Why doesn't windows 98 work on my core2duo?

[Wabius]

I had dual boot on my old Pentium 4 with win98 and winxp so I wanna have that on my dual core too but windows 98 just refuses to start!

When I installed win98 on my dual core for the first time I got the "Insufficient memory to initialize windows" message during the setup (after PC restarted for the first time). Then I googled a bit and stumbled upon an article which said that windows that are older than XP don't work on dual core PCs (I tried installing windows 2000 just to check if that's really true and it didn't work too! I got a blue screen saying "inaccessible boot device"). Then, after a bit more googling, I found out that you can run win98 if you ad "MaxPhysPage=30000" under the "[386Enh]" in the system.ini file. I tried that and I managed to finish the setup and when I got to the "Finished configurating settings continuing to load windows" (or something like that...you know what I mean) it stopped and stayed like that for a long time so I had to restart my PC (I tried restarting many times and it always stops at the "dos" part). I installed win98 two times, tryed different values for MaxPhysPage, tryed adding MaxFileCache=524288 but windows just won't boot. I also tryed to boot with step-by-step confirmation and it stopped at msmouse.vxd [Enter=Y,ESC=N]?Y

I'm not really good with that kind of stuff so I simply don't know what to do anymore! Can I really run windows 98 on dual core? I'm getting desperate, please help if you can!

btw. my PC configuration:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz

Motherborad - MB Gigabyte EP45-DS3, s775, iP45

Gigabyte GeForce 98000 GT 1 gb graphic card

2 x 1 DDR2 2GB (800MHz), Kingmax

I don't even know if I'll be able to get my graphic card to work on win98...

[Kelsenellenelvian]

that whole system is WAY wrong to run win98

2gigs ram is too much

Geforce card will not have drivers

I have run 98 on a core2duo

I suggest using VMWare and just running 98 inside of your XP install

[dencorso]

I suggest using VMWare and just running 98 inside of your XP install

Kelsenellenelvian is right: with a 1 gb graphic card it's the only way to go.

If you really wish to have Win 98SE run natively on your motherboard and core2duo, you must downgrade your graphic card to a GeForce having 256MB (or 512 MB at most, but there are not many success reports with so much video RAM).

If you decide to keep your graphic card, there's nothing that can be done.

If, instead, you decide to downgrade the graphic card, then read the topics below:

Modern motherboards which are working with Windows 98

Day-to-day running Win 9x/ME with more than 1 GiB RAM

NVidia drivers 82.69

Big HDD & 48-bit LBA Thread Index

Edited March 28, 2009 by dencorso

[starcraftmaster]

its a shame since i got vista on my laptop and i vista is crap lol

[Mijzelf]

Then I googled a bit and stumbled upon an article which said that windows that are older than XP don't work on dual core PCs (I tried installing windows 2000 just to check if that's really true and it didn't work too! I got a blue screen saying "inaccessible boot device").

That statement isn't true. All Windows NT flavours, including W2000 support multiprocessor. That you can't install W2000 is probably caused because it doesn't natively support SATA. If you want W2000 on that laptop search the W2000 forum for installing on SATA.

[submix8c]

@Mijzelf - exception (I believe) is XP Home.

EDIT - scratch that, my bad yes it does.

@Wabius - advice and info is correct. Take your pick of the two options you have. If you take the "replace video card" option, then there are ways to get around the other 98SE limitations (look around - the info is there).

Edited February 15, 2009 by submix8c

[Multibooter]

I had dual boot on my old Pentium 4 with win98 and winxp so I wanna have that on my dual core too but windows 98 just refuses to start!... Then I googled a bit and stumbled upon an article which said that windows that are older than XP don't work on dual core PCs ... I'm not really good with that kind of stuff so I simply don't know what to do anymore! Can I really run windows 98 on dual core?...

btw. my PC configuration:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz

Motherborad - MB Gigabyte EP45-DS3, s775, iP45

Gigabyte GeForce 98000 GT 1 gb graphic card

2 x 1 DDR2 2GB (800MHz), Kingmax

I have been using Win98SE on a dual core for about a year now. But unfortunately your hardware is not Win98 compatible. I am using an Asus P5PE-VM motherboard, which also has an Intel 775 socket, with an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500. Your E8500 is not on the CPU compatibility list of my P5PE-VM, and I doubt it is on the CPU compatibility list of any other motherboard which works under Win98. So in addition to a graphic card and a motherboard which are not Win98-compatible, you may also have a CPU which does not work in Win98-compatible motherboards.

It is quite time-consuming to find modern hardware which works with Win98SE. Basically you have to custom-build your computer, and you have to spend a lot of time on each piece of hardware in it. Also, finding Win98-compatible components in Croatia may be very difficult, maybe at ebay.de Another possibility would be to buy at ebay a used computer which has a Win98-compatible motherboard which works with a dual-core CPU.

Dencorso's list of working configurations http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=118097 is an excellent starting point for custom-building a modern Win98-compatible computer.

When I decided a year ago on which motherboard to get, the 2 main criteria were Win98 compatibility (as stated by the manufacturer in the user manual) and a dual-core CPU. Very few motherboard models fit this requirement.

