awkduck

The chip you are seeing, is likely the VT8237 (or variant). The one you want to see, is probably under that nice big heatsink. The guy on Vogons suggests this: I don't know where he/she heard that. If true, the laptop you are looking at is a VIA motherboard. But it kinda looks like the HP is too. Another thing to keep in mind, is that we don't know what driver he/she tried to install. There is no link. If you install a Win2k driver, it will often let you (using the .inf file). But no files are listed under "Device Manager", and you end up with with the default Windows driver (640x480 16bit). The registry tells "Device Manager" the correct new driver name, and itself says the device is working. But it is the old driver that is working. The comment about the mouse being invisible and then visible, during driver exchanges, makes it seem like the driver could have been correct. And he/she may have a system conflict. Perhaps one that can't be resolved, on that system. Sometimes that fix is only provided for the modern supported OS. The conflict may also come from something installed. I've had issues with NUSB and Scitech Display Doctor. Although, I've never had a problem with Vbemp. So that is interesting. Unfortunately, this is a risk one takes sailing into less charted waters. There is a screenshot showing a resource conflict. Sometimes you can manually adjust theses things, and everything will work out fine. It doesn't look like anyone suggested he/she try that. I noticed the resource conflict was related to ACPI BIOS. So there is the potential for this being broken Win9x support. But it is hard to tell. I've personally had problems with VIA video drivers not working, on supported versions of Windows. The problem arises when the lowest supported version of Windows is near being dropped; and that being the version I am using. I'd say this is a riskier laptop.

I have a Sony VAIO PCG-Z505RX. Since it is older, it does have a fan. Although, it is not very loud. What I didn't know, when I bought it, was that it has a custom Ethernet connector. It required a special adapter for the actual RJ45 connection. It was an Ebay purchase, and didn't come with the adapter. It also required a special dongle for parallel, serial, and VGA. I eventually did hunt them both down. My particular model came with Neomagic audio and video. The audio is AC97 and the video lacks 3D acceleration (per specification). It also could not be upgraded beyond 128Mb of ram. Despite all of this, I still really like the machine. The X505's Intel Extreme Graphics 2 should perform aptly. The one in the Ebay link "does" provide all the connectors. This laptop is certainly fanless. As for the PCG 505, some of the V and R types seem up your alley. Wikipedia does not seem to specify the videos chips, for all of them. But some come with nice 3D acceleration. There are some nicely priced V and R types, on ebay, if you don't mind buying a harddrive separate. However, they all seem to have fans. I did "not" check every model. One may indeed be fanless. The question would then be, if fanless, what GPU does it have. When looking at the VAIOs, make sure to see a bottom picture. Some have fan vents, only on the bottom. Edit: Something I've been meaning to try, is using a higher speed laptop and forcing the CPU throttle down. Then installing a slightly thicker heatsink (copper or graphite?), to replace the old one and it's fan. Intel Speed Step can be controlled in Dos, Windows, and Linux. Maybe one wouldn't even need to replace the heatsink. With 3D acceleration, it would probably be better if the video chip was a less performant one. I've been meaning to try this out, the target being a Thinkpad t42 with Radeon 7500 (Omega driver); but it died before I got the chance. Note: Some laptops will not boot, with the fan disconnected. Some finessing may be required. I suppose that is something you could consider, in your hunt. You might be able to aim for slightly beyond a Win98 video chip, if it is well supported by the one of the Win9x community driver packs (Nvidia/Radeon). Then the worst you might need to contend with, is a small USB audio adapter.

