Jump to content

waltah

Member
  • Posts

    19
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 
  • Country

    United States

About waltah

Profile Information

  • OS
    98SE

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

waltah's Achievements

0

Reputation

  1. THANKS to all for advice. XP SP3 does indeed run SATA just fine. THIS (Dell 530s) machine has done it for several years on a WD SATA HDD. I installed this system from the XP Pro SP3 CD without any updates or added files; it came right up and has run without problems. Further, I can use that same disk to install XP SP3 on a Dell 2400 on a SATA ->SSD<-. And that runs fine (for tests -- an hour or so) on that machine. When I try to either install on that machine and port the drive here OR install on that SSD on this machine I get a BSOD the instant the hardware touches the drive. HOWEVER: I can plug in the SSD with the installed XP system as the slave drive on the 530s, can then look at its files, copy them, etc., without error. I think the fact that I cannot port a working SSD system from the 2400 to this (530s) machine without getting what looks like exactly the same error eliminates the install from CD question. Sure a system genned on a 2400 might not work right on a 530s but it ought to come up a bit before failing. I can read the BSOD during the install: It's the message I (inaccurately) quoted above that winds up saying 'take out any new hardware and try again.' The one that occurs when I port what should be a bootable system is just a flash of blue -- can't read anything. Then it goes to a generic 'we're just d*** sorry' and 'if this is the first time, try again.' The only hardware oddity I know about is that the 530s is a multiprocessor machine running single processor (in BIOS). My hope was to clone this system onto the 16 Gb SSD. I'd have to do a lot of pruning but it could be done without too much pain if I could leave the WD HDD spinning and just switch plugs so the project could go one step at a time over a month or two. The fresh install was intended just as a proof of concept -- which failed. I thought I was just testing drives but since I got the same failure with two different makes and two different sizes and they all work on the 2400, it seems to be the 530s. I chose this route because I don't buy multi-hundred dollar items like a new larger SSD that would come with a guarantee of working. My wife gets new computers but hers are laptops and that's about all we can afford. If I can make it work on a 16 Gb used drive, then maybe someday I would upgrade to a larger new drive -- SSDs wear out, after all, and these are under $10 each because they're used -- but I'm not starting there. Another way to go is to make THIS machine into a standby and do a fresh install on what is now my standby machine -- another Dell, a 3000 or 4600, I think. That's a pretty big job since I'll have to switch back and forth between machines daily until there's enough on the 'new' machine to transition but it might be the most practical approach. However Jaclaz and others have given me some things to think about first. This (from jaclaz) made me LOL: "1) buy something else 2) that is not possible 3) upgrade your (hardware, OS, software, whatever) to a newer version" This is ABSOLUTELY the generic one-size-fits-all advice from the 'net! Anyway, I tend to suspect a 530s timing issue -- but if so I'd expect to find something on the web -- especially on the Dell site. I cannot be the only idio ... I mean, semi-geek, to try a solid state drive on the 530s with XP. Of course if I had started out with a fresh install on another machine I might be done by now -- but I wouldn't have learned anything much. Again, thanks to all!
  2. Small SSDs are so cheap I thought one would be an interesting upgrade on my 'daily driver xp sp3 Dell 530s. Not so ... The machine is SATA so this should be plug/play ... right? Nope ... BIOS (up to date) detects the drive correctly. FDISK finds three partitions 1 & 3 are small, non-DOS. 2 is most of the drive, DOS. Reallocate to one primary DOS partition, FAT-32. (Like my real HDD for this machine.) Formats fine. Start to load XP from CD, it goes through the loading of files, etc. then crashes as soon as it touches the disk. "SESSION3" and a lot more stuff. The long code begins 0X20006F and the rest is 0X000000. The error message can be found with a web search but basically tells you what the text on the screen says "Something is wrong with your hardware. Take out any device you just installed and try again." Self explanatory but taking out my new drive isn't actually a solution to the problem of installing a new drive. More data to further confuse the picture. 