Installing 98SE on Emachines w3629

[submix8c]

If anyone is interested, I'll do a full write-up of how I installed 98 SE on this machine. Bear in mind it's still ugly, lots of drivers, etc. missing.

Please do so at first opportunity. Suggest putting links to all drivers that "work" along with - maybe put in Post#1 (leave original text). This applies to all of the Models in question (not listed) using this MoBo (including mine). Edited September 5, 2012 by submix8c

[schwups]

http://windows98.ic.cz/

More specifically:

http://windows98.ic....et/intelinf.zip

I may have gotten a few from the extracted version of this file:

http://windows98.ic....ntel_inf865.zip

I think the majority of them are working too, everything seems to be showing in the Device Manager except the Ethernet Controller and the PCI VGA driver.

EDIT:

I just noticed that all the devices that are functioning have a driver listed in the description from the registry. I think *those devices that aren't functioning* do not have drivers in that file I downloaded. Further, I believe this is causing me issues such as not being able to update or change drivers, or even switch to MS's generic VGA driver.

Hello Steven W

There isn't a WinME/98 driver for your onboard graphics Intel GMA 950 (VEN_8086&DEV_2772&SUBSYS_1B761019&REV_02). You could try the bearwindows VBEMP 9x driver, but you said that the device isn't listed in your Device Manager. Did you already have looked in the System Information MSInfo32 for Components / Problem Devices? => ACPI Problem? What about PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2771.DeviceDesc="Intel® 945G/GZ/P/PL PCI Express Root Port - 2771"?

I 've successfully installed the chipset driver (windows98.ic.cz) on different systems, but of course with PCIE graphics card. For example Fujitsu-Siemens D2156 A1, (i945G) and ATIX800XL (I've to disable HyperThreading on this machine).

Known problem: Shutdown issue with Nvidia cards. My little problem with all those systems, that I can't install a USB printer. I can't get a virtual port. I've successfully installed it on systems with i865 and i915 boards.

Edited September 10, 2012 by schwups

[Steven W]

A bit of bad news. That PC died. It was acting strangely for a while, not booting from the CDROM always, etc (It never did act completely right; it was a refurb). I'm sure my wiping the hard drive, etc. hastened it's demise, but did not directly cause it. For submix8c, the biggest part of getting it to boot was getting the hard drive drivers and the proper settings applied. If I can do it, I know you can. I'm absolutely sure that all of the drivers listed above except one came from the intelinf.zip file.

As for the video card driver, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if someone could tinker with the official one (maybe not the latest revision), perhaps messing with INF files, replacing a few files from some older package (the 82810?) or put it in an older version of some Intel Graphics Card installer and get it to work.

schwups, my guess is that it wasn't showing in the Device Manager because it didn't have a proper driver. It was enumerated in the registry as was the NIC card. Your USB problem is a mystery to me.

Edit: One last bit of advice to anyone endeavoring to install 98 SE on this motherboard, copy your install CD to the hard drive, put it in a directory (I named my directory Win98).

Edited September 10, 2012 by Steven W

[Steven W]

Re-seating the memory cards works wonders. It's alive again, although the DVD drive is on its last legs. I've got two devices that don't have any drivers, one reads PCI Card (guessing sound card) and the other is the Ethernet Controller. The graphics card is using Windows built in generic VGA driver. I'm about to run some errands figured I'd post before I do. Curious if there's anything special to be done to use the bearwindows VBEM. I'll be trying it later, hopefully it's either simple of someone can fill me in.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Steven W

[Steven W]

I'm online with it. I wiped the hard drive, set up a 20 GB partition, disabled the sound and network cards in the BIOS, put in replacement PCI cards, did a reinstall had 7-zip and the intelinf.zip file handy, went through the install until it wouldn't load, went into safe mode, installed 7zip, extracted the files and set up the hard drive only. It booted after that. Using Bearwindows VBEMP 9x driver. I updated the other USB/PCI/System devices once I was in full Windows. FYI, on my system one hard drive controller had to be Primary only and one had to be Secondary only in order to recognize the DVD Rom. I did not even have to modify Win.ini.

I have a couple of questions:

I now have this hooked up to a wide screen monitor (16:9), but all the resolutions I can choose are 4:3. Is there a way to fix that? Is there a way to get the command prompt and other command line Windows to work without having to be full screen?

Edited September 16, 2012 by Steven W

[schwups]

Curious if there's anything special to be done to use the bearwindows VBEM.

Make sure, that you have a clean uninstall of Nvidia or ATI drivers =>  driver cleaner 1.5 build 14. Bearwindows: "Before installing VBEMP.DRV I recommend removing any display drivers installed and switching to the standard VGA mode 640x480x16colors."

I now have this hooked up to a wide screen monitor (16:9), but all the resolutions I can choose are 4:3. Is there a way to fix that? Is there a way to get the command prompt and other command line Windows to work without having to be full screen?

Sorry, I never tested wide screen on WinME/98. Which resolutions you can choose? AFAIK the Nvidia driver 82.69 supports wide screen.

