Spock

If you look at the MS reference given, you'll see: i - This switch tells Setup not to report the existence of a Plug and Play BIOS. It is useful on computers that have a Plug and Play BIOS that is not reported in the Machine.inf file WARNING! on the j (not i) switch: win98se support for ACPI especially on newer mobos is dubious to say the least. I used it last week on a fresh install on a Foxconn Nvidia NF3 mobo. No end of problems with power management. After two days of struggling with the consequences such as no power down, lock-ups with screen savers and many other problems, decided to re-install WITHOUT ACPI: i.e. without using the j switch. Everything is now fine and stable.

I'd like also to thank Gape. Just finished building and testing a new PC, and installing win98SE. Without his packaged updates it would have been a nightmare to get the PC up-to-date. I had to install a second time. First time made the mistake of enabling ACPI and IRQ sharing (APIC). Nothing but trouble. Now with the BIOS 'tamed' it's working really smoothly. Even the Alcatel Speedtouch boots ok without lock-ups. (sempron 3100+ on a foxconn motherboard with nvidia nforce3 250; XFX 6200 graphics card.)

Just finished installing win98Se on a new PC. Thanks for all that helped with advice. No active desktop. PROBLEM is in shortcut keys on desktop. They just don't work! Could someone help me out as i'm really stuck. I've already looked at an article in MS knowledge base but that didn't help.

Thanks that's exactly what i was looking for :-)

Installing win98SE on a newish PC. Mobo definitely supports ACPI. I know there's a registry hack *after* win98 is installed which causes an Enummeration refresh for ACPI. But what I want to know is: Is there any way to install win98SE to force it to recognise ACPI?

You are right on some poeple not agreeing with a requirement of IE6. I for one would be one of those poeple. I intend to keep IE 5.00 (yes, not 5.5) on my pc's and they will stay that way. I've had bad experiences in the past regarding IE6 while additionally not seeing the real need to even bother with having it. I stick with the base version for personal reasons as well as development reasons. Need older versions to cross-browser test some of my web-projects on for functionality. I avoid using 'w3c standards' as my methods of writing out pages involve compatibility and bandwitch concerns. To convert them to standards means nearly doubling the size of each page. This is where cross-browser version testing comes into play. So yes, an optional package would be perfect. Perhaps being the same package but as suggested have it as an autodetectable option. I'd like it to be optional too. On install, I'll be completely removing the IE that comes with win98SE using win98Lite Pro. I might have to install the IE 6 browser, not to use, but to get some other progs working properly, so an optional update for IE6 SP1 would be very welcome. :-)

As there seems to be some confusion over SoundBlaster Live and win98SE let me give some facts. I've been researching this for a new win98SE install on a new PC and have been in contact four times with Creative CS on this: Assuming your mobo/PC itself supports win98SE, then: 1. SoundBlaster Live series cards work fine with win98SE. They really do. Make sure you use Creative drivers. Unfortunately this product is no longer marketed by Creative (in Europe at least.) This gives rise to a problem when building new systems with win98SE. OK, what is/is not supported now?: 2. According to Creative CS (customer services), and i quote: "Audigy SE is NOT supported in Win98SE, [and] SB Live 24 bits is NOT supported in win98Se as well." 3. "Audigy2 and Audigy 2ZS are supported in win98SE." (no good for me, overkill) :-) BTW, here's a tip if you happen to have a dual boot system with XP and a SB Live card. YOU CAN UPGRADE FREE to Audigy 24 bit for winXP. DON'T install drivers below on win98SE because it'll screw things up (won't do any lasting damage), but DO install on XP. You'll be getting the equivalent of an Audigy for free! It works. Creative files needed are: EAX4DRV_AUDIGY2_1_84_50 drivers and Ctcomp.exe (7.3.0)