Plenty of machines well exceed 1024x768. Though, it was certainly the average user resolution. It doesn't look bad. If it has 3D support, it would be great! I could nitpick at a gold brick. So any "negative" critique should be taken with a grain of salt. It uses a real IDE interface. So you don't have to worry about a specialized SSD board, or anything of the sort. That is something to watch for on Tablets. It might be interesting to watch some of the "teardown" videos (Youtube). They may give more info about the machine, compared to the average review video. Is the keyboard is a PS2 connection? If so, that would be a plus. It isn't terribly important, but might make things easier. For example, if you "Exit to Dos" from Windows. If the keyboard is USB, then bios supports PS2 emulation; until windows loads a USB driver for it. It can be tricky setting a system like that up. It wasn't mentioned on Reddit, so it probably was not a problem. It might be good, to see how hard it is to reach and remove the heatsink. Often these machines perform better, with new thermal grease. If you do get into that, make sure you know how much thermal grease to use. Depending on how the heatsink seats, too much grease can cause overheating. Also, if it is conductive grease, you don't want to risk it shorting something, from extruded overflow. It might be harder to find a teardown, with the removal of the heatsink. It would be interesting to see how the GPU is cooled. Often it is cooled by the same heatsink as the CPU. When combined like that, sometimes the CPU uses thermal grease, but the GPU has a thermal pad. There is probably nothing wrong with that. But as a "nitpicker" I prefer both use thermal grease. You can find thermal padding, at the usual online stores. You'd probably what to pay attention to thickness. And in this case, a little too thick would be better than too thin. However, in all honesty, you could probably run with old dried thermal grease, and never care. Especially, with a tablet like this. The CPU is probably throttled back or specifically designed for less heat. So the performance improvement, from thermal grease replacement, is probably less noticeable. I like to have 3D support. But I'd use that tablet, even without it. I lost my gaming interests way back at "Halo - Combat Evolved". On the rare occasion, I look to play a game, Dos or older Windows games (software rendering) often due the trick. Probably more often it would be a console emulator. There are plenty of older versions, that don't require 3D acceleration (no N64,PS1,etc). It seems games you can easily start and then walk away from, get more attention from me. But every once in awhile I like to revisit something like ONI. If 3D acceleration is a sticking point, make sure it has it. Otherwise you'll eventually end up lurking about for something else. If the machine does support 3D acceleration, the 32Mb video ram should be okay. The driver link on Reddit is dead. It links to Helpjet, which went offline a while ago. But, I'm pretty sure Win9x drivers, for Nvidia, are well archived. If it didn't have 3D, and you could live without it, then I don't see you having an issue, with the overall aspects of this tablet. There is even a chance that SBEMU would give you pure Dos support, for the SoundBlaster. You might make sure that it has AC97 for audio. It would almost have to. Its probably a safe bet. I also choose fanless machines. I really dislike hunting for a replacement fan (keeping old machines alive). But it also comes in handy, when recording audio. What drives your hunt for a fanless machine?

@sonyu I found a couple of fanless laptops, near Win98 era. They are a bit bulky and most have no Win9x 3D support. The ToughBook and Getac laptops are mostly fanless. They have some Centrino Pentium-M and Core 2 Duo machines. The Core 2 Duo machines would probably need USB audio. The Pentium-M machines have AC97, and audio should work find with Win9x. If you hunted, you might find a Panasonic ToughBook CF-28. It supposedly has an "Intel 830MG (Win9x 3D compatible)". They range between 1Ghz and 800Mhz. But it is a Pentium III. However, I bet it would run circles around the Wyse laptop. But the real problem would be the resolution. A 1024x768 maximum, with some models only supporting a 800x600 maximum. I guess it depends if it is a touchscreen or not. They are probably not going to reach the display sizes you've mentioned. And they all have strange harddrive caddies. If you don't have a caddie, you can't install a harddrive. This is unlike many other laptop brands, where the caddie is more like a guide. These caddies have the drive connector in them. The caddie then connects to some a non standard connector, inside the laptop.

The ParkyTowers site lists "integrated in CN896" in the Video section. If you scroll down a bit, on the ParkyTower page, you'll find the results of "lspci". You'll have to click it to expand. While CN896 is listed in there, it is combined with two others. So you'd have to determine how he derived that it was indeed a "CN896". If he downloaded a driver for XP/XPe and the "CN879", the driver likely supports all three. For Win98, that would not be the case. There may be a chance, it is supported. I don't want to dash any hopes. But I have been unable to confirm that it has the "CN896" chipset/GPU. Also, the exact model might make a difference. With the Wyse Vx9(LE) series, I noticed some variations. Some came with DVI+ and others with only VGA. They also didn't all have the same Video chip. If you check the ParkyTower pages for the Vx0L and Vx0LE, you can see he lists the video as "VN700?". This is what he says about that: The command he used (lspci), for that output, is from Linux. The driver developed for Linux supports all three of those chipsets. That is why it is listing all three. It is more complicated than that. Maybe it supports others, but groups those three together as a set. This is a similar situation to the Laptop. If you can confirm that it is the "CN896", then the chances are better. If you can't confirm the chipset, you can email the author of ParkyTowers. He does reply to email. But if I had to bet on it, I would bet against Win9x support. Vbemp would provide support, without 3D acceleration. I've used it with multiple laptops, VGA output, and I believe DVI. For sure, the VGA from DVI+. If you don't mind me asking, what is your desired budget? A Pentium M @ 1-1.6Ghz would probably be cheap. Video with "Official" Win98 support might take some hunting. Snap, I forgot you wanted fanless. I guess the below wouldn't work. I think the Dell Inspiron 6000 has a Radeon X300. I believe drivers for Win98 exist for that. I see them on Ebay, without hard drives, for about $30. You could the get an SDcard to 2.5 IDE adapter. Might be a pain to get the adapter seated, in the laptop. There are adapters for CFcards, too. There are even mSata to 2.5 IDE kits. They are the size of a full drive and easier to seat (more expensive).

