x4GB sticks of DDR4 RAM 2400MHz

I'll limit it with either HIMEMX.EXE or MaxPhysPage in SYSTEM.INI to either 512MB or 1024MB (with Xeno's VCACHE.VXD patch)

- GoodRam Iridium Pro 240GB SSD

It hosts my modern Win7 installation, currently it works as a single NTFS partition running in MBR mode, it will not be used. (maybe it will be used with a read-only NTFS driver, as I don't want any data loss to try the Paragon's utility, but...no risk, no fun )

- Inno3D GeForce GTX 1050 Ti X2 GPU

It won't be used, obviously It gives graphical glitches right at the beginning of the Win98 setup! Surprisingly, the Intel HD 610 built into the CPU did not.

- MSI GeForce 7900 GTO 512MB

I'll use the 82.69 drivers, they should work, hopefully. I don't know/care if they run in Windows 7, but I'll get used to GPU swapping

I will overclock the GPU using RivaTuner in 98SE, obviously, I've done it all before on my old 98SE rig.

-Generic "3D Sound" Chinese USB Audio Device

Maybe it will provide some sound. Works on Win7, haven't tested it on 98SE yet.

- Less important stuff: Seasonic Eco 430W PSU, Aerocool QS-182 Case

- 98SE will be located on the separate Toshiba P300 1TB SATA HDD

To not waste the whole 1TB of space, I've used only the 60GB portion at the beginning of the drive for a FAT32 98SE partition, the rest is a second, NTFS partition for data storage.

I'll be testing as soon as I get the 7900 GTO. I know I might require a SATA and/or an NVIDIA patch, but I want to work without them as long as possible.

Who needs ESDI_506.PDR anyways? Isn't 16bit disk access fun with all its file operation delays?

Hell ou,
when im installing drivers for Audigy there is a choice VXD or WMD, has anyone experience how is a difference, what is a better?

I am currently archiving my old floppy disks, maybe a 1000.

My objective is, if possible, to preserve my old floppy disks on an external USB hard disk drive, preferrably as disk images. These archived floppies should then be accessible under Windows 98. I also want to be able to recreate the archived floppies under Win98 from archive, onto modern-day 1.44MB floppy disks.

Example: I have a bootable 360kB 5.25" floppy, which boots into DOS 5.0. I want to archive this floppy on a USB hard disk. Then I want to be able to re-create a similar floppy from archive, but on modern media (1.44MB 3.5"), so that I can boot from a re-created floppy disk into DOS 5.0 on my Inspiron 7500 laptop.

Other Example: I have a 5.25" CP/M floppy disk (HP-125 format) which I want to archive on the USB HDD. The floppy disk contains old letters and correspondence created with Spellbinder, an old word processor. I want to be able to archive this old floppy on the USB HDD and then be able to access the word-processing files on it under Win98.

I have the following floppy disks to be archived:

5.25" CP/M 2.2, HP-125 Format (DS:DD:48); here some more info on CP/M: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M

5.25" 360kB MS-DOS format

5.25" 1.2MB MS-DOS format

3.5" 720 kB

3.5" 1.44MB

Potentially problematic floppies, which I don't have:

- 8" floppies

- DOS floppies formatted in non-standard ways with software like FDFormat or VGA Copy

- floppies with tough copy-protection

- Commodore, Atari, etc floppies

Toolbox:

A. DOS tools for file-copying

- xxcopy16.exe (for copying files from DOS floppies). Always use xxcopy16 with the parameter "/V2", otherwise, if the floppy to be copied has a data CRC error, xxcopy16 wil skip over it and you will not know that a copied file is bad.