1. I installed XP successfully using a Dell Dimension 2400. It runs FINE on that machine. I installed it on a total of five SSDs: Three were 2Gb ones -- too small for any more than a demo, but useful for that, I thought. The FIRST one of those actually came up fine on the 530s -- but I have mislaid that one. (Dummy ...) I also installed it on a couple of 16 Gb ssd's with the same (failure) result. All but one of the 16's were APACER, the odd one was SANYO, I believe. 2. For the fun of it I tried booting up one of the 2 Gb drives without doing anything to it: It came up, displayed an XP black screen, then went to a Windows Embedded logo, and finally to a hospital logon screen, which -- since I have no password -- was the end of the line. And probably wouldn't have gone anywhere interesting anyhow since it knew nothing of my keyboard or mouse. But what this says is that there's nothing inherently wrong with either the drives OR the Dell 530s. I have looked pretty broadly for more ideas, others who might have had this problem, etc., but no luck. Since the XP install causes an upchuck on the 530s I can do nothing more there. I can try to install the Dell 530 drivers on the SSD system running on the 2400: Often you can get away with that and at least the chipset and IDE ones might make a difference. Anyone got any more ideas? I've gotten more good advice on MSFN than all the rest together, so I thought it worth trying ... THANKS!
  3. I was lucky: When I installed 98SE on a Dell 2400 and then tried to install the Dell 1370 integrated graphics driver (845 chipset on the 2400) it simply refused to play: "This device has a conflict." The conflict was between three of the memory areas needed by the 1370 driver and ACPI memory allocations. There is no access to the ACPI allocations -- at least, not that I could find. I was able to change SOME of the graphics chip allocations but one of the conflicting ones could not be changed. The answer was to re-install Win98SE with ACPI disabled ("SETUP /P I"). With ACPI not demanding memory the graphics driver installed smoothly. I expect the symptom can vary depending on exactly what the conflict is and whether Win can report it rather than just falling over dead. Certainly for any mysterious problems seeming to involve Win 98 on a Dell machine and graphics I would try reinstalling Win without ACPI before giving up.
  4. I just got done installing Win98SE on a Dimension 2400 -- 845 chipset. Dell supported that chipset for Win 98 but Dell did not so the same sorts of issues came up. Most of it was straightforward; the integrated graphics was the one exception. Doing a straight Win SETUP I had memory conflicts between the graphic adapter and ACPI; there's no access to the ACPI allocations and although SOME of the graphic allocations can be changed, there's one that can't. The solution was (as above) to use SETUP /p i -- must be a space between p & i because the 'i' is a param passed to whatever the 'p' invokes. This eliminates the ACPI and the graphics adapter then works fine. A search for 'win98 setup switches' will find an explanation of what they all do. There's a BUNCH of them. The reason I installed Win98 on this machine again was that I discovered that solid state HDDs are now frequently under $10 for devices that are plenty big enough for a '98 system -- 2Gb is ample. If you're going to have Win 98 run on a 2.4 gHz machine (for the Dim 2400), might as well have a SSD too. The ones I've seen are all SATA devices but a PATA to SATA adapter that will fit a 3.5 in. drive bay is just another $10. There are no tricks to this: Windows doesn't seem to know that it's not on a hard drive.
  5. Sorry -- I can't think of a more dignified title than that. I'm running Win98SE autopatched, NUSB3.6, etc. on a Dell 2400 and it works FINE -- very fast. I use it for an old version of Autosketch (old enough that I first installed it on Win3.1) and some games. THANK YOU AGAIN to the many people who developed fixes and packages to make this practical and to several others who helped me with specific problems. The biggest issue now is that the sound volume from the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card I'm using is enough only for headphones. I know of one card that will produce plenty of speaker volume in this machine -- the Riptide 90079 (no suffix) -- but that one causes Combat Flight Simulator II to crash, er, on takeoff. Really ... push forward the throttle, F6F starts to roll, and it freezes solid. The game plays fine with the Turtle Beach card, but only with headphones. Surely there's another card that would work -- PCI, has both sound and joysitck, works under Win98 -- and would produce enough volume to drive speakers. Maybe a watt or two per channel? Not much more. Suggestions?
