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Dual boot, 98 and XP with one hard drive


herbalist

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My main reason for wanting both OS on one partition was the lack of hard drive space and the lack of expandability of this hardware. I was going to make the system partition as small as possible in order to make room for a decent size data partition. I've managed to get the XP system well under 2GB so I will have more hard drive space than I initially thought.

This thing is becoming one annoying piece of hardware. What looks like a speaker jack is actually a line output. It has no speaker jack. I either have to install another sound card or use amplified speakers. The only sound cards that I have left are combination modem/sound units from HP units that use proprietary drivers. I have drivers but they're a nightmare to make work on non-HP hardware.

I'm trying to install 98SE again. My old 98CD is so battered up that the installer couldn't extract cab-64. I'll find out soon enough if the disk I just assembled going to work better. On the last attempt, I had trouble with the display drivers and free memory space. This time, I'll pull out one of the RAM sticks first in case having 1024MB of RAM is causing the problem. On the last attempt, it showed 3 memory ranges that conflicted. One of them couldn't be reassigned on either device. Will try again.

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Suggestion - Get ImgBurn (free), save the beat-up CD as ISO, then burn to a new CD-R (or RW). One might assume there's a burner in it(?); if so, save beating up your original any more. Get Virtual CD (free), mount the ISO and compare (FC.EXE or search the internet for DirPru/"Dir Prudence" v1.5.7 dated 5/3/01 last free full-functional) to confirm a good burn.

40-gig HDD? 2gb for XP, 2gb for 98, 36gb (less, actually) for data...

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The CD isn't a problem. I backed up all the install CDs long ago on my primary 98 box. One partition on the external drive is nothing but backup images.

I still have the display driver conflict. On the previous attempt, the problem persisted whether it was the standard VGA adapter or vendors drivers:

This device cannot find any free Input/Output Range resources to use (code 12)

On the resources tab, Memory Ranges showing as conflicting:

00000000-07FFFFFF

00000000-0007FFFF

000C0000-000CB7FF

the first 2 show to be conflicting with "System board extension for ACPI BIOS". The first one shows 2 instances of it, the second, one. On the last range can't be modified.

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Just to clarify a couple of things. I've pretty much decided that I will go with a more conventional dual boot system, now that I have the XP system down to under half its original size.

At the moment, XP isn't on the PC at all. I'm working with 98SE only. I've installed NUSB and SESP2.1. Both are working well. I've got updated chipset drivers, sound drivers, and network drivers installed, all working properly.

The only problem right now is the display adapter problem. I've removed one of the two RAM sticks, leaving 512MB installed. With the standard VGA adapter installed, I found that unchecking the "Use automatic settings" box gets rid of the error message. I've made a full system backup of the setup at this point.

I'll pick up that patch but I'll also explore every other possibility, including the universal display drivers.

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The patch made no difference. I also tried twice to install the new graphics drivers, once before using the patch and once on a re-imaged system after trying the patch. In both cases, I got the same memory range problems. The universal video driver is next.

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Before you turn to VBEMP, do try this:

Try to install in non-ACPI mode, and see whether this solves your issue.

See: this post and KB186111. Bear in mind that a space between the "/p" and the "i" is mandatory.

In case it solves your problem, you might, or might nor, also want to disable APM, as well.

If so, this post tells how to do it.

And this post, in reply to the one I just quoted, confirms it works for video card problems. Good luck!
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That did it! I forgot to remove the 2nd RAM stick before starting the install, which gave me several "out of memory" errors. Had to install some drivers and SESP2.1 more than once to get them to complete, but when they were done, the errors and device problems were gone. It's fast, and I haven't used 98 lite or stripped out IE yet! Right now, it's just a base package, SESP, NUSB, my security apps, and a browser. Oddly enough, this is the first 98 unit that complains when I don't use the "safely remove hardware" utility before unplugging a flash drive. None of the others ever complained. Must be from having built in USB ports that are 2.0 ready.

Time for a system backup. Then comes the fun, building and tweaking and making it even faster. My only regret is that I couldn't use 98FE, no drivers (unless I can tweak the installers for the SE drivers). For the short time it was installed, it was incredibly fast. Seemed like windows would open before I let go of the mouse button. I might try it again at another time. Right now, I'll enjoy tuning this one and get back to setting up the dual boot when it's done. Thanks for the help.

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I've run into an odd issue with the browsers, Seamonkey and IE and their displaying of animated images.

The link below is to an animated radar image that uses several layered images (might be the wrong word to describe it). With graphics acceleration on full, processor usage stays at 100% and the browser gets very sluggish. My 366mhz HP displays the animation faster than this box. It's not until I turn the acceleration down to one step above "none" that the speed is normal and processor usage drops. Any ideas? So far, this reduced graphics settings isn't causing any other problems, but I'm still building the system.

http://www.intellicast.com/National/Radar/...mp;animate=true

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Might be due to the speed/recognition of the processor. There are free utilities to "slow" it down if necessary. Have you checked the System Information or Cotrol Panel/System to see what 98SE thinks you have? May be "accelerating" beyond it's capacity (a glitch/bug?). Or, I think there may be a project (somewhere, don't remember) to insert cpu-id's into the system...

Other than that possibility, dunno... check the thread on "Newer Computers/Motherboards (whatever)" for a hint.

edit for anyone else seeing this post -

had a frain-bart there (obviously Video drivers; already shut down & too late to change post) ... see dencorso posts below

Edited by submix8c
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Here is the info you asked for.

CPU-Z found another problem. The two memory sticks are different speeds. Slot 1 is 133MHZ. Slot 2 is 200MHZ. The labels on the sticks don't say the speed, only the size. I don't have a stick that matches either one. If what I'm told is correct, it was a computer shop that added the extra memory.

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Hi, Rick!

Thanks for the info.

CPU-Z found another problem. The two memory sticks are different speeds. Slot 1 is 133MHZ. Slot 2 is 200MHZ. The labels on the sticks don't say the speed, only the size. I don't have a stick that matches either one.
This shouldn't be a problem, since your system's FSB is 133MHz. It's, in fact, quite common to see machines which original stick has a lower rating than those added on later because, as higher frequency rated sticks appear in the market, those with lower ratings tend to fade out. Memory rated for higher frequencies always runs OK at lower frequencies. But all sticks will always run, at most, at the highest frequency acceptable to the lowest frequency rated stick. So, it only would be a problem in case your system requred more than 133MHz, which is not the case.

Changing subjects, you have an onboard Intel i845G video chip integrated in the chipset. So, I'd say the best course of action for you right now would be to search for an older Intel graphics driver: I'd go for the oldest possible one that supports the 845 (it should be from 2002, see the List_of_Intel_Chipsets, and work from this one on, until you find one that doesn't present the graphics issue you're having. In my experience, older drivers work better with 9x/ME than the newest ones. Work just on the video driver, letting the others you have installed alone, since you only found an issue with the graphics driver. I know it's a lot of trouble, but I do think it worth it. And, BTW, forget about the drivers offered by Dell, for now, and turn to those released diretly by Intel. Good luck and Happy New Year!

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Thanks. Oddly enough, Dell has newer versions of the drivers than the Intel site. So far, I haven't had any problems with the reduced settings. Everything is working as it should. I already installed the Dell drivers.

At the moment, I have the XP system loaded back in, getting ready to strip it down some more. An online game a friend got me addicted to uses nearly a gigabyte of space, so I'm making some more room.

Edited by herbalist
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