Windows 98 SE Timebomb?

[Zucker2k]

Installing windows 98 SE on my T410 Thinkpad. The installation process hangs 3 times and I have to manually press the power button to shutdown the machine and then restart on each occasion for the process to continue. The machine boots okay onto the desktop but just like the installation process, the system hangs about 20-25 seconds from the point windows boots. The first part of the installation process goes without a hitch, but the second part and subsequent windows boots all take the same time from boot to lock up - about 25 seconds. I've tried with about 5 different bootable images.

I'm installing windows on an ssd, with 1gb ram. I eventually plan to ran it with 8gigs of DDR3 ram. In fact, I've tweaked the config sys and system.ini files to where setup even accepts 8gigs. The only problem is that seemingly timed lockup. I'm sure the venerable gurus here have surely dealt with this issue in the past? Please help. I've tried changing date, disabling hardware, features, and running my 480gig sata with a 40/60gig windows partition formatted with the 98se bootdisk with the updated fdisk/format.com in compatibility but still the issue persists. All help will be much appreciated. Thanks!

Edited April 29, 2019 by Zucker2k

[pangoomis]

Download HIMEMX.EXE from here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/himemx/

Put it in the root of the C partition, then add at the beginning of CONFIG.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\HIMEMX.EXE

HIMEMX greately increases stability, especially with newer machines.

Also try limiting the RAM to 512MB, not 1GB, that is to use MaxPhysPage=20000 line in SYSTEM.INI

If HIMEMX.EXE won't solve your problems, you can try XMGR from here:

http://optimizr.dyndns.org/dos/drivers.html

 

[Zucker2k]

3 minutes ago, MrMateczko said:

Download HIMEMX.EXE from here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/himemx/

Put it in the root of the C partition, then add at the beginning of CONFIG.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\HIMEMX.EXE

HIMEMX greately increases stability, especially with newer machines.

Also try limiting the RAM to 512MB, not 1GB, that is to use MaxPhysPage=20000 line in SYSTEM.INI

If HIMEMX.EXE won't solve your problems, you can try XMGR from here:

http://optimizr.dyndns.org/dos/drivers.html

 

Thanks for the response. I've used both with the same result. I've also used xhdd to reduce available ram for windows. I've renamed Himemx.exe to himem.sys, renamed xmgr.sys. etc. UMBPCI doesn't play well with my setup; it complains about "no ram found at address D00H or sometime similar, though EMM36 does use D00H. I've had success with Himemx renamed to Himem with EMM386 and XHDD.

[jumper]

Sounds like it hangs autodetecting one of the internal devices. If you can't boot in safe mode, try a logged or stepped boot. Otherwise you'll have to try all the regular installation problem suggestions.