  6. Only one slot left on my Dell 2400 and I need sound, a joystick, and (preferably) a 56k modem for times when only a voice grade line is available. There is a card for machines of this generation running Win 98 that provides sound and a game port: Search for Ensoniq 1370; there were also cards with 1371 and 1373 chips though I don't know if these would work. EBay has the cards and drivers are available at the usual places; I found the 1370 card trick-free to get going. Wanting a modem too, I had exactly ONE choice: the Rockwell/Conexant Riptide 90079. This card has sound, joystick, and modem all in one and works on Win 98 machines. It too is available from eBay. This one, though, COMES WITH A TRICK. Namely, there are two near-identical cards but only one of them will work for this job. The card was introduced in October '97, began shipping summer of '98, and about November was adopted by HP for installation in their 'Pavilion' series of machines. The early cards supplied all three functions. Full-funcition cards can be identified by having a Conexant RDSP020 chip at the lower right corner when looking at the chip side with the PCI connector at the bottom. This chip is about 3/4" square. The card back side has the number '90079' with NO number after that. Some time after the introduction on their machines, HP changed to a version of this card that did not have the RDSP020 chip: There's a place for it, but nothing there. I bought an HP Pavilion desktop at WalMart in 1999 and got my first card with it. Machines having this 'Model 90079-2' card do audio decoding on the motherboard: There is an audio amplifier chip on the card, but the decoding chip isn't there. If you install this card on a machine without on-MOBO decoding it will load drivers for 'NOAUDIO' and all the audio controls (system sounds and multimedia) will be grayed out and locked. THIS LATE CARD APPEARS USELESS FOR GENERAL WIN 98 AUDIO. Since the audio still has to go to the card to get to the amplifier and various audio jacks this card is likely good only as a replacement on a computer originally shipped with it. When I noticed that eBay cards were of two styles and found a photo clear enough to read the number on the sometimes missing chip the rest of the story was an easy guess. I don't know exactly what HP models got the early 'full service' card and which got the later 'crippled' one. I do know that when I installed an early card and the proper driver in my Win 98 Dell 2400 verything including sound, worked. My GUESS: The crippled card was part of the answer to the AC '97 codec which does indeed put the digital functions on the MOBO and analog functions on the sound card. So HP machines supporting AC '97 likely have the late card and those that don't, the earlier one. There are half a dozen different driver packages and updates floating around; the one that worked for me is the one that's about 11 megs in size, found HERE: http://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=213851&si=bf40bb34411ab30816727bf946065ee5
  7. "... Add New Hardware in the Control Panel ..." I should have tried that. This project has been a series of loops (often have to go back a step in the hope of advancing one and a half or two) and if I get back there again, I will try it. FOR NOW, the answer is a PCI card that provides a parallel port. I tried a StarTech PCI1P2 which -- though it does not claim to support Win 98 on the package or offer drivers on the CD, DOES have win 98 drivers on the mfr. web site: I could not make it work. It kept showing as an 'adapter' of no particular character in Device Manager. THEN I got a SIIG 1-Port ECP/EPP Parallel PCI Adapter (JJ-P01411-S1). This SAYS it supports '98 but no drivers on the CD for that one, either. However the Win 98 drivers on the SIIG web site work FINE. Device Manager shows LPT1 and when you plug in a printer it shows up and you can install the mfr's software. Amazon has this item. One of the software packages I want to run on this machine is Autosketch 1.03. Bought in the mid-90's AIRC, AS was ideal for what I was doing then and should be equally good for the same things now -- but it does not seem to support changes in line weight. (Program was distributed on two 3-1/2" floppies -- this is NOT a large package!) Printing with a modern hi-res printer the lines are often invisible. I no longer run Win 3.1 and in any case that machine -- 66 mHz I think? -- was very S-L-O-W with that package. However a HP 952C installed on LPT1 on my Dell 2400/Win 98 system produces perfect drawings and the package does everything INSTANTLY. So there's the two steps forward. The one step back is the 2400 has only three real PCI slots. One is devoted to a WLAN card, LPT1 takes a second. Functions laying claim to the third slot are: Sound (internal sound is off); a 56k modem (everything here has to be able to go voice-grade line as backup) and a joystick for games. There's a way to do all that in one slot, but ...
