galahs

PRINTERS: Canon S520 --- A4 i6100 --- A4 & A3 Hewlett Packard Deskjet 660C DeskJet 694c Laserjet 5L Laserjet 1100A (also a B&W scanner) Lexmark P3150 (also a scanner) E352dn/E250dn Laser Printer. - TCP/IP printing requires additional driver on Win98. Kodak

CONTROLLER CARDS: USB2 & Firewire Controllers SkyMaster - VIA USB 2.0 Host Controller (5 USB2 + 3 IEE1394) BAFO BF-460 USB2.0 PCI CARD (NEC USB2.0 Host Controller)

SOUND CARDS: Windows 9x can support integrated, USB, ISA and PCI sound cards with an appropriate Win9x driver. Supported Sound Cards Realtek *All AC'97 Audio Codecs have drivers for all 9x systems (but not high definition chips)* RTL8110SC(L) CREATIVE LABS Sound Blaster AWE32 Sound Blaster 32 Sound Blaster AWE64 Sound Blaster PCI64 Sound Blaster PCI128 Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI Creative Ensoniq Vibra PCI Sound Blaster 16 PCI Sound Blaster PCI512 Sound Blaster Live! Sound Blaster Audigy Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS C-Media: C-Media CMI8738 --- Onboard (VxD/WDM driver available, some issues with games) - http://www.cmedia.com.tw/?q=en/driver Ensoniq Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 Ensoniq SoundscapeDB Ensoniq Soundscape Elite Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO90 Ensoniq AudioPCI M-Audio Audiophile 24/96. - Appears to work even better than in NT5. Yamaha: Yamaha 724 --- An old PCI card. Also provides basic 8-bit sound, OPL-3 FM, XG Level 1 synthesis to DOS programs. OPL-3 also works in pure DOS. YMF744 --- PCI (VxD (DirectX issues) and WDM driver available) - http://www.yamahamultimedia.com/yec/helpce...card_Whelp.html

GRAPHICS CARDS: Windows 9x requires a VGA compatible graphics adapter. Either built into the Motherboard or as a plug in expansion card. Windows 9x supports PCI, AGP (1,2,4,8) and PCIe graphics cards if a suitable driver is available. Supported Graphics Cards: 3dfx Voodoo --- PCI Voodoo Rush --- PCI Voodoo 2 --- PCI and SLI Voodoo Banshee --- PCI & AGP Voodoo 3 --- PCI & AGP Voodoo 4 --- PCI & AGP Voodoo 5 --- PCI & AGP Intel STB Virge VX Virge DX Virge GX Velocity 128 nVIDIA Vanta Series Riva 128 --- PCI & AGP TNT --- PCI & AGP TNT2 --- PCI & AGP GeForce 256 --- PCI & AGP GeForce 2 MX --- AGP GeForce 2 GTS/Ultra/Pro --- AGP GeForce 3 --- AGP GeForce 4 MX --- AGP GeForce 4 Ti --- AGP GeForce Fx --- AGP & PCIe (Last nVidia series with Table Fog & 8-bit Paletted Texture support for max compatibility) GeForce 6 --- AGP & PCIe (6800 last card to be officially supported by nVIDIA) GeForce 7 --- AGP & PCIe (Requires UnOfficial Driver) Quadro Quadro2 Quadro DCC Quadro 4 Quadro FX Quadro NVS ATi / AMD Rage Fury Max Rage 128 Rage PRO Rage XL/XC Rage II/II+ Rage IIL Radeon 7000 series --- AGP & PCIe Radeon 8000 series --- AGP & PCIe Radeon 9000 series --- AGP (9800 last AGP card to be officially supported by ATi) X800 series --- AGP 8x (R420 core, supported since CATALYST 4.11 BETA) --- X800pro works without problem X300, X600, X700 series --- PCIe (RV370, RV380, and RV410 core, supported since CATALYST 4.11 BETA) --- X800 series --- PCIe (R423 or R430 core, supported since CATALYST 5.2) --- X850 series --- PCIe (R480 core, supported since CATALYST 5.2) --- X850XT works on GIGABYTE GA-K8A480M-9, but CATALYST 6.2 is recommended during installation Xpress 200 series --- Onboard (RS400 or RS480 core, supported since CATALYST 5.2) --- works (RS480 on GIGABYTE GA-K8A480M-9) Xpress 200 series --- Onboard (RS482 core, supported since CATALYST 5.9) --- X550 series --- PCIe (RV370 core, supported by CATALYST 6.2) --- X700 series --- AGP 8x (RV410 core with Rialto bridge chip, supported by CATALYST 6.2) --- X800 series --- AGP 8x (R430 core with Rialto bridge chip, maybe supported by CATALYST 6.2?) --- X850 series --- AGP 8x (latest R481 core, supported by CATALYST 6.2) --- All-in-Wonder Series --- (upto 9800) Matrox Impression Ultima Millennium Mystique Mystique 220 Millennium 2 G100 Mystique G200 MGA G200 Millennium G200 G300 Series G400 Series G450 G550 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PCI-E Devices Graphics Cards ATI X300, X500, X700, X800 Series - This is the last series to officially support the Windows 9x family of operating systems. Matrox Millennium G550 Nvidia GeForce FX Series - PCX 5300, PCX 5750, PCX 5900, PCX 5950 - These cards offer the best pcie backwards compatibility for Windows 9x Nvidia GeForce 6000 Series - This is the last series to officially support the Windows 9x family of operating systems Nvidia FeForce 7000 Series - Can be made to work with unofficial drivers and patches*. The fastest tested Windows 9x cards NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 - Can be made to work with unofficial drivers and patches*. Windows 9x has issues with cards featuring more than 256MB of VRAM. *Some nVidia cards require the PTCHNVSZ patch by Rudolf Loew to work correctly. Sound Cards C-Media CMI8738 PCIe Sound Card USB 2.0 Startech PEXUSB4DP - 3 external 1 internal USB 2.0 Adapter Network Cards Broadcom Gigabit Network Card 1-Port 10/100/1000 - Model: BCM-95722A2202G (With BCM5722 chip)

