98SE

Ahh... so without the modified BIOS the USB 2.0 ports would not have worked? Did you use regular Intel Chipset drivers or the Intel USB 3.0 drivers for Windows 7?

I think I need to do the same to help Dibya out. Cut the time in half. It could be terrifying at first but once done it is all fun!

Dibya I double checked your MSI MB https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130872 I see two USB 2.0 ports below the PS2 keyboard port. Are these the only ones that work in XP without modification? These are Intel USB 2.0 ports?

Dibya that is only for Asmedia SATA controller not Intel. Was this on the AsRock Motherboard? Did you finish Intel USB 3.0 unmodified XP version? Let me know. I have temporary system ready for testing.

How did you disable XHCI? Can you explain? Most Z170 only have xHCI and no more true USB 2.0 ports. Did your USB 3.0 ports work without any modifications? How did you damage the capacitors?

That's why I recommend the R7 1700. Low wattage and probably BBFTB so it doesn't hurt the wallet or electric bills although I can't imagine what you would do with 36 HTs? The hunt for ETs? Mapping Twin Primes? I'm not even sure if 8 cores will work in XP yet. What adverse effect does running 98SE in Compatibility Mode cause? Okay 4 hours of time spent so far and did more tests as I assumed your files were just the same files with random garbage characters in it for testing it copied okay in each memory region. It seems you coded it somehow to cause a reaction when copied to the hidden Ramdrive. I created multiple batch files to test each one to prevent overlap. The Y returns the only color character garbage result. Maybe you can explain what the W, X, and Z files helped troubleshoot? Update: I reran the test again and it does shift the second series of garbage characters as you described. I happens on Y and Z only.

