ragnargd

Do you have links to that software?

Out of lack of time I will focus on more promising things first, before sinking more time in the GA-MoBo (which i will still do, but later - the memory-problems are something that may be solved). I will get an ASRock 990FX Extreme4 soon, which, being very similar to the 890FX Deluxe5, has a good prospect of working quite well. Let's see. The AHCI-driver is something i will definitely try out on that occasion, now that the drivers are available. Although, honestly, the IDE-Mode was working just fine. The SSD will burn faster, but as i don't work on that SSD every day, just a few times per year, i will most probably never notice. Yeah, now i'll have some sleep. Thank you for your support, this is what got us to where we are.

Hi, some of us install W98SE very often. It is, esp. when SP is involved, a tedious process, for there is no room for errors. Most of us don't install from DVD, but put the installation-files onto disk (or a USB-Stick) in advance. Given that, what do you think about assembling a package of things that will be used anyway (ServicePack), or are usefull while not hurting (rloews memory patch comes to mind), and inject it via script into the installation base of W98SE (or any other system), to speed up things, and make them work reliable and in the right order without fails? It is possible, of course, and i would start working on this, that is not my question. My RFC is: Are there $THINGS that should NOT be in such an injection because of potential problems or incompatibilities? Or which should only be injected via parameters, if the user thinks so? Or $THINGS we should include for good? Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

The BISO-Setup actually is not worse that that of the ASRock, and regarding the PS/S emulation via USB, actually this could help on other boards without true PS/2. Not that it helps with the problem, of course. And yes, i run the SSD used for W98SE on the controller set to IDE Mode (on channels 5 + 6) - a feature only GigaGyte and ASRock offer (MSI does not, and Asus not any more). This will burn the SSD faster, but i don't use W98SE for everyday use, so no big deal here. If i had one wish for free, i'd ask the vendors to put in the bios-option to boot from the PCIe 4x slot (like was possible on the compatible GA-870A-DS3)... I did not try XMGR.SYS yet - i like the fact it is in active development. Worth a try. The low vcache... have to think about this... i don't understand yet, what that would help with memory violation. After these tests, which i will do to learn, and of course to honor your efforts ... ;-) ... , i will sink rather more time in looking for other working boards. With Ryzen taking over the AMD-fanboybase, used AM3+ boards flood the market for cheap... :-D

Ok, tested, fail. It seems, the access violation occurs even before new hardware is detected, during configuration. Thank you none the less, deomsh!

The problem here is that of choice: Do i have to force this board into subservience, or do i work with something that does the job happily, as does the ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0? The ASRock board is newer, cheaper, and easier to get in shops (ASRock alsways offers their mainstream boards longer than any other company). AND it is much easier to handle. We have a clear winner here, and it's not clear that even with some effort the GA MoBo will pass the finishing line at all. Reason: Even with the parameters given, success on the GA ist not guaranteed, as memory access violation is not the same as components hanging during detection: The offending memory used by the (unspecified) onboard components is already occupied at boot time, and will stay so, while detection and ressource-/driver-assignment happens later. But that's theory, we'll see.

From my experience with these splitter-cables, it also depends on the chipset of the MoBo: Very often only Laptops have a working implementation, as it was there where space on the sides was scarce, and these cables provided a way to use them on the desktop, with a big keyboard, mouse and monitor attached. That was before docking-stations came up to be the latest. rloew commented on this as well, having made the same experience (and then adding some arcane knowledge, as usual). In the end, the cables i had never enabled me to install on a system on which i could not without, so i finally got rid of them.

You, Sir, are a scholar. I did not even know these parameters exist... ;-) Without PCI-bus, that would mean no soundcard, as the Audigy2 is PCI. But, well, it is at least worth a try for scientific reasons... ;-) btw: I just read "Exploring "SETUP /P I;S=detectbus" and Grub4Dos: 8½ times Win98se on USB-drive". Well done!

I found an interesting link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgIF8uG-2G0

While i can only second everything MrMateczko has said, look for threads started by ruthan, who reported (partial) success with Unraid and W98SE. Use the search-function.