RAM Windows 95 requires 4 megabytes (MB) of memory (8 MB recommended) Windows 98 requires 16 megabytes (MB) of memory (24 MB recommended) Windows Me requires 32 megabytes (MB) of memory (96 MB recommended) Windows 98 Second Edition and Me can support upto 1 GB of RAM. Exceeding 128 MB or RAM can cause problems. No. 1: For systems with more than 128 MB of RAM, setting a VCache maximum of about 70% of your total RAM is recommended as prophylaxis against run-away VCache growth in rare, specialized situations. No. 2: VCache increasing above 512 MB can create serious memory handling problems. If you have more than 512 MB of RAM, a VCache maximum of 524,288 KB (or a little less) is recommended. This is obtained by adding a MaxFileCache=x entry in the [vcache] section of SYSTEM.INI, where x is the maximum value you wish to set. VCache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB. The problem is that, on computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum VCache size can be large enough that it consumes all of the available addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt. This problem may occur more easily if you have an AGP video adapter: The AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system arena, and if VCache is using its entire 800 MB allowance and an AGP video adapter has a 128 MB aperture mapped, there will be very little address space remaining for other system code and data that must occupy the available range of virtual addresses. No. 3: For systems with more than 1 GB of RAM, the defaults in Windows 98 or ME can cause continuous rebooting of the computer, or to hangs or serial reboots during the Windows upgrade process. To resolve this problem, add a MaxPhysPage=40000 entry in the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. This effectively limits the amount of RAM Windows can access to 1 GB. Microsoft has now flatly stated that, “Windows Me and Windows 98 are not designed to handle more than 1 GB or RAM. More than 1 GB can lead to potential system instability.” Read more here: - http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=105373 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304943 - http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/memmgmt.php MOTHERBOARDS The motherboards ability to support Windows 9x is crucial for a stable system. This ability is provided by the chipset. See this thread for more information on the latest motherboards: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=97588 The following Chipsets have Windows 9x Support: Intel Chipsets: 845 --- Pentium 4, PC100/133 SDRAM 865PE --- Pentium 4 865G --- Pentium 4 915GM --- 4xx 8xx 910 915 925 (mobile) 945 946 955 975 G965 P965 Q963 Q965 VIA K8T800 Pro P4M800Pro kt600 kt880 nVIDIA nForce 1 nForce 2 nForce 3 Ultra ALi/ULi: M1695 M1647 C1/M1535D+ A1 (work) M1689 (IDE and USB1.1/2.0 work, SATA HDD driver is available) M1573 southbridge chip (IDE and USB1.1 work, no SATA or USB2.0 support under Win98SE) M1697 (unknown, no SATA support under Win98SE) SiS 748 963L (work) Motherboards: ASRock 775i65G . Support E4300 - X6800. FSB is 1066 only with overclock which MBO support (Socket 775, Core 2 Duo, SATA) ASRock 939S56-M socket 939 processors including AMD's dual core. PCI Express ASUS P4B (Intel 845 Chipset, Socket 478, AGP 4) Asus A7N8X-X (nForce 2) ASUS P5PE-WM (865G Chipset, AGP 8) Supports: Intel® Core2 Duo/65nm Pentium D/Pentium 4/Celeron CPU ECS P4M800Pro-M2, s775, VIA P4M800Pro, VGA (rev 2.0) .Support E4300 - E6700, DDR II memory (Socket 775, Core 2 Duo, SATA) EPOX, s. 939, 9NDA3+, nForce 3 Ultra, BUS 2000 MHz, serial ATA RAID, 7.1 zvuk, DDR 400, 1Gps, FireWire, Firewall, ATX 2 EPOX, s. 939, 9NDA3J, nForce 3 Ultra, BUS 2000 MHz, serial ATA RAID, 7.1 zvuk, DDR 400, 1Gps, ATX 2 ECS KV2 Lite, s939, VIA K8T800 Pro, AGP, SATA, RAID, LAN Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH (rev. 2.0). Support E4300 - X6800 but FSB 800 (Socket 775, Core 2 Duo, SATA) Gigabyte GA-VM900M R1.0 board has working IDE & VGA drivers under windows 98SE. Gigabyte GA-8I865PE775-G-RH (Northbridge: Intel® 865G/865PE Express Chipset) Supports: Intel® Pentium® 4 /Pentium® D Processor Gigabyte 8I915P Duo (915P chipset) MSI 865PE Neo2-PFISR (Intel 865PE chipset) MSI K9MM-V

