deomsh

Good! Next step: go in Device Manager and disable ALL usb controllers. Without mouse: use TAB, arrow's and ALT+e to go to right places, and SPACE to enable/disable white square boxes (sorry, can't upload pictures, I have only 20KB upload space left...). Further if you want to disable SATA for the time being, set hard disk controllers to "None" (or something like that).

@~♥Aiko♥Chan♥~ When booting from an USB flash drive, is it possible to boot WinME in safe mode? Don't forget to set a MaxPhysPage line in SYSYEM.CB, say [386Enh] MaxPhysPage=20000.

To avoid possible misunderstandings, I found this for "map --in-situ=1 (hd0,4)+1 (hd0)" too. Today I repeated my experiments, I could reproduce anything EXCEPT "the original (hd0) is auto-mapped to (hd1), without change". I must have made some mistake. The in-situ (hd0) still have one partition, but the original (hd0) is fully "out/over-mapped" and needs to be mapped to be find again. For Part VI this has no consequenses, I prefer my setup; no need of more mapping and shifting of hard drives.

There should be one free partition entry, or "map --in-situ" gives me ALWAYS "error 65", with various combinations. This is not in the readme, but years ago already mentioned by tinybit. http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index_showtopic_11675.html And mentioned here too (not by tinybit this time). http://reboot.pro/topic/15167-how-to-boot-win9x-from-logical/ I just tried again some combinations with "(hd0,4)+1" and the third partition entry empty. With just "map --in-situ (hd0,4)+1 (hd0)" the logical partition becomes the first entry, the second and the fourth are unchanged. The original first entry becomes the third (the original free entry). Only with "map --in-situ=1 (hd0,4)+1 (hd0)" there is a standalone -mapped- (hd0,0), without other partitions. But the original (hd0) is auto-mapped to (hd1), without change. Mappings to (hd0,0) instead of (hd0) made no difference.

Part VI: Windows 98se from a logical partition on Grub4Dos Memdrive With a second, logical partition there are new possibilities. After writing a bootsector and “system” to the logical partition with SYS D: (or other drive letter), booting an existing Windows installation (copied to the logical partition) from the logical partition, or from a Memdrive is easy with following MENU.LST: ------------------------------ MENU.LST ------------------------------ # comments before a command title Boot IO.SYS from logical drive for Win98se errorcheck off # needed if floppy drive is in use map (fd0) (fd1) map (fd1) (fd0) # assuming one logical partition only # one of four primary partition entries should be empty map --in-situ (hd0,4)+1 (hd0) map --hook # experimental map (fd1) (fd0) map (fd0) (fd1) map --hook # map --rehook root (hd0,0) chainloader /io.sys title Windows 98se on Memdrive (from logical partition) with full USB 2.0 access # “usb --init” found incompatible with “map --in-situ” (experimental) # if GRUB.EXE is started without full reboot map --unhook usb --init errorcheck off map (fd0) (fd1) map (fd1) (fd0) map --mem (hd0,4)+1 (hd0) map --hook uuid --write (hd0,0) B00D-1D20 vol --write (hd0,0) U20MEMDRIVE map (fd1) (fd0) map (fd0) (fd1) map --hook # map --rehook root (hd0,0) chainloader /io.sys title Reboot IO.SYS on Memdrive uuid --write (hd0,0) B01D-1D20 vol --write (hd0,0) R20MEMDRIVE root (hd0,0) chainloader /io.sys ------------------------------ Further same as Part IV. A Part V bootchain is possible too, but USBCTLYS.REG will be imported exclusive from “Command prompt only” during an “in situ”-session; should be done before loading the Memdrive. Automation with batch-files is still possible, but for bootchain three batch-files will be needed. Part I, Part II and Part III installations are also possible (USB 1.1 legacy mode only). BTW: I found the use of “map --in-situ” incompatible with HSFLOP.PDR, tested on two machines (other two test-machines don’t have Floppy-controllers). See Update of Part II:

@tillewolle Realtek's Readme says DirectX8.1 minimum (WDM). You can try that version first.

@tillewolle Which version of DirectX is installed?

@tillewolle In case you want to test the win95 VXD-driver, search during updating the driver for /Win95/VALCX95.INF. If the Wizard has complaints, force updating. The inf-file doesn't specify a SUBSYS, but your VEN/DEV is mentioned.

Because of then Ven/Dev. If you google a bit, you will find lists like these: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~svb/CS/Lab/Minix 3.1.0/drivers/libpci/pci_table.c Search in this list for 3059 only.