  8. Further use of my Win 98/Dell 2400 system turned up a new issue. Among the reasons for this system is a software package that is too old to run well on even an XP system. That package needs a printer so I cheerily hooked up an HP 952C and installed the software. OOPS! My system has no LPT1. None. It was turned off in the BIOS but turning it ON and trying the various options (AT, PS/2, ECP ...) did nothing for Win 98. My guess is that this is a consequence of all the stuff that I turned off to prevent resource conflicts. LPT1 is SO 'OFF' that Windows 98 can't tell it's there, even when it is. Any suggestions for a way I can tell Win 98 "Hey -- You've GOT an LPT1 port"? More to come, in any case.
  9. I've been on a mission to get some of the iconic Win 3.1 through Win 98 screensavers working under WinXP. There's no practical reason to do this but who here doesn't remember 'Flying Toasters' or perhaps 'Bad dog!'? This is now effectively abandonware but everything does seem to be out there. The technical challenges are considerable -- the early modules used 16 bit calls and of course short file/folder names, 256 colors, and had no speed throttling -- they ran flat out back when a 66mHz CPU was Wow, Man! But most of that actually has been solved, hacked around, or at least recognized as "don't bother with that module." There's almost nothing (that I could find) here on MSFN. There's LOTS to be found out there if you search but close to 100% of it is rotted links. THIS is the main currently useful link elsewhere: [link to warez removed] The good news is that essentially everything is there. It's close to 400meg of stuff but nearly all the workable After Dark stuff is there, together with quite a bit of fixed software and how-to for everything through Win XP. HOWEVER: It's not exactly plug-and-play and I haven't been able to get past a problem that others have solved. One problem with the "Do these steps using this code" approach is that you don't learn very much that will help with troubleshooting. I HAVE gotten the Version 4 Plus 1 savers working. That one's easy and gives you one of the several Toaster savers, Rain Forrest, and much more. However of the Version 3 savers, only 'Starry Night' will play. I can go through the motions to install 'Voyeur' or the others (from, say, the 'Totally Twisted' disk), it shows up, you can select it in Display, but it blasts out the world's fastest moving error message when you try to start it -- only can be read by poking PrintScr: "Unable to load selected module" and the path to the Voyeur (whatever) module. I suspect that somewhere down there the code isn't able to deal with folder names containing a blank (as in 'After Dark') and that this was patched in the 'already fixed 3.2XP' saver that I installed -- but ONLY FOR 'Starry night.' Has anyone gotten other Version 3 modules to play correctly? Can someone walk me through the data structure so I could go in and manually fix the names where needed? THANKS for any help! NOTE: Purists won't want to mess with this. Like virtually all pre-Windows software, After Dark installs a bunch of stuff in the root segment on your 'C' disk and without a MAJOR code rewrite (which no one is going to do) that's not fixable. Nor are there reliable (or in many cases, ANY) uninstallers. If you want the thing out of there it's going to be a tweezers and hammer job to do it. But for the Slightly Impure, it can be fun and more or less harmless!
  10. Many thanks for the long detailed reply, MrMateczko. Overall, I chose a path that would be simple for most people who might consider doing this installation to understand. Experts of course will see many choices at each step. I often use a file on the disk rather than the CD to actually do such installs. I had a number of bad experiences with USB mass storage support using the 98SE support; among those were permanently destroyed thumb drives and other kinds of data loss. This was years ago: Drive manufacturers are much down the learning curve now and perhaps they're not as fragile with respect to software errors. But my instinct is to NEVER use 98SE mass storage support for anything that matters: Upgrade that first. The floppy certainly isn't the only way to fly but most Dell 2400's have them and anyone doing Win 98 will most likely to have spares. An additional consideration in a procedure that involves booting from a flash drive is that such boots are critically dependent on the machine and bios, possibly also on the make of the drive. Some combinations will work, some will not. Experts can troubleshoot such issues but not everyone who might want a faster and more modern 98SE machine is an expert. NUSB because I have used it a number of times over the years and never had a problem. Perhaps there's now something better out there and I should investigate further. AUTOPATCHER is the same deal: The A-P'd system is so much more stable than 98SE 'as installed' that I don't know how I'd notice further improvement. After you posted I tried Opera in various flavors including 12.02. It didn't render any sites that FF 8.01 won't and it failed on one of those that FF 8 handled. For an obsolete system (98SE on a 2400) I'll learn a new interface and deal with quirks but the thing MUST cover as many modern web sites as possible.