Below is a list of compatible hardware that works on Windows 9x systems (and or have suitable drivers) Especially of interest is newer hardware that supports or still supports Win9x. Please start by including hardware you have on your system that you can confirm works with Win9x. I will add the hardware to the list as time allows. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================================= PROCESSORS: Win9x DOES NOT support HyperThreading (please disable in the BIOS), Multiple Processors or MultiCore processors. Win98/Me may run on MultiCore processors but only 1 core will be utilised. Windows 95 has timing problems with CPU speeds higher than 350 Mhz. Windows 98 FE (and consequently Win95) cannot exceed CPU speeds higher than 2.2 Ghz (Note: This can be fixed. Read this thread: ) Supported Processors: Intel: 486 DX2-66 + Pentium Pentium Pro Pentium MMX Pentium 2 Pentium 2 Xeon Pentium 3 Pentium 3 Xeon Pentium 4 Xeon (Pentium 4) Pentium 4 Extreme Edition ... (3.73 GHz is the fastest) Pentium D ... (Only a Single Core will be utilised) Pentium Dual-Core ... (Only a Single Core will be utilised) Core 2 Duo ... (Only a Single Core will be utilised) Core 2 Quad ... (Only a Single Core will be utilised) Dual-Core Xeon ... (Only a Single Core will be utilised) Quad-Core Xeon ... (Only a Single Core will be utilised) Celeron Celeron D AMD: 486 586 K5 K6 Athlon Duron Semperon Athlon XP Opteron Athlon 64 (FX-57 2.8 GHz is the fastest) Turion 64 HARD DISKS: Windows 95 supports FAT16. Windows 95B / 98 / 98SE / Me supports FAT16 and FAT32 Win95 can NOT support hard drives bigger than 32 gig FAT16 supports drive partitions up to 2 GB. Win9x's FAT32 can be used on any hard drive larger than 512MB and supports hard disks up to 137 GB in size. To use bigger hard disks the system requires a system update. (See Below) Windows 9x natively supports ATA IDE Hard Disk Drives. SCSI, SATA and RAID disk drives are supported through third party drivers. Large Hard Disk Support Windows 98 and Me do not natively support 48-bit LBA drives larger than 137 GB. This means: - If you have a hard disk larger than 137GB... and Windows trys to save data onto that disk past the 137GB barrier, data corruption (loss of files) is likely to occur. - It doesn't matter if you partition the hard disk into smaller partitions, all partitions above the hard disks physical 137GB barrier will be affected. - If you put a single partition on the hard disk using fdisk or alternative, and its less than 137GB (UNDER 128GB is recommended as safe) you will be fine (Just Don't allocate the remainder of the disk). But if you want to use the rest of the disk you must use a work around. Work Arounds: LLXX's Enable48BitLBA - Implements 48-bit LBA support into Windows 95/98/98SE and ME's default IDE driver. Windows 98 - get the 4.10.2186 driver Windows 98 Second Edition - most users should get the 4.10.2225 driver. If you have a old IBM laptop you may have to get 4.10.2226 Windows Me - get the 4.90.3000 driver - create a primary partition on that drive (smaller than 128GB), using fdisk - install win9x on that partition - install drivers - install the suitable LLXXs patch - fill the rest of the disk with new partitions. (Keep them under 128GB if you still wish to use Scandisk and Defrag) http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=78592 Intel Application Accelerator - Allows users to access the full capacity of hard drives that are larger than 137GB on supported Intel® chipsets with a supported operating system. http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/sb/cs-009299.htm Rudolph Loew's 48-bit Patch - The High Capacity Disk Patch Program patches Windows 98/98SE/ME to provide direct support for hard drives larger than 137GB without requiring a controller card. The patch installs support for the 48-Bit LBA addressing mode required for hard drives larger than 137GB. http://rloew1.no-ip.com PCI ATA Controller card - Using a PCI ATA controller card to connect your 48-bit LBA hard drive to the system is the easiest and simplest option. With this option you can partition the hard drive without the need to upgrade the BIOS to support 48-bit LBA if it does not support this technology. The drivers provided with controller card will provide 48-bit LBA support in Windows 98 or Me. More information on the 48bitLBA --> http://www.48bitlba.com/win98.htm Partition Size Limits The size of individual Partitions are subject to additional limitations due to FileSystem design and Partition management tools. Microsoft specifies a maximum Partition size of 128GB. Third Party Partition Management tools may have other limits. DEFRAG and SCANDISK (in Windows Mode) are limited to less than 136.9GB Some people have reported limits as low as 127GB. DOS, WINDOWS and SCANDISK (in DOS Mode) can handle at least 400GB. WARNING: Diskeeper 10 claims to support Partitions up to 768GB and Windows 98/SE/ME. Tests show that it can corrupt large Partitions. It is recommended that you Partition your Large Hard Drive with 2 or more Partitions so that no single Primary or Logical Partition is larger than 127GB. FDISK can be used to Partition Large Hard Drives but will incorrectly report sizes above 64GB. You will need to enter sizes as Percentages in order to use the full capacity of the Hard Drive. OPTICAL DISK DRIVES: Windows 9x natively supports IDE optical drives without additional drivers. This includes CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD Dual Layer drives. FLOPPY DISK DRIVES Windows 9x natively supports internal Floppy Disk Drives.

