Bringing my abandoned 98 box back to life...?

[Sentrinox]

Hi,

Three years ago my Windows 98SE machine was packed away into storage to make way for my new machine. I've had numerous machines since then but i really do miss the old days of the basic simplicity of Windows 98. I'm not calling it a dumbed down operating system, it just takes me back because it was my first operating system on my first PC. Now i'm looking at bringing it out of storage and back into life with a format followed by a fresh install of 98SE. Why? just to play a few old games and such in my free time on Friday nights because i miss the old days.

I joined MSFN because this is where i could find the biggest Windows 9X community to discuss this with. You guys are the ones to talk to when it comes to getting the machine up to date with the latest service packs, hot fixes oh and useful, fun applications and so on right? What do you guys thing i should do after clicking the X on Welcome to Windows? Would be nice if there was something to update 98SE with ME files or ME with SE files to make it stable and usable... or something alongside hotfixes and SPs?

Anyways i haven't used a 9X machine in a long time and i really knew little about computers when i did so please help me out

Thanks in advance!

Regards, Sentrinox

[cannie]

Many of us did the same. Welcome to freedom.

"Don't worry, be happy..."

[Eck]

I just started using 98SE again and updates were, although time consuming, a simple process because of my being used to knowing my way around installing operating systems, my hardware, and these forums.

The first thing to tackle is the motherboard hardware drivers and making sure you download a version old enough to work well with Windows 98SE. If your computer came with Windows 98SE pre-installed from your pc manufacturer and still own either an official recovery cd or one that you made yourself you're set for that. But if all you have is a Microsoft Windows 98SE installation cd then you'll have to figure out which manufacturer your motherboard is made by (just open up the computer box and check out what's printed on the board).

In my case I needed a quite old Via Hyperion 4-in-1 driver (4.56v) as older 4.43 or newer modern ones caused several Windows problems for me.

Check out what videocard, soundcard, printer, etc that you have and research the websites for 98SE drivers for all those as well.

For operating system updates, avoid Windows Update like the plague. If you click on the link in this forum for the Member Projects you'll see a whole bunch of sticky threads up top that lead to several different ways to get different members versions of 98SE update packs. I like the Unofficial Auto-Patcher for Windows 98SE because it's laid out so well. I can toggle on or off the various modules and choose the pieces of the modules that I want installed as well. For example I toggle off Java, Flash, Shockwave since I install that stuff myself with full installer packages downloaded from their websites and don't want some of the tweaks he has to install by default so I toggle those off. And it's a great time-saver because it installs major software upgrades like Internet Explorer, Direct X, Windows Media Player, etc, all by itself along with the Windows Updates for those item's security, etc.

Your idea of getting Windows Me file versions has been tackled and provided for you as long as you have a Windows Me installation cd. The 98SE2ME project does the work for you. Just pop the Windows Me cd in, run 98SE2ME, I choose option 2 in there, and upon reboot you'll have your 98SE system files updated to the tested ones from Windows Me that will work properly on a 98SE system. He also includes some nice fun stuff from it like the pinball game!

There are further updates available as folks here adapt Microsoft updates for stuff they make for XP and 2000 and get them to work on 98SE, advancing security and functionality for 98SE since Microsoft abandoned including installers that update 98SE. These show up in the sticky thread 98FE, SE, etc... Updates, hotfixes, etc... These can be watched to install following the Auto-Patcher or you can just wait until the next edition of Auto-Patcher is released to get them installed. Maximus-Decim updates for MDAC and his USB package usually solve any MDAC or USB 2.0 driver problems on 98SE.

There is a thread here for software still working on 9x systems that is filled with valuable information on various things like Office software, multimedia stuff, etc.

I've found the Mozilla SeaMonkey web browsing suite (it's like the old Netscape Communicator suite or the mozilla suite) and OpenOffice.org a good combination for browsing, email, and Office software even though I do use WorksSuite2005 and OfficeXP. Modern web and office standards then become available on 98SE without the security problems of using Internet Explorer, resource intensive memory of Firefox/Thunderbird, and interoperability with folks using Office 2007 is made possible by OpenOffice.org. Even more-so if you get the Novell edition as they include more of that including enhanced font compatibility. Nero 7.2.7 and PowerDVD 6 are the last versions of those that work with 98SE. Winamp 5.35 is the last of those, but use the cd plugin from 5.34 if you want cd playback to work correctly. There's discussion of that around here and the Winamp forums as well.

Do all that (and maybe the KernelEX project if you really need some XP stuff to work) and you'll find 98SE quite capable of supporting just about anything one wants out of a computer even today. And the old stuff that XP and Vista broke is nice to use as well! I also have a Debian Linux operating system that I've mostly used for quite some time now. I found myself missing some Windows games and stuff and that even though my Vista partition was available and I could get a lot working on it, I simply hated booting into it and using Vista. 98SE, I have no qualms about using. Quite enjoyable and it runs my slightly old computer (see signature) very well, much better than XP or Vista run it.