  11. RetroZilla is certainly a great project. I put it up on '98SE today, just to see it go. It does, but like FF 3.6 (etc.) it only renders the simplest web sites. FF 8.0.1 with KernelEx is far better. A thought about priorities: Reading back over all the comments here, there's quite a bit about features, details of what RZ would support and so on. I would argue for going wide rather than detailed: Get RZ to the point where it runs on 9x in some manner -- with/without KEX, even under 98SE2ME, whatever BUT IT WILL RENDER IN A USEFUL MANNER VIRTUALLY EVERY SITE ON THE WEB. Tolerate a few glitches -- FF 47 that I'm running as I type this doesn't render MSFN correctly in every detail but it does get the job done. The critical resource is the 9X user base -- at most a few 10's of thousands now. THERE IS NO BROWSER for those systems that will let you do even nearly all of the web routinely: 9X is thus a niche and 'I have this old software that won't run on ...' system. As time goes by, those users are going away and when they do they won't come back just because a do-all RZ has arrived. I suppose one could write some sort of browser for Win 3.1. And when you got it going, how many copies would ever even be d/'led, let alone run? The user base is GONE -- and for very good reason. Right now, FF 8.0.1 with KernelEx is the best I can find for 98SE. Opera versions I've tried render LESS though they seem quicker. But one of my tests for a browser is DISQUS comments, and FF 8 seems to hang attempting to load them. Go broad -- get the maximum number of web sites MOSTLY working and you'll have a user base. 9X ARE good systems for many modern uses for the more techie among us. THEN work on feature details, fixes for small errors of rendering, and folding all the support (from KeX, etc.) inside. We'll be eagerly awaiting RZ 3 and if it matches or betters FF 8 I'd guess a whole lot of us will put it into service the day it arrives.
  12. Some people have favorite software that doesn't run under later OSs; others just like being out of the mainstream. Dell 2400s are often $25 on local BB's, even FREE at dumpsites and from friends. With CPU speeds 2.4-2.8 gHz or so and hard drives of at least several gigs they're potentially super performers with 98SE. Realism is important -- '98SE CANNOT replace a general Win XP or later system -- but it's possible to have a very fast reliable way to run 95/98 software with necessary tools (Firefox ...) to support it. The same probably is true of other make machines with chipsets supported by Intel for Win 98 but not by the maker and most of what follows would also apply to them. I would, however, avoid HP: They've made every effort to vacuum up all support for machines over a week old and unless you find one new in the box with a restore disk, probably not worth picking up off the curb. I spent dozens of hours searching for answers to problems on my '98SE Dell 2400 project. There's some excellent info out there but nothing like a complete story; this topic is the result. Because Dell never supported this machine with Win 98 (so some drivers must come from elsewhere), AND '98 is famously buggy, AND '98 native USB support is ElSucko, AND the PC architecture was changing during this time there's more to this install than I thought when I started but only finding the right road is hard. Here's the -- hopefully -- direct route. OVERVIEW -- Get the machine, check hardware out update BIOS and set options. Download software -- links provided. Do a full fresh Win 98SE install. Update USB support. Update Win 98SE. Install software as needed. DETAILS -- You will need: -- A Dell 2400. Win 98 may hang on start (claiming not enough memory to start Windows) if over 768M is installed so pull memory if necessary. I think the minimum is 64M but get as near 768M as you can. This machine needs a way to get the file needed to make USB mass storage support work. Probably the easiest thing is a 3-1/2" floppy drive. If it doesn't have one you can temporarily steal a drive from another machine: TEST FIRST. Dead floppy drives nearly always respond to careful vacuuming/brushing with the top off and a gentle Q-tip swabbing of the heads. There's a socket on your MOBO for the floppy cable, even if no drive is installed. You don't have to install this in a tray; just hook it up and set it where it won't touch anything while you do the rest of the job. -- If you want 'net access, then a modem card, a cable to go to your Ethernet connection, or (if wireless) a wireless adapter that supports Win 98SE. There are MANY WLAN options now and they're