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Three soundcards? You can do that? I've read that XP works okay with 2, and that 98 can be coaxed into it but is not as 2 card friendly as XP is. I'm trying to imagine 24 speakers and laughing a lot. I know that's not the point, but that's what went through my mind. By the way, I don't use the Dos sound driver in Windows. I just set it up in pif's. I figure there's no need to have that stuff running in Windows where it won't be used anyway.

Yes, the Audigy 2 ZS can be made to work with the SBLive/Audigy 1 DOSDRV folder drivers in MS-DOS Mode. Imagine my surprise when I set it up and it actually worked! I had been frustrated the last couple of years with my 400FSB Socket A boards from both Via and SiS chipsets that didn't allow non-maskable interrupts so the SBEINIT.COM, even though initializing, would not be able to process audio through the hardware. My Epox EP-8KRAIPRO, I've discovered, does work with it. The Audigy 2 ZS needs an extra AUDIGY12.EXE (I think it stands for Audigy 1 to 2) line added after SBEINIT.COM. The 2 files I downloaded some time ago from a site that had it will adjust the driver to use the Audigy 2 hardware layout. It's different than the SBLive. Just add C:\DOSDRV\AUDIGY12.EXE following the C:\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM line. Of course, you need the files in the DOSDRV folder. And I changed the Autoexec MAME provides to add D1 H5 P330 T6, and just used the RAM switch after EMM386 in Config.sys, taking out the NOEMS and NOVCPI they had there. I also had to change CTSYN.INI to the HI and LOW DMA settings I put in the Blaster line, as well as changing the zero's to where the Audigy card really was so it was all consistant with my system. I think SBEINIT looks for the card anyway but I figured I'd fill in the correct port. Notice they also include Smartdrv! Well, I do to if my game uses the cd drive and it has enough conventional memory to include Smartdrv, for others I leave it out. But of course I'll need to direct it to the Windows\Command folder instead. But the same drivers are used. When I tested it I used the SBLive dos drivers offered on the MAME website. I just added the additional Audigy 2 files to the DOSDRV folder, set up the custom configuration in the MS-DOS shortcut autoexec box, and tried it. It was a pleasure to see and hear SBEGO's test find the card and play the test music. All the games that worked with the SBLive card also now work with my Audigy 2 ZS. I'll add the attachment of the Audigy 2 fix. The dos driver is on the MAME website. It's the one from the Audigy 1 retail cd I think, which is just version 5 of the Creative Dos SBLive driver. AUDIGY12.ZIP Changing DoubleBuffer to from 1 to 0 didn't help. I still got the IOS error if I put Smartdrv back in the Windows folder. So I changed it back. I still think this shouldn't be happening. I'm just glad I can keep Windows alive by not having Smartdrv in the Windows folder. It's just...Weird! I thought sure your Doublebuffer suggestion must have been the problem, but no, it's got to be some obscure hidden thing nobody ever could figure out. For years I ran 98 with Smartdrv in the Windows folder, and of course only using it when in MS-DOS Mode. No problem. Now for some reason it can't stay there. I don't see how it could effect anything if nothing is loading it. And it's not just these newer boards either. I got the same problem on an Intel SE440BX recently. These computers must sense my presence and decide to throw weird stuff like this on me!

I've actually never used Smartdrv except for when creating custom configuration files in the right click ms-dos shortcut menus for rebooting to MS-DOS Mode. So I have no drivers in my Windows Autoexec.bat or Config.sys files, just the path statements for the Resouce Kit, ATI Control Panel, and the QuickTime Jave files. The only Smartdrv.exe now on the drive is the one in the Windows\Command folder. Since Windows didn't like it being in the Windows folder I figured I'd leave the one in the Command folder so I could still use Smartdrv in MS-DOS Mode. The one in the Windows folder now is the one renamed to Smartdrv.exe.old. Prior to the IOS errors, Smartdrv.exe had been listed in the Bootlog as being successfully loaded, even though I never put any calls to it in any configuration files and it wasn't listed anywhere in the Windows startup files in sysedit or msconfig. So I have no idea why it was being loaded. It was not listed in the drivers running in the System Information lists. It seemed to be loading at startup then shutting down. Following the IOS problem, Smartdrv was no longer listed in the bootlog and still is not there now that I am successfully booting up. Smartdrv.exe is listed in IOS.INI. No drives are in MS-DOS Compatibility Mode. The Via drivers are the latest with the exception of the AGP driver which I install manually from the AGP folder from the older 4.43v Via package. Newer versions were designed for XP64 as 32 bit versions of XP have Microsoft's AGP driver. The 98 one's installed in newer versions simply report the card but do not turn on AGP Acceleration or Direct3D Hardware Video Acceleration. 4.43v's version was the last one that doesn't leave me with just PCI Bus speeds. Device Manager reports the PCI Bus using IRQ Steering properly. System Information tells of Code 9 errors for 2 instances of ACPI IRQ Holder For PCI IRQ Steering, but no errors show up in Device Manager and there are no Ghost Drivers in Safe Mode. The Bootlog did report the 2 Unknown Devices, but they don't show up in Device Manager or System Information, even in Safe Mode. I recall that my old motherboard, the Asus A7V880 with the same Via KT880/VT8237 chipsets had one instance of the ACPI IRQ Holders listed as a Problem Device whenever using Windows 98SE. But no unknown devices. 98SE used to run fine on that board, but the last time I had the board in a case it also eventually errored out with the IOS Real Mode Memory error at startup. At least with the Epox board I get to use the Dos Audio with my Audigy 2 ZS. That, and stability with the 400MHz bus speed with 3200 memory modules was the reason I switched over from the Asus board. Yet, until now I couldn't get 98SE to stay running because of that darned IOS error. Well, renaming smartdrv fixed it for now. I still don't know why it did, as I never told Windows to load Smartdrv! Yet there it was in the bootlog (and now it's gone.) This is the weirdest problem. Thanks for the information again. I've printed it out so if I need to tangle with the VMM files I'll have the info. My registry looks like it has the right stuff in there. Some mysteries remain, but the system's working. I'm using WinDoctor from Norton Utilities 2002 to try to keep the registry proper now. I generally don't use these kinds of things but with my recent problems I'm trying some extra precautions. In the old days I did like registry cleaners but for the last couple of years I've noticed that Windows XP doesn't seem to get buggy when I don't mess with it too much. Apparently 9x does need to be "messed with." I was getting these errors without using any utilities other than Windows ScanDisc and Defrag. Perhaps WinDoctor can help things from getting messed up.