- 22Disk (for copying files from CP/M floppies)

B. Tools for creating/restoring image files from floppies

- DCF v5.3A (to create .dcf image files of DOS floppies, under DOS/DOS window)

- WinImage v8.1 (to restore .dcf image files onto 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppies, WinImage can reformat images of 5.25" to 3.5")

- TeleDisk v2.23 to create and restore .td0 image files of:

. CP/M floppies

. DOS floppies with formats which DCF cannot write from an image file (e.g. 180kB and 320kB 5.25" floppies)

. non-standard DOS floppies (e.g. a self-constructed boot floppy for DOS 2.1 on 3.5" media instead of on 5.25" media)

C. Hardware required

- an old 3.5" 720kB-only floppy drive (some 720kB floppies cannot be read in 720/1440kB drives; also for restoring floppy disk images to 720kB media )

- an old 5.25" 360kB-maximum floppy drive (for 360 kB DOS floppies); required for reliable .td0 images of CP/M floppies with TeleDisk

- a Zip/Jaz drive for transferring archived files out of the old computer, via the parallel port

I used a Jaz SCSI drive + a Jaz Traveller cable to connect the Jaz SCSI to the parallel port of the old T3100/20. I have been actually using 2 SCSI Jaz drives for the data transfer between the 2 computers, one connected to each of the computers. In this way I only have to eject the Jaz disk and insert it into the other Jaz drive to transfer data.

D. Other tools

- Uniform v1.07 (is an alternative to 22Disk; also useful for checking that the file-copying by 22Disk under a specific CP/M format is Ok)

- FMT 2.6 from Disk Copy Plus (to reformat archived floppies, identifying weak floppies)

- FDFormat (to reformat archived floppies, in special formats, e.g. single-sided quad density)

BUT: if you format a floppy in a non-standard way with FDFormat, you may not be able to create a floppy disk image from it, for archiving with DCF.

Details

1 ) Uniform v1.07 for IBM PC

Uniform v1.07 can read, write and format 90 different CP/M formats under MS-DOS

(96 different CP/M formats, incl.Osborne 1, if your floppy disk controller supports single density for 5 inch drives)

2) DCF v5.3, the best software there is for copying floppy disks/creating images of floppy disks. It runs under DOS 2 and higher, under Win9x and WinXP. WinImage can handle created .dcf files fine under Windows. If you install WinImage v7.0a first, associate in v7.0a .dcf with WinImage, then install WinImage v8.1 on top ((without uninstalling v7.0), WinImage v8.1 can then read and handle .dcf files, just by double-clicking on the .dcf file under Win98.

3) WinImage v8.1 is the best software for reading and manipulating floppy disk images under Win98. Besides having a GUI for accessing DCF files, it can convert floppy disks from one media type to another media type (e.g. it can convert a 360kB-5.25" DOS 3.3 boot floppy disk/floppy disk image to a 1.44MB-3.5" boot floppy disk/floppy disk image, from which my Inspiron laptop with a 1.44MB floppy drive can actually boot). The instructions are a little hidden: double-click on the .dcf image file -> Image -> Change Format -> select target format (usually 1.44MB) (the displayed image size 1440 kB is displayed on the status line on the bottom left) -> OK, then -> Disk -> Format and Write Disk

4) Spellbinder v5.4 for IBM-PC MS-DOS (for editing Spellbinder files under MS-DOS, which were originally created on the CP/M version of Spellbinder). It works in a Win98 DOS-window, but each word-processing file has built-in printer-specific formatting; when I print on the Inspiron laptop to the attached laserprinter, formatting is really bad, a lot of blank pages, some pages with a few truncated words. The formatting was set for an HP-IB printer (CP/M), then for an Epson FX (FX-80, also FX-120?) dot matrix printer (MS-DOS). Spellbinder in a Win98 DOS-window prints directly to LPT1, like Notepad. Could it be that because of the conversion of Spellbinder word-processing files John Bintz, the President of Spellbinder/Lexisoft, Inc., "bought a motor-home drove off into the sunset" http://www.old-computers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2085 ? http://www.cfhs-alumni.org/Class%2054/Misc...s/Biography.htm I have over 1000 old word-processing files created by Spellbinder.

