ragnargd

Extensive tests were done on compatibility of W98SE with the AMD 970 chipset lately. With only a few modifications (i.e. Ushers Method, unoff. SP 3.0, NUSB 3.6), it was possible to install and run W98SE. This was the first time USB2 worked right from the start (legacy mode set to AUTO), and no sata-patch was needed for running sata devices from port 5 and 6 (set to IDE mode). The big BUT: After installing NVidia drivers, the board became quite unstable, without any clue on what was causing it. RLoew can confirm this as well. A visible problem was a ressource conflict of a DMA-controller with motherboard ressources (although this does not necessarily have to be linked to the problem). Unless someone reports a fix for the problem, i'd not waste time on boards with AMD 9x0 chipsets. Which really is a pity...

It's a shame, really: The (not-so-new-anymore) AMD 970 chipset is unstable (edit: commercial Patch by RLoew is available!), once an NVidia GPU driver is installed (all works fine with XP or W10). But it is the forst AMD chipset for a long time, which' USB-implementation actually works flawless with NUSB (given the right settings in BIOS). Now, as it is instable, i'll try the AMD 870 once more. Unfortunatley, there, USB-components are detected and installed, but don't seem to initialize, so no mouse or USB-stick (or whatever) can be used. All works fine under XP or W10. Does anyone have any advice (beyond adding a USB2-PCI card, which i already did successfully), or idea? Use the patch by RLoew...

AMD 970: Moving the GPU to another PCIe-slot did not change anything, right after using Opera 10.63, the system became unstable. Not that i really expected this to help, but well, another box checked...

Yep, they are said to be USB 1.1. That said, as you mentioned, probably not usable with W95 during installation (didn't think of that, as i only use w98se - there it should work, as the USB 1.1 stack is part of the base build, i think). They are described as usable during boot (i.e. BIOS), but that doesn't mean much. I'd be interested which chipset they use. Some via, i suppose. I'll take my time to experiment. It'll take some weeks before they arrive anyway.

I saw on different sites a PCI card with w98se drivers, that give two PS/2-ports, and, depending on model, either two internal, or two external USB 2.0 ports. Might be interesting for some. Didn't test it out yet, but ordered one. --> This card did NOT work. Note: I sent it back, and got my money back, so trader and OEM were all right...

Regarding PS/2-ports for Boards without enough: http://www.cuc.eu/en/307805.html Maybe compatible with NUSB? Says it comes with drivers.

That is very similar to what i experience when using opera or IE, just that it happens immediately. I will try with moving the cards between slots (i have two PCIe-slots available), as it may be a problem of the w98se or nvidia drivers with interrupt sharing on that chipset. But, all in all, it feels more like a memory overflow error or a memory leak (of the nvidia-driver, in combination with the chipset). Although i suspect the problem may come up with any driver providing DirectX: Did you consider trying out an ATI x800 256MB PCIe? But beyond NVidia-drivers and such, I don't think that a ressource conflict between "motherboard ressources" and a "DMA-controller" is a good sign anyway... The AMD 8x0 chipset seems to be more promising regarding stability (although even this may be misleading, i did not do serious stress-tests yet). Unfortunately, there exist only two AMD 8x0 boards that provide support for (some) Opterons, and have two separated PS/2-ports. ASRock 890FX Deluxe5, and the ASRock 870iCafe R2.0 And they are nearly impossible to find, even in used condition. As i supect USB2 will have to be added separately, such a board would easily be cramped with addin-cards (sound being a must) So even if it works, it is most probably not a solution for everyone (if only because you will be pressed hard to find ANY of those at all... :-) I'll report if i get hold of a test-subject... The AMD 7x0 chipset boards crashed even with everything onboard switched of, only "running" in safe mode, so i suspect some severe incompatibility issues.

I now have the AMD 770 board with me. One thing can be said for sure: AMD 770 is a pain in the a**. :-( Random crashes just after installation, USB does not show up, controller does not show up, whatnot... I'd rather live with the restrictions of the other two chipsets. This seems to be a dead end.

