Usher

Well, maybe I was not fully right with all suspicions, but at last I found the bug. It IS in Javascript code, and not only. 1. MSFN site uses iepngfix script for Internet Explorer 6, and this script requires to put blank.gif somewhere on the MSFN server. The file should be in path http:// www.msfn.org/public/style_images/bingo/blank.gif ...but it is missing. The script works for every png file used as a button or icon on every MSFN page, so it is called even hundred times for a single web page. With every call the browser connects to the web site and tries to download missing file. Now imagine hundreds of calls instead of a single one. And it is not the worst - click on the link above and you can see what is really going on. 2. MSFN redirects every missing link to the main page (why? what for?), so every call ends with index.php (index.html) downloaded, 50 KB for every call. Now you can count 100 * 50 KB = 5 MB in HTML instead of 49 bytes in blank.gif. With JS switched off IE6 ignores iepngfix and downloads only requested files. No wonder that MSFN site's and MSFN users' computers are overloaded. Look at the counter on the MSFN main page - it probably counts every guest using IE6 many times (the more threads or posts per page, the more hits counted per single user). In the end: another missing feature - I cannot find how to change date/time format setting, I can see only timezone change in User Control Panel.

Command.com in LZ-DOS is hacked and COM-to-EXE converted file from IBM PC DOS 2000. Look for "REXX" strings there. And in the beginning you can find warning "NEVER TRY TO PACK COMMAND.COM: IT WON'T WORK!!", so you can be pretty sure that LZ stands for some kind of LZ exe compression of other files. IO.SYS and SYS.COM are probably hacked and LZ packed executable files from Win98SE. Look for the string "You are overwriting system files from a different version of LZ-DOS or Ablakok" in SYS.COM. You should read "MS-DOS or Windows" instead. To be sure about Windows version someone should find a tool to unpack IO.SYS and compare the unpacked file with original IO.SYS files from different Win9x versions.

My MSHTML.DLL is version 6.00.2800.1644 dated 2009-12-16 from MS10-002 (KB978207). From where did you got yours? EDIT: Huum, according to http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=978207 the 2 versions could be the same AFAIK. Not quite the same. There are usually two versions in IE update: - RTMGDR - complete updated files in separate directory (v.1644 above); - QFE - additional hotfixes in patches for RTMGDR files (v.1645 above). The QFE version has a number always bumped by 1 and a time stamp usually different from the original updated file. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897225

Read carefully. This thread is about mshtmlED.dll, not mshtml.dll. New updates for IE6 SP1 libraries still come with Windows 2000. The newest MSHTML.DLL is version 6.0.2800.1645 dated 2009-12-17.

Did you try to manage such large files on NTFS using freeware "Paragon NTFS for Win98" driver? If yes, you should already know the answer. If not, do try and let us know the results. The answer for now is: There is possibility to create ExFAT driver for Win9x (and even for DOS), but it will not be fully functional.

The name is not SIL. It is SiI as Silicon Image The size reported by fdisk is in MiB (use UPPER case when needed) and depends on CHS/LBA settings reported by the controller BIOS. Show your numbers and we can do the math.

I wonder how did you format FAT12 disk to 36 MB size instead of well known 32 MB limit. Any other CD burner supports 32 MB boot disk image.

Google web-based apps are written in Javascript mostly (google for AJAX) and old IE and Fx are both too slow to execute megabytes of JS code in decent time. Other lazy web coders also use AJAX-like technologies. Google programmers abandoned support for IE<=6.x and Fx<=2.x and so other coders did. Google and other AJAX-powered web sites ignore Opera at all (see http://www.ajax.org in IE6 and in Opera), but Opera has a very fast JS engine and should work with those sites without significant problems.

The new forum uses javascript code optimized for newest browsers (Firefox 3.x etc.) and forum developers will not change it. Under Internet Explorer 6 (Windows 98SE, Windows 2000 Prof.) the new forum is extremely slow and uses 100% of single-core CPU - and it will not be better even after some optimization. You should use some light version of the new forum or go back to the old version at least for Win9x/Win2000 users and content.

The last xxcopy version described in readme as working with Win9x is 2.98.2 http://www.xxcopy.com/download/xxfw2982.zip In the next version 2.98.3 (http://www.xxcopy.com/download/xxfw2983.zip) developers removed info about Win9x. I did not try those versions yet.

There are many more drives with bugged firmware that are not properly recognized, and only for some of them there are patched drive firmware, motherboard BIOSes or chipset drivers. In most cases you must use manual settings in BIOS Setup. This seems to be incompatible game protection. I know it's too late to request fix from the game developers, but have you ever searched for any patches for that game or for protection drivers only? That's why I wrote "there is no full support for Windows 9x". Windows 2000 work OK with 6 drives (2 SATA HDD, 3 PATA HDD, PATA DVD+-RW) and AC97 without IAA. Of course I can try with single SATA HDD, single PATA HDD and DVD, but partial support is not for me. I need to work with more drives, and for safety/portability reasons I want to have working copy of Win98SE system on PATA drive less then 64 GiB.-- Andrzej P. Wozniak

The drivers may NOT work, if Realtek AC97 codecs are coupled with not fully supported ICH5 Intel southbridge (there is no Intel Application Accelerator for that bridge). Older drivers install and start Sound Manager but not detect audio devices, newest drivers install and do nothing more. Tested on AOpen AX4SPB-UN motherboard with 848P chipset, ICH5 southbridge, Realtek ALC655 AC97 codec. Andrzej P. Wozniak

There is no Intel Application Accelerator for 875P, 865G/P/PE, 852/855 GM/GME, 855MP, 848P chipsets (ICH5 southbridge) so there is no full support for Windows 9x for these chipsets. See Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, Large drive support for ICH5R, but not for Win-98? thread. Tested with ICH5/848P on AOpen AX4SPB-UN motherboard, Win98SE started from PATA 40 GB drive: * PATA drives can work with generic ESDI_505.PDR drivers. * Single SATA drive is detected but not recognized (error in Device Manager), even with ESDI_506.PDR 4.10.2225 patched for 48bit LBA. * Two SATA drives cause system hang when ESDI_506.PDR driver is detecting drives. Andrzej P. Wozniak