I love this patch! My portable 320GB USB2 hard disk was detected without a hitch For those interested, I had to use the freeware SwissKnife 3.22 to format the drive from NTFS (how it arrived) to a single FAT32 partition. http://www.download.com/CompuApps-SwissKni...8-10070864.html Not sure if I could have done that under Win98. I did it under WinXP. Note: WinXp's built in Format facility will not allow FAT32 partitions bigger than 32GB.

and for those interested... Flash 8 and higher needs a processor that is MMX capable. Pentium MMX, Pentium 2 or higher!

I find Flash video is more limited by CPU and Bandwidth (internet connection speed)

I remember a thread stating .NET made Windows 98 run faster. Maybe you just worked out why. Definitely worth investigating further.

Thanks for the corrections

Start - Settings - Folder options

To save confusion, a list of software that works after installing the KernelEX upgrade should be listed on the first page of the KernelEX thread.

Yeah not a bad idea. I'm actually going to modify the lists completely so I thought I'd do an online backup before the major change.

Did you put the settings under the correct headings in system.ini Try the following [vcache] MaxFileCache=64000 [386Enh] MaxPhysPage=40000 if that works try increasing the MaxFileCache. Personally I like a setting of 261120

Just a backup in case the main list I constantly edit becomes corrupt.

I'm loving it I completely replaced Notepad with it, and it is performing spectacularly! It can open all the large html files I often have to edit and it has drag and drop!!! Why O why didn't I find this earlier! eidenk I owe you a beer! (or coke if you don't drink beer!)

You little ripper! That is EXACTLY what I was looking for!!! And it's only 6K!!!!!

And remember we have the awesome patch: Maximus Decim InternetExplorer 6.0sp1 Component Update to keep IE6SP1 for Win98SE upto date: Thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/Maximus_Decim_In..._Co_t97816.html Download: http://www.mdgx.com/spx/MDIE6CU.EXE

I think a list like this would be best made in the KernelEX thread, so not to confuse people who arn't using the mod.

Is there any way to hack the standard notepad in Win98SE so it can open txt files larger than 64kb? The WinXP notepad can open larger text files... could it be possible to use/modify it for Win98SE? I don't want other features, rich text editing, syntax highlighting... just plain old boring Notepad to open larger files.

Looks like it does http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/storm.asp http://themostboringblogintheworld.wordpre...-years-but-why/ http://antivirus.about.com/od/virusdescriptions/p/storm.htm

It just doesn't make sense!

Have we confirmed this driver works for 8800 cards? If so, does that make the 8800 the fastest available graphics card for Windows 98?

It's your computer and your choice. Do what you want! I think its awesome that people ask "why", "what if" and "why not!" That's what makes mankind great! Making IE6 ork on Win95... I say Go for it!