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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.

All right.

Maybe I can help you if you are still looking for a real mode driver. What is the VEN/DEV code of the device in question?

Hopefully this is the right forum for my post... I had to upgrade my motherboard, and after reading ragnargd's terrific post on AM3+ chipset's I bought Asrock 880GM-LE (880g/sb710) with AMD II X2 250/DDR3 1066. I was especially interested in this board because of legacy ports, I needed a parallel port for my personal "HP laserjet 4 plus still alive campaign" (1993/duplex!). Except for onboard video/sound and ACPI/APM this board seems to be compatible with win98SE. Some details you may like: - Onboard Sata in ide-mode, only ports 5 and 6 are working, just as ragnargd described. Only compatible with ESDI_506 after setup /p i - USB1-drivers from win98se-cd are already working. USB2 works great with NUSB (even with NUSB 3.6) - Onboard LAN works okay with real mode driver RTGND.DOS (not with RTMND.DOS) - Geforce 6700 XL (PCI-E) works great, shutdown problems (despite use of shutdownpatcher) ceased away after forcing installation of 77.72 driver (monitor resolution 1920x1200) - To avoid out of memory errors go for "DEVICE=HIMEMX /MAX=1048576" instead of HIMEM.SYS in CONFIG.SYS - When using real mode driver rtgnd.dos set "MaxPhysPage=38DFF" in SYSTEM.INI - Asrock lists only 880GM-LE/FX, with Google you can find the old 880GM-LE pages

Test Opera 12.02 (after "Return to editing mode" - click upon the cross in the upper right corner)

Kexbasen12 works, my win98se is starting up without problems & without the registry patch! Most import kernelex-programs are working. Great!

In Opera 12.02 (Kernelex 4.5.2 in w2k compat. mode) I have no problems watching Youtube with Flash-plugin 10.3.183.7 ( Shockwave Flash 10.3 r183 C:\PROGRAM FILES\OPERA\program\plugins\NPSWF32.dll) Test "Big Buck Bunny 1080p FULL HD Trickfilm animation (1080p HD)" By the way: best choice for my XP3000/333 computer is 480p.

In my case it happens only (reproducible) with every newer version of kexbaseN.dll after the original 4.5.2 version. If I restore the original version of kexbaseN.dll everything in opera 12.02 is oké again.

With all the new releases I have had problems running opera 12.02 on a dutch win98se installation. Right clicking in a google search page (term "tst") gives a crash, after restarting the google tab is there, but only in a strange language, it seems cyrrilic to me. After reinstalling the original kexbaseN.ddl, everything is normal again.

I have the following problem using Fileformatconverter (stand alone) in combination with powerpoint files. Right clicking a ppt file choosing the option "Save as" (i.c. Moc.exe -f "inputfile") gives "The converter failed to save the file". In Dependency Walker or Filemon its visible that the "Save as" option first opens Moc.exe, than - in case of a ppt file - this program opens Ppcnvcom.exe (in case of 97-2002 & 2007 word or excel files there are no serious problems to overcome- see also my post on http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/133124-ms-office-2007-compatibility-pack-with-office-97/#entry1090415). Experimenting using Ppcnvcom.exe (i.c. Ppcnvcom.exe -oice "inputfile (ppt)" "outputfile (pptx)") its possible to convert (silent!) ppt2pptx with Ppcnvcom.exe in Kernelex compatibility mode NT40 or higher. Pptx2ppt is not possible - but that should be normal behaviour as far as I know. I am using the latest files version 12.0.6500.5000. Older ones make no difference, except the first version of Fileformatconverters (Ppcnvcom.exe version 12.0.4518.1014 crashes). Any ideas? Using Dependency Walker seems impossible because of a crash in Ppcnvcom.exe in both cases.

"Office Isolated Converter Environment" is the internal name of the Fileformatconvertor (as far as I know), but "oice" is also the commandline option for silent standalone conversion. Conversion xlsx-to-xls or xls-to-xlsx is possible in three ways, all working in my 98SE installation, KernelEx compatibility modes as above. Xlsx to xls only in two ways, Excelcnv gives a xlsx-file with extension xls! I. Use Shell option "Save as" with dialogs, choice of extension etcetera. Uses Moc.exe II. Use commandline for Moc.exe: Moc -f "Station\Path\File". Extension xlsx or xls. Further same as Shell option. III. Silent commandline with Excelcnv.exe: Excelcnv -oice "Station\Path\File" "Station\Path\File". First extension existing, second target.

I think this topic is the right place to report some progress using the Office 97 & Fileformatconverters in a 98SE environment using Kernelex 4.5.2. Everything is only experimental - but for free. Opening docx in Word97 or "save as docx" from inside Word97 be aware of the following problem: Winword.exe is not compatible with Kernelex: OLE-functionality is broken. Solution: disable Kernelex for Winword.exe. This is "mandatory", don't play around with Mso97.dll (because of error messages for this dll when Kernelex is not disabled for Winword.exe). Check if the following files run in Kernelex "Windows 2000 sp4" mode: Mso.dll, Wordconv.exe; if there are problems with "save as docx" from inside Word97 set Wordcnvpxy.cnv also in "Windows 2000 sp4" compatibility mode. If there is a "Msvcr80.dll doesn't start error message" copy as Msvcr80.dll renamed Msvcr90.dll in the same directory as Wordconv.exe (normaly "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\" - v9.00.21022.8 works great for me). Opening xlsx-files in Excel97 is also possible with the following workaround: run Excelcnv.exe in Kernelex "Windows NT 4.0 sp6" compatibility mode. Xlsx-files opens now in Excel97 with xxxxxxxx.xls (some number), "save as xlsx" is not possible from inside Excel97, only "save as xls". The good news is that Excelcnv.exe as a "Office Isolated Converter Environment" works with the "Windows NT 4.0 sp6" compatibility mode activated from Moc.exe in both directions i.e. converts xlsx-to-xls and xls-to-xlsx. The even better news -but that's maybe for another topic- is that in OfficeXP/2002-Excel "opening xlsx" or "save as xlsx" works flawlessly, apart from sheets/workbooks with newer specs of course.