The video chip is one of "CN896/VN896/P4M900". The oldest Windows "officially" supported is 2000. VBEMP or SciTech-DisplayDoctor7 might work with it. But I am unsure if you will have dual display support. Though, it probably provides video cloning. No 3D drivers, for Win9x. The other issue is the audio chip. It is also not "officially" supported. There is a Win16 HDA audio driver. Some people have had luck getting that to work. Alternatively, you could buy a cheap USB audio adapter. Win98 has generic support for that.

Its interesting.

HX Dos Extender, lists Java 5 "console mode" applications as working. Maybe newer versions work. That list is probably old. It might even be possible that some graphics work. It isn't what you asked for, but there is also Javascript for Dos. It goes beyond command line.

Maybe? There was a variety, handed down to me, from my step-father. I didn't know that. It should've been an obvious assumption, on my part. I have only worked with the actuator assembly. I would probably be kind.

I don't know if this would interest you. I've mean to eventually check it out, for x86. In some ways, COBOL is still a "Hot" language. I've never had the pleasure. When I was a young man, my mother worked for "Cray Research". The closest I ever got, was by looking through the lab windows; you could see from the cafeteria. So did my cousin. I had the Tandy Color Computer II. We both got them as hand-me-downs. They were beyond their expiration date, at that time. I never actually learned the included Basic. I just copied text, from old magazines. If it was IDE, I'm not sure they even plugged it in. They might not do much, for hardware failure. They can probably deal with "bad blocks". You could buy a duplicate "working" drive online. It needs to be the exact same model; same revision and everything. Depending on what is wrong, with the drive, the external boards can be swapped. If it is internal hardware, then it can be replaced, from the working drive. I "don't" recommend that you do the internal repairs yourself. There are special tools needed, for each drive brand. Even if you have the tools, it is very easy to make a mistake. It is also hard to create a safe environment, for opening the drive. I have seen it work out, when no "special" tools where used and no special environment conditions were provided. But, perhaps they would have recovered more data, had the disks not been exposed to dust. There are places you can send drives, to have this work done. I also don't know if they support older hardware.

This is a USB driver "fork" from the "USB OPL3 RetroWave". The fork is by "Crazii", the person responsible for SBEMU. Like with SBEMU, this driver won't really provide any function to Win9x (untested). But it will be useful to some Win9x users. Some machines have no PS2 keyboard/mouse support. Or, if they do, you'll loose it when Windows loads your USB drivers. With this driver, you can potentially enable USB keyboard/mouse support, by using it with "DOSSTART.BAT". This way you can exit to Dos, and not be stranded.

Just to be clear, have you yourself written in assembly? Its not important. I just wanted to ask.

Seems there is some, progressive, work on a Dos SoundBlaster emulator (real/protected). This is what the SBEMU project page says: There are more recent, beta files, found on a well know legacy computing forum. Github seem to have an early release. I don't see this being useful to Win9x. But it'll probably be useful to people, who use Win9x

I also choose 98fe. 95 is very appealing. Too many things make 98fe more useful, for me.

