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KernelEx 4.5.2


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Hello there. I have Kernelex 4.5.2 installed on window 98se with avast 4.8 which updates normal. You still seem to use a analoge modem

which is very slow. Important is to remove the temporary files you could use ccleaner for that which you can download at majorgeeks.com

for instance. See the section diskcleaner. Well avast 4.8 does not make trouble with kerlnelex 4.5.2. Another thing you should do is to

defragment your system regularly. Probably there is also spy ware on your system. You should check your system with for instance spybot -

search and destroy. And you should also check your system with avast.

What do you use for safe defragmentation?

The original Win98SE Defrag locks up after a while because I have a million of small files (e.g. collection of downloaded eBay pages about historical music keyboards) which makes it run out of memory (despite 512MB RAM). Partitions those do defrag, take about 12 hours while the last tenth of the partition waits endlessly. Apparently it is a DOS-age linear search algorithm that was not designed for 16GB "huge" partitions.

Avast 4.8 definitely waits/freezes 10 minutes (FreeRam (if started) displays 100% CPU load during this) during each of its updates.

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You first should use ccleaner which you can download here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_Slim_d4191.html

Well you could use the windows me version of defrag which you can download here:

http://marmro.homeip.net/Description/newdefrag.zip.html

Later you should inspect your system for spyware with spybot - search and destroy version 1.6.2

Which you can download here: http://www.filehippo.com/download_spybot_search_destroy/5168/

then you can scan your system with avast. Well there can be done more but this is a start.

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This copy of 98SE is running on a IBM ThinkPad. Very few processes run in the background.

I backup to a usb stick or removable hard drive. A virtual partition or "sandbox" can

be used as a protected environment where you can test files or new software without

harming your system. That's all I was trying to say.

Only critical system processes run in the background during the installation of new

software. They have never caused problems during an install.

The problem is more serious than I thought. When I couldn't install Firefox I downloaded

UniExtract. I was hoping to extract the files manually, and then proceed with the Firefox

install. The problem is UniExtract won't install either! It seems that KernelEx is reacting

poorly with one or more of my system files. At least, I think that might be the problem.

Unless a KernelEx expert can help me, I won't be using this amazing application. It's

kind of sad that I can't extend the usefulness of this old system with KernelEx. I've

been using computers for decades. Finding the cause of a problem that has not been

reported by others is almost impossible.

One other idea, you could try deleting both the main Firefox dir (default is under "Program Files" and the one under the "windows\Application Data\ " aka the "Mozilla" dir. Make sure to copy your bookmarks file from the "WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profile,????" dir to a safe location before deleting the Mozilla directory. And then run the FF8/9 installer in W2000 (not XP!) compatibility mode as JDS has said.

It could be something from a old\bad install, or an old addin, DLL, etc. that mite be keeping the newer Firefox install from working.

I would not try to save any other settings, or addins from the old Firefox install as that mite cause problems in the newer FF.

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BUG-REPORT! KernelEx 4.5.2 crashes Win98SE during web access!

I just dared to upgrade from KernelEx 4.5.1 to KernelEx 4.5.2, but now Firefox 3.6.22 crashes and can not be restarted anymore (until reboot) once I access the internet.

The crash happens after clicking a button on the appearing Microsoft Network logon requester and does not happen so long the requester buttons are not clicked on.

After the crash also "FineSSE 27a" (is there a newer one?) complains with a popup about a wrong parameter.

I already have tried to disable KernelEx for WebWasher and Call&Connect and uninstalled KEX 4.5.2, reinstalled and uninstalled again KEX 4.5.1 (including user settings) without success. I also tried it with Avast 4.8 disabled.

I have verified that with KEX 4.5.2 installed the WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL is identical with its backup "kernel3B.dll" and dated "99-05-05 22:22" (i.e. likely unpatched)

I have reinstalled 4.5.1 without success. Even copying the entire registry back doesn't help! I am currently running Firefox through Dependency Walker (terribly slow) as the only mean to access the internet. DW drops plenty of error lines like this:

GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "DecodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\MOZCRT19.DLL" at address 0x78132EEB and returned NULL. Error: 
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "DecodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\MOZCRT19.DLL" at address 0x78132EEB and returned NULL. Error:
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "EncodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\MOZCRT19.DLL" at address 0x78133059 and returned NULL. Error:
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "DecodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\MOZCRT19.DLL" at address 0x78133067 and returned NULL. Error:
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "DecodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\plugins\NPNUL32.DLL" at address 0x021936C9 and returned NULL. Error:
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "DecodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\plugins\NPNUL32.DLL" at address 0x021936C9 and returned NULL. Error:
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "EncodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\plugins\NPNUL32.DLL" at address 0x0219379C and returned NULL. Error:
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "DecodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\plugins\NPNUL32.DLL" at address 0x021937AC and returned NULL. Error:
GetProcAddress(0x66650000 [e:\windows\system\USP10.DLL], "ScriptFreeCache") called from "e:\windows\kernelex\KEXBASEN.DLL" at address 0x7D00E287 and returned 0x6665DFD5.
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "DecodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\MOZCRT19.DLL" at address 0x78132EEB and returned NULL. Error:
GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [e:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "DecodePointer") called from "e:\programme\mozilla firefox 3\MOZCRT19.DLL" at address 0x78132EEB and returned NULL. Error:
...

- Does anybody know what is wrong?

It might be that something goes wrong with my TCP/IP stack; I had to recreate it manually when I added an USB2 Ethernet adapter because this also crashed all browsers, how ever the broken stack even crashed them whith Internet offline, while it now crashes only after clicking on said requester. (The annoying Microsoft logon requester *always* appears after successful internet connection despite it was already there during Windoze startup. The Windoze manual claimed it would stay away forever after entering a name and password, but with my installation it never did.)

Please help me to get internet back! Browsing within Dependency Walker is a snail and can't be a solution.

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A quick note: I just found out that apparently something has damaged my WebWasher 3.4 installation. It also makes the browser crash when WebWasher is started manually (without internet connection). Now I have uninstalled it and the browser seems to run now. I hope I can re-install it properly.

---

I have re-installed WebWasher 3.4 without success. So I removed all networking stuff and the Winsock2 registry entries to rebuild the "tea: see pee - I pee!" stack. After hours of trouble I finally I discovered that I had disabled KernelEx for wwasher.exe but not for the cfww.dll and wwasher.dll in its directory. After treating these too, internet seems to work again.

:angry:

=>WebWasher 3.4 is incompatible with KernelEx 4.5.2, so KEX needs to be disabled also for DLLs in the WebWasher directory.

Edited by CyberyogiCoWindler
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Hello Joe,

Please read my original post again.

After FF 10 failed to extract, I tried FF 8 because it was listed in the KernelEx release notes as

"working" with FF 8. I tried every system in the properties tab, starting with 2000. FF 8 also

failed to extract.

It seems that most folks are not having significant problems with KernelEx. For some reason,

my system cannot install anything with KernelEx enabled. In the past, I've fixed problems that

seemed to be unique to my system. It can take hours, days, sometimes weeks before you find

that one file causing all the trouble.

Just to be clear, this copy of 98SE runs smoothly. There were no problems before installing

KernelEx. That's why I keep multiple backups.

Presumably your "sandbox" allows you to revert to your pre-FF10 system configuration? I'd guess FF10 has done something to your system that it doesn't like. Start over, reinstall Unicows, then KernelEx in default mode, then run the FF8 (or FF9) installer in W2000 compatibility mode. Don't try some work-around using file extraction, etc.

Joe.

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After the crash also "FineSSE 27a" (is there a newer one?) complains with a popup about a wrong parameter.

The current version of FineSSE is 29.

I discovered that I had disabled KernelEx for wwasher.exe but not for the cfww.dll and wwasher.dll in its directory. After treating these too, internet seems to work again.

:angry:

WebWasher 3.4 is incompatible with KernelEx 4.5.2, so KEX needs to be disabled also for DLLs in the WebWasher directory.

Glad you found the problem, and thanks for the work-around.

Joe.

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With KEX 4.5.2 my PC even seems to boot and respond a tiny bit faster now (perhaps 10 or 15%?, haven't measured it), but I also deleted the old and unused Oleco NetLCR Pro least cost router (it had gradually turned into scamware), which might have contained an invisible decellerating adware background component.

Only the Fastun plugin in Firefox 3.6.22 has refused to pass HTTPS connections (I have to click the icon to disable it each time); I am not sure if this is KernelEx related. I just got a Firefox security update popup warning, that I should update to "Firefox 12". Yuck! - I guess the installer drank ink or what ever.

