Mini-ITX / microATX Motherboard for Windows 98

[AlanC]

Hello,

I'm trying to get Windows 98 running on a Mini-ITX system.

I've been trying to load it on an Intel D425KT motherboard, but I'm getting a "Windows Protection Error. You need to restart your computer." message when it starts to load. This happens in safe mode as well and there is no additional information provided with the error.

I'm assuming this is due to the SATA drives.

I'd like to know if there is a Mini-ITX / microATX motherboard that I can buy for this system that will allow me to run Windows 98. My only requirement is that it must have an on board parallel port.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Alan

[jaclaz]

Well, before buying a new MB I would rather check what is the cause of the error (I doubt it is SATA drive - as long as in BIOS you set it/them in "IDE compatibility mode").

That error is traditionally connected with WIN.COM:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/153044/en-us

But can actually be due to almost anything.

How much RAM has the system?

Which BIOS settings did you have?

jaclaz

[Jolaes]

As far as I know, boards designed for Intel Atoms are a no go for Win9x. Even motherboards that are TWO generations older than yours can be problematic, might run Win9x but at a great price (no UDMA support for hdds, missing drivers for onboard audio, LAN etc..)

IMHO you must pin down exactly WHAT you need to run on this small PC in the first place - can you sacrifice functionality for speed or vice versa... ? Is it going to be a win9x only or a dual boot system???

If you want a 100% supported motherboard (with original or hacked drivers, does not matter) then you are upper-limited to Intel 875 boards, up to Prescott processors. Certain Core 2 Duo boards (from Asrock for example) might also be considered but then with their AGI support you can use a selected few AGP cards only.

I dont know much about the AMD route but that seems to end with Socket 939 motherboards... Boards that support the Athlon x2 4800+ and the equivalent (premium) FX line... Socket AM2 boards and above seem to have problems as well. If you do not have a basic, working chipset driver at least, you can forget about installing win9x.

Read the very 1st sticky:

HTH

[AlanC]

Thanks for the reply!

I'm building a new machine to replace an aging system that is running Windows 95.

The only real requirement is that it have a standard ECP parallel port to support a legacy hardware interface whose control software is Win9x based and cannot be upgraded at this time.

I'm hopeful that the software will run on Windows 98 SE, but so far I've been unsuccessful getting 98 to run on the new hardware. I was originally planning to run Windows 98 in a VM under XP on the atom based system, but the control software did not recognize the hardware thru the virtual parallel port on VMWare.

So now I'm back to the strategy of running Windows 98 natively. I was originally wanting to put together a Mini-ITX system to conserve space and energy, but at this point I'll settle for just about anything that I can buy new that will run Windows 9x.

The entire point of this exercise is to pre-emptively replace hardware that was built in 6/2000 before it fails.

Your advice and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Alan

Edited February 18, 2011 by AlanC

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

... at this point I'll settle for just about anything that I can buy new that will run Windows 9x.

Unless it's NOS (new, old-stock) then I don't think you're going to find a retailer carrying any win-98 compatible motherboards.

I bought 8 motherboards 3 years ago (Asrock 4-core DualVSTA) that I'm installing win-98 on right now. I see that some of these are still available on E-bay. I recommend that board if you can find it.

Otherwise, you'll need to identify a candidate motherboard based on chipset and a few other parameters (on-board lan, AGP yes/no, audio chip, etc). A tool that I used to use was "mobot" on motherboards.org. I don't know if it's still being updated or not. You choose a bunch of motherboard options and it will give you a list of motherboards matching that criteria.

[Rjecina]

Answer on this question is always VIA MBO with C7 (or even C3) processor.

For example you can buy on Amazon:

VIA VB7001G CN700 & VT8237R MINI-ITX MAINBOARD which is having PCI port, serial, parallel and USB ports.

http://www.amazon.com/VB7001G-CN700-VT8237R-MINI-ITX-MAINBOARD/dp/B0032D8ZXG/ref=sr_1_22?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1298739919&sr=1-22

Only important thing (in my thinking) is that you must buy MBO with Integrated graphics and original drivers for Windows 98 SE. All other things in my thinking can be solved if MBO is having UltraDMA connectors (like that earlier example).

My advice for you is to look VIA MBO on amazon and then to buy MBO with chipset (GPU) CN700 or CN896 because that 2 chipsets are last chipsets with Win 98 SE official support which is possible to download GPU Win 98 drivers from VIA site.

VIA drivers you can find on:

http://www.via.com.tw/en/support/drivers.jsp

all in all I have seen on Amazon 3 new MBO with chipset which is having official Win 98 SE support.

[dencorso]

That means the Airis Kira 740 would be the perfect netbook to run Win9x/ME in? That's great news! It can be bought used for about US$ 100 nowadays, around here, rebranded "Positivo".

[Rjecina]

That means the Airis Kira 740 would be the perfect netbook to run Win9x/ME in? That's great news! It can be bought used for about US$ 100 nowadays, around here, rebranded "Positivo".

Answer is:

you must ask chipset name !!

If they say CN896, CN700 then answer is YES, but on other side answer for all VX chipsets is NO (VIA is without official Win 98 drivers).

Problem is that GPU of CN896 is called VIA Chrome9 HC IGP and GPU of VX900 is called VIA Chrome9 HC3.....

Maybe GPU of VX900 wil work with drivers of CN896, but this is BIG maybe.

[dencorso]

It's a VIA C7-M / VIA VX800U (with a VIA Chrome9 HC3 inside)... So it's a no go.