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The earlier test I mentioned failed on DirectX 9.0c. So far as I can remember I had at that time following specs: Win98SE, SP2.03 (last dutch service pack), IO.SYS update/patch and NUSB 3.3. No IE6, no KernelEx. Plus NDIS2-driver of course. I have been googling a bit, in connection with DirectPlay-problems registering DPNET.DLL was "somewere" mentioned. I just tried in "Run" with "REGSVR32 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DPNET.DLL (without the "" !). There was the succes-message from DllRegisterServer.

I use Realtek NDIS2-driver for my NIC. Lately I had to run some tests with DxDiag. Just for fun I run DirectPlay test - negative! Was not a problem for me, I never use DirectPlay, so I postponed the problem. Your problem interested me. I renamed my Windows-directory and tested on a fresh one with DirectX 6.1. DxDiag gave no error. I installed DirectX 7.0, 9.0b and 9.0c - check, check, check. The TCP/IP-console opened always. For the moment thats enough for me.

Watler from Watlers World made a Win3x HDA driver. It took some time to make it work with my chipset in my Windows 3.1 installation. Lately I started experiments using this driver in Windows 98SE. Watler gave me room to share on his forum, so I give you the link only. http://win3x.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=Pascal&action=display&num=1502071336&start=135 Posts #1-#135 are about using the driver in Windows 3.1, from post #136 onwards Win9x too.

Hi, would you be interested in testing a 16-bits HDA-driver?

If Windows 98SE installs two HD-controllers (depending on bios mode?) then it should be possible to set the one with the sata drives to "not installed" (in Safe Mode). In that case you have a chance other drives are still compatible with Windows' ESDI_506.PDR. To speed up (sata-)HD-drives in compatibility mode read my thread 'Smartdrive Revisited', including XHDD.SYS-tests.

I have red the ConRoe865PE manual, but the bios-settings are not clear to me yet. How many drives you can 'see' in the various modes when starting MS-DOS only?

Gom player 2.1.28.5039 (disable updates!) with L3codec.ax 1.5.0.50. There are of course other possibilities, visit www.mdgx.com

There is allready a topic about it. Read:

Regarding Office XP/2002 updates there is a nice post on Superuser: https://superuser.com/questions/1185038/how-do-i-download-kb-updates-for-office-xp-under-windows-10-that-are-no-longer-o/1185039 Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats (version 12.0.6500.0) is still available in all language versions.

When only SOME drives run in MS-DOS Compatibility mode, Device Manager shows one or more yellow exclamation marks for the appropiate disk controllers, AND on the last tab Device Manager will show which drive letters are going through compatibility mode. When ALL drives run in MS-DOS compatibility mode, ALL disk controllers will show yellow exclamation marks AND the last tab will show which driver caused all this. In my case XHDD of course.

Yes, I took a look at the ASRock H110M-DVS R3.0 manual. I will try AHCI later. My motherboard has four Sata ports and one IDE. IDE is installed by the Windows Setup as usual, with Protected-Mode driver (ESDI_506.PDR). The Sata driver has to use one of the shared interrupts. This is not compatible with PM-drivers coming with Windows 98SE, but Windows Setup tries to install a second Hard Disk controller, visible in Device Manager. Setting only this second Hard Disk controller to "No drives" during Setup (in between booting in Safe mode) gives Sata-drives running in MS-DOS compatability mode. XHDD.SYS is a Real-Mode driver and as such blocks PM-drivers of ALL drives. IDE Hard Disks will still running, of course in MS-DOS compatability mode. IDE DVD drives are not capable of this, unless using extra RM-drivers, but losing the ASPI-Layer means losing all Windows CD/DVD programs. During my holiday I remembered IOS.INI from my Windows 95 OSR1 days, experimenting with MS-DOS USB-drivers. At home, adding XHDD.SYS to the SafeList in IOS.INI did the trick, coexistance of IDE PM-driver and UDMA RM-driver. I saw SMARTDRV.EXE is by default on the SafeList, so thats why I didn't run in problems earlier. IOS.INI manual is in KB138899 or Q138899. Its hosted here: http://www.c-bit.biz/Q/138899/EN-US/ This old technology is ONLY of interest when using RM-drivers inside Windows 9x. Thanks for your interest, I wil continue experimenting after making a good test installation. For the moment I am testing on my almost filled up data&backup-drives. Much to risky. Once I got 800 chk-files with Scandisk when trying my old VT6421A PCI Sata card, another time Windows 10 (my dual boot companion) gave me 10 000 more! Does someone know a Win9x-compatible copy-speed test program? ATTO Disk Benchmark and Chrystal DiskMark are of no use for my experiments