Edited by CyberyogiCoWindler
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A quick note: I just found out that apparently something has damaged my WebWasher 3.4 installation. It also makes the browser crash when WebWasher is started manually (without internet connection). Now I have uninstalled it and the browser seems to run now. I hope I can re-install it properly.

---

I have re-installed WebWasher 3.4 without success. So I removed all networking stuff and the Winsock2 registry entries to rebuild the "tea: see pee - I pee!" stack. After hours of trouble I finally I discovered that I had disabled KernelEx for wwasher.exe but not for the cfww.dll and wwasher.dll in its directory. After treating these too, internet seems to work again.

:angry:

=>WebWasher 3.4 is incompatible with KernelEx 4.5.2, so KEX needs to be disabled also for DLLs in the WebWasher directory.

Just me, but I'd find an alternative for webwasher.

There are newer winsocks for Win9x from other than microsoft which mite help, my ISP hooked me up with one but no longer support it or Win9X. I'm sure you can find it on the shareware sites.

Another idea that may work if you just have to use webwasher and it won't work right in win98se without KernalEX options and that is to change in the program and its dll's properties, kernalEX section, to use a specific compatibility option, maybe win2k would work better than default. I've saw a lot of people mention this on other problems.

__

I think few people are watching this thread anymore.

I am still making it with KernalEX and winME but sooner or latter I'm going to have to change.

I'm thinking of going the virtual machine bit, but the need for a high end computer is kina my big problem.

Since Xeno86 has said he doesn't have time to update KernalEX anymore.

I think its up to those few of US left to work out our own problems.

Newer motherboards are pretty cheap and you can find deals on older versions of windows like vista, 7, etc.(There are a bunch of patches to get rid of microsofts spyware for these too.)

So I think we are just going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade.

I think I'm gona ask Santa for a new hard drive for Christmas(Should have gotten one sooner as the price goes up at Christmas but I'm poor and so...) and look for a cheap copy of a newer windows.

But I'm gona also install a version of Linux on the critter too.

Only a few programs I use need windows anyway.

Things like web browsing, movies and music work on Linux.

In fact my media computer is on Ubuntu Linux and has been for quite a while now.

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I definitely will never change this mainboard! It is the last AT mainboard with ISA support for historical sound cards and Voodoo 1 graphics accellerator. I only might install a 2nd mainboard (Micro-ITX?) with Ultrabook-like hardware in the upper story of my Colani bigtower to support Windoze 8. I also can not install Ubuntu Linux or what ever because none of the regular linux distributions (those I can not download through my 44kbps analogue modem anyway) support AMD K6-3+ CPUs anymore, so I would need another computer and some weeks/months of compile time to build one from scratch to run any newer linux on it, unless there is a FineSSE equivalent for linux.

WebWasher 3.4 *does* work together with KernelEx 4.5.2; I only had to disable KEX support by rightclicking each of its 2 DLLs seperately.

I have now also installed FineSSE29 with this WIN.INI entry:

[AeDebug]
Auto=1
Debugger=E:\Programme\FineSSE\finesse29.exe -p %u -e %u

Now GOM can even start its internal codecs without crash, however these only display the first 2 or 3 frames of the video and the rest is only still pictures because the K6-3+@550MHz is obviously not fast enough to emulate this reasonably. (With the normal codecs it still works.)

By the way, the newdefrag.zip is a dead link.

Edited by CyberyogiCoWindler
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I definitely will never change this mainboard! It is the last AT mainboard with ISA support for historical sound cards and Voodoo 1 graphics accellerator. I only might install a 2nd mainboard (Micro-ITX?) with Ultrabook-like hardware in the upper story of my Colani bigtower to support Windoze 8. I also can not install Ubuntu Linux or what ever because none of the regular linux distributions (those I can not download through my 44kbps analogue modem anyway) support AMD K6-3+ CPUs anymore, so I would need another computer and some weeks/months of compile time to build one from scratch to run any newer linux on it, unless there is a FineSSE equivalent for linux.

WebWasher 3.4 *does* work together with KernelEx 4.5.2; I only had to disable KEX support by rightclicking each of its 2 DLLs seperately.

I have now also installed FineSSE29 with this WIN.INI entry:

[AeDebug]
Auto=1
Debugger=E:\Programme\FineSSE\finesse29.exe -p %u -e %u

Now GOM can even start its internal codecs without crash, however these only display the first 2 or 3 frames of the video and the rest is only still pictures because the K6-3+@550MHz is obviously not fast enough to emulate this reasonably. (With the normal codecs it still works.)