4) an old Toshiba T3100/20 laptop (Toshiba MS-DOS 5.0, 80286 CPU) with an internal 720kB 3.5" floppy drive

http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/doc.asp?c=917

5) an external 360kB 5.25" floppy drive, which can be connected to the parallel port of the T3100

6) an external 1.2MB 5.25" floppy drive, which can be connected to the parallel port of the T3100

7) a Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop (of the year 2000) with Win98/XP, with an internal 3.5" floppy drive which can read, write and format 720kB and 1.44MB floppy disks

Currently unsolved problems:

1) Dateless files: CP/M files do not have dates. How can I create a .rar or a .zip file of dateless files under Win98, which then extract again under Win98 as dateless files? WinRAR v3.42 under Win98 assigns in the compressed .rar file the modification date "1/5/85 2:02 am" to originally dateless files, WinZip 9.0 SR-1 assigns the current date. The problem of the dateless files is probably just cosmetic, since Uniform v1.07, when it writes back the archived files onto a CP/M floppy disk, just drops the file dates.

2) Uniform v1.07 under DOS can make a directory listing of, but not read CP/M files with filenames which contain characters illegal under MS-DOS (e.g. the file "CP+.COM" on a CP/M floppy cannot be read by Uniform v1.07 because it contains a "+" sign in the file name). Uniform v1.07 displays the error message: "A bad character was found in a CP/M filename; some files may not be accessible"; the Uniform user manual suggests "You probably have to perform the renaming function on a CP/M machine".

3) I have many word processing files created by Spellbinder under CP/M and MS-DOS. I want to convert the documents created by Spellbinder under CP/M and under MS-DOS to .doc or .txt format, for easy access under Win98.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/descri...spellbinder.htm

http://books.google.com/books?id=UjtSJTvcI...der&f=false

I have tried WordPort v9.0, Filtrix v3.54, ConvertPerfect v2.0 for DOS (by Novell), WordPerfect v6.0 for DOS, Professional Write v3.1 for DOS, FrameMaker v5.11, Lotus WordPro 96, Ventura Publisher 4.1 for Windows, PCTools for Windows 2.0 (contains the Central Point File Viewer v2.0, by Mastersoft), but none of them could properly read/convert Spellbinder files.

Any ideas?

The test page is here:

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html

I'mtrying to figure out if there's a problem with my FF2 configs - or if getting "www.ssllabs.com has sent an incorrect or unexpected message.  Error code -12243" is normal/expected for FF2.  The page says (after dismissing the error message) "Failed, probably due to firewall restrictions "  and is showing that no TLS or SSL protocals are working (some say NO, some say Firewall).  I'm not running any firewall.

Opera 12.02 is saying TLS 1.3 (no), 1.2 (yes), 1.1 (yes), 1.0 (yes), SSL3 (yes), SSl2 (no).
 

Hello,
i have board with only PCI-E slots, Win98 where installed / normal mode is running but device tree is pretty clean.. No any specific number in devices name, only generic devices.. I added PCI device bus device manually which usually generated other device detection, but only some PCI-PCI bridges were detected and its all.. Does it mean dead end for Windows 98 usage?

  Or could be device detection forced by adding other devices? Even HDD controller is not here at all, make sense to try add  devices manually? I dont have any PCI-E to PCI reduction.. Im using only Geforce 7950GT PCI-E, which in device tree was only Standart VGA before i forced driver, i have tried to force Nvidia Unofficial 82 driver with Rloew patch, i dont get it working, unfortunatly, i dont have any other Windows 98 PCI-E GPU or device to test.. I theory G7950GT could work too, but i not at 1st attemp, sometimes help, try make it work multiple times, but i havent time today..

Here you can see clean device tree:

  PCI Bus device was added after times pictures were made but only 2 or 3 new PCI-PCI controller were detected.

Was there a change to the msfn site software about a week ago?  I don't think any of the site navigation buttons/links are working any more under win-98 / Opera 12.02.
 

Installing DOS and 9X/ME on Z77 for legacy testing.  I will be documenting compatibility of DOS and 98SE programs on Intel Z77 Chipset.

