North of Watford
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Posts posted by North of Watford
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Alas, I don't think that Win98SE is automatically the answer. I have several boxes running W98SE, some are more vulnerable to this issue than others. It is a GDI+ resource issue, and the only way I have come to live with it, is to recognise the early signs and reboot before disaster strikes. By disaster, I mean a screenful of error messages that refuse to allow a proper reboot, necessitating a resort to the off button. When it is really stuck, not even three fingers works.
Could a memory management expert throw their two penn'orth into the ring, please?
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I run almost always under Win98. I now have a good reliable NAS with access using Samba and FTP. Saves and retrieves files no problems. Can't think I did anything special except read the info that came with it.
Its predecessor was a different kettle of fish altogether. Although it claimed to do Samba and FTP, and even that it would do P2P for me, it kept on corrupting the disk. It laid claim to supporting a 400GB disk, so I fed it a 320 GB drive to keep well within its limits. But even so, give it 40 or 50 GB of backup, and 24 hours later it would be gone. It wasn't a problem with the disk as that is now reliably earning its keep in a different PC altogether.
So I think it all depends on the box itself whether they are reliable. Remember they are embedded computers within the box, and they are cheap. We know that cheap and reliable are often strangers, and rarely share the same bed.
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Sorry, this isn't how to get a valid licence for Win 3.1; and I'm keeping my own for similar exercises in nostalgia. BUT is everyone aware of Gaby's site at http://www.gaby.de/win3x/eindex.htm? It has a great deal of freeware, and links to much more including the Calmira skin.
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Many thanks for all your hard work on this project. Please do not be rushed to meet self inflicted deadlines.
Jeff
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Thanks for the information, but I am not sure how that would read across to USB Hard Disks. I have no problem with USB Pen Drives, all that I have used have been recognised by Win98.
Jeff
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I have just started to use one of those fancy network accessible storage things (actually Maplin A61FY aka A-Tec Subsystem Inc NS-347). It offers LAN connection, no problem with getting that working. It also has a USB connector, but offers no driver disk at all. Therefore, for Win2K and onwards (which it advertises as being supported) it must be using generic drivers already installed in those systems. When plugged in to Win98 machines, they find a USB Mass Storage Device, and try to talk to it through the USB Thumbdrive driver. Needless to say it doesn't get very far before giving a bright yellow question mark in the Device Manager panel!
Has anyone got any bright ideas about which drivers might be worth trying, in order to get it working correctly in Win98? I have access to a complete copy of Win2K.
Many thanks for your thoughts on this,
Jeff
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I am running Win 98 SE as patched and extended by Soporific's Auto-patcher for Windows 98. I have let it install most things, including the current Java. I also run Firefox 2.0.0.12. Every time a page on the latter latter calls for Java, rather than Javascript, it starts the call, but I get error messages about pointer exceptions etc. A crash out of Firefox is needed. An OS reboot is the only way out of continuing system instability thereafter.
I have other programs that run Java direct, they occasional just go AWOL (absent without leave!). Running and then for no apparent reason they cease to run. Java then refuses to run again until the OS is rebooted.
I know that it must be possible to have Java 1.6.0.xx running on Win98, otherwise these forums would be full of the most vociferous protests! So what have I fouled up? More precisely, how can I clean it all out and restart afresh? Just using the Uninstall option in Windows Control Panel makes no noticeable difference, a re-installed Javabehaves in just the same way.
[if it is of relevance, I am also getting some objections by the Kernel32.dll that it has been attacked by other programs, which must be closed. But I haven't yet found the time to do a fresh install to see if that one goes away.]
Many thanks to anyone who can point me in the right direction.
Jeff
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To have initially a "mixed system" made out of MS base and some ReactOS components is what would guarantee a wider use of the project.
I'm not a lawyer or anything, but wouldn't that be illegal? Even if it isn't, the ROS team seems obsessed about securing ROS legally, to the point I've seen discussions about whether using FAT is legal or not in their forums.
But not too long ago the ReactOS team had to waste many months undertaking a code audit, as someone had taken a "short cut", and copied large slabs of Microsoft code directly into ReactOS. Now that was a litigation problem! So they had to identify it and get it all out before they could proceed with anything. I am therefore not at all surprised that they wish to be squeeky clean on the legalities front1
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Beginning with version 1.6, UniExtract will not work under Win 9x. Period. This is due to changes in recent versions of AutoIt.
Puzzled, AutoIt forum is only discussing discontinuing 9x and NT support. What tricky stuff in Universal Extractor is pushing the boundary?
Anyway, would it be possible to leave those of us who will be left behind with some hints of where the problems have been found on Win9x?
[Why do I want to continue to use Win9x? Its the usual conflict between improved OS and worsening licence conditions!]
Jeff
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Can someone please point me at the id***'s guide for selecting which items are installed and which are not?