I cannot guarantee these device to work on any machine (i own both of them, and they work on *most*of my PCs, though), but have a look at this: http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-ZM-VE350-External-Enclosure-ZM-V350B/dp/B019C23H06/ref=pd_sim_147_1/179-3543810-9613406?ie=UTF8&dpID=41sdysKGggL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=16A7KY5DDKJJ84HZ9C1F http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-2-5-Inch-External-Enclosure-S2510BU3ISO/dp/B00E6EBPBO I did not try this one, but it might also be worth a look: http://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Invention-isostick-revC-isostick/dp/B008S4XY08/ref=pd_sim_147_5/179-3543810-9613406?ie=UTF8&dpID=41%2BHBJxXZZL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=16A7KY5DDKJJ84HZ9C1F Be aware there ARE motherboards, on which the W98SE-bootable-iso doesn't work from these devices, while on others W7- or W10-boot-isos don't work. Seems to be a controller/BIOS issue. Still, i found having at least one of those being an investment that saved me a LOT of time, and thereby justified in any case. You cannot imagine how a small SSD in an USB3-device can bring so much joy, compared to a DVD... :-) Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

Regarding DMA on AMD 970: My SSD was also unaffected, was able to use DMA-setting, and generally was fun to use. Together with the perfectly working USB2, that really made me exited at first. It was the DVD, that annoyed me, but what really spoiled the fun, was the behaviour of the system while browsing. Is suspect that is related to the DMA-problem. And that means, this is something you cannot simply circumvent with an addin card, here patching the old drivers would be necessary. And even that has absolutely no guarantee of successs, as ít might be an architectural problem. Regarding the NIC, i did not have the patience to make the onboard 8111E run with the NDIS2-driver, as described by XRayer, but in the light of events, it might actually be worth trying. I'm not overly optimistic, though, the problematic DMA-controller might make problems later on, when you least expect it. Additionally, the fact i wasn't even able to INSTALL without ushers method (and i mean: with 1GB of RAM!), and the FireWire-controller making the system hang, makes me wary about that chipset. I will only ivest more energy on that one, if the AMD 770 is a letdown, too. On the USB2-problem on AMD 870: I used a GF 7600GT 256MB, and later on a GTX 7900 512MB with your patch (on the AMD 970, these worked like a charm). I did not try any other card (as these are my favourites anyway), but i might at least try something else. In case: Do you have a suggestion? ... Anyway, i share your sentiments about the single-port PS2-ports on GigaByte (or any other brand), they *really* are annoying, because even with the USB2-addIn card, i can't use a mouse via my KVM-switch (which supports USB-mice on the KVM side, but on the PC-side, seems to work on PS/2-ports only). All-in-all, you can't get new AMD 870 boards with socket AM3+ any more anyway, even used ones are quite rare. All the while, you can still buy brand-new shiny AMD 770 boards, and those also have better layout, support more CPU-types (like, i.e., the Opteron 8360 HE), occasionally have a SATA3-controller, have separate PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard, and possibly much more. I now eagerly await those, and hope, they prove fit. Hope dies last, they say... :-)

Hi, i have the same problem, on all my machines, once the nvidia driver is up. With my ATI 9700 Pro, no such problem, though. In consequence, I did rule out any kind of "suspend" or screen-blanking on the nvidia machines. And as i usually turn off the computer once done with my stuff, it's not a big deal regarding waste of energy. Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

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.

True. But this device weighs about as much as an USB-Stick, and needs just an USB-port for power, so it NEARLY is as good as an USB-WLAN-Device (while most bridges are quite bulky). As close as you can get for Windows 9x. Or do you have any device of similar size? (Seriously: I'd be interested in that...)

For the GPU, i recommend the inofficial driver. I've been using all of GF6 and 7 types, on PCIe and AGP, and they all work (but with manual installation, as the setup.exe of the inofficial driver is ... not working as desired very often...) . GF6200 is the lowest of their kind. I recomend the 7600 GT, as it ist fast enough for anything i can throw at it on W98SE, (and needs no extra Power-connection if used as a PCIe-card). I personally use a GF 7900GTX PCIe with 512MB Ram with help of RLoews driver-patches on two machines, and a GF 7900 GT AGP 512MB (again RLoews patches) on another. I use the SoundBlaster Live 512 PCI with the original drivers from Creatives homepage with no problems, but prefer the Audigy PCI or Audigy 2 PCI (as they work better with W10 on Dual-Boot).

I repeat: Use the TL-WR802N. It exists. I use it. Can use it even from DOS. You can buy it in shops, new, today. It has WPA2, 802.11n, and 300Mbps-speed - something you'll otherwise never have on W9x (or on DOS). Here: http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/TL-WR802N.html#specifications You don't even need a driver, just a LAN-port, to which you connect that, and a free USB-port for powering it.

Just a side-note: Occasionally, when the questions are more games-specific than hardware-specific, i find this forum (on Vogons.org) quite helpful: http://www.vogons.org/viewforum.php?f=8&sid=bf77d8380ac0cf2d6e45950221218a81 The community there is aware of us W9x-diehards on msfn.org, which is nice, too.

