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HP D530 with Intel 865 chipset and 82801EB controller. Two SATA Seagate 1.5TB and 2TB drives. HDD controller is set in BIOS to compatibility mode with multisector and UDMA enabled for both HDD drives. Dual boot Windows 98SE and Windows 2000 professional. File copy operation between drives (5.86GB): - Windows 2000 - 2m 13s - Windows 98 - 3m 15s The Windows 98 does have DMA transfers enabled for both HDD drives. I'm suspecting the W98 does not take advantage of the higher than UDMA 33 modes. I'm looking for the way to check what particular UDMA mode Windows 98 is using. Also, It would be good to force Windows 98 to perform as well as the Windows 2000 does.

According to my observations many Nvidia and Ati cards do have problems with DOS applications. Sometimes newer driver versions are more stable, but sometimes not. In case of AGP, the Nvidia seems to be more reliable, when Ati seems to be better with PCI-E. When it comes to plain old PCI cards with S3 chip were very reliable. I forgot most of my results with plain PCI, anyway.

I was lucky to observe a perfect system shutdown, when the ethernet cable was unplugged. Following through, I did confirm, the system shuts down correctly, when DHCP lease is released, just before the shutdown or reboot. The next step was to separate the Microsoft Networking client and sharing from TCP/IP, while leaving just the NetBeui for file sharing. TCP/IP stack is still available for Internet access, while file sharing is done just in the LAN through NetBeui. The system seems to power down and reboot correctly, now. Strange, but effective.

I do have a HP DC7100 convertible minitower computer. It does have i915 ICH6 chipset with i82801FB IO controller. The board does have 4 SATA and 1 IDE connector. The BIOS allows to set "combined" mode, in which the OS is presented with a standard Primary/Secondary dual IDE controller architecture. The Windows 98 seems to be working fine in such a situation, but it has an access to just 2 SATA channels and the IDE controller. The remaining 2 SATA channels are disabled. Since the HP/Compaq BIOS naming is quite different from other releases, I can only suspect the "combined" is equal to "compatibility" mode. The other from the "combined" BIOS setting adds a separate SATA controller. It appears, the Windows 98 fails to boot in such a case. It could be possible to go around the problem, by using DOS compatibility mode disk access, but it does not seem to be an efficient way. So, I would like to know, why Windows 98 behaves as it does. Also, is there a way of getting the full potential of the 4 SATA channels?

The GeForce 6800 is the oldest from the 6000 series. The next one was 6600 then the 6200 was released. As far as I remember, the 6200 support came in the Forceware 7x. There was no support in the Forceware 6x for GeForce 6200.

I have an update, as I was able to test a Gigabyte GV-NX66128DP (PCI-E GeForce 6600) with HP DC7100 (Intel 915). There is support for the GeForce 6800 series in Nvidia 61.76 driver package, however there is nothing about the 6600 series. After testing 77.72, 71.84 and 81.98 driver packages, it appears the system restart function works correctly in all of them. System shutdown works good except for 81.98. The computer ended with "it is safe to turn computer off now" like message, so I had to turn the power off by myself. In all three driver packages I did experience problems with running DOS applications. There was a dialog informing about an "illegal operation performed by the application" or complete loss of video function in full screen mode. The workaround is to change the screen color depth at least once after booting the system. The DOS applications are seeming to work correctly, after that.

Instead of a WDM hardware driver repackager / installer it could be easier to build a repository of already repacked drivers. However, there could be some legal issues with distribution of modified drivers.

Well. It appears there is yet another possibility to obtain drivers. WdmStub thread gives hope to use WDM 2k/XP drivers in W98. I looked in to the audio drivers for Asus EEE PC 900, and it was too much for me, sadly. The driver package consists of the Realtek drivers and Microsoft patch for Windows 2k/XP. The patch is Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for HD Audio. Apparently the entry in the device manager (PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2668) is the Microsoft UAA Bus. The Realtek Audio drivers are to be installed after the bus driver. I have too little experience with WdmStub to try to port such a complicated driver package.