I have had problems, using HxD, to save RAM images over 350Mb. When using Grub4dos, the error is "Stream Read Error". With Grub2/Memdisk(from Syslinux), there is no error. But when you boot the saved image, there is filesystem corruption. I'm not entirely sure it is the size of the image, causing the problem. It could be specific machines. I haven't investigated it very much. A work around is a Dos USB/Fat32 drive and Partition Saving. This won't work, if the available Dos USB drivers don't work for your machine. There are some good Dos USB drivers out there. But even the "demo" Dosusb drivers operate long enough, to do a back-up. Note:These drivers don't work with "EMM386". The other problem, is that Partition saving adds a very small header. It needs to be cut off, after saving. If your machine has no PS2 keyboard support, you may have to add a batch file to "C:\Windows\Dosstart.bat". "Partition Saving" can be automated through a configuration file. Then you just exit to Dos, and your batch handles it for you. Note:If you have prevented Windows from installing a Driver, for a specific USB, your BIOS PS2 Emulation may still work.

Its nothing to severe, long term. Sometimes only a few hours. But it has prevented me from engaging employment, in remote administration. Such is the way of things. I've had many harddrive failures, in the last few years. That is part of what has taken me so long, in setting up a development environment. Add to it, that I am fickle at system crafting. The aim is redundant safe saves and quick machine portability. Years ago, I had a several year project zeroed on me. Ironically, it was in Java. It can really be discouraging. It has happened often enough, that I've learn to just let it go. However, once in a while, it was for the better. I have messed with many different languages and operating systems. Not many scripted languages. I don't care for Lisp, but ironically love Scheme; this causes me to admire ML. I like ASM, the simplicity of complexity. Most high level languages, seem like the complexity of simplicity; for the sake of organization/business. On the outside, Forth looks great; but I have yet to investigate it. The moving target of progression, has always seemed poorly implemented. Not having a career agenda, has greatly liberated my scope. When the 286/386 were in main use, and the 486 in fresh vogue, I really only used C and Batch. I was so out of the loop, I had never even known about Pascal. I knew about GWBasic, but never bothered to check it out. I was pretty young. While I find assembly a focus, I would not be the guy to address a wide range of processors. I initially set out targeting the NEC 186 V-chip. Even now, I find the Next186 pretty tempting. So I might get to learn all about these differences you've mentioned. Thanks, for sharing some of your history. I enjoyed it.

Your O.S. of choice?

I'm a bit late, back to the thread. I watch an elderly woman, about every other week. When I am there, I don't do tech. Simply because, I get too drawn in. Sometimes, she only gives subtle hints of her needs. Great tip! I (too?) will look into the various sources mentioned. Old stuff is getting hard to find, but I'll try hunting for Ramdisk98 source. I'm not entirely opposed to buying a copy of Walter Oney's book/CD (about $6). There are a couple of other books, along the same line, I am looking to snag anyway.

Maybe it was in the Nero installer? Well, it is a direction. Static builds are the very portable, within a O.S. type. I can use new static GO builds, in old Linux distributions. With GCC C/C++, it would often require that the Linux kernel and Glibc be more up-to-date. And with win32, it will also depend on what libraries you build on. But you already knew that part. There are other options, too. BlackBox Component Builder, provides something similar(ish) to Java/VB. You can run it on different OS versions and Platforms. I would think the overhead would less, then say Java. However, it has a less mature availability of libraries. But it offers rapid-application-development. There are some different "Small Talk (modern example)", rapid-application-development, projects. But I'm not sure if there is one, that bridges between many systems. I mentioned "FreePascal/Lazarus", as there has been some work on win16 and Dos compatibility. Win9x has been depreciated. But, if there was enough interest, it could be re-ignited. If Win9x was brought, more into vogue, it would make FreePascal more interesting. Lazarus, is the rapid-application-development side of things. If Win9x support was re-upped, in FreePascal, Lazarus would also need updated. But there are alternative environments, to Lazarus, for FreePascal. They rely on the leaner Win/GDI and *nix/X11. MseGUI/IDE and fpGUI are the notable ones. Note: It might be more likely, that the alternative GUI environments, would consider support for older systems. While they have a smaller development crew, they also have less dependency entanglement. It is also noteworthy, that they could just build in support for older versions of FreePascal; the ones that support Win9x. One could use older versions of FreePascal/development environments, and then minimally port their own code to the new compilers. Also, many older compilers support newer systems. For the masochists, like me, there is FASM. It can have good O.S. portability. But is harder to bridge between architecture types. Writing something "like a modern web browser" in this, would be daunting. But, no doubt, many people would praise your skill/insanity. Fresh IDE, is a rapid-application-development environment for FASM. You can imagine, that work on this takes time. But the project could provide useful, if you are looking to use assembly. More specific to web-browsing, there was an interesting project called "Hv3". It has 12/13 years, since it was last developed. But, might provide interesting study, for someone looking to build a web browser. This one would be "somewhat" useful, as is, if it just had modern encryption support. But Fifth, is more relevant. It is FLTK3/Webkitfltk based. Obviously, this would require some Win9x back-porting. But it might be less dependency bound, than other options. The least compatible GCC compiler is 4.7.3. That means there is "potential" for MinGW/TDM and Win9x. I am "near" ready, on my own "Win9x" production environment. Hence, less knowledgeable regarding Win9x development. I'm only partially focused there, anyway. Please forgive, I'm having a histamine attack today (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome). Concentration is harder. If my reply is confusing, it is probably due to my brain fog.

