pangoomis

What is your GPU? Have you tried all USB ports? Try enabling/changing all USB/Legacy options in the BIOS.

The number of processes in Win10 is misleading, as each svchost.exe instance in Win10 corresponds to just ONE service, not multiple ones like in the case of Win2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1. Although it WILL use the old method if you install Windows 10 on a machine with only 1GB of RAM. Of course there indeed some bloat with the support for UWP apps (like Settings or Search) but this doesn't make it 3x more processes. My Win10 1909 on a machine with 8GB of RAM and all stuff installed and not many tweaks uses only about ~2GB of RAM on empty desktop. By removing Windows Search and Windows Defender I could make it even smaller, but I actually want those. As long as you don't have any unknown process taking up lots of RAM (the Task Manager is now usable unlike others say) it's all fine.

Which model of the dual core you mean? Here is full list of CPUs compatible with revision 3.0: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i65G R3.0/#CPU

So to conclude: 137GB patch is required if you have a Win98SE partition that exists (in part or fully) beyond the first 137GB portion of the disk, regardless how big it is. In other words, if Win98SE needs to access any data beyond the 137GB position, counting from the beginning, it is needed. Yes, I always made 98SE partitions at the beginning of the disk. Seems like the easiest thing to avoid all problems.

Use this: https://lonecrusader.x10host.com/rloew/sysdmcpl.html

That is not true from my experience. Sure, the 137GB patch is always required if you want a partition bigger than 137GB without data corruption. But the SATA patch (not AHCI driver) is not always required, this varies between motherboards. Going back on topic, @tillewolle if you encounter problems, apply the SATA patch from here: https://archive.org/details/PTCHSATA

ACPI support in Windows 98 SE is unfinished and causes problems. APM does the same things as ACPI and actually works. This includes automatically shutting down without seeing the "You may now shutdown this computer" message, so there is no real loss of functionality by switching to APM, even on older hardware. This of course does not apply to newer operating systems ACPI in 98SE is enabled by default if the BIOS date is later than 12/02/1999. Umm...I had Win98SE installed on a less than 137GB partition on my Toshiba P300 1TB HDD with MBR type, connected to the ASRock H110M-DVS R3.0 AHCI only motherboard. The partition was put at the beginning (this is the important part) and made active. The rest of the space was filled with an NTFS partition, so two partitions in total, one FAT32 and one NTFS. Win98SE in that case did not use the ESDI_506.PDR at all, and there was no sign of any data corruption, even before installing the AHCI driver. Starman also says this is the case: https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/Limits.htm#137 Are you saying that ESDI_506.PDR file prevents Win98SE to install/boot/run when it detects a large drive, even if the Win98SE partition is within the limit? From my experience with other hardware, the ESDI patch is required when the system hangs at initializing it (in BOOTLOG.TXT), OR you want to avoid the data corruption if you have a larger than 137GB partition. But one has no correlation (IMO) with the other. We might have had a misunderstanding here I think.

You don't have to use the LBA support patch even when your drive is bigger than 137GB. All that matters is that the PARTITION is not larger than 137GB. So instead of using 10GB HDD, FAT32 conversion, cloning and expanding, just install 98SE from CD (with the /p i switch) to the 250GB HDD directly. Make sure you use the FDISK/FORMAT included tools, and make FDISK not use full space, but rather a percentage (50% for example) so it creates a partition smaller than 137GB. This might resolve some issues.

What did you do to set the system up? Any notable steps?

Sorry about that, here is a better link: http://tim.id.au/static/WDM_A404.exe There seems to be something wrong with the system itself. Can you try reinstalling 98SE but with the "/p i" switch so it doesn't install ACPI? Are you using 98lite? Try not using it. Here is latest DirectX 9.0c for 98SE: http://falconfly.3dfx.pl/downloads/DirectX-90c-x86-x86_64-Dec2006.zip