According to my research the FFDShow tryouts developers do not take active part in the Hi10P decoding development. Their intention was to include the Hi10P code, after it proves to be stable enough. So, it looks like the push to port the newest alpha FFDShow tryouts to Windows 98 is not a good course of action. The core of the Hi10P development seems to be centered around CCCP codec pack. However, the best results are reported from LAV Filters project.

As I have mentioned elsewhere some time ago, the MSVC2010 clsid builds from sourceforge can be made to work by replacing the kernel32 imported function HeapQueryInformation by SetLastError in ffdshow.ax. I am currently using the thus treated rev4257_20120115_clsid build without apparent problems. I haven't got a 10bit x264 file to test though but I don't see a reason why it shouldn't work if decoding of such streams has been implemented in those builds. I found the thread you mentioned: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/153659-my-little-hex-hacks-to-complement-kernelex/ I tried to install ffdshow_rev4305_20120205_clsid.exe, but it does not seem to be working. Where should I put the patched MSVC2010 libraries? The decoder config dialogs are not working. The GOM PLayer does not find the FFDShow filters. The links to the decoder config are incorrect: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\RUNDLL32.EXE"C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ff_vfw.dll",configureVFW. I changed the link to: C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ff_vfw.dll" ,configureVFW , but it did not help much. ---------------------------- I did the same with ffdshow_rev4257_20120115_clsid.exe. But, no effect, so far.

Well a few things happened. I did get a 3.2GHz/1Mb/800Mhz CPU. It works better, but it still freezes with some full HD videos. I had to switch to a different motherboard with Intel 915 chipset and Socket 775, in the process. I figured out how to time shift subtitles from the FFDShow directly. The trick was too simple, so I did not got it the first time. The keyboard shortuct are ment to be used with both Ctrl and Alt keys pressed. The 10bit x264 codec is more and more common. The output of such a video stream can not be treated as high quality, any more. The last stable FFDShow tryouts Beta7 does not solve the problem. Have anyone solved the problem of the 10bit codec on Windows 98? The newest FFDShow alpha releases are using MSVC2010 compiler. Will it work with the KernelEX? Have anyone been able to get it working?

I'll add some more informations. The HP d530 both Small Form Factor and Convertible Minitower versions do have the same motherboard. The Ultra-slim Desktop version does have a different one. The all three HP DC7100 versions are equipped with different motherboards, as far as I know. I'm using just the Convertible Minitower d530 ad DC7100. A side note: There seem to be not much sense in using standby function to shut down the system. I saw no possibility of using the Hibernate function in Windows 98. However it works fine in Windows 2000. The mentioned WOL functios are working great on both d530 and DC7100, if the BIOS settings are set correctly. It has nothing to do with the OS running, as far as I know. Also the WOL works correctly with capable PCI ethernet adapters (not just the integrated ethernet port) on d530. I had no opportunity to test everything on DC7100, so far.

So far I have confirmed the official Nvidia driver packages 71.84, 77.72 and 81.98 do have support for PCI-E GeForce 6800, 6600 and 6200. The problem is, it is necesary to skip the installer and to select the card manualy, when istalling. NV40 GeForce 6800 - I was unable to test it NV43 GeForce 6600 - Works very well with 77.72 and 71.84. The 81.98 comes with shutdown problems. NV43 GeForce 6200 - The initial release of the 6200 came from degraded 6600 chips - untested but should work. NV44 GeForce 6500 - no entry in the inf section, support unknown NV44 GeForce 6200 - I'm not sure if all the PCI-E 6200 NV44 came with the Turbo Cache function. In any case these do not seem to be working correctly. NV44a, NV44a2 GeForce 6200 - I do not know if they are available in PCI-E versions. According to my research they should be just in AGP and PCI versions. I've been testing the cards on HP DC7100 with Intel 915 chipset. But, I did not test the 3D functions. I'm curious about: - Do the official Nvidia packages provide support for the NV40 and NV43 chips with PCI-E? Or perhaps it is possible to use the NV44 as well. - Are there NV44 PCI-E 6200 cards without Turbo Cache? - Are there NV44a and NV44a2 PCI-E 6200 cards? Informations gathered: - NVidia GeForce 6200 cards with Turbo Cache are not working correctly in Windows 98 with both official and unofficial drivers. - Nvidia official driver support ends at GeForce 6800. Compatible Hardware with Windows 9x - The GeForce 6800 NV40 chip is the oldest one from the GeForce 6 series. The newest is NV44 61xx,6200,6500. The NV43 6600 is clearly supported in the official Nvidia drivers. Wkipedia - GeForce 6 Series