Excellent.

Actually, this is the reason for the OP. I'm kinda spoiled, and don't want to reboot. Depending on how much was already present, in Walter Onely's book, I had thought about it. I like systems programming; just maybe not Windows 95/98 systems programming (or any modern system). Time is always an issue. In spare time, if it took half a year, I would probably not have ambition for it. A couple months, of poking around to completion, and yeah. But anything more than that, and I'd rather work on a project that solved more problems. That's for another post. :) Yes, that has crossed my mind. I did end up getting RamDrive98 to mount/unmount, without a reboot. The project, I am working on now, can use "Fat16"; requiring, a maximum of, half a Gigabyte. So this will work, for now. The main issue has been file permissions. Many alternatives would require manually setting file permissions, after injecting files into the image. And there are a number of files, where the permissions are important. I really doubt anyone will follow, using this method. But the Internet is big. If you do, pay close attention to the data, "right" after the end of the partition's first sector. Those few blocks may not match, between the two. You can probably leave them, as they are, for each image. In the raw disk image, search for "fat16"; also sector 63, depending on your editor. The size of the partitions need to match. This limits the usefulness. As I am creating the raw image " blank", this works fine for me. I can just match RamDrive98's partition size, by messing around with Qemu's "qemu-img.exe".

Some people have reported problems with 3.66, on virtual machines. When I tested it "Win old app" needed to be killed, in "Task Manager", to continue from an installation stall. The installation continued, but I never investigated for install errors. Some have said 3.65 didn't have the issue. Some said 3.66 worked fine, after using 3.65. You can read all about it, starting in the last handful of pages. You can extract the update contents, and read the install scripts. Seems like the installation is the problem, not the content. You could just install things a piece at a time, when possible. Then when/if something goes wrong, you can read the script and do it manually. But it really depends on what you need the update(s) for. For example, if you are trying to resolve a specific issue.

Yes. Here it is. You can make static builds with other languages. It can be a pain. But I've found Go impressive. I don't remember were, and a quick search didn't turn it up, but I think someone ported Go to dos once (protected/extended mode). Hm? I used Ghex2 and couldn't find the string GET_UPDATE.

SoftICE comes to mind. The Bochs Emulator. IDA(pro).

@jaclaz Thanks for the tip! I have something working. But it isn't ideal, or a solution for large hard disk images. I downloaded RamDisk98, from one of the many Simtel FTP clones. If my disk image has the same partition size, as the RamDisk98 saved partition image, I can use HxD to copy the data between the two. So the image size is limited by the amount of free ram you have. You need enough ram, left over, for HxD's copying in order to paste. So it's better to save the ram image, then operate "afterwards" without the ram disk. For me, the ram disk does not start and stop, as described in the readme. Edit: now works Mapping a disk image, with Grub4Dos, is still easier. I'll install Paragon's Harddisk Manager 6, to see it I can do something similar with the included Image Mounter. They have a header, on there created disk images. As long as the image is not compressed or encrypted, it saves it raw. But this would only work for people with this software. Update: Image mounter couldn't unmount Paragon's own images correctly; the changes were not saved. It seems like a Win98 compatibility issue. Otherwise, it seems as if it would have worked. Mounted images, that had been modified by raw disk image partition data, displayed contents of the original raw partition. Alternatively, the "README.TXT" included with RamDisk98 say: If there is enough usable code, in there, maybe something could be (re)written for a ram or file image.