I had an extra 160 GB hard drive lying around, so I decided to install Windows 95 (original RTM version) on my Dell Dimension 4300 just for kicks. This computer has a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 (Willamette), and 512 GB of PC133 RAM. I was able to install Windows 95 okay, but when I booted it up, I got the dreaded "Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer." message. However, my BIOS has a way to lower the CPU speed, so I changed that setting from "normal" to "compatible", and it was able to boot Windows 95. The only problem is that it runs very slow like that, and I'd like to be able to use the full speed of the CPU. I've installed Windows 95 in virtual machines on 3.4 GHz processors, so I'm not sure why it has trouble with a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4.

My latest motherboard gives my Sata drives ONLY in MSdos compatibility mode. I have four Sata connectors and one Ide connector. In bios Sata-drives are set in IDE mode.

A fresh Windows 98se install (with setup /p i) gives two conflicting IDE controllers in Device Manager. After disabling during install in safe mode the IDE controller without the IDE-drives, Sata drives are running in MSdos compatibility mode, but slow of cause. Instead of trying RLoew's Sata patch I thougt: let's try Smartdrive...... I was lucky, works great! 

For a few weeks I experimented a lot with Smartdrive-switches, and I'de like to share my findings and ask some questions. Best source of Smartdrive-switches is still an old article from MDGX: 'Outsmart Smartdrive'  http://www.mdgx.com/newtip2.htm

• Without Smartdrive copying a 500MB-file between two fully defragmented different drives gives copy-speed about 8 MByte per second, with Smartdrive and optimal settings I reached 20 MB/s. Drives are in Sata II mode (In Sata I mode max. 16 2/3 MB/s).
• Read-speed improvement seems to be even better, but I cannot measure it directly with my stopwatch. According to Chrystal Disk Mark 9x, sequential Read-speed is 388% and write-speed 168%, ratio's with Smartdrive/without.
• Most important Smartdrive-switch is the read ahead Buffer size. According to MDGX the maximum is 64k, but I cannot reproduce this. Maximal read ahead Buffer size I reached is 32k.
• Different Windows read ahead buffer sizes doesn't make any difference, even without Smartdrive. 
• Smartdrive Cache size is a bit of a strange story. There is a trade-off between Smartdrive Cache and Vcache settings. I never realised Vcache is also working on drives running in MSdos compatibility mode. The combination minimal Smartdrive Cache size: 32 (kbyte), and Vcache size: MaxFileCache=131072 (128MB) is roughly equivalent with the combination Smartdrive cache: 256 and minimal Vcache size: MaxFileCache=32 (Kbyte).
• Smartdrive Cache size above 10240-11264 (10-11MB) gives big problems inside Windows 98se: no Long File Names anymore, problems starting explorer and empty Icons.
• Smartdrive Cache deminishes the memory reported in Device Manager.
• Element size is not important for speed, so default value 8192 byte is ok (also maximum I reached, although according to MDGX the maximum Element size is 64k).
• Smartdrive Write-behind caching is more important, it gives a few MB/s copy-speed improvement, Vcache write-behind caching gives only a small improvement.
• Small drawback: during copying slow mouse/keyboard behaviour.
• With Smartdrive SDVXD is not as usual unloaded after boot, according to Bootlog.txt.
• Also really big speed improvement in safe mode when starting safe mode with 'Win /d:m'

If you like to test, start with: 'Smartdrv /b:32768' in your Autoexec.bat, after path statement.

Some Questions:

• Can someone explain this speed improvement?
• Is Windows 98se read ahead buffer not active for drives running in MSdos compatibility mode?
• What is SDVXD 'doing' (can't find any usefull information)?
• Are there any risks using Smartdrive inside Windows?

Hi,

  I have built a win98se machine to be able to get files from the internet to C/pm, MS-dos machines.

Parts I am using :

Biostar M7VKQ MB (not Pro) (new never opened), 1gb mem(ya I know it is over kill) Sony CD-rom, 80gb mator HD.  AMD Athon 2000 xp+

Everything seems to be working great. Win 98se boots up, no errors. No '!' in device manager. Programs run fine. But I need to be able to format 360K disks.

