So, uh, seeing that running VMs increases CPU Heat and all, is it safe to run it on a 8 year old P4 2.0 GHz Processor with only 512 DDR2 RAM? And regarding this CPUIdle thing, on their website, it says "You can try CpuIdle for 30 days. If you come to the conclusion that you want to use either program after that time you must register". If I can't pay their 30$ fee, would I still be able to use it after 30 days? If not, should I stop using a VM? And which VM really is the best for running Win98SE and Win2k? (no need for ME/NT/other versions)

Additional questions: Where SHOULD I install CPUIdle? My main OS or the VM OS? And how do I transfer files from the PC to the VM?

This post has been edited by p7s7x9: Jul 19 2008, 01:16 AM

Let us clear this thing:
A PROPERLY WORKING PC, PROPERLY COOLED, NOT BLATANTLY OVERCLOCKED, CAN WORK AT 100% CPU LOAD FOR EXTREMELY LONG PERIODS OF TIME WITHOUT ANY DAMAGE TO THE MOTHERBOARD, CPU OR ANYTHING.

But of course, Murphy's Law is ALWAYS lurking around trying to prove itself true once again.

You should check and double check that fans are working properly, that the CPU is well seated as well as it's cooler, that there is a good heat transmission between the CPU and the cooler (apply/replace thermal paste if needed).

But the above you should do ANYWAY.

jaclaz

With 98SE, I'm pretty much limited to using VirtualPC 5.1 so I can't help with the "which is best" questions. VirtualPC will run 98 and 2K guest systems with no problems. It also has the ability to let you transfer files between the real and virtual systems.

Somehow I managed to delete my image of the 98SE testbox that had VirtualPC installed, so I made a new one last night, along with a 2K guest system. Neither is completely finished at the moment, lots of updating to do, but they're working well. My system is older and has much lower specs than yours, 366mhz, 160MB RAM. There are no problems with excess heat, memory, or processor usage from using Virtual PC, or any other app I've tried.
A Screenshot of Win2K running in VirtualPC on 98SE. The screenshot was taken on the 98host, then transferred and uploaded with the 2K guest. Both Process Explorer and MemUse are running on the host system to show that it is not being overworked. An app like CPUIdle shouldn't be necessary.
Rick

The VM OS, only effective if it's 9x. But just use Rain, it's free. http://www.benchtest.com/downloads/index.html

@ herbalist: A 366MHz Celeron runs at room temperature no matter what you do to it...

This post has been edited by Th3_uN1Qu3: Jul 19 2008, 09:09 PM

I can live with that. Natural abuse resistance.
It probably helps not having the outer case on as well. Wide open air flow. I swap hard drives so often that the case just gets in the way. The last time I never put it back on.
Rick

This post has been edited by herbalist: Jul 19 2008, 11:39 PM

I tried installing Win98SE on MS's VirtualPC 2007. For some reason, the bootdisk for Win98SE from www.bootdisk.com doesn't seem to work with it, with the VM saying its file size is wrong. What should I do?

The Windows 98 CD should be bootable by itself. It shouldn't need a floppy.

The OEM 98 cd was a boot cd but the retail versions were not. They need a Window 98 Startup floppy or the same I suppose on a cd image of one.

Oh well, mine was... And as far as i remember my dad bought it separately, it didn't come with the computer (it wasn't an OEM computer anyway), so i suppose it was retail... But i might as well be wrong, it's been a while since i've seen that disc, i only used my backup copy in the last few years.

This post has been edited by Th3_uN1Qu3: Jul 22 2008, 07:44 PM

To my experience, running DOS in any VM software causes 100% processor usage, but not necessarily Windows 98 (not on Virtual PC anyway).
Also, on MS-DOS, I find that using POWER.EXE in config.sys to be more effective than CPUIdle (for the best results, you can use both at the same time ), because CPUIdle only kicks in while on command prompt, but your processor will go back up to 100% as soon as you execute anything. POWER.EXE, on the other hand, is more generic.

Wrong. CPUIdle and similar cooling programs work with all the idle CPU time. Unless you're running an application that takes 100% CPU it'll provide improvement.

Did you feed the downloaded file from bootdisk.com directly to the VM? AFAIK all, or most images from bootdisk.com are executables which create a (physical) floppy for you.

My bad, I meant idle.com, that comes with VPC Additions for DOS in VPC2004. I was talking about DOS, I know that the Windows-based software works fine .

DOSBox, or check out my bootdisk.

Actually in order for the DOS virtual machine to execute a HLT instruction in most idling circumstances, one needs to load *both* :

- dosidle
- sleepvm (or equivalent; like the DOS TSR which comes with the VMadditions for MS VPC)

Load (load high if using an UMB mem manager) these, inside of he VM of course. Tech note : Dosidle is excellent, however its author forgot to hook "int 28h" This is why the system will not idle as expected at the prompt inside of some programs, as someone noted. SleepVM will take care of this, or you could add the sleepvm feature to dosidle easily enough since dosidle is provided with source ASM...

These will suffice to "tame" the VM even when it is running Windows 3.1/3.11fWG. However there exists a VxD which can be loaded in addition (in system.ini) and will do the HALT at idle trick in a Windows way.


HTH


--
Ninho

This post has been edited by Ninho: Jul 27 2008, 03:06 AM

Oh, now i get that he was talking about CPU idle time in DOS. I didn't even know that kind of thing existed.

I've only recently gotten into using a VM (previously I used a real 98 box, but I upgraded to a Vista machine...well, the hardware was an upgrade, Vista was a downgrade), and Virtual PC 2007 hasn't failed me so far. I've used a couple different versions of Windows XP and Windows 98 SE without any trouble.

So that's my recommendation for XP/Vista users: Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. 98SE doesn't overheat anything for me, and only uses a tiny fraction of the CPU and RAM.