In a Nutshell: I was not able to rund Windows 98 SE on a Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P. Reason (probably): Despite the chipset, being well-known for its compatibility, some other onboard components map memory into the space W98SE cannot control, resulting in access violation or (even worse) memory corruption. Details: As my ASRock 890FX Deluxe5 is slowly dying (i already lost two of them), which i attribute to the enormous heat the voltage regulaters produce for my 125W TDP FX-8350, i have to find an alternative. Ready for use lies my trusted ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 beneath me. I don't know any board exept for the 890FX Deluxe5 that can provide PCIe 8x on the second 16x slot to make XP or W10 usable for performant full-HD gaming, but x4 on the second 16x slot on the 970 Pro3 would still deliver reasonable framerates (about 15% loss against 8x or 16x) with, i.e., a GTX 970. But then i stubled across the GA MoBo. I did not consider it at first, as the revisions known to me (1.0, 3.0) did not support neither my FX-8350 nor my FX-4320, but, lately, i found out that the Revision 2.1, which is only sold in Europe, does support both. As the GA MoBo resembles the ASRock 970 MoBo in most details (chipset, PS/2 ports, USB, you name it), even providing a better layout (having one more PCIe 1x slot free, and providing a better thermal position for my Audigy2), i bought one fresh from the shop, hoping for the best. How did i test? I did my usual routine, with components successfully used several times on other MoBos: - I switched everything off (LAN, Sound, USB, UEFI, and everything else i could) - put in a trusted bar of 1GB DDR3 (working fine in both my ASRock Boards with W98SE) - a 256MB NVidia 7600 GT PCIe, passively cooled, sporting a VGA interface - and a SATA II SSD (formatted, and filled with all files needed for installation) Upon installation, i was immediately greeted with "out of memory", which already hinted to components using ressources that will conflict with W98SE (normally, a compatible system works without any modification with 1GB installed, although rloew reported cases where even this was too much. I did not find 512 MB bars for DDR3 in shops). At first, although i did not have more that 1GB of memory installed, i used himemx.exe with the usual routine, which already got me a reboot further in the setup. But after the second reboot, memory violation stopped me from reaching the desktop. I then used rloews memory-patch, at first on its own, then with the /M option, and finally with SPLIT8MB.EXE in autoexec.bat. All to no avail, sometimes (with drivers injected) i got to the desktop, but experienced severe memory corrution (display-artefacts, corrupted fileallocation tables), or simply got access violation before getting to the desktop. What i also did: I successfully tested the MoBo with the HalfLife 2 "Lost Coast" benchmark on XP and W10-x64, to make sure the board is intact. I also repeated every step with W98SE on my ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0, and got a rock-solid system If you can think of any step i still might try, please tell me, but otherwise, i think that pretty much is it. Verdict: I still think that the AM3+ boards working with W98SE are more or less a lucky, but freakish incident.

Usually, many chipsets only work AFTER installation, once drivers (i.e. NUSB) have been installed. Many boards that are unusable because of a lack of PS/2-ports would become usable if their usb-ports were accessible during boot/installation. Very rare, unfortunately, only have seen this with old boards where it was USB 1.1, that also emulated PS/2. Do you know if this works at boot-time already, or while installing?

I had one nForce2 and two nForce3 boards. All of them ran hot, were prone to BSODs on every OS i threw at them, and if the part you have bought is old, it may be damaged from the excessive heat of that chipsets already. And to add insult to pain, for nForce2, i did not like what i experienced on DOS (although for DOS-games, I always use DOSBox on a modern PC). A waste of money and, what hurts most, time. The newest, latest board ever produced that officially supports W98SE is this one (even used ones will be a few years old only): https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i65G R3.0/index.asp Drivers are stable, the board is stable, the chipset does not run hot, and you can use SATA II SSDs. Add an Audigy 2 PCI and an Intel PCI Gigabit NIC, and it is pure fun. Have a look at the nice list of supported CPUs: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i65G R3.0/index.asp#CPU And you hit two for the price of one: It runs perfect with XP in dual-boot, i.e. with a quadcore Q6600. (And it is supposed to run W10 32bit fine as well, but don't sue me on that) Setup with 512MB of RAM, use rloews RAM limitation patch, update to 2GB of RAM. Just my 2ct...

Damn. I can't search for chipsets like Z77 or Z68, even though i can see the term in threads and topics... anyway... Can anyone report in very briefly on his/her experience with W98SE on x77/x68/x67 chipset boards (Sandy Bridge/IvyBridge, Socket 1155)?

