relayer

Reporting back in... I'd forgotten how stubborn Win98 could be about IRQs... several hours later, I got the Soundblaster 128 (an Ensoniq/software card) and the new (for me) ATI Radeon 9800 Pro AIW to work at the same time. Hoping to find a real Blaster on eBay as I have two ISA slots on the board. Also got the USB 2.0 working with the Win9x_USB_2_0_support_33e package. Had it on an old jumpdrive, so copied it in 1.0 then removed those drivers; rebooted and installed the 2.0 and it worked like a charm. I did NOT like the Unofficial 98 SSP3 - it did some tricky things with policies and I quit fighting it and reformatted and reinstalled. I like the Autopatcher for Win98se SP2 Full package although this machine will not be connected to the Internet & a lot of the patches were for security. Saved me tons of time tracking down patches. Managed to find two "brand-new" sealed-box WD 80GB EIDE HDDs. Although S.M.A.R.T. tells me the 14-yr-old WD 6GB & the 10-yr-old WD 40GB are in good condition, I'm taking no chances. Mirroring both machines onto new drives. Excuse me now while I go fly a plane with my cool joystick and pedals

Hi & thanks! I think I know why there are 2 RAM sticks - one @1GB and 1@512... probably (all that time ago) I knew about this problem & used the one 512mb stick for installing. Ah, well, at least my memory is working again on this problem; it's fun! For what I want to run, more than 1GB is way way overkill and not needed (as I have killed the XP install to make it a pure 98se box) Now, I must do something about that clanking, "flying-saucer whirring" HDD. *seeks trusty Ghost boot disk*

Amazed and pleased this topic is still going! Happy to be among retros I am creating 2 Win98se computers from laying-around parts with added "new" parts. First is Calliope, who will be a music-making machine, because the drivers for the Echo professional sound card got totally messed up in XP. They require direct hardware control. Tired of people recommending I use a VM; I've tried Virtual Box, VMware, DOSbox, several other EMUs & the hooks into the system just don't work for squat. Her config: Asus P4B533 with Pentium 4 2.4GHz Northwood CPU HIS Radeon 9000 for mere display, not gaming 1.5GB PC-1600 & Brookdale chipset (intel 845e) Echo Digital Audio (12 in, 24 out)(96-bit internal files) Pioneer cdrw Nothing else because she has only 1 job to do. I managed to get her to boot with 1GB RAM, but she absolutely refuses to use another 512MB. I have tried all the tricks in this forum & she still stubbornly refuses to boot with the extra 512. However, all this reading has made my brain go back in time (which is fun) so I expect I'll remember some more tricks; maybe they will work. 2nd computer - Arcadia My original, FULL-TOWER (and I mean full tower - 2ft 1" - there's a lot of space in there ) holding: Abit BX6rev2 440BX mainboard PIII 800MHz Rage Pro AGP 2x card + All-In-Wonder TV tuner (soon to be yanked) Some kind of Soundblaster (haven't looked yet) Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro (THE BEST STICK) CH Pro Pedals She had 384MB of RAM last I checked. I will be trying to get her to at least 1GB. She will be a games machine for DOS & early Win games (up to DirectX 9). Looking over ebay & Amazon, I can get a (1998) $500+ graphics card for ~$35. WOOT! Dallying between the GeForce ti4200, ti4600, FX 5950 and the ATI-side 9700, 9800pro & 9800XT (with Angel's amazing Omega drivers - the only thing that made me love my Rage Pro) So that's it, my projects over the winter. And a big HELLO to all you other Retronaughts!