I have several 1/2 height 360K 5.25" drives.  None of them can format a disk from win98se.

They can boot to DOS from a known working floppy DOS 5.25" disk (dos2.1)I can then format a disk. WIn98se can then read and write the disk, even reformat it. 

I reset all bios setting to manufacture defaults, after I was first messing with them. (turn off serial, parallel ports, no splash screen) I believe I have the latest Bios version. I have the MB Bios set a drive" A" 5.25 360K.

I know I am missing something simple, but it has been a long time since I installed win98. Oh, same thing while in safe mode. I have also tried removing FD from device mange,and have win98se re-detect the FD, no luck.

Why can't win98se format blank disks?

Any suggestions, help, links?

Many Thanks

Hi,

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summary:

i had to solve the problem, that there are never enough PCI slots on interesting boards.

This is now solved by using PCI-to-PCIe-adapters, with great success!!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Long Story:

I now own this AM4-board:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X370 Killer SLI/

It has two SLI-enabled PCIe-slots for the dual-GPU-stunt (this is necessary, as it is too expensive to NOT Dual-Boot with W10 or Linux).

It has PS/2-ports for mouse and keyboard, which, as RLoew will tell you as well, is very convenient.

It has some PCIe-slots with good Placement.

A lot of bells and whistles, but for the moment i ignore that... (RGB looks nice...)

So, what i needed, were TWO PCI-slots, one for a PCI-SATA-controller with W98SE-support, and one for a card like the SB Audigy PCI.

First, i bought this PCI to PCIe Adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Express-Adapter-Card-PEX1PCI1/dp/B0024CV3SA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1500571316&sr=8-5&keywords=PCI+to+PCIe+adapter

I installed it on the first PCIe-slot, and connected it to power (had to buy some sata-to-molex-adapter - prepare for ugly wiring...).

Then, i got out my SATA-controller with VIA VT6421(A) chipset, which, fortunately, is low profile:

https://www.amazon.com/Syba-Controller-Software-Component-SD-VIA-1A2S/dp/B002EL4RL6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1500571787&sr=1-1&keywords=Syba+1+Port+ATA133+IDE+and+2+Port+SATA+II+PCI+Controller+Card+with+Software+RAID+Component

I removed the slot-metal, put the controller into the adapter (can't fix the card, but the PCI-slot seems to hold just good enough), connected a SATA II SSD, and tested with Ubuntu Gnome 17.04, and Windows 10 Pro 64bit 17.03.

Works! I can boot any OS from that Controller (at least W10 and Ubuntu)!

Then i bought another one, and put in the Soundblaster Audigy Player ("Gamer") PCI.

Sound on W10 and Ubuntu! Works!

The full-height Audigy Player sits in the machine in an elevated way (Fixation-Point 3 cm above the screw-hole, which is a lot), so i still have to think about some way to secure it. Dencorso hinted at a nice Adapter in the next post, which i bought immediately, but unfortunately, you need a reeeeeeally big Tower, to be able to use it... 

But the all-important audio-out sits still below the Fixation-Point. Hey, lucky! 

So, from now on, missing PCI-Slots for important add-in cards is not a (big) problem any more, as long as there are enough and well-positioned PCIe-1x-slots.

(What does NOT work yet, is installing w98se on this AM4-board - i'm working on it - but that's another story... it does not look good at the moment... )

Cheers...

Code Editors
Windows 95
Python 2.7 (python27.lib)

Windows 98


Compliers

Windows 95

Windows 98/ME
TDM-GCC 5.1.0-3

Does not work in 9x, but can produce compatible programs
Visual Studio 2005

For beginners: Windows 9x uses C# and C++

I'll continuously update this topic as time goes by. I still need to add programming languages, open source, wares, etc.

Microsoft has launched an update for Office 2000, XP and 2003 that allows them to open and save in the new Office 2007 XML format.

