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98SE on a Dell Dimension 4600


jakeypearce

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Hello,

 

I have a Dell Dimension 4600 which originally came with XP Pro SP1. I wanted to have a dualboot on this machine, so it would be able to run DOS games that don't run correctly under XP. Here are the specs:

2.8GHz Pentium 4 Northwood HT

2X1GB RAM

Nvidia GeForce FX 5500

250GB SATA HDD (I have an old Maxtor 40GB that's IDE, but it won't be sufficient for my needs).

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

NOTE: The specs I posted are NOT original to the system (enter 6Z5MW0J as the service tag to see the original specs).

 

I have done some research already and found that you need to run setup with the "/p i" switch to prevent ACPI problems after you install the video card driver.

I am installing Windows the "OEM way". This means I make the HDD bootable using the /s argument, go into the C: drive, make a folder path called Windows\Options\Cabs. Then I copy the 98SE files that are in the "WIN98" folder on the CD to the cabs folder.

The problems I am experiencing is, firstly, when setup loads, it has this weird issue where it delays and won't do anything until I press a key on the keyboard or move the mouse. What it is doing is what I did before (IE, I press the down arrow on the keyboard, and the computer won't show/do it until I move the mouse). This carries on until the first half of setup is completed and the computer reboots.

The second issue I am having (and this is where the computer will lock up) is during the second half of setup (where I enter the product key, Windows will scan for plug-n-play devices, etc). Setup will configure the programs on the start menu, and that's it. The whole system will lock up, and there is no disk activity. I have tried a number of options in the BIOS, such as disabling Hyperthreading. Any ideas? I have it set to "OS Install Mode" which limits the system to 256MB RAM.

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I just re-enabled the floppy, and redid setup on an 80GB partition. This time, I saw it access the floppy like crazy before locking up. Does that offer any clues?

It is "strange".

While you may actually want to have two of Rloew's patches, the SATA one and the RAM one (for actual use of the PC), I have seen reports of people installing on that same machine model without issues, but haven't seen details about whether they were using a SATA or a IDE disk (in theory there should be no problems with a SATA disk if the BIOS is set in in "IDE compatibility mode" or similar, but you never know)

 

You could try (just for the sake of confirming or excluding that the SATA disk is involved) to install the 98 on the 40 Gb IDE disk.

 

If - by any chance - you have )or can borrow) a 512 Mb (or smaller) stick, you could exclude the possibility of "too much RAM" causing the issue.

 

In any case, I would try removing one of the two 1 Gb sticks.

 

Go through (I know it's a lot of info) this:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/118097-day-to-day-running-win-9xme-with-more-than-1-gib-ram/

 

Or wait a bit, surely some of the members more "current" with windows 98 installs on "recent" hardware will chime in and assist you.

 

jaclaz

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Technically, and I could be wrong, shouldn't "OS Install Mode" bypass removing a 1GB stick (as it limits the RAM to 256MB)? I just remembered I had a "turtle slow" 160GB IDE Seagate drive, so I can try with that. Thanks! Also, one of the posts I saw on the Dell forum said that they got 98SE to work on this system by enabling UDMA in the BIOS (all the others were left intact), which according to the F1 info on the BIOS, is meant for IDE HDDs.

Edited by jakeypearce
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Technically, and I could be wrong, shouldn't "OS Install Mode" bypass removing a 1GB stick? I just remembered I had a 160GB IDE Seagate drive, so I can try with that. Thanks!

Sure :), that is correct  ( in theory), but you never know what actually happens under the hood, just like ACPI, in theory Windows 98 supports it, but in practice it causes issues, possibly in connection with *some*  not particularly "friendly" or "well coded" BIOSes (and specifically DELL has a record for modifying or botching BIOSes on their machines) anything (and the contrary of it) may happen, as you can see from the given reference years of hit-and-miss have been accumulated on the board, installing 98 or more mordern hardware is not as easy as it should be, but with some perseverance (and a lot of testing) I am pretty sure it is doable :thumbup:.

 

jaclaz

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I'll try and see what happens when I take the current 2.8GHz P4 out and replace it with the factory 2.66GHz P4. 

 

EDIT: Scratch that. I can use an even slower P4 that runs at 1.5GHz. I can both sticks of RAM out and put a 512MB one in to replace it from my eMachines 730. :D

Edited by jakeypearce
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I have successfully installed 98SE on a Dell Dimension 4600. It did require the -p -i options for AMI bios, otherwise I could get it to boot into windows but there were un-resolvable conflicts with resources. I used only 512 of ram and a 40gb IDE hard drive. I don't recall if I got the onboard sound to work. Onboard audio seems to always be a giant b***h to get working w 98.

Edited by Aeridyne
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I have successfully installed 98SE on a Dell Dimension 4600. It did require the -p -i options for AMI bios, otherwise I could get it to boot into windows but there were un-resolvable conflicts with resources. I used only 512 of ram and a 40gb IDE hard drive. I don't recall if I got the onboard sound to work. Onboard audio seems to always be a giant b***h to get working w 98.

Did it lag for you during setup like it does for me?

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