Apart from folks here examining the code and recommending stuff to include, and examining code is beyond me, I think most are waiting until they actually have a need to reinstall 98SE before trying your pack or perhaps just waiting for other guinea pigs (like me!) Regarding installing WMP 7.1 first, let me make it clear what I mean. If you're not going to use Windows Media Encoder there's no real reason. I install Windows Media Encoder 7.1 because the ATI Multimedia Center requires that pre-installed before the Multimedia Center is installed. By the way, I use the Catalyst 6.2 for 9x and MMC 9.08. I have the latest DVD decoder pre-downloaded from an XP install because the ATI downloader will not work on 98 anymore. You still use it to check for the required ATI cd and to install the DVD Encoder, but direct it to the setup.exe already on the computer. So I get the latest Cyberlink PowerDVD codec. So to make it right, you'd also need to include Windows Media Encoder 7.1 to be installed following WMP 7.1, but before WMP 9. I also suggest you make WMP 7.1 a custom install and leave out the Adaptec Cd Burning plugin. That has issues. The Roxio one in WMP 9 fixed the problems so that one's okay. I've also heard that the file convertor that is in the WMP Bonus Pack causes issues so I now customize that install as well and leave that out. I forgot to mention that I also install Windows 98 Resource Kit (the full version), System Policy Editor (from the Resource Kit Cd, forceASPI 1.7, and TweakUI after IE6 SP1, but before any Service Pack. This wasn't necessary with Gape's Pack since he includes those. Not the Resorce Kit, as that's just personal choice. I might as well have all the tools available. As far as DotNet, there are people who don't want that installed so you might want to make that optional in some way, and the same with TweakUI or the ASPI drivers. 4.71.a2 can be installed by ForceASPI 1.8, but that newer version is buggy more times than not. Better off with the 4.6 version installed by ForceASPI 1.7. The ForceASPI installers are good because they install the registry entries needed for ATAPI cd drives. The ASPI drivers themselves are really only for SCSI drives and will make digital playback and cd burning broken if installed without the registry entries (like Adaptec's official installer does, it breaks things). And you must run DumpASPI and KillASPI before running INSTASPI, otherwise the files won't be replaced. Gape's pack also offers a Windows 2000 color scheme, 256 color tray icons, and his Explorer.exe also changes the Recycle Bin, Network Neighborhood, and My Documents desktop icons to the Windows Me style. It was a little weird to wind up after installing your version with only the My Computer icon changed and the same old green desktop and the rest of the older 98 style icon's. It's kind of of a mixed decade theme! I'd rather you either left the My Computer icon alone or replaced them all with the Me style. It just looks weird with only one changed. Perhaps that's what your MDGx 98SE2ME installs if Gape's pack isn't installed first? Maybe you should let folks install 98SE2ME themselves since that changes quite frequently. This way they'll just install the latest one once. Since I didn't have the Windows Me cd in the drive, I just got the few things it automatically installed from your version then installed the latest one myself afterwards. Like I said, I went back and extracted your pack, then installed all the module 4 stuff manually. You're right that it hadn't installed. As I said, I couldn't get the update to the Auto-Patcher to run. I used previously downloaded stuff from MDGx to be sure of a few of those. As I had let Windows Update install some of them, you're also correct that installing MDGx's unofficial versions puts the working files in and fools Windows Update since its version had already been installed. Heh, the rest was just my babble about my current problems that might not be related to your pack. Not sure about System Information not showing anything when clicking on the Internet Explorer link. It should report the version and some other stuff. Then, when I click file versions it's supposed to show all the IE files and their versions but it just showing "file missing" for all except IEXPLORE.EXE. That never happened to me before. Not sure if it's caused by something in your pack but it's just something I haven't seen before. Like I said, Internet Explorer works fine. Try to read all that. I don't mean to be so long winded. I just have stuff to report! I don't know how else to do it without typing it. But you're not the first to tell me my paragraphs tire them out. Sorry. Please keep at it. This was no failure! It worked fine (the first time, anyway) with the exception of it skipping over module 4. Edit - It wouldn't help for those using non-Microsoft keyboards or mice but I also installed Intellipoint and Intellitype software before your pack as the Mouse fix is supposed to be installed after those. I don't see how your pack could check to see if the system has Microsoft keyboard and mouse hardware so I don't think those would be a good addition to your pack. Additional info - I needed to use this the IEBugfix from the 98 Upgrade Pack in order to fix extreme Explorer slowdown. That just installs the 2 files from IE 5.5 into the Windows folder and puts in a registry entry directing Explorer to use it. The newer files in the System folder are left alone. If you extract his pack you'll find the fix in the w folder. It's really an unofficial type of thing but I couldn't run things smoothly without it. Things would slow down so much my system would freeze. I tried to attach it but I guess this post is exceeding the length rules here.