However the installer doesn't work on Win9x.

Can this be over come?

Link to update...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

The last Windows 9x official NVidia Video Driver Version 81.98 and the unofficial Version 82.69 both hang during Shutdown when used with 6xxx or 7xxx Video Cards.

I have analyzed the problem and it appears that one of a couple of System Broadcast Message Call never returns. I have developed a Patch to bypass these Messages.

This Patch is for Windows 98SE and Windows ME. It has not been tested with Windows 98FE or Windows 95.

Since this Patch only affects Shutdown Functions, it should not have any affect on normal operations. Boot to DOS seemed unaffected on the one machine I tested.

I have not tested Suspend or Hibernate as my test machine didn't support it before. I have not tested 82.16 or 82.69, but other people have.

The Patch is applied to the WINDOWS\SYSTEM\NVCORE.VXD File as follows:

Version 81.98: (Revised 07/29)

144: 24 -> 3B

31F35E: 9E 55 E5 FF -> C2 05 00 00

31F924: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 -> 3C 04 74 08 3C 25 74 04 3C 32 75 02 B0 52 89 44 24 04 E9 C5 4F E5 FF

Version 82.16: (Revised 07/29)

144: AC -> C3

31F6E6: E6 54 E5 FF -> C2 05 00 00

31FCAC: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 -> 3C 04 74 08 3C 25 74 04 3C 32 75 02 B0 52 89 44 24 04 E9 0D 4F E5 FF

Version 82.69: (Revised 07/29)

144: C8 -> DF

329802: DA A7 E4 FF -> C2 05 00 00

329DC8: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 -> 3C 04 74 08 3C 25 74 04 3C 32 75 02 B0 52 89 44 24 04 E9 01 A2 E4 FF

Revised 07/29/15 to include third System Message for Windows ME

Hello,
im have know nice Unraid Win98 SE machine with

Geforce 7950GT passthrough and
1 core from Core i7 5960X
512 MB
very cheap USB sound card - could be source of issue but its
all paches instaled even official update 2007
CPU i its powerful enough, problem is that i have in every game which i have tested (Quake 3,Unreal Tournament 99 etc) short freeze every 20-30s, i had similar issue with Windows 98 physical machine.
Question is how to debug it, its this simply Windows 98 architecture issue or how to fix?

  In other Virtualized OS on same HW, i have such issue even in much more demanding games like Skyrim.

Hi,

i'm in the process of researching the compatibility of AM3+ boards.

So far i tried the 970 chipset (ASrock 970 Pro3 R2.0), and the 870 chipset (GigaByte GA-870A-USB3 Rev. 3.1). Upcoming are two boards of the 770 chipset. I'll report extensively about this later.

At the moment, i have some problems, and perhaps some of you tried this as well, and have some advie. I know that at least RLoew could...

While the 970 chipset all-in-all is a great installation experience (no immediate need for IDE or USB AddIn cards, USB2 works PERFECTLY with NUSB! have to set legacy-support to "auto", though), i have that problem with the yellow exclamation mark on the DMA-controller. RLOew has this exclamation mark with his Asus-board as well (though i don't know if he has the same problems).

Consequently, i cannot set my ide-devices to DMA-mode (system crashes), and as such, copying from the IDE-DVD is painful, to the degree of making the system nearly unresponsive until reboot (which is not working thereafter as well).

Furthermore, when using a browser, using an add-on 8111B GBit PCIe NIC (which works fine in other machines), the same happens: System gets nearly unresponsive, reboot is somewhat difficult.

Is there a way to solve that problem, that is, getting the DMA-controller to work? If there was, this would be the perfect board for W98SE...

With the 870 chipset, i don't get the onboard USB2 to work (devices are recognized, a driver installed with NUSB, but USB-devices don't work - and i have to disable any kind of USB2-legacy-support, as otherwise W98SE won't even start), and as the GigaByte devices of that chipset don't have separated PS/2-ports, without an add-in-card, there is no mouse possible. Maybe things improve a bit with a special PS2-splitting-cable, but it's not here yet...