After a whole day of defragmenting my hard-drives I have run some new tests. I didn't test XHDD /B earlier. XHDD /R20 /B in combination with SMARTDRV 20480 /U /V /B:32768 inside Windows is about 1 MB/sec slower than the combination with XHDD /R20 /S60 /O /P. Standalone XHDD /R20 /B inside Windows is about 5 MB/sec slower than standalone XHDD /R20 /S60 /O /P. Don't forget: during all my tests above, Sata-drives are ALWAYS in IDE-mode. This according to the Readme-file that comes with XHDD.

I solved my all-drives-in-MS-DOS-compatabiility-mode-problem with XHDD.SYS by adding this driver to the IOS.INI SafeList. No other switches are necessary. No problems with my IDE-devices anymore, they are no longer running in MS-DOS compatibility mode!

Maybe its off-topic, but I succeeded for my 7950GT in Win7&10 after reading IvanRF's tips: http://ivanrf.com/en/nvidia-compatibility-issue-with-windows-10/

Regarding Windows, best take a look at the Oemsetup.inf and the .nif-files files that come with the different RT*ND.DOS drivers. Realtek offers four different ones, *=E, G, M or S. As I have only Android next thee weeks (holidays), I cannot do much

Did you try RTEND.DOS? It is in the package 0002-RTGBND2.152_EXE36.zip, on Realtek's site there where are the drivers for RTL8100E and upwards.

I wasn't aware of the 137GB limitation, thanks a lot for your info! I am still using <137GB partitions, so I dind't observe any problems in that direction. About the Windows Read-ahead buffer: for drives in MSDOS-compatibility mode Atto Diskbench gives different read-speed pattterns in the 2KB-8KB range with different sizes of the Read-ahead buffer. For my system 64Kb seems optimal. Earlier I also tried other MSDOS caching programs, with not much results Or Windows refused to start on my system (in case of Nwcache and Qemm), or there is no speed advantage (LBAcache in combination with normal VCache settings). Lately I got XHDD (you have to e-mail to get it!). XHDD gives a maximum of 21 MB/sec (copying 500MB between different sata-drives) in MSDOS-compatibility mode, so a bit faster than Smartdrive. XHDD uses only about 5KB conventional/upper memory. I think the small read-ahead buffer in XHDD (active with cache-size from 50MB and upward) gives this performance boost, one of its predecessors: UIDE, who has no read-ahead buffer, performs roughly the same as LBAcache. As XHDD accepts 48-bit LBA, I assume there should be no 137GB barrier. There is a price for all this: all mainboard-connected drives run in MSDOS-compatibility mode. This XHDD-program should be used with care. Sometimes it doesn't seem to be compatible with MaxPhysPage settings (first I didn't notice, because I normally use HimemX to cut-off memory to 1024MB, and have no MaxPhysPage setting in System.ini. Only MaxPhysPage=20000 in System.cb for obvious reasons). VCache settings MUST be static, otherwise there are really bad Fatal C0000006 exceptions during copying inside Windows. I use MaxFileCache=131072 and MinFileCache=131072 (393216 is to much, in between I haven't tested yet). XHDD has a special switch to reserve XMS-memory for old DOS-programs. With this switch it is possible to use inside Windows Smartdrive up to the maximum cache the system takes when loading Smartdrive (for my system 37408) without the problems I described earlier, of broken LFN etc. Maximum copy-speed of my optimal combination XHDD (in Config.sys: Device=[path]XHDD.SYS /O /P /R20 /S60) & Smartdrive (in Config.sys: Install=[path]Smartdrv 20240 /B:32768) & VCache (MaxFileCache=131072 AND MinFileCache=131072) is 29 MB/sec !! In Real Mode my copy-speeds are: Smartdrive 23 MB/sec, XHDD 41 MB/sec. The combination of Smartdrive & XHDD gives about 38 MB/sec. Maybe a nice spin-off is that the XHDD package comes with RDISK, that has the same R-switch. I can run now, without losing my IDE-drives, Smartdrive inside Windows with maximal cache if I install just before Smartdrive a small RDISK memory-disk (in Config.sys: Installhigh=[path]RDISK.COM /R37 /S2 /:[drive letter] & Install=[path]SMARTDRV 37408 /U /V /B:32768).