Craps! I just typed a whole post and lost it when either Comcast or my Firewall got jammed up when I tried to submit it. Anyway, some news from the IOS error, real mode memory allocation failed front. It happened to me AGAIN! BUT! This time I renamed smartdrv.exe in the Windows folder to smartdrv.exe.old in Safe Mode and it worked. I then tried extracting a fresh one using System File Checker, but when that file is there Windows won't boot to normal mode. It just gives that IOS error message. So I deleted the file (keeping the renamed version, smartdrv.exe.old, there just in case I need it for something - I think it's the one installed by 98SE2ME) and Windows boots up fine. For good measure I had TweakUI repair the Font folder, but for some reason I'm not getting all the font failed messages in bootlog.txt this time. It is really weird, as I thought there was no using smartdrv.exe within Windows 98SE. SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\PROGRA~1\WIN98RK;C:\PROGRA~1\ATITEC~1\ATICON~1 SET CLASSPATH="C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\QTJava.zip" SET QTJAVA="C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\QTJava.zip" That's my AutoExec.BAT, and my config.sys is empty. So, no calls for smartdrv that I'm aware of. I have no idea why not having the file in the Windows folder fixes the IOS error. And it looks like 98SE2ME doesn't really effect my font's. Can I get some help with this, though? Bootlog does show a couple of errors. 2 devices are showing failed in the log, ndis2up.vxd and SDVXD. The other note from bootlog would be 2 Unknown devices, (HTREE\ROOT\0 and HTREE\RESERVED\0. Possibly related, 2 instances of ACPI IRQ HOLDER FOR PCI IRQ STEERING are showing in System Information as error code 9 in Problem Devices. All my hardware works though. The other oddity is that clicking on Internet Explorer in System Information brings up a blank window in the right pane, and clicking on File Versions shows all the files as "file missing" except for IEXPLORE. That might be related to my using the new AutoPatcher Alpha and it failing to install his Module 4. But this is the first time I've seen more than a couple of files listed as missing and the IE pane being totally blank. My internet is working fine (VIA 6203 on board ethernet), and Internet Explorer, OfficeXP, and Works 8.5 run fine.

Hi soperific, First, this is an incredibly cool piece of software! I ran the alpha on a new 98SE setup, after installing a few of the items myself first. I run IE6SP1 from a Microsoft cd as in the future I can use the cd to install any needed languages, etc and Windows accepts the cd as the source for addin's like that. I also install DotNet 1.1, SP1, and 2.0 and the 2.0 Sec update before DirectX as then it will install the Managed Direct X files. I did use your extracted version as I hadn't saved the October version and wanted to install the thing only once (as things generally work better if only installed once.) I also install WMP 7.1 before WMP 9 as both the Bonus Pack and the WMP Encoder 7 only fully work properly if installed before WMP9. I also installed Motherboard and Video drivers before your pack, as well as the Maximus Decim MDAC updater. It was fun watching everything zip through. I recieved no error messages though the whole process. After it was done, I proceeded to install some of the MDGx addon's and 98SE2ME, the WMP 10 Codecs, 98SE2XP, and the WMP10 for 9x MDGx pack's. Now the problems. I believe I suffered from the Module 4 Pack not running, even though the messages made it seem that it did and I did get the Explorer.exe from MDGx's 98SE2ME installed by your Autopatcher. I say this because following your pack Windows Update needed to install the following: IE6SP1 KB833989 98 Sec Update KB918547 98 Sec Update KB917344 98 Sec Update KB891711 GDI Detection KB873374 IE Navigation Sound Update Euro Conv Tool Mapped Drives Shutdown Update. I'm not certain about all the Module 4 stuff, but I did check and ScanFrag did not replace the original ScanDisk and Defrag and my 98SE Troubleshooter's are giving me the blank pages so I don't think TSHOOT98 was installed. I have doubt's about the Copy2GB patch as well as the version I have is 2224, not the 2226 version installed by the patch. Your update patch (or the original one, when trying it again) does not run correctly on my computer. Out of Environment Space now appears (which it didn't when first run) no matter which way I try to run it. The first time I tried your update, that appeared, and also the message that your program needs to access the Windows System Files to run. I then tried extracting the update and right clicking the batch files and choosing the largest Environment Space on the memory tab. Since they wouldn't run that way, I used the update's setup again (which wouldn't complete) and then right clicked the Desktop's icon and adjusted it's Environment Space, as well as REMing out the 2 QuickTime Java lines in my system's AutoExec.bat. Then things would run (even though each box still reported Out of Environment) until trying to process. A box would report that it couldn't locate the FULLFILE.BAT (I think that's what it's called). I tried extracting the newer batch files over the ones in your folder but still got that error. Heck, after deleting ALL your stuff and trying to run the original I still got that couldn't find the fullfile error. So it seems I can't rerun your patcher to get the updates installed that were missed the first time, or even run it at all now because of that fullfile error. I think having McAfee QuickClean 3's uni.exe running the first time I tried your update to the pack may have caused that unable to access the system folder error. That or the McAfee Firewall 4.02. On all further attempt's I was disconnected from the net and had all that McAfee stuff set to not run at startup and turned off (although uni.exe WILL start up whenever Windows starts up no matter what I set in the McAfee settings). If that QuickClean uni.exe thing is what was protecting the System folder I'll need to uncheck it in MSCONFIG if we can get your program to actually run, as anything protecting the System folder needs to be OFF since your pack restarts Windows alot. I really don't know what was interferring, but EVERYTHING was off when I initially installed your pack, and anytime (except the first time) I attempted running your update to the pack. I believe that some Module 4 did initially run, but some things got installed and some didn't, even though it wasn't giving me any errors. My OLEAUT32.DLL is 2.40.4518, so I don't think that update was run as I think that is the version installed by IE6SP1. I'll go and run some of these manually as I used to. I hope the problems running the update patch are within your program and not my computer, as I'd obviously prefer not to uninstall my security software just to run the updates. I'd rather they worked if I just turn the stuff off, please. McAfee is a pain to uninstall and install and update, etc. You have to go through hoops just getting all the program updates to run properly. What's neat is I have the latest 5100 engine and DAT's with the 4320 vxd allowing no Windows slowdown, so I'm fully up to date while using the last McAfee Home version that was really feature filled (7.03.6000.) At least, for 98. The newest version for XP (11) brought back much of what was missing in the Active X versions 8-10. The only thing in my AutoExec, by the way, is my path statement: SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\PROGRA~1\WIN98RK;C:\PROGRA~1\ATITEC~1\ATICON~1 SET CLASSPATH="C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\QTJava.zip" SET QTJAVA="C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\QTJava.zip" Nothing is in my Config.sys. Again, this thing is superb! I hope you can figure out how you or I can fix the rerunning of the patcher problem's. This is installed on a real computer, not VMWare. It's on an 80GB partition. Right now the rest of the HD is a hidden by Partition Magic NTFS partition. I haven't yet installed XP (or Vista to my 2nd HD with a hidden NTFS partition) as I want to get 98SE sorted first. I prefer this to VMWare, even though I have that, as then I can use 98SE for Direct X gaming, Dos Mode gaming, DVD's, etc. Also - Another problem. In System Information, when I click Internet Explorer, I get a blank page. And when I click File Versions, I get all the files listed as "file missing" except for IEXPLORE. Internet Explorer, OfficeXP, and Works 8.5 run fine though. Just to report: I manually installed all the module 4 stuff except for the 98TSHOOT update (no need for the troubleshooters). So now I believe I'm all up to date. I still hope you can figure out why the patcher itself couldn't be run again successfully. And perhaps the System Information Internet Explorer files showing missing and the general IE page being blank there. Maybe that's just a result of one of the updates?

