Win 95/98/Me VCACHE error after updating BIOS on a new motherboard

[Omores]

So... I have this "I can run all Windows versions on real hardware" configuration, featuring a Ryzen 3900X and a Voodoo 3 3000 PCI. (supporting roles: Ensoniq ES1370, VIA6421 PCI to SATA, VIA 6212 PCI-E to USB)

The motherboard is a BIOSTAR X470GTA with 2 classic PCI slots.

Windows 95, 98, Me - are running very stable. (I can play for hours stable)

The problem is that 3x/9x operating systems are crashing with the newest BIOS update.

Windows 3.11 starts normal but suddenly exits to MS-DOS after few seconds. (RAM? Virtual memory?)

Windows 95/98/Me - all return a VCACHE error. (no matter what values are used in system.ini)

 Once I switch back to BIOS #1 Windows 3.11, 95, 98 & Me will boot to desktop as nothing has happened. (this motherboard has a physical BIOS switch)

Clearly, this a BIOS issue... and I suspect that 99% it's related to some unsupported RAM operation...

I have like 50-60 settings in BIOS(AMD CBS section) related only to RAM - maybe something can be enabled/disabled....

Any ideas what is causing these Windows Protection Errors when using newer BIOSes? I experienced something similar on a socket 1200 motherboard.

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Omores

[pangoomis]

Wow! Though I was the only person to have a USB 2.0(!) PCI-E card for Windows 9x purposes, though mine has a NEC chip and doesn't require external power. Probably why it only works stable with keyboard/mouse/generic USB sound card and doesn't like flash drives at all (not OS dependant).

You should be able to ditch the PCI SATA Controller and install 9x to a drive connected to the motherboard SATA port using rloew's AHCI driver, though that won't probably help.

Is pinzaru.ro your site? Very nice, right up my alley, I really like to run 98SE on new hardware.

I ran 98SE on Pentium G4560 and ASRock H110M-DVS R3.0 motherboard and 8GB RAM, and NVIDIA 7900 GTX without errors, the mouse was even behaving correctly from the start with the PS/2 emulation. With the USB 2.0 PCI-E card I plugged generic USB sound card and had sound!

Also ran on Ryzen 5 3600 and ASUS B450-I GAMING ITX motherboard and 32GB RAM and NVIDIA 7900 GTX too. I think I got the AHCI driver working but I'm not sure. The mouse was jumping all around and I didn't know/or didn't do it correctly to switch to Windows 3.1 mouse driver. Due to ITX motherboard, couldn't plug my usb sound card via pci-e card.

Neither of those motherboards (don't have them anymore) gave me the VCACHE error, hence I'm very surprised to hear about users encountering this issue. Good luck with your Windows 9x adventures, looks like you're having as much fun as I do/did  

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by MrMateczko

[Damnation]

@Omores @MrMateczko

I encountered this error when I tried to install 98SE on my Threadripper system, I never did find a solution to it unfortunately.

[ABCDEFG]

The single thread performance is important to us, and it is better on intel, even 3-4 generations older ones.

[Omores]

18 hours ago, MrMateczko said:

Is pinzaru.ro your site? Very nice, right up my alley, I really like to run 98SE on new hardware.

Yes, it's mine. Windows 98SE it's my favorite too, I used to have a single monitor and Windows 3x/9x video card  was hooked to VGA port and Windows 10 to HDMI/DP. Now I have 2nd display dedicated to 3x/9x, it's a 19 inch/1280x1204 Dell IPS monitor (4:3 aspect ratio, but a new model with USB 3.0) and everything looks gorgeous... Also I have a Denon audio receiver with 2xoptical, 1xanalog inputs and I can switch on the fly from optical (Windows 10) to analog 3.x/9x/NT.

Back to the VCACHE error - it's obvious that something it's breaking the compatibility inside BIOS - since with the very same hardware (not a single cable changed) I can get very stable Windows 95, 98 and Me installations - but with the latest  BIOS versions I get VCACHE errors.

My motherboard has 5 bios versions, the last two of them are incompatible. Maybe I'll find what is wrong. I noticed that incompatible versions have a different PCI module. The original PCI module has settings for PCI latency, the latest has none. This AMI BIOSes can be modified.

 

[FlameOnion]

AMISCE - change hidden bios settings for AMI bioses

Export the bios settings from both versions and try to compare the files with notepad++ or online text compare.

 

[RamonUn]

I assume you installed the CPU fixes for Win9x? you did not detail it in your post.

[xrayer]

I think that microcode or AGESA firmware module could change CPU behavior to introduce such bug. Sou you can try extract microcode and AGESA from your older working BIOS and try to insert it in your new BIOS one by one to see if/when it breaks to narrow down the problem. If it will be solved by downgrading one of this module you cannot fix it but at least you could utilize other new features compared to reverting completly to old bios...