dual processor system?

[winxpi]

I'm not sure about dual processor on Windows 98

,anyway I got this e-mail from someone,maybe you guys can help.

Hi,

I know this was probably asked before - I found lots of people saying it doesn't work. Can you make W98 work on dual processor systems (it probably doesn't work on dual core, either) ? I'm saying just make it work. I'm not saying make it use both processors. You would probably have to re-write most of the W98 code to do that

I have a Dell Precision Workstation 620 - two 933 Mhz Xeons. It installs, reboots, and doesn't manage to start the second part of the setup. It says not enough base memory after displaying a very hard to catch message. I caught it with the Pause key and it says "XMS cache problem" as the reason for not being able to install some needed residents or something.

Thanks in advance - your W98upg is probably the best add-on pack around.

Alex

Edited February 5, 2007 by winxpi

[galahs]

I always thought Dual Processors were compatible with Windows 98, just it ignored one of them

Also how much RAM does Alex have? Could that be the problem or maybe that the Xeon has too much L2 cache?

[soporific]

I have a Dell Precision Workstation 620 - two 933 Mhz Xeons. It installs, reboots, and doesn't manage to start the second part of the setup. It says not enough base memory after displaying a very hard to catch message. I caught it with the Pause key and it says "XMS cache problem" as the reason for not being able to install some needed residents or something.

That's very similar to the message I got when trying to install Win98se on a Pentium D --- my motherboard documentation said that only Win2K or higher was poss, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. The problem seems to be something to do with how the disk drives, and memory components function - I don't know the explanation, but the setup routine couldn't find any RAM (it said I had 2 MB) --- I mucked about changing the hard disk settings, trying different modes, and one of them managed to copy all the files as per normal, but after reboot I got messages about not enough memory. ie very similar to the story above.

The bottom line is that the computer is too new and won't support OSes from the last millenium.

[phkninja]

In theory there should be no problems with using a dual core proc, as they run 32 bit and 64 bit applications. The problem would arise with the OS. Win98 even as SE is probably too old to function on a dual core, as it cannot distinguish what the processor is. The bus speeds are all extremely fast, and might not allow 98 ability to converse correctly with the processor (processor says "Hi, Win 98 i want you to do this" and before the aging giant responds the proc says "hey, im being ignored so I'll just ignore Win")

[MDGx]

Amount of installed memory is not an issue here.

Number of installed CPUs is.

My 2 ¢ :

"XMS cache memory" error probably means HIMEM.SYS can't access I/O DMA memory, because on SMP (Symmetrical MultiProcessing) systems with more than 1 CPU that memory area is not available for DOS devices/TSRs.

In such cases must disable all CPUs [if more than 1] in BIOS Setup [if mobo BIOS allows it] except for 1 CPU.

Then install Windows 9x or MS-DOS again.

HTH

[winxpi]

Finally he managed to solve the issue.

Hello again,

I managed to install Windows 98 on a dual processor machine. You can see the specifications from my previous e-mail, but I think it works regardless of the machine configuration (provided it is enough to support Win98). Win98 actually needs HIMEM.SYS to initialize on this machine (I heard it normally doesn't) and I found one that does work, providing sufficient memory to initialize the OS. It is the HIMEM.SYS from IBM's PC DOS 2000.

My config.sys now looks like this:

FILES=30

BUFFERS=10

DOS=HIGH

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS

DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE

DEVICE=C:\DOS\POWER.EXE

I attached the three files in the rar file, if you want to help users have '98 on dual processor systems like mine.

Thank you again for your wonderful upgrade pack. Looking forward to more updates (how about reliable, stable NTFS read/write support? )

Alex

The 3 files were simply himem.sys setver.exe & power.exe .

Here are the files

Edited October 31, 2008 by winxpi

[myelin]

Fascinating stuff by Alex, Winxpi and MDGX.