@tillewolle In the past I had a very resistant VIA-board. At last I succeeded with the 5.10.00.6240 driver from Biostar (my board was Asus!). A working download link is on this page: https://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php/cpu_export.php?S_ID=5

@tillewolle At least you know an AC'97 driver is needed. On a MSI-forum about the same problem as yours, I found a link to A3.52 http://www.opendrivers.com/download/driver-11088.html Another idea on that forum was to try Win95 drivers.

@tillewolle The risks are all yours. I wold suggest this one, your hardware (C51G & ALC655) and your (main) VEN/DEV are mentioned. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.driverguide.com/driver/amp/detail.php%3fdriverid=732403

@tillewolle Before starting with an experimental HDA-driver, you should be fully sure your board has a HD-audio codec (chip). If I search about sound for your motherboard, all I can find is ALC655. This appears to be an AC'97 codec. Did you try all Win98 drivers for this codec already?

@jaclaz Thanks for the tip. I tested the latest version of the program using Win98se and on two machines, with following results: 1) Can be used for Part I, Part III and Part V installations (no UUID changes in these parts!). A Reboot is always necessary. 2) Letter Assigner changes letters in MD-DOS already, assignments are found to be NOT compatible with SMARTDRV.EXE - Warning: Unable to use a disk cache on the specified drive (not mentioned in the HELP doc's). So speed gained for ALL drives in MS-DOS Compatibility mode, is lost by using Letter Assigner for assigned drives. This is less severe in Part V: the USB 2.0 drivers don't use Smartdrive; for some "Administrator" activities (starting Windows with USB-controllers disabled), the root partition in USB legacy mode is still cached by Smartdrive. 3) Letter Assigner checks for the Windows partition with UUID entrances in the file LETTERS.INI. In Part II and Part IV the UUID of the Memdrive is ALWAYS different from the UUID of the Windows partition on the USB boot drive. Since it's a goal of the project to have always access to this partition, the results with Letter Assigner are not compatible with starting Windows from a USB legacy drive after installation on a Memdrive; and the other way round. In the first case the C-drive will vanish after LETASSIG.EXE is started during execution of AUTOEXEC.BAT. In the second case I had a very, very bad crash while booting Windows on the Memdrive. It should be possible to replace LETTERS.INI-files before, but for sure this will not be easier than just calling SMARTDRV.EXE and SUBST.EXE in a batch file, with the right drive letters. 4) If the Windows volume is commented out in LETTERS.INI, assignment of other volumes is still working. The program gives only a message during execution of AUTOEXEC.BAT: Bad descriptor: ;;C=(1234-5678) Bad descriptor: ;;W=(8765-4321) Bad descriptor: ;;/WD=(8765-4321) The new volume mapping has been set up. Volume D was mapped without problems to X (except Smartdrive caching)! 5) Volumes on real USB 2.0 drives are changed roughly in the same way as Device Manager operates. Only in case of a non-removable USB drive, Letter Assigner is special. Using Device Manager the USB drive has first to be set as "Removable", to change drive letters. After first reboot the drive can be set back as non-removable, new drive letters will be still there, but a second reboot is needed first. With Letter Assigner there is just one reboot needed. In the Registry (in HKLM\ENUM\SCSI\..somedrive..\) only one line "UserDriveLetterAssignment"="XZ" is added, while "CurrentDriveLetterAssignment" is changed to ="XYZ" (if XYZ are new volume letters of an USB hard drive with three partitions). With Device Manager there will be three other lines in the Registry-entrance left, but they are only needed in case of a truly removable USB (flash) drive and do no harm otherwise (as far as I observed). 6) Labels changed, by Letter Assigner are NOT compatible with the GRUB4DOS "vol --write"-command.

Congratulations I have been reading our old thread, once you mentioned (page 7?) there was a difference according playback of system sounds after replacing one of my ALC883 specific HDAICOUT.HDA with a newer one.

Part V: Windows 98se on USB 2.0 with Grub4Dos Memdrive as bootchain If the MS-DOS “Volume Serial Number” of the Memdrive isn’t changed, Windows will boot further from the USB boot drive – partition with identical serial. The “outmapped” USB boot drive is invisible to IO.SYS while booting from the Memdrive, so not mounted in MS-DOS. If the Memdrive is (almost) identical to the USB boot partition, Windows doesn’t care. It´s really nice to see BOOTLOG.TXT, on the primary (boot) partition of the USB drive, starting with Init Success usbmphlp.pdr. Installation of USB-drivers should be finished before (see Part IV). In MENU.LST of Part IV only the UUID command has to be deleted (or commented out). “Rebooting” the Memdrive is only possible before starting Windows. BTW: “Reboot to MS-DOS mode” is impossible (Memdrive is not accessible anymore), no restarting Windows and no normal shutdown. "Restart" is the only option left, turning off the computer after a full reboot from ""Command prompt only". BTW2: USB 2.0 boot drive cannot be removed anymore. BTW3: Not all programs are working if Windows is on an USB drive with removable bit (no IOCTL ??). USB hard drives gave no problems. BTW4: On my hardware and with Grub4Dos the primary partition as Memdrive bootchain is max 3406MB (with minimum 16BM memory left for Windows 98se and 32MB for Grub4Dos!). On a SATA-II drive in an USB 2.0 caddy, my “best” load speed was 38MB/sec. (with “usb --init”). BTW5: This part can be combined with a logical partition. Desired fixed drive-letter should has been set one “higher” in Device Manager (logical partition “slips” one “down”). BTW6: For automation I start GRUB.EXE with a batch file after renaming HSFLOP.PDR and importing USBCTLYS.REG in the registry to enable the USB-drivers. To boot Windows from an USB legacy drive I use another batch file with “:USBLOGICAL1” (see Part IV), further CHOICE to load SMARTDRV.EXE for USBPRIMARY1 only, enable HSFLOP.PDR and disable USB-drivers by importing USBCTLNO.REG in the registry. See Update of Part II:

Hm. sounds no good. Better test first following files against their (updated) originals: mmsys.cpl, winmm.dll, msacm32.dll, msacm.dll and mciwave.drv. Q77694 gives: "Alternately, modify the size of the buffer in the SYSTEM.INI file. The numeric parameter on the "WaveAudio" line in the [mci] section specifies the size of the buffer. The following is a sample of the SYSTEM.INI file: [mci] WaveAudio=mciwave.drv 4 A four-second buffer is the default setting." Thanks to Jeff Parsons Q-collection. So, the numbers 2-9 are possible values.

@cc333 Interesting to hear about your Dell. I did a quick search in the ALSA community, this is a nice short article to read, it's about (HD-)audiochipsets and pop's&click's: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/sound/soc/pops-clicks.html For HDA2.DLL: check if energy savings are disabled ALL!

@Dave-H, Interesting results. Did you experimented with the wave-buffer? It's in "Sounds and Audio Devices" (somewhere). Regarding different mediaplayers: on some of them audio output can be chosen. In VLC too, as far I remember. Try difference between normal HDA output and Direct Sound. I can't test much at the moment, because of my USB-project and no full Win98se installation available. About pop's and click's in WinXP/Win10: are you using Window's "universal" driver, or Realtek's?

Wave can play uncompressed sound only. Compressed files are decompressed by the player. On Win9x System Sounds are 22050 Hz only: Radio Quality. Maybe the driver has problems switching frequency of your ALC883. How sounds a System Sound with a WAV in CD-quality? Another possibility is playing with the Wave-buffer, I found 5 seconds best (default is 4 seconds). Further: on my system Playback of media-files is best with Direct Sound output (software emulation only). I think thats not possible in case of System Sounds. About pop's and click's: all HDA-codecs are producing them, but most drivers are programmed to switch sound off during the load-phase.

This is not a true statement in general. Two out of three HDA-chipsets I was able to test, worked out-of-the-box (with HDATSR.EXE in AUTOEXEC.BAT). One HDA-chipset needed my quasi-general HDAICOUT.HDA (download on page 8 of the thread mentioned), the file for "Codec Index=$0" (=HDAICOUT.HDA.000). If there is silence only, setting the right "Output Widget" in HDACFG.INI is important - the driver has no a Widget Parser. Sadly there is no list of $-values - could be made if enough serious testers were available. I have fairly good system sounds, maybe because of some heavy tweaking. About using the driver at all: it's written by Watler for Win3x, Stereo-Playback for max 16 bit & 48 KHz only. Installation on Win9x is easy, in case of WinME it's much more complicated (no Real mode). Further: use of this driver can give serious stability problems.

You have to rightclick on ERU.EXE, hold the button and drag to your desktop. Then you can choose "Create shortcut" ,or something like that, in the menu shown by Explorer. Dragging works in Progams too.

@Wunderbar98 Thnx for sharing, nice story. Since Windows 9x uses other configuration files too, I prefer ERU. It came with the Windows 95cd, but its free software and still available (as ERUZIP.EXE). Files backup'd can be edited too in ERU.INF.

@jaclaz Thanks again. I will will thorough test 0E in final testing of Part VII. Although tempting, I have not yet decided to reuse my project for other flavors of Win9x, or try running Windows 3x on a Memdrive. For the time being this project is very time consuming, for now I have to return to final testing of Part V.

Thanks for clarification. I'd run some time-consuming tests with my MBR-aware tools while on the Memdrive. Indeed, Grub4Dos and Win98se doesn't care if the bootcode is made empty. But my USB Legacy BIOS definitely needs the bootstrap code to boot the USB-drive. I've read that post several times during my Part VII-research . Please, can you clarify why my project won't be affected?