Nvidia Windows 98 driver (81.98) officially supports the following GeForce6 AGP cards: NVIDIA GeForce 6200 NVIDIA GeForce 6600 NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE NVIDIA GeForce 6800 NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XE NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra Petr Well, that's what they imply in one place. **However** if one downloads aforesaid 81.98 as I optimistically did this morning (UK time), an unpack it, the Readme says (in part): Operating systems supported --------------------------- Microsoft Windows 98 Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) Adapters supported ------------------ NVIDIA RIVA TNT NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Pro NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra NVIDIA Vanta NVIDIA Vanta LT NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 Pro NVIDIA Aladdin TNT2 NVIDIA GeForce 256 NVIDIA GeForce DDR NVIDIA Quadro NVIDIA GeForce2 MX NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 200 NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400 NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR NVIDIA Quadro2 EX NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS NVIDIA GeForce2 Pro NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440-SE NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460 NVIDIA Quadro NVS NVIDIA Quadro4 500 XGL NVIDIA Quadro4 550 XGL NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 with AGP8X NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X NVIDIA Quadro4 NVS with AGP8X NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL NVIDIA GeForce3 NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 NVIDIA Quadro DCC NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400 NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE NVIDIA Quadro4 700 XGL NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL NVIDIA Quadro4 780 XGL NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000 NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000 Not a mention of the 6200. I'm not sure what to conclude. Any further ideas? While on this topic, I guess it's always better to download the manufacturer's driver rather than Nvidia; e.g. I'd download a graphics driver from Gainward for their Nvidia based cards.

Thanks. Very helpful. Agree with you on the sound. Had already decided to get a PCI sound card or transplant current one. I've taken the plunge and ordered the above mobo. Comes at quite a premium here in the UK (only one supplier, all others sold out). Foxconn actually gave a reply to a querry I made concerning whether they are/are not supporting this mobo BIOS. Yes, they are. So that's good news. Now to find a compatible AGP8 graphics card. I'll stick with Nvidia to boost chances that it'll actually boot B) I'd like a GeForce6200 but haven't found any Nvidia drivers that definitely support it. Any ideas? Thanks. Very helpful. Agree with you on the sound. Had already decided to get a PCI sound card or transplant current one. I've taken the plunge and ordered the above mobo. Comes at quite a premium here in the UK (only one supplier, all others sold out). Foxconn actually gave a reply to a querry I made concerning whether they are/are not supporting this mobo BIOS. Yes, they are. So that's good news. Now to find a compatible AGP8 graphics card. I'll stick with Nvidia to boost chances that it'll actually boot B) I'd like a GeForce6200 but haven't found any Nvidia drivers that definitely support it. Any ideas?

"You are right. As long as the mainboard supports the USB2 standard, you're set. The 'OrangeWare' drivers you mentioned are generic-like driversets. They provide USB2 support for boards that didn't have USB2 drivers included but still supported USB2. "I'm currently using USB2 drivers provided by OrangeWare as well. Only way to get the USB2 support on my mainboard under Win98." ---------------------------------- Thanks for the confirmation. I guess that once i've installed win98/SE (with Win98 Lite/Pro) on my new PC, and configured it with various updates, one goes into the system (win + break keys) and update drivers for USB hub? This will replace the MS USB drivers with the Orangeware ones. Is that correct? I think this fact - of support for USB 2 under win98/SE - ought to be more generally known. i'd guess a lot of people have "upgraded" because they thought otherwise.

Good to be here. Some great stuff. Especially on the older OS front. I live in the UK. Hope that's not held against me though.

I hope someone can help me out because after a week of research I still haven't got definitive answers. To narrow it down a bit I'm looking at Socket 754 mobos/Sempron processor, and would use ATA (not SATA) hard disk. Nvidia NForce 4 chipset mobos: according to at least two manufacturers (MSI and Asus) no win98/SE drivers are provided. IIRC the MSI site says not supported. So, no go for these, apparently. NVidia NForce 3 chipset mobos: This seems more promising and i'm currently looking at a Netconn mobo, NF3250K8AA. Via chipset mobos: Think I'll probably avoid. Any help appreciated. I'd hate to build a system only to find that win98SE would not work properly.

Rather than all the hassle, there IS an alternative. See: http://www.windowsupdate.62nds.com/ u don't have to use IE (u could use Firefox, for example). It's not just for XP but for older OSes - even win95. I got to hear of it through a UK homebuilder's site. Seems ok.

Received wisdom has it that native USB 2.0 support is not possible in win98se. However, I'm intrigued by some of the utilities offered with some socket 754 motherboards. One I downloaded from opendrivers today seems to suggest that /providing/ the mobo itself offers USB2.0 support, then, this driver will enable win98se to offer native USB2.0 support. At least that's my theory. What do you think? Files concerned are \ousb2.inf \ousb2hub.sys \ousbehci.sys They are all from USB2W9XME009.zip. And orangeware corp is in the Properties box.