soporific, If you look at how Gape's Unofficial 98SE Service Pack deals with Dialup Networking, you'll see that he doesn't use the installer. Even his info states that he just installs parts of it. I think the problem might lie in the installation of Virtual Private Networking that Dialup Networking 1.4 installs. Since that invokes the Windows Setup to add drivers to Network Properties, then ask to restart Windows when it finishes, that might be the hold up. So after Gape's pack is installed, you have Dialup Networking 1.4 installed. However you don't have the Virtual Private Networking installed in the Network Properties (which I've never needed anyway.) In fact, when I used to install DUN 1.4 manually I used to then go into Add/Remove's Windows Setup and uncheck Virtual Private Networking. Otherwise it would interfere with my Cable internet connection. Perhaps you could examine how Gape's pack installs DUN 1.4 and incorporate that into your Auto-Patcher.

Well. yeah. It still is Internet Explorer. If you navigate the Microsoft IE website, I'm sure you'll find a page that lists the changes. It's not like they switched to Gecko. All those security patches and bug fixes are included, as well as the new features. RSS feeds, a redesigned Favorites section, the tabbed browsing, the ability to put several search engines into the search window, no more big, bulky icon's so the browser window is bigger (although you could always have switched to the smaller, Windows Me default style, smaller icon's), etc. Actually, since I installed the Yahoo version that toolbar makes the browser window about the same size as before. Especially with that McAfee Site Advisor thing taking a whole toolbar of its own. There's no room for it on the other bars, so it puts itself on a whole new bar, with the rest empty just taking up space. Same with the Encarta Search thing, though I have that turned off so it won't do that. It would be nice to have it, but no, it's not a need to have item.

You could use Firefox along with an Internet Explorer rendering extention. I just used to open up Internet Explorer whenever encountering a site like that (open IE, go back to Firefox and copy the url, then paste it into IE.) These things were so rare for me it didn't seem necessary to bother installing the extention. Netscape is not the Netscape of old. It's built on an older Firefox version with some security updates and alot of AOL stuff, since they own it. Sea Monkey is really the latest version of the old Netscape suite. It's up to date with bug fixes and security updates as well as features. It went from Netscape to Mozilla to Sea Monkey. The most advanced combination is Firefox, with Thunderbird for email. That way you get more choices as far as customizing your experience with extentions. Internet Explorer is zippier on 98SE in my experience as far as opening (since it hooks into the Explorer Shell) and web page loading. If you keep the operating system updated along with the browser from the fixes available from links here, I really see no problem using it. If you miss the faster opening speed, both Sea Monkey and Firefox include the option to keep them resident in memory for faster opening. For me, I didn't need it as it seemed fast enough for me. I'm not that impatient! I'm not versed in the browser's that use Internet Explorer, but with their own window. I didn't see the point so never tried it. If I wanted to skin IE I'd use Object Desktop, which will also skin Firefox. I'd say just experiment and choose what you like. It is too bad we won't get IE7 on 9x, but they'll be lots of things we won't get as the years go by now. If your computer gets what you need done, and has the features that satisfy you, your fine. If you need to keep up with the very latest, well then ya gotta pay and upgrade.

PROBLEMCHYLD, I know! I'd dearly love a no muss, no fuss 98SE install. Right now it's a meticulous process. Not for the weak of heart or patience. One really must love 9x to go through the whole thing. Here's hoping there is something on the way. Heck, I'd pay! I recently contributed to Project64's N64 emulator beta project hoping they'd finish that thing soon. And I don't have $ to throw around. But if it would help something like this get done I'm sure I'm not the only one who would support it. Too many things can, and do (for me), go wrong with this complicated conglomeration of Service Pack's, individual updates, and program installs. I just hope it will leave most registry tweaking out, or at least make them optional. The 98 Upgrade Pack is an example of something I didn't like. It chose the author's preferences for how he liked his registry tweaked. After spending time undoing most of them I just formatted and started fresh. Now I just use his IEbugfix.exe to patch the Explorer slowdown issues with IE6SP1 installed and go with Gape and MDGx for everything else. But I do find it tough to get through it all in the present state of affairs. Wow! I just noticed this - http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=80800 Now, isn't that the motherload! Auto-Patching, eh? I like Auto. GetRight couldn't start the download properly so I've got Internet Explorer doing it. It's big and a slow download so who knows if I'll get it properly. That thing looks amazing! Maybe there's some help on the horizon, eh?