"PCI Multimedia Audio Device" means AC97, that's a good thing, we have drivers for that. If it was "PCI Card", it would have been HD Audio, and we don't have drivers for that. The SUBSYS tells me it's a C-Media variant of the Realtek chip, try these drivers, they have the exact SUBSYS you have in the INF, they should work: http://asrock.pc.cdn.bitgravity.com/Drivers/VIA/Audio/C-Media_XP64_XP_2K_ME_98(AC97Integrate003).zip If not, you can still try the generic ones: WDM_A404.EXE are the latest generic Realtek AC97 drivers for Windows 98, A405 and A406 are not supported despite Realtek telling you otherwise, damn liars. LoneCrusader found out about that a while back and noted that here in the thread. You can try installing the A404 version from here: http://tim.id.au/static/WDM_A404.exe

@Dave-H While it is currently the only option for native HD Audio driver, it's not a WDM/VXD driver but based on Windows 3.1 driver model, it produces glitchy audio, and it's a pain to install. Besides, doesn't it require specific configuration for each PC/sound chip? Not fun. It's also no longer developed by walter (the original author). I never got it to work. Regardless, @tillewolle, feel free to test it.

On my ASRock H110M-DVS R3.0 motherboard, I need HIMEMX.EXE even when using rloew's RAM Patch, or else 98SE is stuck on the boot screen. It's probably what LoneCrusader is talking about the /MACHINE:1 switch, never tried that myself as I have always used HIMEMX.EXE, will try that when I get a chance. Why do you need EMM386.EXE? I do not need it to install 98SE on my H110 motherboard, try without it. Try using the integrated GPU rather than the GTX 780. Try installing 98SE without the PCI slot box thingy connected. You do not need AHCI driver to get 98SE to boot on new AHCI only motherboards. After the system is installed, you will simply have legacy 16-bit Disk Access that is noted in the Performance tab in System properties. ESDI_506.PDR is not used at all. After you have 98SE booted, then you can install the AHCI driver (by selecting one of the PCI Card devices in Device Manager) and enjoy the full 32-bit Disk Access. And finally, try obtaining a PCI-E 98SE compatible GPU, those include the GeForce 6/7 series, and ATI Radeon X300/X550/X700/X800/X850 series. You can also try removing some RAM sticks if possible.

For music I recommend XMPlay, latest version works natively on 98SE: http://www.un4seen.com/

The "compatibility with AC'97" means (I think) that it is compatible with AC'97 front panel headers on old cases, not with the AC'97 specification. wdm_r124.exe is NOT for 9x! For WDM_A404.exe to work, the sound card would have to be reported in Device Manager as a PCI Multimedia Audio Device (meaning it is not an HD Audio Bus) with a compatible hardware ID from the *.INF, not a PCI Card (which is the HD Audio Bus) which has a completely different Hardware ID. OP, it would be nice if you could show us the Device Manager, and the hardware ID of the unknown devices, you can see them by running "hwinfo /ui" in the Run dialog from Start Menu. Then selecting Devices with problems in the top menu.

There are no HD Audio drivers for 98SE/ME. There are only drivers for AC'97 (which is an older standard) which you've tried already. Best bet is to use either cheap USB Audio card (98SE/ME supports those natively), or a PCI card like SoundBlaster Live.

What about this mentioned on the Wiki article about MTP? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=19153

Try a different monitor. Try changing the AGP Aperture size in BIOS. Try disabling all but the essential devices in the BIOS, or just disconnect them from the motherboard. Try a different power supply. Try Windows 98SE to see if the issue is present there. Use the Radeon card and remove RAM so it's 1GB or less. If the problem still exists, I can only suggest changing the motherboard to a one with a different chipset.

I've bought his Windows 9x AHCI driver, which works wonderfully. I've had many discussions with him on this very forum, I am still, to this day, thoroughly impressed by his work and knowledge. Rest In Peace Rudolph, you will be remembered.

Have you tried using a different hard drive? Maybe a smaller one? Can you try a different power supply? Are the capacitors on the motherboard OK?

Try running the setup with the: /p i switch, note the space between p and i

You may also try RivaTuner, I think it has some options related to AGP: https://dpcdn-s14x.pl/narzedzia/Rivatuner224c(dobreprogramy.pl).zip

KB4464566 includes MSO.DLL as seen on the update website below, therefore it's yet another update to avoid: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4464566/security-update-for-office-2010-september-10-2019

It's the Inno3D GTX 1050 Ti Twin X2. I'm not at home, can't test it for you, will be back in probably a month or two. But I do remember running 98SE with it with no problems.

Try this: https://archive.org/details/Office2000Premium.7z