Does anyone have experience with this?

Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

Hello,
i have great old installation with one flaw and its problem with adding new audio devices.

 I have compared working and not working systems and only difference which i could find is missing Microsoft streaming service proxy.
 In this installation i once, cleaned all device manager in safe mode in include all virtual audio devices.. and im not able to reinstall this one,
i tried to all multimedia tree of add new hardware wizard all other virtual audio devices are there but not this one. 

    This one is somehow related to DirectX, because in system drivers folder is migrate folder, where are *.inf and files for this device
and tried all thi ks*.inf files load through i have a disc for hardware addition, but these devices even when its name is these inf files,
are never listed, only some game devices as joystick are listed..

  I was somehow able to fix this problem by install of some PCI audio device, but its not ideal i have board without PCI slots and need
USB audio make to work.

  So question is there some way how reistall Microsoft streaming proxy audio device without PCI audio card installation? 

  I have installed clean Windows 98 USB instalattion + USB drivers and connected USB audio and Streaming proxy is already there
with original DirectX 6.

  I have tried to install varios versions of DirectX, problem is still there.

  Pictures from clean installation (device is visible only in Safe mode):

[done! be my guest!]

Hi,

it's time to post my resume on my research on AMD-chipsets and boards.

This will be a long post, split up in some mails, for the purpose of clarity and transparency.

All of this is not "matter-of-fact", but my very personal opinion and experience, so: YMMV

------------------

In a nutshell:

After all the years, with the appearance of the 870A chipset, AMD-boards, with the modern socket AM3+ appear on the screen for W98SE-User with a Bang!

And we didn't see that coming...

Depending on board and chipset, they have some drawbacks and advantages, but something can be said right now:

There has never been better compatibility. Some work just right out of the box, and with a minimum of AddIn-cards, you get gaming-enabled boards.

You can now go to the shop, and, by careful selection, buy a brand-new board, a brand-new CPU, install, and have fun!

(and perhaps a NIC, if you are lazy, and definitely a used sound-card, as the necessary exception from the rule).

This is WAY better than P35/P45 or similar Intel-Chipsets, and as a bonus on top, provides excellent Dual-Boot capability with Windows 10 (and XP, of course, but that goes without saying).

All of this would not have been possible without the help and programming skills of RLoew, one way or the other, so Kudos to him!!!

------------------

I added some further mails:

- one for each chipset tested (AMD 970, 990*, 870A, 890, 880G*, 770) (*not done yet, but will follow later)

- one for miscallaenous hardware that was tested (to make this happen), and

- one for the "Dual-GPU-stunt", which is of interest for people who want to Dual-boot with i.e. XP and W10, and want to put in some extra effort to have such a modern machine ready for some serious gaming, while they are at it.

-------------------

What to think about, before trying this yourself:

The socket AM3+ provides space for the modern FX- and Opteron-CPUs, capable, and cheap (and for legacy, use your old Phenom II or Athlon II, that would otherwise gather dust in the corner).

Unfortunately, they have some drawbacks: Their single-thread performance cannot touch those of modern Intel CPUs, and to add insult to pain, they can only deliver their subpar speed with an enormous usage of power.

Even though their idle-power usage is actually not really bad (and, if done right, still better that i.e. Intel Wolfdale or Yorkfield CPUs, like the latest Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad, and maybe even on par with the first generation of i3/i5/i7), these are not really machines for your everyday use, especially with the dual-GPU-stunt.

Still, a machine with a good AMD 970 board, and some ATI x800 or NVidia GF 7600 GT, can still provide a good gaming experience on W98SE (and perhaps even XP), and provide an ok machine for browsing and such activities on W10 64bit. Believe me, it is still a much more performant combination than any Legacy-build. And regarding legacy hardware now slowly becoming expensive on ebay, and ageing, this may even be the cheapest solution, if you don't have the right - and *intact* - hardware lying around.