Ooops. I forgot to translate the Autostart from Polish language version. It should be Startup, I think. Both the policy rule Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon\ Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon and registry setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon "WaitForNetwork"=dword:00000001 did not change a thing, when used alone. But, if both of them are set in the same time, the Windows XP does behave the same way as Windows 2000 does. Thank you for your help. The problem has been solved.

I wanted to run a batch script from the Autostrart. The goal was to copy some files from a server on each system boot. The computer is set, so no user login is necesary, so there is no delay for user input during the boot procedure. As the result the Microsoft Networking services are still not operational during the Autostart procedures. The batch script complains about "network patch not available" (translated from Polish). A moment later, the same script works perfecly. There is no such problem in Windows 2000. Apparently, all the network related functions are fully operational before the user logon procedures. So, how can I force Windows XP to do the same as Windows 2000 does? I tried the idea with MMC and logon policies, but it did not changed a thing. As a workaround I did loop the network patch checking in the batch. So, the files are copied after the patch becomes available. But, I would like to find a more elegant solution.

The HP D530 (Intel 865) and HP D7100 (Intel 915) are both equipped with integrated Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapters. For some reason the Windows 98 does not shut down properly when the Broadcom b57w2k.sys (10.24.0.0.D) driver is loaded. I was unable to solve this problem, so far. So, I'm using some different PCI ethernet adapters with the integrated Broadcom disabled, for the moment. Does anyone with a Broadcom NetLink gigabit adapter from the BCM57xx series, have shutdown problems, as well?

I do have a DDS4 tape drive. I find it convenient to store rarely necesary large file sets on a tapes rather, than on multiple DVDs. In any case the Windows 98 backup tool (Seagate Backup Exec) is able to handle tapes in a quite a covenient way. I tried the backup tool from Windows 2000, and: - it does not allow to name tapes, as user see fit. (98 lets to set a tape name the way similar to a disk label). - it is necesary to use every tape from a backup chain, when restoring a single backup job (98 lets to add backup after backup creating an endless chain of tapes. Only the tapes with needed backup job are necesary when restoring). - it is not possible to see what backup jobs are on a tape without inserting the tapes preeceeding it. (98 shows all the backup jobs with a warning if the jobs are spanning to another tapes). - the backups made on Windows 98 are restored withoul an error, but the file contents are messed up. So, I can not force myself to move to Windows 2000 with the tape related operations. But, perhaps there is some software that will make the Windows 2000 work as convenient as the 98 does. Still it is hardly the reason to pay for Backup Exec for Windows 2000, when the one given by Microsoft with Windows 98 works quite well for free. (I had no opportunity to test the newer versions of the Backup Exec, so I do not know if they are as convenient as the old one).

I found yet another difference between Windows 98 and Windows 2000. The tape backup software is significantly different. Backups made on Windows 98 with sytem backup tool (Seagate Backup Exec) are not restored properly with Windows 2000 backup tool (from Veritas). The funny thing is, the files are actualy restored without any error message, but the data is messed up. The tape handling is also significantly different. Windows 98 backup tool gives much more freedom with handling multiple backups on the same tapes. It is possible to create an endless chain of backups one after another, by just adding another empty tape when the free space ends. In order to restore it is necesary to use only the tapes containing the particular backup job. In Windows 2000 it is also possible to add backups one after another. The problem comes with restoring. It is necesary to use every tape from the beginning of the backup chain. So, the endless backup chain is not an option. Also it is not possible to freely name tapes as user wants. So, Windows 98 let's user to treat tapes in a way more similar to standard removable media drives, while Windows 2000 forces quite a few restrictions to the way the tapes are handled. I found no good freeware program able to handle tape drives in Windows 2000, so far. Turbo Tape works, but it's no good with handling large backup sets with more than one tape.