Yes! Feel free to intrude. Education is a beautiful thing. Hmm. It seems that only one of those links (I certainly would normally put one there) gave an exception for plural nouns. (Oh, come on. Not there either?) I believe I was taught, by classes and textbooks, a way that appears to be frowned upon now. Heck. I would've used it in appears as well. Although, perhaps not when all the old rules were fresh in my memory. Perhaps they were never allowed in adjectives. To think that my English Professors (not there either, eh?) used to call me a natural writer. Getting older is a dangerous thing for the mind. I used to be able to write whole term papers in a single draft on a regular typewriter without any spelling or grammer checking. Leaving those apostrophies out is already creeping me out!

More interesting, since I also choose a custom install, select full, then add all the abilities to display all the languages leaving out the few that are only to input (not interested in input, just the ability to have all languages to be displayed) when installing Internet Explorer 6 SP1 from the Microsoft cd. I usually install Works 8, the update for it, the programs included in WorksSuite 2005 (but the 2006 full versions of them) and OfficeXP Pro Plus with Frontpage and Publisher 2002. Although Word 2000 was okay to install before the 98SE Unofficial Service Pack, I've found that I've needed to install the Service Pack first before installing OfficeXP. Otherwise the registry would be corrupted on restart after the Service Pack. I think Office XP has newer MDAC files than the Service Pack installs. If installed after the Service Pack, things are fine. Except, of course, for the eventual IOS Error that seems to be caused by corrupted font's or their registry entries. The parallel here, although slightly different as Drugwash experiences a single language font problem, is font stuff going on in Office, IE, and 98SE2ME installation's. One difference of course, is that Drugwash's system is not permanently destroyed by an IOS bootup error as mine is. It looks to me like there is some relation. Perhaps some solution to this might help both of our situations?

This font discussion interests me because of my troubles lately on any 98SE install except, for some reason so far, my current install in VMWare. In all cases I install 98SE2ME as part of my 98SE setting up. Eventually, after some random software installation I get an Error Loading Device IOS Real Mode Memory Allocation Failed on bootup and from then on can only get into Safe Mode. First I thought it was an SBLive software thing, then MSN Messenger, then Nero, then Spybot Search and Destroy. I now realize it is no relation to which program is being installed, but some other problem. I've read a Microsoft KB that mentioned that it could happen on restart after a program install, especially if MSCONFIG is used to limit the amount of memory Windows uses. So last time I left out the MaxPhysPage=40000 line from System.ini and deleted it when it was installed by the Service Pack and 98SE2ME. That's when the bootup error still occured after restarting from the Spybot Search and Destroy installation. When that happened I got desperate so I installed RegRepair2000 and spent hours using its IOS repair utility. Mostly that dealt with deleting all my font's and reinstalling them. Apparently, ALL my font's were corrupted somehow. By what, I have no idea, but ALL of them were failing to load according to my bootlog. The only other potential problems found by RegRepair2000 was that a few vxd's were being loaded from the System folder and, according to RegRepair2000, it was possible that Windows already had these files within the vxd file and these might possibly be duplicates. The previous time startup had failed with Nero, I had tried removing all the Adaptec/Roxio Windows Media Player Plugin driver's, but this didn't fix anything. I'm thinking the culprit might possibly be something being done to the registering of the Font files by one of the updates I'm applying to my system. And seeing this thread I'm thinking that it might well be 98SE2ME. I don't KNOW this, of course. I'm just trying to figure out why I can't use Windows 98SE on ANY computer (except for, so far, a VMWare installation.) In case you're wondering, no, renaming or removing smartdrv.exe or rmm.pdr, or extracting and replacing these from the 98SE installation cd had no effect in fixing Windows startup when I tried those old fixes. And they seem to be the only possible fixes, with the exception of not limiting Windows memory use, that I have seen when searching the net for a possible solution. So my question is, on my next attempt at a real (not VMWare, which for some reason isn't acting up yet) 98SE installation, should I use the new restore Font folder option in 98SE2ME in an attempt to prevent this font corruption from occuring? Or, what what else can be tried? And, why in the world AREN'T my font's being corrupted when I install the same stuff on my VMWare 98SE install? Or, could it be the HP Scanjet 3970 that I have not installed on my VMWare install that is the culprit. That's the only other thing I've found regarding this IOS thing, that scanner software sometimes can also cause this problem. I wanna run 98SE! This is p---ing me off. (Just angry at my computer's, don't take that personal!)

I could actually dig out a book or two from my composition courses (but I won't, since that's a lot of digging for this. It's not like I'm writing a book) that gave the rules for that time (1970's). I KNOW that, at least back then, apostrophies were to be applied for certain plural form's (like that one, I think.) What I've forgotten is exactly when they are to be used and when they are not. As far as the browsers, I'm sure you are correct. But I'm getting used to IE again, like I said really for the first time. I guess I've regressed. Maybe it's temporary insanity.