And as a (perhaps secondary) machine built for gaming only, you can, via the dual-GPU-stunt, enjoy Full-HD-gaming in XP and W10, and, with some restrictions, on W98SE as well (kind of... more in the "normal" HD range...)

IMHO: At the moment, these provide the best build for W98SE on "modern" PCs. Maybe this will change again some time later, when RLoews research on modern Intel-chipsets succeeds. But until then... ;-)

--------------------

Restrictions, and problems (of which most can be circumvented by choosing the right hardware):

On many boards, you will have difficult times - at least during installation, and definitely with KVM-switches - if they don't have two separate PS/2-ports.

PCI-PS/2-port cards (of which i only know of one model) don't work at all on the boards tested by me.

For W9*5* users, this means, either to have two PS/2-ports, or end of the show (for experience with W95 on such chipsets, better ask RLoew, as i don't use it, and equally I'm not using WME...).

If you want sound, you need a compatible Soundcard, and a free and well-positioned PCI slot on that board. I always recommend Soundblaster Audigy 1 or 2 PCI.

For LAN, boards with the RTL 8111E are common, and if you know how to, you can use them with the NDIS2-driver (aka DOS-driver). I always have problems with that, so, as there are always ample of free PCIe 1x slots on those boards, for my convenience, i install an RTL 8111B Gigabit NIC, which can be bought in shops, and has drivers for W9x.

For NVidia-cards on 890 and AMD 9xxx chipsets, to avoid stuttering because of an incompatibility of the NVidia-Driver with those chipsets, you need a commercial patch by RLoew. It also includes the NVidia-Ram-Size Fix, so this gives you further options. You don't need this on 870A chipsets (and probably not on 880G chipsets). You don't need this patch for ATI-cards, like the x800, so, yes, AMD/ATI-fanboys can rejoyce... :-)

Because USB2 on W98SE will only work (on AMD 9xx and 890 chipsets, and not hang your board on 870A) when you fiddle with the USB2-legacy-settings, you will have trouble with booting from USB-devices, which very often need legacy-compatibility. If you do that (as i.e. you don't want to work with DVD-drives), you will have to find an individual way around this. It always woked out for me in the end, but was tedious.

--------------------

All of this may work with AM2, AM2+ or AM3 boards, if you have one of those lying around, provided they have the same chipsets. But don't bet on that, and, moreover, better don't spend money or much time on those - this has been tried, with unconvincing results. And, until further notice: The AMD 770/710 chipset, today also sold as "AMD 980", or "760G", is NOT fit for W98SE (even though they are tempting, because of their onboard-equipment looking like feature-heaven for W9x-users). You have been warned.

--------------------

Why i did all this:

1. for the same reason old man (with too much time and money... kind of...) lay under old (nice) cars on their weekends

2. since the ASRock Dual Series, i had some Phenom II lying around, and i asked myself: Why the f*** can't i run an AMD CPU with W98SE AND W10 on the same machine? I can do this with Intel... heck... now... let's do this...

--------------------

I hope all of this is useful for you - it was nice for me, but pretty expensive. Does anyone need an AMD 770 board right now? ...

Cheers,

Ragnar G.D.

Hi,

Can anyone point me to a "how to install an NDIS2-driver AFTER having installed W98SE" ?

Reason: I got a PCIe NIC with the RTL 8111B chipset working, no problem, Realtek deliveres a driver.

By looking at the inf-files of that driver (from 2008), 8111D should be possible.

Unfortunately, there are some AMD-boards by i.e. Gigabyte (GA-870A-USB3, rev. 3.1), which have a 8111E, for which there is no driver for W98SE.

btw: A fairly complete discussion took place between rloew and xRayer here (but without the howto):

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/97588-modern-motherboards-which-are-working-with-windows-98/?page=14

hint: I bought a Digitus PCIe 8111E/8168E for experimenting. On my MSI-Z77A-G45, it works. On My GA-EP35-DS3R, the PC hangs when the NIC initializes, before even able to enter the bios... so probably don't use it on older boards...

Cheers, Ragnar G.D.