I preferred AMD back in the 386/486 era. Then a K6-2 which was a huge speed boost over the Pentium 1 and much cheaper. Later I had to get a P4 because AMD had no ISA slots and Dual Floppy Controller motherboard so it broke compatibility for my legacy stuff. Intel had more motherboard options that fit the bill. But today if you can get hold of an AM4 R7 1700 and modify that to support 8 cores for 98SE that would be an amazing patch I'd like to see you test out if you going to invest in another AMD this is the one. At the moment my Z170 can't format a system bootable disk. This is why I have a feeling it had issues working with 98SE and Himem.sys. Also during XP it reported a loss of 1GB of memory for no reason regardless of video card memory capacity or onboard only using Intel HD 32MB limited video memory option the same result. And the P4 I am trying to get to run passively has been shutting down too soon before the 98SE bootable disk finishes. So I'm trying to swap a CPU or put a better heatsink right now to get that clean boot disk before loading your two utils onto it for testing. But regarding the USB mouse I was using the onboard Intel HD Graphics on that particular test with the USB mouse. So it had nothing to do with the nVidia card conflicting somehow. Stay tuned. I might be able to get a Z77 to do it but would have to reboot to DOS to format the disk if the P4 keeps shutting down. Update: Z77 temp system set up. Got a USB bootable 98SE working and formatted a bootable floppy. I will transfer your two utils to the disk on the XP system in a moment. Modified Config.Sys for Bootable Floppy test. TESTS condensed data for space - 6/16/17 PROTHOOK Method EMM386 Virtual I/O Port 7C80 No Preallocated 32-Bit Memory Interrupt 15H Hooked Above data the same on Boot for P4/Z77/Z170 Test #1: Z170 Status for USB 98SE Bootable Floppy Rudolph Loew HimemEX v2.3 Update: 2GB GT 710 PCI card installed - Primary OnBoard Intel HD 530 Graphics - Auto Shared Memory setting PROTHOOK Method EMM386 Virtual I/O Port 7C80 No Preallocated 32-Bit Memory Interrupt 15H Hooked 32GB installed should be = 33554432 KB = 32768 MB BIOS SETTING - Top of Lower Usable Dram - Dynamic, 64-bit Memory: 31293440 KB = 30560 MB = 29.84375 GB Difference of 2260992 KB = 2208 MB = 2.15625 GB Test run in a moment. TESTAHCI.COM Result: AHCI ONLY CONTROLLER FOUND - CANNOT SWITCH TEST.BAT - HIMEMEX: TRIES TO COPY FILES SEEMS SUCCESSFUL I tried copying CONFIG.SYS to HIMEMEX0 and it says copied. I have no way to verify if the content is intact since I don't know how your HIMEMEX normally works as I have no drive letter to confirm the files are present or successfully copied without corruption. Final Test.BAT result: Two lines of colored symbols identical except the second line is shifted one character left. Test #2: Z170 Status for USB 98SE Bootable Floppy Rudolph Loew HimemEX v2.3 Update: 2GB GT 710 PCI card Installed and Uninstalled same memory available result. OnBoard Intel HD 530 Graphics - 32MB Shared Memory setting - Primary 32GB installed should be = 33554432 KB = 32768 MB BIOS SETTING - Top of Lower Usable Dram - 2.5GB, 64-bit Memory: 30998528 KB = MB = GB BIOS SETTING - Top of Lower Usable Dram - 3.5GB, 64-bit Memory: 30474240 KB = MB = GB BIOS SETTING - Top of Lower Usable Dram - Dynamic, 64-bit Memory: 31260672 KB = 30528 MB = 29.8125 GB 64-bit Memory: 31260672 KB = 30528 MB = 29.8125 GB Difference of 2293760 KB = 2240 MB = 2.1875 GB Test #3: Z170 Status for USB 98SE Bootable Floppy Rudolph Loew HimemEX v2.3 Update: 2GB GT 710 PCI card Installed and Uninstalled same memory available result. OnBoard Intel HD 530 Graphics - 1024MB Shared Memory setting - Primary 32GB installed should be = 33554432 KB = 32768 MB 64-bit Memory: 31293440 KB = 30560 MB = 29.84375 GB Difference of 2260992 KB = 2208 MB = 2.15625 GB Test #4: Z170 Status for USB 98SE Bootable Floppy Rudolph Loew HimemEX v2.3 Update: 4GB GTX 1050 Ti installed - Primary also same memory result OnBoard Intel HD 530 Graphics - 32MB Shared Memory setting - Primary 32GB installed should be = 33554432 KB = 32768 MB 64-bit Memory: 31522816 KB = 30784 MB = 30.0625 GB Difference of 2031616 KB = 1984 MB = 1.9375 GB Test #5: Z170 Status for USB 98SE Bootable Floppy Rudolph Loew HimemEX v2.3 Update: 4GB GTX 1050 Ti installed - Primary also same memory result OnBoard Intel HD 530 Graphics - 1024MB MAX Shared Memory setting - Primary 32GB installed should be = 33554432 KB = 32768 MB 64-bit Memory: 31555584 KB = 30816 MB = 30.09375 GB Difference of 1998848 KB = 1952 MB = 1.90625 GB . Strange that the Intel HD 530 32MB setting gives you less 64-bit memory than the 1024MB setting. Also the 4GB PCIe card 31555584 KB provided more available memory than the 2GB PCIe card 31293440 KB with onBoard Intel HD 530 Graphics 1024MB shared video memory. A difference of 262144 KB = 256MB. . Z77 TESTAHCI.COM Result: NO INT 13 DRIVES MATCHED TEST.BAT - HIMEMEX: Final Test result: Two lines of colored symbols identical except the second line is shifted one character left. Does your Z87 produce the same result? . P4 845 TESTAHCI.COM Result: NO SWITCHABLE AHCI CONTROLLERS FOUND. TEST.BAT - HIMEMEX: Failure complete mismatching color garbage characters Y and Z produced it.

Thanks for clearing up video card memory usage R. Loew. If you are using a 256MB video card will the 768MB of that 1GiB MMIO range you mentioned get freed up for 98SE programs? I'll try to set up the Z170 for the tests now and get you that information. I thought you were using Intel CPUs on the newer motherboards so you only are able to answer half the support possibilities. Also the newer AM4 chipset with Ryzen CPUs I would be interested in finding out if your 98SE Mem patch and non-XMS Ramdisk works on it since that would the latest generation to test. You could be right that it could be a dealbreaker if Intel has broken 9X/ME which is why I purposely got a Z87 since it in between the Z77 and Z170 for testing on all three. I did test your Mem Patch on the Z77 before and it seemed to function except some issues with onboard USB port and USB mouse not working properly. Stay tuned.

Focus on the the XP 32-bit Intel USB 3.0 if you can. I can help with testing the driver. Can you explain the UEFI problem? My XP works fine what are you trying to fix? You are on Z170 Dibya?

version 49? I have Version 46 on XP working. Was the V49 official or modified by you to work on XP?

What about instead of Vista do the XP 64-bit versions add the W7 SP1 Software Compatibility DX10,11.1, USB 3.0, and W10 DX 12.0? Since you studied XP code more then it would be easier for you? I wouldn't mind having XP 32-bit and XP 64-bit to dual boot on my computer but later you can do single hybrid XP to do all of it. XP 64-bit would still keep the user interface and already has built in 128GB support without needing to beta test or worry. Add USB 3.0 to that version first would be easier?

