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Windows 98SE acting up on laptop?


FantasyAcquiesce

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The title says it all, I'm trying to figure out why my Windows 98 installation on my Dell Latitude D600 always acts so unstable. The CD rom will not work despite being recognized and changing the resources to avoid conflicts. Windows itself is extremely slow and "lags" just for simply clicking on a simple explorer window to display files.

What could be causing the issues
-Having 1gb of ram in the machine. Despite having 1gb of ram, my machine never failed to install Windows and drivers.
-The combination of VxD and WDM drivers? I've read somewhere having these two different types of drivers on windows can cause instability and conflicts. Since Dell did not officially provide drivers for my laptop there could be a possibility the different driver manufacturers created a different types with no intention of being used in the hardware combination of a Dell Latitude D600.
-The unofficially modded wireless broadcom driver by PROBL3MCH1LD (If that's how I spell his username). Another used has told me the card's taking up the first 32mb of ram can cause boot failure, although it never happened to me. The user fixed his problem by using rloew's ram patch and typing a certain command.
-Enabling ACPI? I've heard ACPI causes some issues on Windows 9x.

I'm so confident this could be fixed >o<

Edited by ~♥Aiko♥Chan♥~
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Use HIMEMX, it can make system more stable above 512MB.

Never install 98SE using ACPI. There's a reason IBM officially(!) says to install 98SE on my ThinkPad T40 in APM mode and not ACPI.

Do you have DMA enabled? Do drivers work in 32bit protected mode (no errors in the last tab in System properties about compatibility mode?)

Can you try different graphic drivers? I use Omega Drivers too, but you can try official T40 ones: https://www.techspot.com/drivers/downloadnow/3415/?evp=248e71de1f89703e55b98a0dba7e16bc&file=1

Try removing modules from laptop one by one (wifi card, modem, bluetooth, what can you) and see what removal makes system snappier.

Try changing every BIOS option you can, especially disabling all modules you can (serial, parallel, infrared, wifi, ethernet, among others).

 

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On 10/11/2017 at 1:01 PM, MrMateczko said:

Use HIMEMX, it can make system more stable above 512MB.

Never install 98SE using ACPI. There's a reason IBM officially(!) says to install 98SE on my ThinkPad T40 in APM mode and not ACPI.

Do you have DMA enabled? Do drivers work in 32bit protected mode (no errors in the last tab in System properties about compatibility mode?)

Can you try different graphic drivers? I use Omega Drivers too, but you can try official T40 ones: https://www.techspot.com/drivers/downloadnow/3415/?evp=248e71de1f89703e55b98a0dba7e16bc&file=1

Try removing modules from laptop one by one (wifi card, modem, bluetooth, what can you) and see what removal makes system snappier.

Try changing every BIOS option you can, especially disabling all modules you can (serial, parallel, infrared, wifi, ethernet, among others).

 

Thank you! I will try this when I get the chance!

I installed Windows 98 without ACPI at first, then enabled it. Does that make any difference?
I do have a few compatibility mode issues: Generic Cardbus and Floppy Disk.
Never knew the Thinkpad T40 video drivers were compatible with the 32mb raedon 9000 card!

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On 10/13/2017 at 4:40 AM, MrMateczko said:

Disable ACPI in registry, it should be enough. I would better reinstall 98SE from scratch, setting the system up is half the fun after all :)

Did you have compatibility mode issues before you've enabled ACPI?

 

 

Haven't got to tweaking Windows 98 yet, but no, I don't believe so.

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i wouldn't re-enable acpi, if you already installed with acpi disabled, then keep it that way. most computers will not work properly with the default acpi enabled on windows 9x systems, some might not even finish setup, i had run "setup /p i" ( acpi disabled ) on one of the sony laptops i have right now experimenting on windows 95. it uses ich3-m chipset. only some systems may function "properly" with the default acpi enabled. i use driver version "4.13.01.9066" for ("MOBILITY RADEON 9000" = M9_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4C66&SUBSYS_205817C0) which is used on the latitude d600 and inspiron 600m. 

i would make sure you have the right or adequate system.ini settings for vcache and maxphyspage. for 1 GB systems, you can use "maxphyspage=40000" and "minfilecache=44000" and "maxfilecache=44000". these are personally what i have used and my systems and about the minimum necessary for the vcache. it seems that when i used to use 0 for the filecache, it would cause the hard drive to stop working properly and run in compatibility mode after updating the system to a certain point, but when i used the proper vcache settings, it seemed to not have that problem anymore. 

some other solutions is to make sure the hard drive size is less than 127.5 GB i believe, it seems that on the last laptop build i did, the performance and functioned seemed rather buggy or slow and / or showed signs / had data corruption or related issues that apparently would occur if running on partition sizes 127.5 GB or larger. for the broadcom wifi, i dont remember what configuration i had on the dell latitude d600 or inspiron 600m, but i personally had more success, at least recently, with using the realtek 8185 mini pci wifi card. it works well on the dell precision m70 and might work on the latitude d600. i had problems running the bcm4318 on the precision m70 and i think another laptop with inability to boot. 

Edited by cov3rt
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  • 2 weeks later...

The Broadcom Wireless Card is definitely the issue here as it's been reported by many to cause isues. Once I installed the wireless card, Retrozilla's scrolling was very jagged and unsmooth (although I wasn't able to see it prior).

Do you guys know if it's possible to force modify IRQ resources? While I know it's probably not the issue, I just wanna check. Know of any wireless usb adapters that work on 9x?

EDIT: I haven't had the issues on ME that burden 98SE. In fact my ME installation has been a billion times more stable than 98SE + all updates. Microsoft probably tried implanting W2K API into 98SE, thus ME was born (probably why the wireless card driver works properly on ME but not 98). Found on the web ME actually supports ACPI, so that's nice. Can't find any logical explanation to why 98SE is as slow as a turtle, about to go back into it's shell at any second while ME is lighting fast.

And thank you cov3rt for the ram tip! Windows ME is lightnin' fast while Windows 98SE is the new troubled windows!

 

Edited by ~♥Aiko♥Chan♥~
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8 hours ago, PROBLEMCHYLD said:

So the Broadcom drivers works for you in WinME but not Win98 SE?

Technically no, they do install and work on 98SE, BUT the system is mysteriously unstable because of the broadcom driver. Oddly my Windows 98SE installations are always more unstable than ME. Usually my Win98 installations would work fine at first but then failed to do simple tasks. My wireless mouse even lagged! My last two Win98 installations over the past month never acted normal and was about as fragile as a pansy. It was odd Windows ME fixed everything and it was much more convenient on newer hardware because of the native USB support. Unlike 98SE, ME wouldn't bother me for cab files when installing drivers. A fresh ME installation was far superior to a Win98SE + Service Pack installation.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/30/2017 at 1:04 PM, PROBLEMCHYLD said:

So the Broadcom drivers works for you in WinME but not Win98 SE?

PROBLEMCHYLD, please reply when you get the chance.

When using your broadcom driver to download anything on Windows 9x the card often times out or breaks while downloading, thus making larger file uploads/downloads impossible.

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