[WasteGate]

Thought I would register and make my first post in regards to your 'project'.

Some background; with the announcement of Diablo 3 I thought I would find some of my old hardware and build a retro gaming rig and start playing Diablo 1 and 2 as well as some old favorites that I loved playing about 10 years ago.

The rig I build a few nights ago is a Abit BE6-II mobo with a slot 1/s370 converter running a P3 1Ghz and 512mb of SDRAM. Adaptec 1200A ATA raid card with 2x40GB maxtors striped, Xitel Platinum A3D 2.0 sound card and my pride and joy a AGP Voodoo 5 5500 64mb video card. I loved Glide games so I'm keen to play them again.

Before I even put an OS on it I ran memtest for 2 days constant to try and 'burn' it back in and see if it would fail and to my joy it powered through all tests error free.

I have used these forums for years building XP build disks slip streaming apps in to them, these forums are so full of interesting projects so when I read about Windows 98se stuff I was keen sink my teeth in to my retro gaming rig.

I have a pro version of 98 lite from years ago when i thought about doing this and the timing was right to kick off the install and wanted to run a 98micro install and have a lean / mean Windows 98se gaming rig.

20 hours of trying and nothing. I have had so many issues I'm about to put it to bed. It's made me appreciate Windows XP and Vista. It's a test of patience. I have had to overcome 98lite problems (not reading the 64.cab file so it's extracted to the 98SETUP directory (mind you if I install 98se from the media without 98lite it works no problems, there is others on the forums with the same issue), the Xitel A3D card is a pain in the arse never configures correctly locks up 98 on install, issues with the user profiles (have to boot safe mode and delete *.pwl files), finally last night got it installed and installed the "UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a" all good, updated to "Maximus Decim Native USB ver.3.3" killed explorer now it doesn't boot.

I hope your build goes well. Maybe I'm just trying to push the envelope but it's pushing me to my limits to try and get a working 98se PC.

Sorry if that's long winded it's just my frustration coming out but when I get home I'll be trying my 17th install. Yes 17 goes at it and still nothing.

Good luck

Jason

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

WasteGate, look into Windows Me. It'll solve 90% of your 98 trouble.

[cannie]

Sorry if that's long winded it's just my frustration coming out but when I get home I'll be trying my 17th install. Yes 17 goes at it and still nothing.

I also had this problem myself, long ago. Don't worry: Win98 is the easiest and more transparent of all. If you allow me a suggestion, next time you do the install, before changing anything at all, make a clone of it, and afterwards update your clone every time you reach a fruitful advance. This way you will never more go backwards. In case of trouble you may do a fresh restart from the point where you were before.

I've used for years cloning as an excellent substitute of any other backup system, because it allows you to work as having two, three or more computers on the same machine spending only a few minutes to create each one of them. Supposing you have your Windows directory in C: and you have a D drive (you may repeat it in all drives you want), the procedure is as follows:

1.- Download and install Notepad + +, an excellent editor, preferably an older version (freeware).

2.- Copy C: \ Windows with all its subdirectories in D: \ (copy-paste), excepting Win386.swp. Then go to D: \ Windows, select all files (no subdirectories), click "Properties" and remove all their attributes.

3.- Run Notepad + +. On the toolbar click File> Open. Find D:\ Windows and select "*. ini". You'll find about 10 programs. Open all at once. Click File> Open again and select *.dat. You'll see System.dat and User.dat. Open also both.

4.- Go to the toolbar and click "Replace" button. On "Search" write "C:\Windows", and on "Replace by" write D:\Windows. Click Replace on all files and wait a few seconds. You'll get a message saying that about 2,500 changes were made. Then confirm and click on the toolbar button "Save all." That's all. You have now two computers.

5.- To boot D: \ Windows you have two options:

Option one: Replace "C: \ Windows" by "D: \ Windows" on AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS and MSDOS.SYS (in this replace C by D at HostWinBootDrv).

Option two: Create a boot floppy by formatting it and copying from C:\ the files IO.SYS, COMMAND.COM, AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS and MSDOS.SYS, and then do the same in all them. You don't need to touch your present OS on drive C: you may boot using D:\Windows by simply booting your system with the floppy.

In the future you will never more get hung, because you have the possibility of booting this way even when C:\Windows were totally destroyed. And you can delete C:\Windows and restore it from a previously saved .rar or .zip file at any time. For best results it is convenient to empty the bin and defrag C before unzipping.

It is a great pleasure to have the possibility of trying all kind of software or downloading all kind of things having the security that you may restore your whole system this way in less than 5 minutes.

(I have posted this before to help other people. Maybe it would be good to fix it somewhere else because or its real importance, to avoid repeating, but AFAIK I don't know where).

HTH