I made a small Ndis2 inf-file for personal use. You can try. It works for me in case of Realtek RTL8111DL and RTL8111E. As I only have a 100 Mbps LAN, I cannot test the 1000 Mbps LAN that should be possible according to Realtek. Although I think ragnargd don't need a HOWTO anymore , maybe others. Installation instructions. 1) Find "Realtek NDIS2 driver ( Support DOS MSclient,Lantastic,Lanman,Norton Ghost )" on Realtek's Global site. Download will give you 0002-RTGBND2.152_EXE68.zip. Unzip RTGND.DOS and place this file together with my inf-file in a directory of your choice. 2) If Windows detects during boot-up "PCI Ethernet Controller", follow Windows installation-wizard. In case you already have a yellow exclamation marked "PCI Ethernet Controller" in Device Manager, choose "Install again". 3) After reboot, first go to real mode. If everything is all right, you will see during boot an installation-screen of the driver with "Link speed: 1000 Mbps" and "Duplex mode: full-duplex". On the MS-DOS command-line "mem /a/c/p" will show RTGND, PROTMAN and NDIS2 in conventional/upper memory. RTGND will take 42kb of memory! 4) Type "win" and go inside Windows to Properties of Network Neighborhood and look for "RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Family Ethernet Adapter". Properties will show that there is a "Real mode (16 bit) Ndis2-driver", choice of other drivers is grayed out. Bindings shows TCP/IP and Advanced will show only Link Speed choices. Default is "Auto Detect", other possibilities are "1000 Mbps full-duplex", "100 Mbps full-duplex", "100 Mbps half-duplex", "10 Mbps full-duplex" and "10 Mbps half-duplex". During reboot you will see your choice in the MS-DOS installation screen of the driver. There is one small drawback in using this real mode Ndis2-driver. After "Exit to MS-DOS" you cannot return again to Windows and using the driver. The driver needs always a full reboot. It should have to do something with flushing the cache of the NIC So don't mess around with Config.sys, Autoexec.bat or Protocol.ini. Let the Windows Installer do the job. Please report your findings. WARNING: you make this installation at your own risk, no warranty at all! NetrtgRM.inf

My latest motherboard gives my Sata drives ONLY in MSdos compatibility mode. I have four Sata connectors and one Ide connector. In bios Sata-drives are set in IDE mode. A fresh Windows 98se install (with setup /p i) gives two conflicting IDE controllers in Device Manager. After disabling during install in safe mode the IDE controller without the IDE-drives, Sata drives are running in MSdos compatibility mode, but slow of cause. Instead of trying RLoew's Sata patch I thougt: let's try Smartdrive...... I was lucky, works great! For a few weeks I experimented a lot with Smartdrive-switches, and I'de like to share my findings and ask some questions. Best source of Smartdrive-switches is still an old article from MDGX: 'Outsmart Smartdrive' http://www.mdgx.com/newtip2.htm Without Smartdrive copying a 500MB-file between two fully defragmented different drives gives copy-speed about 8 MByte per second, with Smartdrive and optimal settings I reached 20 MB/s. Drives are in Sata II mode (In Sata I mode max. 16 2/3 MB/s). Read-speed improvement seems to be even better, but I cannot measure it directly with my stopwatch. According to Chrystal Disk Mark 9x, sequential Read-speed is 388% and write-speed 168%, ratio's with Smartdrive/without. Most important Smartdrive-switch is the read ahead Buffer size. According to MDGX the maximum is 64k, but I cannot reproduce this. Maximal read ahead Buffer size I reached is 32k. Different Windows read ahead buffer sizes doesn't make any difference, even without Smartdrive. Smartdrive Cache size is a bit of a strange story. There is a trade-off between Smartdrive Cache and Vcache settings. I never realised Vcache is also working on drives running in MSdos compatibility mode. The combination minimal Smartdrive Cache size: 32 (kbyte), and Vcache size: MaxFileCache=131072 (128MB) is roughly equivalent with the combination Smartdrive cache: 256 and minimal Vcache size: MaxFileCache=32 (Kbyte). Smartdrive Cache size above 10240-11264 (10-11MB) gives big problems inside Windows 98se: no Long File Names anymore, problems starting explorer and empty Icons. Smartdrive Cache deminishes the memory reported in Device Manager. Element size is not important for speed, so default value 8192 byte is ok (also maximum I reached, although according to MDGX the maximum Element size is 64k). Smartdrive Write-behind caching is more important, it gives a few MB/s copy-speed improvement, Vcache write-behind caching gives only a small improvement. Small drawback: during copying slow mouse/keyboard behaviour. With Smartdrive SDVXD is not as usual unloaded after boot, according to Bootlog.txt. Also really big speed improvement in safe mode when starting safe mode with 'Win /d:m' If you like to test, start with: 'Smartdrv /b:32768' in your Autoexec.bat, after path statement. Some Questions: Can someone explain this speed improvement? Is Windows 98se read ahead buffer not active for drives running in MSdos compatibility mode? What is SDVXD 'doing' (can't find any usefull information)? Are there any risks using Smartdrive inside Windows?