Hi, i'm at the moment experimenting with my shiny new Windows Server 2016 Essentials. For some reasons, i do not have the option to run a hardware raid, so i have to use the Microsoft Software Raid (tm). I use six drives a 1TB (Intel p660 NVMe PCIe). Ok, using Software Raid 5 obviously is not a problem, let's ignore this, that's not what i have in mind. I'm talking about Raid 6. Well, there is no such thing... Or is it? One option is "Storage Spaces", which is supposed to allow parity for TWO failed drives. Unfortunately, Microsoft seems to always need another, third drive, for so-called "global parity". This is a waste of one expensive drive... but for one singular server, "global" parity is not needed anyway. Could that be configured to not use that "global parity drive"? And if: How? Does anyone have some experience with storage spaces? Can it be used on Essentials in the first place? Another option is BTRFS for Windows: https://github.com/maharmstone/btrfs Anyone into such experimental things? (P.S.: Yes, i do backups, twice: MS Backup local onto a USB-Drive, and important files into some encrypted cloud-storage. Just in case you're asking...) Cheers, Ragnar G.D. P.S.: The Server (using 28W in idle): - ASRock Rack X470D4U2-T2 https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X470D4U2-2T#Specifications - Ryzen 3 1200 - 16GB Ram non-ECC - 2x SanDisk Ultra II 240GB, running as Raid 1 (SATA-Onboard FakeRaid) for the OS - 2x Asus HYPER M.2 X16 CARD V2 https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessories/HYPER-M-2-X16-CARD-V2/ - 6x Intel 660p NVMe 1TB, two each in the Asus cards, two on the MoBo - linked to a MikroTik 10G Switch (passive cooling, 8-port SFP+ with some Transceivers for RJ45, 1 port 1Gbit RJ45). Yes, i have machines that eat/feed 10Gbit of bandwith with their NVMe drives... ;-)

Small clarification (on the NVidia iCafe Drivers 368.81 and 368.91 for XP) The XP-64bit driver may (or may not) support some 10x0, but they are not listed in the files. @Burd claims success with inf-modding. The XP-32bit definitely does NOT. Inf-modding was tried by several users, to no avail. Thanks to @Dibya for pointing out...

>> @Dibya Your best bet is to get a gtx970 Unfortunately, that is exactly the card i have, and which blackscreens under W10. I have two, actually. And a 710. All to the same effect. Since Windows 190x Yes, the 1060/70/80 cards are not mentioned in the NVidia driver-files, no matter what the internet says... https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRAPHICS-BOARD/NVIDIA/NVIDIA-GeForce-iCafe-Graphics-Driver-36891-for-XP.shtml#download https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/nvidia-geforce-icafe-expresso-368-91-whql-desktop-driver.408957/ @jaclaz You have always been there when i needed you... ;-) ------------------- So all in all, the 1070 will be my forever-card in my Gaming-rig, as i assume it will take some time unless the 1070 bows before any game at 1920x1200 ... ...but i'm still at a loss on my triple-boot machine... any ideas are welcome. Well, since the latest driver by NVidia, the GTX 970 is - finally - working again. Chapter closed. Until the next either NVidia Driver -, or Windows Update-Nightmare. Whatever... (What can I say... Windows XP and Windows 98SE on the same machine run rock-solid... :-D ) Thank you for all your support! Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

@Diby @halohalo: Thank you for the tips. I just got a GTX 1070, and will try that one. If possible, with the nvidia icafe drivers on xp. I will report...

Sorry for reanimation, but there you are... :-) ...at the moment, i have problems running my GTX 970 on my Windows 10, which is triple-boot with XP and W98SE. It runs fine on XP, but W10 just blackscreens. Seems to be an issue between driver, W10, and MoBo. Whatever. Does anybody still have a link to that driver? AMD killed it on their page... Do you still have that modded inf-file? I consider using a R9-nano, until i sort that problem out with my GTX 970, but it has to work with XP... and the other (supported) options, 280 and 280X, are to hot for my machine, and would, especially, grill my soundblaster. The nano looks like a good option, performance-wise, heat, video-ram... What do you think, is it worth a try?

My machine in the list of "most modern systems" is still running. Without him, that build wouldn't exist. I renamed its Netbios-name to rloew. P.S.: I will go though my mails now - i'm pretty sure there is another contact, a Ms. C. C. Anderson, being some kind of "Distributor". If there is family left behind, i think instead of considering his work "abandonware", i'd rather think it is MSFN-spirit to at least ask that contact, if still buying his stuff would support whatever there is of his relatives. Any suggestion how to handle this?

The Sweater is ... ugly... not... This is Dona Sarker, Chief of Windows Insider: Can't access Twitter from here, more perhaps later... Or do research for yourself... :-D

This solved my problem, thank you!

Nice work with the player (crashes on me, but, heck... maybe i'll test IDA Pro on this... yes?) Still "No Virus No Voulnerability" is a myth, and t's proven wrong here on msfn.org. We found working, actual malware for W9x. And i know what i'm talking about.

I'm slowly building a collection of w9x-games (182 and growing), but unfortunately, this is not among it yet. Can you see a log in the games base directory?

Shall i test before you buy? How?