Apostrophy problem's, eh? Heh, it's been too many years since my composition training! Sorry, I just put 'em where I think they belong. I learned by the rules but as the memory evades, intuition takes over. Sea Monkey's the Mozilla Suite reborn right? I used Mozilla until Firefox came out with their 1.0 Final. I also used mostly Netscape before all that. So I've been basically going with the anything but Internet Explorer until quite recently. What got me back was the Vista Beta 2 CCP program. Although I installed Firefox the first time, as IE7 seemed buggy expecially in the Favorites area, I then decided to try Internet Explorer again without installing Firefox. This, on a slightly later Vista build. They seemed to come out with new build's quite frequently for a while. I found IE quite usable. So I then tried it on my 9x and XP setup's and also was satisfied. You know, Active X, Flash, Java, etc. have had several security updates in the last couple of years. Now you even get to click to activate the Active X control's. I understand the argument's. (Still think those apostrophies are supposed to be there!) And, I too have occasionally dabbled in the world of slightly dangerous web page viewing, in both IE and Firefox. Thankfully I've never been seriously infected by anything. In most cases I've viewed these types of things in Firefox since that's what I had been using. And yes, when going to download sites with IE I've had the "boinggg" of my virus scanner detecting, preventing, and deleting nasties. Same sites with Firefox and only something in the download might get the virus scanner's attention, and we would avoid the "auto-nasty thing-install" provided by IE's Active X. But then, the newer security setting's would now also prevent most of that stuff. Generally it would happen when I was looking for something I really shouldn't have! (Bad, Bad Eck.) Aw, you're probably correct in most cases. However, it seems to me that things are kind of looking pretty similar between the standard's these days. (No apostrophy?) I'm just liking what I see in IE at this time. I just downloaded the new Firefox 2.0. If I do decide to install it, it then will be my default. I've never seen the point of installing an alternative browser if I wasn't going to be in that thing nearly all the time I'm browsing. I'll probably just look around at some of the assorted forum's for a bit. Let's see what folks think when comparing the two. For now, I'm an IE7 user. When unfixed bugs start annoying me and Microsoft goes back to almost never fixing them, I'll then once again rejoin the Firefox bandwagon. For now, IE7 is new and works fine. Like I said, little loyalty regarding this. The IE7 flavor is appealing at the moment.

Yeah, it's about IE7 on 9x but since it looks impossible I thought I'd comment on the mentioning of Yahoo Toolbar which caught my eye. So, not a hijack but a comment on a post. And, as long as I'm here, a few rantings about my current experiment's! Hmm. NCSA Mosaic was the first browser, no? And Internet Explorer was built and extended from that, and an early Mozilla version. I remember actually using both Mosaic and an early Netscape way back in the early 80's in a college computer class. Heh. The 20 minute wait for pictures to load seemed the norm. Fun, though. Standards are, of course, importent for developer's. But for most user's, it seems to me, we just want our pages to work and load as quick as possible. I don't mind whether my scroll bars are colored. Seems to me that's just more fun for the web site builder's creativity. Firefox has frequent updates for security purposes, as does Internet Explorer. I always make sure I use my firewalls, virus scanners, spybot detectors whichever browser I'm using. I apply any updates available to better secure things as well. Yes, they use resources. Better that than getting infected and repartitioning. Either browser seems fine to me. I don't mind running security software. Not intentionally visiting known malware infested sites helps for any browser. And, my cable is directly connected to Comcast so with no router I certainly won't go on without those extra protections. I think what I'm saying is I appreciate the developer's of both IE and Firefox but aren't married to either.

And, since I was impatient I have the Yahoo customized version of IE7 installed. No matter. I normally use Yahoo as my default search engine, don't mind the Yahoo Toolbar, use the My Yahoo homepage anyway, and don't care that it says "provided by Yahoo!" on the Titlebar. Too bad it won't run on 9x. It's a nice upgrade for Internet Explorer and it sure would make installing all the Internet Explorer updates easier, since it comes with most of them built in. It downloads some updates before it installs but I think it already contains most of them. Of course, they are XP versions of the updates. Hmmm, Firefox 2 next week, eh? I'm sure that'll be nice too. And that works on 9x. I've got my 98SE on VMWare right now. I got sick of the IOS Error that real mode memory allocation failed ALWAYS showing up after a random program install. It had nothing to do with Nero or MSN Messenger. It happened after I installed Spybot Search and Destroy last time. No such difficulty with VMWare. It's just too bad there's no Direct X Direct 3D Video acceleration provided by it on 9x. I'll try again at some point making a real installation. I'd rather have the real thing, that includes using my videocard and Direct X gaming. And that IOS fixing tool did nothing but delete all my font's. Heh. Once that IOS error shows up you're screwed! Windows in Safe Mode only, and MS-DOS is all you're left with. All I can think of is I've heard scanner software can muck things up. I use an HP Scanjet 3970. Maybe that's not as 98 compatible as HP maintains. I'll try disabling the connected scanner next time rather than installing the software for it. Heck, that's what I do in Vista which has no driver for it as yet. I'll just use the scanner in XP.

Yay Yahoo Toolbar! Heh. That's the way I go on 98SE. I'm still not a convert to tabbed browsing but it's nice that it's included for the occasional desire to keep a few pages available. Not that I ever had a problem just opening a few windows. On XP I usually don't bother with it as the built in popup blocker is fine. And it's easy enough to navigate Yahoo without the toolbar. After spending many years with Netscape to Mozilla to Firefox and Thunderbird I've taken to using Internet Explorer lately. I did it first just to see what the new IE 7 was like in Vista Beta. I noticed it got me where I wanted to go. Now I don't even have Firefox installed on my XP or 9x. Lots of folks love all the Firefox extensions, but I rarely installed any anyway. I remember I originally switched because the first Internet Explorer versions on 98SE seemed so buggy to me and Netscape just worked (then the rest of the Mozilla line). I got used to it. But as long as I'm on the net with all the shield's we use now IE is fine, and seemingly pretty secure. Eh. If I come across annoyances I'll switch back. I guess I don't see the importance of loyalty to boxes that navigate web pages. Sheesh. Who cares? I can't believe people fight over that trivolity. I've gotten quite a chuckle over the years reading all the passion in forum threads over people's favorite browsing GUI. Now, I DID see the importance of noticing that Microsoft gave it's browser for free while Netscape, at the time, made its money from selling their's. Now there was an operating system killing off a whole company. Shouldn't have been allowed to happen. But it's history now. Now it's just personal preference.