By the way, the newdefrag.zip is a dead link.

I have an idea how you can update that AT computer case to a more modern CPU. You could use an AT size 8 slot passive backplane and a SBC.

This company sells them but they are way too expensive for me. http://www.single-board-computer.com There are lots of companies that sell them but I couldn't remember a name off hand this one popped up on search first. Used ones show up on E-bay, etc. Some go real cheap, but you have to play games with the auctions and stay up late to get them really cheap as there are too many who buy stuff for nothing and resell it. Many of the rack mount computers go cheap and have these kinds of boards which you could liberate for that old case but they cost a lot to ship.

There are even smaller motherboards than ITX like pico ITX, new ones are not cheap but used ones show up pretty cheap. I'll bet you could get a really small motherboard, mount it on a plastic 51/4 - 31/2 adapter(cut the 31/2 part off and put in a sheet of hobby plastic to mount the board on.) and put it in a 51/4 bay on that big case. You could use one of those pico DC-DC power converters to power the board off one of your hard drive power connectors.

What I used to do on videos that don't play right was to convert them to a divx3.11 avi, an mpg 1 or 2, or a old wmv file, depending on which type the original was. I ended up putting Linux on the critter as I got tired of waiting for a conversion to watch a movie that wouldn't play right. You can usually find an app that will convert a video even on an older machine, but it may not be real time, it could take much longer to convert to a format that will play right on that old system than the time it takes to play the original video. There are several reasons why the newer videos don't play on older hardware. The biggest one is the time between key frames or not having them at all. if a video doesn't have key frames it takes a lot more processor power to decode the video. Another problem is codecs that have special processor specific options(I expect that fineSSE29 fixes some of those problems. Another problem that is starting to be a big problem is video compression modes that are made for multicore processors as they have each video frame divided up into parts, these don't decode well on single core as the parts are meant to be decoded in parallel.

Also there are Linux Distros for older computers, I don't remember a name right off, but you can find out on Distrowatch or the Linux forums. Distrowatch will also burn a cd or dvd for you and ship it to ya, most are real cheap.

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The 2nd mainboard doesn't need to fit into a CDROM drive chute. There is enough space for a hardware that would be 40cm long and perhaps 7cm thick. In the rear 25cm it could be even about 14cm high (above my homemade PSU is plenty of unused space, because the gigantic original 486er PSU had almost the size of 4 stacked CDROM drives). Most complicated will be to add a larger shielded grill above the PSU with rear openings for the jacks. I would need to saw some steel out which would be risky (due to metal debris) without removing all electronics. Currently there is already a punched metal grill of 7x7cm above the PSU, but that is too little for safe ventilation without much noise, not least for cabelling.

I already started another thread about that thing:

Build 2 PCs into 1 case? (1x DOS, 1x modern)

I have just installed KEX 4.5.2 and fineSSE29 in my Thinkpad 760XD (166MHZ Pentium MMX with 106MB RAM). At the first restart my USB mouse refused to work, but after reboot everything worked well. Only enabling the internal codecs of GOM make the GOM window disappear from screen, but this may be a race condition crash due to the insanely slow CPU. (Even external ffdshow codecs jerk on it and make video and sound run out of sync. Only an old VLC version keeps them together but jerks even stronger.)

On my Colani Tower thanks KEX 4.5.2 certain Win98SE shutdown lockups seem to be gone and also booting might have speeded up a bit, but this also may be result of the reinstalled "tea:see pee - I pee!"-stack.

Edited by CyberyogiCoWindler
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Maybe some good news here. Downloaded the final version of opera, opera 12.10 and turned the exe into 7z and saw not plugin wrapper. So possibly the plugins will work normal with this version.

Doesn't run at all because of of a shedload of new missing functions in opera.dll dependencies and from what I can see it would appear that even Windows 2000 isn't supported anymore (opera.dll directly dependent on uxtheme.dll). :}

And it wouldn't surprise me if 10.50 were to drop support for XP as to satisfy the behemoth who gives Opera loads of dosh for the bing search integration. ;)

Time to install Kexstub and see if it can do something but I fear that the missing getadapteraddress function in iphlpapi.dll has to actually exist to be able to use the network.

Edited by loblo
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