I plan to replace in the next few months the E4500 CPU with an X6800 CPU, which should make my custom-build one of the faster Win98 computers around. Another project would be to find a way to use both cores under Win98, maybe there is Win98-compatible software to manually assign programs to specific cores.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Multibooter

[modicr]

I plan to replace in the next few months the E4500 CPU with an X6800 CPU, which should make my custom-build one of the faster Win98 computers around

BTW, there will be 3500 MHz dual-core Intel CPU: E8700

http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Prepares+Ne...ticle14066c.htm

Another project would be to find a way to use both cores under Win98, maybe there is Win98-compatible software to manually assign programs to specific cores.

IMHO this is not possible ... OK, one way could be running two Win98 virtual guests

Cheers, Roman

[Multibooter]

BTW, there will be 3500 MHz dual-core Intel CPU: E8700

Hi Roman,

Unfortunately this CPU is not on the compatibility list of my Asus P5PE-VM, the last BIOS update for this motherboard (for new CPUs) is v1501 of 25-Jan-2008.

IMHO this[to use both cores under Win98] is not possible ... OK, one way could be running two Win98 virtual guests

If it's not possible, let's make it possible.

The S.A.D. Dualcore Tuner installs, but when I ran it under Win98SE I got 2 err msgs at startup:

- dctuner.exe: A device attached to the system is not functioning; and

- Error Starting program: The DCTUNER.EXE file is linked to missing export NTDLL.DLL:NtQuerySystemInformation

The THG Task Assignment Manager http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bang-d...g-buck,815.html runs under Win98SE, but under Win98SE only CPU0 is selectable in the window Set Affinity, the other 31 CPUs are greyed out; when selecting an application to be assigned to CPU0 the error msg "This function is only valid in Win32 mode" pops up. Do run this little program, it opens up a whole new perspective.

SMP Seesaw http://www.mlin.net/SMPSeesaw.shtml is open source, maybe it can be made to work under Win98 + a couple of WinXP dlls. Maybe Tihiy could help and give a definite answer on whether it could be done, I would be available for testing.

Edited February 17, 2009 by Multibooter

[MDGx]

Unfortunately the 9x core, kernel + GDI [Windows 95/98/ME] were never programmed for use with more than 1 CPU core.

The only Microsoft OSes programmed for multiple cores are [among Win32 (x86) 32-bit OSes]: XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 + 7.

All M$ Win64 64-bit OSes (x64) support multiple cores out of the box: XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 + 7.

See microsoft.com for more info.

To re-program the OS core, kernel + GDI requires to build a new OS from scratch... any1 wants to volunteer?

Do you want to know more? Take a look at ReactOS, an independent, free open source OS, similar to Win2000 (32-bit):

http://www.reactos.org/

HTH

[Wabius]

OK thank you for clearing everything up to me. I'm gonna try vmware or I'll use another PC for win98.

btw. And what about windows 2000? Could my system run it??

[MDGx]

OK thank you for clearing everything up to me. I'm gonna try vmware or I'll use another PC for win98.

btw. And what about windows 2000? Could my system run it??

You're welcome.

Don't no 'bout Win2000, stopped testing it ~ 8 years ago.

You may wanna post this question @:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=35

HTH

[Telop]

I have HP 6000 Pro SFF, Core 2 Quad SATA, no IDE.

I was able to install Windows 98 SE and its running very smoothly. Except,

1- Couldnt find the onboard intel high definition audio driver, and

2- intel Gigabit ethernet (onbard).

Successfully installed:

All system Devices

intel ICH10 Family 2 (and $) port Serial ATA Controller (I modified mshdc.inf),

All Hard disks (needs updated unofficial esdi_506.pdr)

Monitor

Ports

USB

DVD RAM

mouse

Keyboard.

But you have to be patient. Only IDE controllers took 4 days out of my life to install and work properly.

This system has only 1 PCI slot (rest PCI Express), so I installed intel 100 pro old NIC card and disabled the onboard driver.

But Sound issue needs to be fixed, and I hope.

If I find some tie I will gathers all of my work and make a sequence and post it here. For now, I must say you can install, depending on the knowledge and information, you may also succeed.

I do not need network and sound on this windows 98 setup, its only to run some old programs and for Norton Utility 2002, to defragment folders (move first option) of Windows XP and 7.

Its a triple boot system, and I am happy that I finally installed Windows 98 on this system. So don't be disappointed.

P.S.

This topic is years old, but I am posting it in case someone get informed

Edited February 19, 2015 by Telop

[Nomen]

You probably should have posted your experience with HP 6000 Pro SFF in the win-98 motherboard thread.

If all your drives are SATA, and you have working Sata 32-bit driver for win-98, then why do you need to mess with IDE / ESDI_506.pdr? You don't even need to have that file on your system if all your drives are sata and are operating in native sata mode with working win-98 driver.

Your HP 6000 has Intel Q43 Express chipset. It appears to have integrated GMA X4500 graphics. Does your HP have on-board graphics, and are there win-98 drivers for it?

Can you explain what your driver files are for USB and SATA for win-98? Are you sure you are operating in 32-bit mode for hard-drive access, or is it DOS compatibility mode?

You will not find HD-audio driver files for win-98. No motherboard with on-board HD-audio (regardless what chipset it has) has ever seen working win-98 drivers for HD audio component.