I did get a 3Ghz/512kb/800Mhz P4 CPU. It works a bit better than 2.8Ghz, but a quick calculation suggests 3.6GHz CPU is necesary for smooth playback of 1920x1080 video. I do have yet another problem. How to get a full playback of Advanced Substation Alpha subtitles with ability to time shift subtitles during playback? The GOM Player does not have the full AdvSubstation support, yet it does allow to time shift subtiles. On the other hand FFDShow does fully support AdvSubstation subtitles, but the built in keyboard command functions do not work for me. I do not know if the FFDShow keyboard shorcuts were ment to be available during playback, in the first place. Are there other video players able to do the time shift with the full support for Advanced Substation Alpha subtitles?

I'm using FFDShow rev2322_20081114 on Windows 98 without the KernelEX. The decoder configuration settings are available through the Start Menu or tray icon during playback. It appears the FFDShow is the fastest free h264 decoder available.

I did some further research with the FFDShow. It does support buffering frames in advance, but this option is switched off, by default. Also, it does not do much good, when CPU is too slow. When playing with FFDShow OSD filter, I found the most useful informations is CPU load and video stream delay. The OSD filter does increase the CPU load a bit, but it can give a very good understanding of what is going on. In my particular case the video stream delay is constantly rising. When it reaches a certain configurable amount (default is 1500ms) the decoder drops video frames and starts decoding from the current audio stream time. The video decoding frame drop point is configurable, but if it exceeds 5000ms the audio stream output starts to break (that's the standard effect for the GOM Player built in codec). So, the freezing effect I was referring to in earlier posts is a situation, when video delay exceeds the default 1500ms and video decoder drops frames. Since the video delay is constantly rising with 100% CPU usage, it is obvious, the CPU can not keep up. Also, buffering in advance is useless, since the CPU is always occupied in 100%. The FFDShow does have a few interesting features related to performance. - buffering frames in advance - skipping deblocking when video delay exceeds a certain point. - configurable video frame drop point, preventing audio output interruptions Currently I'm working with a 2.8/512/800 P4, but I will get a 3.0/512/800 CPU in a few days. According to my observations, the current CPU is about 15-30% too slow.

Well, the Partimage utility does copy only the occupied sectors of a partition, leaving the unused space behind. It also does a copy of the whole MBR and stores everything in a single compressed archive. The supported file systems are FAT, FAT32, NTFS and EXT up to version 3. EXT4 and newer file systems are not supported, as the application is no longer worked on. It is possible to restore - the whole MBR, - just the partition data of the MBR - just the boot strap code of the MBR - partition data without the MBR By my understanding, a backup is a copy made in oder to be restored, when something bad happens. I see no meaningful difference between backing up separate files, or the whole partition. The real problem comes, when it is necesary to restore a whole partition. So, in order to use a partition level system backup it is wise to keep all the relevant user data files on other partitions. So, the system restore procedure would not have to include prior data file backup. Following the idea, data file partition level backup does not seem to have much sense. Since the thread is about Windows 2000 and 98, there is one significant difference between them when it comes to system restore. I can restore a Windows 98 using a plain DOS, while I can not do the same with Windows 2000. Windows 98 kernel is stored in just 8.3 DOS format names. The LFN support comes just after the kernel start, but before the GUI start. So, it is possible to start kernel after restoring just files with short names, then restore the long file names (LFN), then to initialize GUI. Also, it is relatively easy to move Windows 98 to other computer with very different hardware.

Linux in any form will not copy any Windows specific attributes. In fact it can not copy Windows FAT32 file attributes, as well. So, it is not possible to do a perfect file system backup from Linux. The best way to use Linux is a full partition backup copy, indeed. Personaly, I do prefer to use the Partimage and SystemRescue CD.

Well. The good thing about having a dual boot Windows 98 and Windows 2000 setup is, it is possible to make a copy of Windows 2000 system files using Windows 98 and vice versa. So, having a full system backup copy, there is no need for system reinstalation or repair.

I did replace Ati Radeon 9000 AGPx4 with Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 AGPx8. There is a slight improvement in the performace, but it is not clearly visible. Does anyone know the link to the Beta CoreAVC 2.0.0.0? The current version is a commercial software, apparently? Or, perhaps, the beta is the commercial software, as well.