Perhaps boards like the Abit NF7-S Revision 2 might be the speedier, but that's hard to find at any reasonable price now. I got a lot of use out of the Asus A7V880, but it does suffer from some funky defects in the memory voltage area. I don't mean specifically my board, but the whole lot of them. We must set the memory timings manually, and raise the AGP voltage to 1.75, as well as dumb down to AGP 4X for stability. The bios blinks out, and that did happen on mine. It just loses the bios and nothing but a replacement chip fixes it. Mine was RMA'd just to have that done. No telling when it'll forget again and go blank. Mine also locks up with high processor usage such as video encoding. Nice Antec Tru-Blue 480 power supply, so it gets plenty of stable power and good air flow. My Epox board shows none of these negative attributes, although the bios in it won't let you lower the AGP speed if you wanted to. It's locked at 8X or 4X depending on the card. I think I recall reading that they put better capacitors on the 8KRAIPRO than the original version of (8VTAI?) the board that was renamed. I recently purchased a second 8KRAIPRO to replace the A7V880 in my other case. The only thing that I might miss there is that SoundMAX audio. I thought it sounded great and had all the cool Sensaura stuff I purchased seperately to upgrade it. But I haven't used it in a while anyway as I put an Audigy 2 ZS in there. And now that I find I can get SoundBlaster 16 emulation in Dos with the Audigy 2 ZS and the Epox board I'm sold! The Asus A7V880 wouldn't let that work. Don't use it alot, but the old games look and sound better than what I get with Dosbox. Maybe I'll try out that 48Bit LBA ESDI patch on my 250GB ATA drive on the new board with 98SE! Oohh, fun without destroying this system. Sounds like a plan. Asus has the good rep, but that particular board has known problems. Hence it's being discontinued early. The KT880 chip is nice for it's maximizing Socket A speeds, dual-channel memory support, working USB 2.0 and Sata support. It just seems that it took too long to work out the bugs, and only now that Socket A is dead there are a few boards out that combined stability with that speed. 98SE runs the Epox board fine. Both boards show IRQ steering errors on 98SE but the hardware works anyway. Using setup /p i installs as a standard pc and then the error only shows up within the properties tab of the PCI Bus heading (IRQ Steering disabled due to errors in the steering table) and not in System Information. Maybe I'll try a normal install again and see what happens. It looks just cosmetic. I'll just mention here an important trick in getting AGP transfer's working in 98SE. I install the latest Via Hyperion Pro's without the AGP driver selected. Before rebooting, I extract the AGP folder from the 4443v 4-in-1's to the root directory and run the OEM reg file in there. Then I use device manager to manually update the Microsoft PCI to PCI controller to the Via CPU to AGP Controller in that folder (not the one with 2.0, 3.0 support). Then I reboot. Now when I install either ATI or NVidia drivers, they provide the AGP transfer's. Newer 4-in-1's turn that off and only let drivers provide PCI transfer's. Lot's of complaining in forums about that and no solutions besides telling folks to reinstall the Via AGP drivers, which won't help.

Aww, c'mon. Install something like Return Of Arcade and play a little PacMan! Maybe new stuff seems a bit too complicated to me, but once I fire up an old addictive favorite like that the old gamer in me wants more. Funny, I don't think 16 bit stuff like that would run on Vista! Ya know, problems like that will make me avoid running Vista as my sole operating system. There is no way I'll repurchase revised Vista compatible versions when I already own these simple games. By the way, for just music, viewing movies, and even a bit more complex game playing you're current processor is fine. I wouldn't run Doom 3 on that but plenty of pretty good games were made during that processor speed's heyday. The memory boost can only help. I understand what you said about gaming. As far as doing lot's of stuff at the same time, you'll likely get less slowdown with more memory. And with low processor speeds 98SE is less demanding than XP just running the operating system and hardware itself. Result: Install XP and things will seem slower, but then again you could open and run a ton of stuff without running out of resources. I still don't understand the need for folks having a ton of web pages open at the same time, along with their music, a movie, and a couple of games running at the same time. How much can one person do at the same time? One or two browser windows and some music is fine for me. When I want to watch a movie, why in the world would I need anything else running? When I'm done with the DVD is it too much trouble to open my browser or email program and catch up? Of course not! Unless you're an octopus, 98SE has plenty of oomph to it to run a few sensible combinations of things at the same time. Some folks today should eat less sugar and turn off the TV. And let their kid's be kid's at least until High School. I think there are 4 year old's better at math than I am. I couldn't even talk until I was 4! And we liked it!!!! Hurrumph. (Gosh, what set me off?) Eh, if you're the sort who doesn't enjoy updating things manually then 98SE really isn't for you anymore. You're really not safe on the net without paying attention to what updates have been hacked to install on 98. With XP you can run most of your older stuff and it just takes installing the OS and going to Windows Update. Well, then installing a few security programs. But I'll admit it is a lot simpler for the lazy in all of us. Even then, I use the RyanVM Post Service Pack 2 Update Pack as I trust it better than WindowsUpdate to install all the sensible updates properly. Microsoft tends to bork that up once there are too many things between Service Packs. Anyway, more memory = better. And your processor is fine for what you described as your usage.