I can still recommend TL-WR802N: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WR802N-Wireless-Repeater-300Mbps/dp/B00TQEX8BO I use it on a regular base for a W98SE-laptop, that does not have a decent internal WLAN-device. I connect it to the LAN-port, and power it from the USB-port. Don't forget to install a firewall on your machine, though, it does not have a NAT-firewall in that constellation.

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.

Do the USB2.0-ports on your Asus M5A97 work with the NUSB-drivers? Could you give a screenshot of your "System", so i could see what is "not working"? Does "AHCI crashes" mean, you have to disable it in BIOS? (Man, i really would like to retire my ALiveDual-eSATA2, and run my Phenom II X4 on W98SE with a more modern MoBo...

Hi, no, no experience, and never heard of anyone. The last supported nForce chipset for W98SE is nForce3, with ASRock AM2NF3 and ASRock ALiveDual eSATA2 being the only boards inofficially supporting W98SE and Athlon II/Phenom II at the same time. I wasn't able to even boot W98SE on a 630a, the predecessor. There is no W98SE driver for anything on that board (chipset, VGA, Sound, USB, PCIe-bridge, IDE, SATA), so even if you get that board to boot, you may not have enough PCI-slots for all the helping PCI-addin-cards to actually DO anythin with it (i.e. playing games). If you already own that board, you may of course still try, it won't harm the board, as long as you have time for it, but it does not seem to be a good idea to invest money in it, as for that money you may get a working board plus CPU on eb*y. If you do, please report the results back here... :-) All this, just my unqualified opinion. Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

I had exactly that shuttle model just two years ago. My box was quite loud because of that particular cooler... :-D ... so i sold it, as i'm particularly allergic to noise (all my PCs have passively cooled GPUs and CPUs, and SSDs, and a maximum of two silent 12"/14" case-coolers). I have a SB Audigy PCI and a SB Audigy 2 Platinum PCI in my W98SE in use, and i like those EAX 2.0 effects very much (i.e. on Baldurs Gate or Half Life - the card can do EAX 3.0 as well, but i don't have games that use it, even modern ones like Stalker only make use of EAX 2.0). For the AGP slot i recommend a NVidia 7600GT AGP 256MB, as it is as fast as an NVdia 6800GT, but uses less power, and thus stays much cooler. If you can't get hold of one, an NVidia 6600 AGP 256MB might be fast enough for your needs, but it depends... but it's still good in terms of thermics. In that box, you will otherwise tend to have thermal problems (the P4 produces quite some heat as well, so it stacks up). Good luck! Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

Fun fact: My problems with those nForce3-boards i own (ASRock AM2NF3, ASRock ALiveDual-eSATA2) stem from problems with stability under XP and Windows 7, and incompatibility with any kind of 64bit Operating System (be it Windows or Linux). And those two are the only ones (to my knowledge) where you can IN THEORY use an Athlon II/Phenom II (because drivers exist). Put your and mine experience together, installing on nForce3-boards should bring world as we know it to the brink of destruction... And that's my dilemma: I have just too many Athlon II/Phenom II lying around. In dencorsos thread "Day-to-day running Win 9x/ME with more than 1 GiB RAM", RLoew has at least two machines with AMD-chipsets "AMD 785G/SB710". Perhaps i have to ask him, how he did that stunt, as there aren't any drivers even for W2K... ...i have one board from ASUS at home, and wasn't able to install W98SE, to start with.... Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

Hi, i asked that before, but without response - perhaps it just went to cats paws in the other thread: Did anyone ever try to get W98SE run on: NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a chipset (CPU in the Athlon 64 / Athlon II Xn / Phenom II Xn range). ...with some persistence? The onboard graphics is basically still a "Geforce 6200 TC", so a driver exists. SATA/IDE/Audio/LAN/USB need not work, just CPU, RAM, and the slots themselves... Any advice by the experienced pro? Cheers, Ragnar G.D. P.S.: ...or advice on ANY board/chipset that can carry an Athlon II / Phenom II, and is NOT nForce3... ... like in: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/118097-day-to-day-running-win-9xme-with-more-than-1-gib-ram/...

@Tripredacus: I did not remember correctly, and was jumping to conclusions prematurely. So I correct myself: From the "official" side, the question is ignored, and the issue as such ("Why?") is still open. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/why-has-the-ms-compatibility-center-disappeared/6722876b-f436-4b54-87e0-412255150578

At least two Microsoft representatives on the community forum answered on the question why the page is gone (more than one answer, always the same content). So it's on purpose by Microsoft.