So the actual BIOS remaps the free memory? This has nothing to do with your Non XMS RamDisk or Windows 98 doing the memory location remapping? What was the MMIO used memory for 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, and 256MB PCIe cards? I want to give your program a fair test as I have several graphics cards of different memory capacities. So all legacy PCI and AGP graphic cards will not use any MMIO memory so you will get the entire 1GiB chunk is this correct only PCIe cards are affected? Regarding your two test programs I still got those on the backburner. I've been a little swamped recently with a big mess here so doing some moving and cleaning so I have to reset up the systems for tests after I'm done. Need more space. I was going to finish setting up the P4 for 98SE and do some stability tests but I got swamped and the incredible Playoffs and Finals happened. I also have a recently arrived Z87 board that I need to grab a CPU for testing. So I should be able to test P4, Z68, Z77, Z87, and Z170 for you to compare your two programs I downloaded when I get a chance. I also got an Amiga and Atari I have to set up but probably of no interest to you but doing multiple legacy computer platforms. Have any of your Memory Limitation Patch been sold to any Z170 or Z270 users yet? I assume if it worked for 98SE then the Non XMS RamDisk should not have a problem according to you. Also you mentioned you don't have a USB floppy drive. But I assume you still have the original bootable 98SE CD or at least the installation setup files to burn a modified ISO. On your Z97 can you boot off that and get to the Command Prompt using F8 method without errors? Also if you can try and create a custom 98SE bootable CD that just loads Windows 98SE Himem.Sys in the Config.Sys and no other files and no Autoexec.Bat file and test on your Z97 to see if has any errors? If you don't want to burn a disc you can do a USB bootable flash drive instead for the test. For the WinME have you tried to enhance any of your mods using those files instead of the 98SE? Did you notice any increase in memory capacity or stability between the two or better support? If so I'd rather try a WinME patch.

#1) Yes for XP 32-bit the focus should be on the Intel xHCI USB 3.0/3.1 should be at the top. Then stable memory patch to 262GB. #2) Switch to Vista 64-bit SP2 DX11 update to support W7 SP1/ W10 software compatibility with DX12 patch. No need to deal with DX10,DX11 patch since it is embedded. Then no reason for W10. After #1,#2 Done finally do #3 Add W7 SP1/W10 software compatibility and DX12 patch to XP-32bit. That should be the priority list. More people can use the software while less effort on Dibya at each stage. I can do XP/Vista setup and experiment to make sure it's stable.

I don't think you understood what I'm asking. This is still the same site where a smaller installer runs to download the latest version. I'm talking about a stand alone offline full installation meaning you download one file that includes everything to install the entire browser offline. There should be no need to be online to finish the installation process. Do you have something like that for all older versions of Google Chrome? Firefox has this as well as others.

That's why you would dual OS boot to solve most software issues. XP 32bit or W7 64bit should be good enough. The XP W7 layer shouldn't be a priority. It is better to get functionality that enhances the OS and USB 3.0 is probably easier to accomplish. USB 3.0 was one that was not included and now more important since USB 2.0 has been killed on Z170 so XP is harder to be used without USB 3.0 functionality. If you can't get the USB devices working then you won't even even be able to use XP or your W7 programs on it. More memory is good but if you Dibya keeps wasting his time trying to create Windows 7 Compatibility he will never finish the USB 3.0. It should be done in chunks. Get USB 3.0 to work on standard XP if possible first. Once that's accomplished then he can focus on W7 layer if that's what he wants. But it is better for him to focus on W7 instead and add DX12 or do Vista and add USB 3.0 and W7 Compatibility with DX12 would be my preference. I don't see any benefit to spend time trying to get all W7 software to work on XP at this point but maybe later on. That's something that might require a huge team to beta test everything. He might learn more trying to get DX12 into Vista or W7 first. Then use that knowledge to see if can be backported into XP. Then he can do an XP USB 3.0 with DX12 now that would be something worth using. There aren't too many programs that I need/use that require W7 so unless you are talking about games then I don't see why you aren't just using Windows 7 for that. The browser thing isn't an issue for me and so far they haven't dropped XP support and if they have it doesn't mean an older version of that browser won't work for the time being and most web sites aren't going to be dead overnight. Mainly those banking sites might be the first ones that require updating. If your focus is on games then you should be interested in seeing the Vista USB 3.0 / W7 DX12 patch instead. I think it would be an overwhelming thing to make XP run all the W7 software. And then what you still have no DX12 so you'll end up wanting to get W10 to run those software so you would have wasted your effort. Let's say Dibya focuses on making W7 Compatibility Layer. It may take 3 years for all we know since I haven't even seen a working USB 3.0 yet done so I can't imagine how long it will take adding that W7 compatibility layer on top and he's doing this mainly by himself. Then in the meantime no USB 3.0 support while too busy trying to do a W7 compatibility layer and by then most people have moved to Windows 7 or 10 due to need to run those DX12 programs. Do the easier ones first. Otherwise there will be no beta to test.