Hey, I just opened IMGTOOL Classic just to check out the options. One of the one's available is to split image into 1GB chunks (recommended for FAT32 partitions). Now I'm wondering whether IMGBURN will take those and burn them into one iso on a DVD. I suppose it will as otherwise that wouldn't be in the IMGTOOL options to create them that way. I'll have to try this out on 98SE and see what happens. Kind of chickening out though. I just finished setting up the 3 operating systems here. I'll probably just want to use the computer as is for a bit. I've got 60GB for 98SE, about 170GB for XP, and a seperate 120GB HD for Vista. I just think about what I've got here, then consider all the work involved after wiping everything out. Err, I think I'll rest from computer building for a bit! Still, 98SE ROCKS! (Just don't want to work too hard at the moment.) I've been doing some DVD's in Vista. Maybe I'll just go into 98SE and try it out there. Let's see if it survives the long high-quality encoding in DVDShrink without freezing. Vista did it. My older Asus A7V880 had a problem with that while on XP. Maybe it's just the motherboard. This Epox seems more stable using the same processor type and memory. We're talking about an hour and a half of 100% processor usage. Wish I could put an air conditioner in the pc! For the QuickTime stuff I'm just talking about going to a website and playing the newer video's automatically. Nowaday's we need the QuickTime 7.1 codecs (whether in the commercial player or QuickTime Alternative) to play them. Most just play the audio only with QuickTime 6.5.2 installed. I'm not a big QuickTime video player, but it's just one of the annoyances of stuff that won't work on 9x anymore.

Gosh, reading stuff like that makes me want to wipe out my XP and Vista partitions and let 98SE reign over my computer! I haven't done that in a long time. 98SE appears to run great on this (the Epox) board. A few quirks with IRQ sharing reporting problems but but all the hardware working anyway. Dare I take the plunge? Oh! What would I do with 4700GB DVD iso's? Split 'em up when making them? Hmmm. I wonder if IMGTOOL Classic would do that? I've been taking the DVDShrink files and making the iso with IMGTOOL Classic, then burning with IMGBURN. DeepBurner Pro claims to be able to handle DVD Video so I suppose I could do what I used to do with Nero and try burning the DVDShrink created Video_ts folder directly. Since it was a new addition to DeepBurner Pro I haven't trusted it yet, preferring to make the ISO myself. Works great with Vista and NTFS, but I'm wondering if splitting the ISO in 2 parts would effect the resulting DVD? Anyone here who can tell me whether this works okay? I'd also love for someone to get the new QuickTime formats to work on 98SE. It looks like Apple isn't going to bother doing it. It probably wouldn't be hard for them to do it, with all their resources. But then Apple even abandone's its own older software (and hardware) all the time. Hundred's of dollars for Vista Ultimate is really looking like something I don't want to do. I've been running the beta's and they sure look pretty. However, geez, you know when running software it all seems the same on any version of the operating system's. And nearly everything is still zippier and more compatible on good old 98SE. My browser's browse, Word writes document's, email gets sent and recieved, games play, video's and music sound and look alike, etc. Hmmm, sounds like a racket to me! I can even install WindowBlinds and Object Bar and, Magic! Looks like XP, Vista, whatever I want! VirusScanner, Firewall, Spy Checker's, and security updates, along with intelligent browsing, and, Magic! Secure like XP, Vista! Be the envy of the neighborhood! Be the only one running 98! Heh, heh. Sounds good, eh?

I'm not big on codec packs, so I can't help there. But I can tell you that DivX does work fine as long as you uncheck the Player and the Converter in Setup. When I left those in, the player worked fine but then Vista would blue (er, black) screen of death at startup. It couldn't boot with the Player and Converter installed. Without the player, I can still play DivX files in RealPlayer, PowerDVD, and Windows Media Player. The open source Dr. DivX also seems not to be compatible, but you could use DVDx or some other encoder that uses the DivX codec. QuickTime 7.1 works fine as long as you use safe mode for video (in the QuickTime Control Panel Advanced Options). Files wouldn't play using the default DirectX settings. If you don't like commercial players, MediaPlayerClassic and VLC Media Player have been reported to work fine in Vista. With MPC, you get the benefit of Real and QuickTime Alternative being installed along with it, and VLC gives you a DVD codec.

Spooky, Yes, my desktop does appear pretty quickly along with the systray icons (Avast, AnyDVD, the Network, and the Volume Control). But then, after a few seconds the hard drive light will start blinking like Vista's loading some stuff in the background for about 3 or 4 minutes. It's possible that's the Index building going on. I've read about Vista's performance improving after several days of use and a user slowing down on software installations. Since I installed it just recently I do every so often install a program. I generally install basic stuff like Office during the first day then relax and use things a bit before going on another install spree. Perhaps the Search Index's catch up a bit during startup's. For SystemRestore points, I open the tab and Windows starts searching for the most recent restore point. This takes about a minute or two. Then I set a checkpoint and Windows pretty quickly tells me it created it successfully, but then the hard drive churns (the light flashing, the HD working) for about 5 or 6 minutes before finally finishing. Hey, it's not bad. Just a bunch of waiting I don't experience with 9x or XP. I used to deal with stuff like this when I used GoBack, but almost never when not using it. I'm thinking it may be that file restore tab for files when you right click and choose properties needs more indexing and cataloging than when it is not there. I'm wondering whether there's a way to turn that file version restore thing off. I've read it only comes on the Ultimate version. I sure hope there's an off switch for it if it causes all this hard drive work. Plain old SystemRestore that makes quick checkpoints and doesn't cause program installs to take a long time (see, I wait for the HD light to stop flashing) is good enough for me. I successfully used DVD Decrypter, DVDShrink, IMGTool Classic, and IMGBurn to make a DVD. DeepBurnerPro is great for usual Nero type operations. It's funny that all that encoding and file moving worked a lot smoother with less hard drive thrashing than simple Windows Startup's and program install's. It seems that Windows uses more resources for its own functions than do highly memory and processor intensive programs!

Okay! I had thought something was screwed up. I didn't see how the patch affected the look of buttons, but I found it did. It's nice to know it was "by design." I'm just used to the jutting out buttons. No problem. I'm glad we have alternatives.