[jaclaz]

The VBEMP driver uses VESA resolutions.

(but it won't only work at the resolutions the video card won't "expose")

http://www.navozhdeniye.narod.ru/vbe9x.htm

320x200, 320x240, 320x400, 400x300, 512x384, 640x350, 640x400, 640x480, 720x400, 720x480, 720x576, 800x480, 800x600, 1024x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1400x1050, 1600x1200, 1792x1344, 1856x1392, 1920x1440, 2048x1536 if these resolutions are supported by your video card's BIOS. *

None of the above resolutions is 16:9.

Quick reminder:

W/H=1.25->5:4

W/H=1.333->4:3

W/H=1.600->16:10

W/H=1.778->16:9

Common resolutions:

SXGA	5:4	1280	1024	 1280 x 1024 

VGA	4:3	640	480	 640 x 480 
SVGA	4:3	800	600	 800 x 600 
XGA	4:3	1024	768	 1024 x 768 
XGA+	4:3	1152	864	 1152 x 864 
UVGA	4:3	1280	960	 1280 x 960 
SXGA+	4:3	1400	1050	 1400 x 1050 
UXGA	4:3	1600	1200	 1600 x 1200 

WXGA	16:10	1280	800	 1280 x 800 
WXGA+	16:10	1440	900	 1440 x 900 
WSXGA+	16:10	1680	1050	 1680 x 1050 
WUXGA	16:10	1920	1200	 1920 x 1200 
WQXGA	16:10	2560	1600	 2560 x 1600 

WXGA	16:9	1280	720	 1280 x 720 
HD+	16:9	1600	900	 1600 x 900 
FHD	16:9	1920	1080	 1920 x 1080 
QWXGA	16:9	2048	1152	 2048 x 1152 
WQHD	16:9	2560	1440	 2560 x 1440 

The closest possible is the 1280 x 800 (which is 16:10) but cannot say if you can use it.

jaclaz

[Steven W]

Curious if there's anything special to be done to use the bearwindows VBEM.

Make sure, that you have a clean uninstall of Nvidia or ATI drivers => driver cleaner 1.5 build 14. Bearwindows: "Before installing VBEMP.DRV I recommend removing any display drivers installed and switching to the standard VGA mode 640x480x16colors."

I had no need to clean drivers, all I had was MS's VGA Driver. As Far as what I can use:

640 x 480

600 x 800

1024 x 768

1280 x 1024

2 colors

16 colors

256 colors

16 bit (High Color)

32 bit (True Color)

I guess that makes sense given what jaclaz says. I can live with it, especially since this won't be the monitor I'm going to continue to use with it, was just curious.

Since you guys are being kind enough to reply, I've got a couple of other minor issues. Firefox 10, esr, is not rendering properly (although it did for a while last night). It either just shows the outer edges of the window, or it renders part of the menu and looks like a bunch of lines in it. Last night, after I installed a bunch of other stuff, it ran fine. IDK.

When I reboot, the PC keeps saying I don't have a mouse plugged into the PS/2 slot. I'm using a USB mouse and have to keep changing USB ports for it to work after a reboot.

Thank you so much for your replies.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Steven W

[Steven W]

I mentioned previously having trouble with Firefox (ESR 10.07) rendering, if I shut off hardware acceleration (through properties from the desktop), it works fine. I'm going to try unchecking the 'Use hardware accelerarion when available' in Firefox fox options, turning it back on through Windows and see what happens. I'll edit this post when I do.

No dice. I don't know if this is related to my use of VBEMP or what.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Steven W

[submix8c]

Just out of curiosity - why Firefox 10 ESR? Try an earlier version. There's lots of threads on this. This indicates the last "officially supported" version.

Look at this and this. Notice that Frogman (see his sig.) use the LAST 3.x version. Kex will be necessary anyway. This is even the one I use right now (on an NT-based OS).

[Steven W]

Since my last post I have tried version 8, it suffters the same way. While I'm here, Curious if there was an equivalent fix to KB888111 for 98SE and ME?

[Steven W]

Well, I've gotten the port for the built-in sound card to work. I download uaa.zip from Intel. This looks to be the same thing as kb888111.exe for Windows 2000 sp4. I modified the inf files for that specific OS, changing the 'signature' from Windows NT to CHICAGO, removing the block (last character of each INF file), and saved them as text (as opposed to unicode) using Wordpad. I then went into the Device Manager and updated the driverless PCI card (pointing it to the folder with the modded files) and it seems to have worked. I would have thought it'd fine a new sound card. Not so... I'll keep digging. The device is now listed as 'Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio'.

Don't think it'll matter, but I do have KernelEx installed.

Edit: Bus Driver, lol!

Edited September 18, 2012 by Steven W

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

HDAUDBUS.SYS 5.10.1.5013 has no missing functions. Great find

[Steven W]

What about portcls.sys version 5.00.2195.6906 and sysaudio.sys version 5.00.2195.6906. Would you mind checking those for me? I could upload if need be.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Steven W

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

I checked them all. HDAUDBUS.SYS 5.10.1.5013 is the only one.