Why so much interest in Palemoon? Firefox especially older versions are pretty good before they changed the interface look. Also there is SeaMonkey and Opera which all work in XP. I never liked Google Chrome and they don't offer stand alone installers so you can use an older version. No we are talking about xHCI ports. eHCI is only USB 2.0 not USB 3.0. Just like earlier USB 1.0/1.1 ports can't do USB 2.0 or 3.0 speeds. Or a Pinto can't be perform like a Lambo just cause you change the paint job you got to replace the engine just like replacing the USB controller. The larger downloads you are talking about I assume from the internet then the bottleneck will be your ISP and your ethernet or Wifi connection moreso than the USB 2.0 speeds. USB 2.0 is still good enough for HD videos. USB 3.0 in most tests ends up 2-3 times faster than USB 2.0. Not that big a boost compared to USB 1.1. The only USB 3.0 for laptop if it doesn't have it built in that I can think of are ExpressCards. But the XP xHCI driver support was focused on the Z170 motherboards since they dropped USB 2.0 eHCI. If the proper Hardware IDs are added it should work on laptops with the Intel xHCI also not just desktops.

Obvious misunderstanding on jaclaz's part. Thanks for the chuckles. But neither of those two would be worth it anyhow though I did see XP kernel for 98SE. XP 32-bit just needs Intel USB 3.0 xHCI and extra memory support. Windows 7 64-bit just needs 2TB max memory and DX12 support and it will kill Windows 10. Don't stress yourself Dibya. XP doesn't need to run Windows 7 programs compatibility. Also no need to make every browser work on it. Firefox still works on XP and doesn't need Vista/W7 code. Waste of time and might create XP software compatibility problems later doing too much. It will be a nightmare trying to make it run W7 software on XP completely or always needing to patch each program to work and waste your energy. XP is good for all older XP software, just add Intel xHCI USB 3.0 and maybe the extra memory patch is all you need. I checked and I think XP can handle probably 262GB max. 192GB user memory / 70GB Ramdrive. Maybe it can go higher somehow on Win2K3 Server kernel.

LOL jaclaz!!!

Will 256MB AGP, PCIe, and PCI graphics cards nVidia work fine without the NVSIZE? Do any Ati or non NVidia graphics card need any patching similar to this program? Do any standard 16/32bit 98 Software (unmodified) of that era take advantage of the MULTCORE API?

So there is no special way to force the 1GB with your Limitation Patch with some syntax or some extra MLP add-on program? Otherwise it will allocate up to 3.5GiB by default with 4GB installed? You have to use the 32-bit XMS Ramdisk and create a 2.5GiB Ramdisk in DOS to hog the memory prior to loading into 98SE or deal with the 3.5GiB?

Yes but I want to force limit 98SE to just the first 1GB with the Memory Limitation Patch enabled. I don't want the entire 3.5GB allocated for 98SE. I want to reserve the 1GB-4GB for a possible Ramdrive instead. This will keep it the most compatible as possible and be able to store the program on the Ramdrive with only 4GB installed.

So was the original first > 4GB memory patch for XP from China or was there one prior to that? Has there been full documentation of what was changed and explained what was done in detail? Is the RAM limitation still confined to 4GB for programs usage? So only >4GB is Ramdrive use only? Are you talking about USB 3.0 on board or add in PCIe card? On Z170 this would not be a huge issue as there are no more real USB 2.0 ports.

I'm trying to figure that out. How much memory is showing up in your System Properties screen. Can you take a snapshot and upload here? Right Click on My Computer icon to get to the screen. Why did you need the nvsize? Have you tried without it? Maybe too much system memory causing the problem. Test a 256MB video card to see if the same result.

Which Xeno86 patch are you referring? 384MB?

It is not a typical setup but to test the limits of Memory Limitation Patch and its effects. But also secondary test is how to limit Memory Limitation Patch (which original use was to prevent BSOD during install with systems with too much memory). After using Memory Limitation Patch 3.5GB is 98SE Programs usable memory. How do I reduce it to 1GB of 98SE Programs Usable Memory to prevent the above extra 2.5GB from being allocated which in a typical scenario the 2.5GB is better served as a Ramdisk as you state. Worst case it can be further reduced to 512GB of 98 Programs Usable Memory if software compatibility issues arise.