I had to install DOTNET 2.0 (DOTNETFX20.EXE). This gives an unspecified error on the install dialog. I also tried KEX16: no problems, the installation reaches Install.exe. I copied some Dependy Walker logs, maybe they are helpfull. With KEX17 just before the installation ends the failure is: 00:00:02.360: LoadLibraryA("C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\advpack.dll") caused an exception by thread 1. 00:00:03.400: Second chance exception 0xC0000005 (Access Violation) occurred in "c:\windows\kernelex\KEXBASEN.DLL" at address 0x7D012FE5 by thread 1. DepWalk_KEX17&16_DOTNETFX20.EXE.txt

Since KernelEx 45201617 Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system (FileFormatConverters ENG, version 12.6500.5000) is no longer converting Word-documents, not doc2docx and not docx2doc (Wordconv.exe and Mso.dll in the by Xeno86 already registered compatibility-mode W2k). The only error I get is the famous "The converter failed to save the file" when trying to convert with Save As... in Shell Context menu. Command line conversion doc2docx with Wordconv.exe is not working anymore too. Excel conversion (xls2xlsx & xlsx2xls) is still working (Excelcnv.exe in obligatory compatibility-mode NT40), also command line conversion ppt2pptx (with Ppcnvconv.exe in compatibility-mode W2k). In Apilog files from Wordconv.exe I observed there are actually used some new stubs: 4 LoadLibrary stubs and a SetFilePointer stub. I tried to redirect these to "std" in core.ini, but makes no difference (if I did it right of cause). Apilog file is bigger than 2 MB, so I cannot upload them. If you have specific questions, I will try to help of cause. By the way, I have no problems with FireFox 3.6.28. Thank you for all the hard work.

Will be a USB problem or sound problem, but can maybe be a video problem (not likely). Or maybe your motherboard (which one you didn't mention) needs chipset drivers My advice: first disable USB and sound in BIOS, or install without usb card/sound card. Second: install W98SE again. If windows starts without error: install some service pack (Sesp 2.03 is old but rock stable - do NOT install usb from this pack) and after reboot install NUSB 3.3 (you find the files on www.mdgx,com). Then try enabling USB. If there is no error anymore: install sound. If sound gives the error: search for better drivers. If windows still do not start: try win9x compatible ATI RageXL video drivers (search first for M6_12_12.zip), install these in safe mode. You find the safe mode option with F8, push DIRECTLY when you see windows starting. Alternative: if there are chipset drivers, install these first in safe mode.

In that case you can try more buffers in your MSCDEX. Twenty wil be enough. Add /m:20 to your MSCDEX line.

A very long time ago I had the same problem. Try to fix it with Wizard New Hardware, let your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat in their current state. If Windows do not find your dvd-station with New Hardware, you can try rerunning setup from within Windows. But remember to install Windows in the same directory as before, to save your earlier installation and choose to continue the current installation if asked.

AMD 880G/SB710 seems okay for Win98se. See My report of 27 november 2016 on Asrock 880gm-le in "Modern-motherboards-which-are-working-with-windows-98-discussion" Thanks a lot for your research. There are also some 880G boards who seems to be suitable for your dual-GPU stunt.