I tried the December 07 release on a couple of machines that are not mission critical, and had very well behaved responses from them. So I applied it to my main machine, and it didn't like a couple of things, in particular it didn't like the Maximus Decim USB stack. This is no criticism of Soporific for the excellent package that he has put together, just that my machine doesn't like it. Oh well, there is no accounting for this PC's taste!
What I now need to ensure is that the same packages are not re-installed on the next update. Which is the file to edit, and what is the syntax, please?
Many thanks,
Jeff
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Thanks for the links posted previously.
My additional warning about DriverGuide is that the first link points straight to the HP ftp servers, which appear to contain the relevant file, but it only downloads as a zero length file. This is true either through DriverGuide, or if ftp'd direct! I did get one through them (you just have to keep on signing up with new identities to get your five free "premium" downloads!) via the obfuscated (second) link, but not sure how reliable that is.
Jeff
PS: I tried to protest through the feedback channels on their website. After some prat in customer service told me to download the 2K and XP drivers in response to a specific Win98 request, all I have heard is a deafening silence. But from a firm that spies on its main board members, what else should we expect!
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An amateur here. I have a number of applications feeling a bit sickly at the moment, the most recent of which is CoolPDF. It keeps on telling me that "Canvas does not allow drawing". I have seen this from other programs, so conclude that it is a system call that is objecting, and suspect it is the GDIs somewhere.
Now at this point I am out of my depth. My first reaction is to replace all instances of any GDI component with the most recent I can find. Is that wise? Or am I looking in entirely the wrong direction?
Thanks for your help.
Jeff
PS: How do I post images (eg screen cap of the error message)? Tnx
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Just to add another similar story, I had real trouble getting a PCMCIA network card to run on a Toshiba laptop with Win98. No matter how many times I tried to remove it, and re-install there was still no action. Until I discovered that it was automatically picking the Win2K driver, regardless of which one I told it to use.
The only way to resolve the difficulty was to put the Win98 driver and other necessary stuff in isolation, a folder of its own. Then it worked correctly, and the card has been earning its keep ever since.
Jeff
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Plenty of my favourites in the lists above. Thanks for the info about others.
My addition is Skype. I have version 3.2.0.175 working very well, so long as I remember not to try video. Skype announce a version 1.4.x as the last to support Win98, but go on to say that later ones might work, they just give no guarantee.
http://support.skype.com/index.php?_a=know...neral%3C%2Fa%3E
Their forums give mixed response.
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Earlier this year there was an exchange between Briton and Seskanda about limits to HDD size, including those imposed by the BIOS. [Around about post #273 on page 14]
It is of course the case that one only reads information like this, and is alerted to the problem AFTER a major data loss! My story is that one of the boxes that I run is a Compaq Deskpro EN 733 SFF. When I hurriedly fitted a 160MB Seagate drive into it plenty of months ago, it ended up requiring the use of the translation feature on the CD that came with the drive, and put the OnTrack address translation routine in place. Windows 98 duly limited the use of the drive to the bottom 137GB and all was well.
On learning that Autopatcher for Windows 98SE had installed the 48BitLBA patch, I thought I would have a try. Promptly put a new primary partition in the free space at the top of the disk, and filled it up with copies of files, on the principle that if I lost this new partition, I would have nothing to cry over. Initially it seemed to be OK, but a reboot later and I had lost the entire contents of the new partition, the entire contents of the extended partition, and the initial primary partition was corrupted beyond repair. Oh dear! All 120 GB on that disk are now in bit heaven.
Having learned the hard way, could I plead for a bigger warning that this patch does not play nice with any other form of disk address translation program? And possibly for Autopatcher 98SE to ask for positive confirmation before it installs it?
I know now, but it would be nice if I were the last to find out unexpectedly!
Thanks
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I haven't been a fan of Skype, so only recently installed it for a specific need. Looking on the Skype site they do put a rather low number, but then reading the small print, that is the last one that they will guarantee to work. After that, they <b>should</b> work, but at your risk. I am using 3.2.0.175 on a Win98SE system without problem so far. Just remember that video is not available (unless someone here has written the necessary drivers that MS left out)
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Using a NAS on Win9x?
in Windows 9x/ME
Posted
For the one that works well, here is the closest that is still on the manufacturer's site:
http://www.a-tecsubsystem.com/websys/atec/...d=1191910612953
What I have is the IDE version, though as we know that disk format is going out of fashion at present. Maplin still have plenty on sale in the UK, they seem to have bought a job lot:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Module...90&doy=27m7
I have a tendency to go for "trailing edge" technology, I'll leave all the "bleeding edge" stuff to someone else.
The ones that didn't work (I had two of them!) were NAS Drive Kit from ADS Tech. It is now consigned to their "legacy" list, what details there are can be seen at:
http://www.adstech.com/support/productsupp...S%20Drive%20Kit
Based on the performance of the two that I had, I am not in the least bit surprised that they are no longer in that market! In theory it was just what I needed. In practice an expensive door stop, even though I did get them at a "remainder" price.
Regards,
NW