cheap. -- Any specialized device(s) such as a game card. Note that game cards often have some combination of audio, joystick, AND dial up modem built in: Since this will affect what other devices and drivers you need, I'd get this in hand WITH THE APPROPRIATE DRIVERS, right at the start. -- A floppy disk and a USB flash drive with most of a gig of space. -- A Microsoft Win 98SE 'full install' disk. -- Another machine for downloading stuff from the 'net. Start by downloading these items: *** AUTOPATCHER here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Auto-patcher-for-Windows-98SE.shtml That's close to 280 MB of needed MS fixes: Wait'll you see what all is in there. *** NUSB 3.6e (USB upgrade to make it work on Win 98), here: http://www.tmeeco.eu/Fileden/nusb36e.exe Or (in case of link rot on that) you could use NUSB 3.3 which will get you going. http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/win98se-usb-mass-storage-drivers.php *** Intel chipset ID utility here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=8264〈=eng&wapkw=chipset+identification *** Dell chipset driver here: http://downloads.dell.com/Pages/Drivers/dimension-2400.html#Chipset%20-%20Driver THAT is the one I used: While Dell says 'only 2000 and XP,' when you look in the file it also says 98SE. THIS seems to be more recent. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/confirm.aspx?httpDown=http://downloadmirror.intel.com/8178/eng/infinst_enu.exe〈=eng&Dwnldid=8178 *** Intel 82845 graphics adapter driver here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/confirm.aspx?httpDown=http://downloadmirror.intel.com/7005/a08/win9x1361.exe〈=eng&Dwnldid=7005 *** Sound and Ethernet driver below, unless you'll get it from an add-in card. It's probably easiest to install everything else first: Since this chip does all kinds of back end I/O stuff, once you install these files Win will nag you every time you bring the system up about actually INSTALLING those drivers, but obeying will complicate installing what you really do want. http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/4401.php *** Driver(s) for your Internet connection and any other devices. http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/NETWORK-CARD/OTHER-NETWORK-CARDS/Linksys-WMP11-V27-Driver-38280.shtml *** I recommend getting Desktop Restore, here: http://midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm so you can de-scramble your icons after Windows punishes you for the sin of using Microsoft products before they're 100% debugged. You want the DESREX.EXE file for this project. The other Win 98 version there (uses MSI) did not work for me. *** If you will use 'net access at all, download FireFox 2.0.0.20 which is the last version for Win98 and works well on simpler sites, though not on the most modern ones. But you can see text at least on most 'blank' sites by clicking View->Page style->No style. http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.php?old_firefox=7&ModPagespeed=noscript Many later versions of FireFox claim to support earlier systems but they do it by packaging 2.0.0.20 with all the later stuff ... If you just want a reliable web browser for the very simplest jobs, go with 2.0.0.20: It will work without tricks when it works at all. Later versions can be installed, will display more pages correctly and many add-ons work but won't have a working default browser feature, password saving, bookmarks, or any of that. There isn't a best post-2.0.0.20 Firefox for 98SE.3.5.19 is the last to use Java Classic, 3.6.x is considered stable (but no JAVA on '98), 8.0.1 worked well for me. Some people have gotten 10.0.12ESR (Extended support release) to work. All are available at 'oldapps.' The various FF versions are discussed here: http://kernelex.sourceforge.net/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox To try Firefox after 2.0.0.20,download KernelEx from that link. The last version was 4.5.2 and that's what you want. This simulates many WinXP interfaces for XP-only packages and will allow much (not all) XP software such as some post 2.0.0.20 FF versions to run. There's also a unicode module there that you'll need. Put all that on your USB flash drive, making a backup copy on the 'other machine' HD in case of flash trash later on. *** ALSO PUT NUSB36E.exe (or NUSB33E.exe) on your floppy disk. -- You'll need at least 6 hours of time, some patience. But anyone 'doing' obsolete computers already knows that. ====================================================================== STEP-BY-STEP: 1. Get the new-old machine going with whatever system it has and do a full scandisk (etc.) including a surface scan of the C drive. There's much to be said for putting some hours usage on a 'new' junk machine to smoke out MOBO and similar fatal issues before investing your time in software installation. (Yes, some machines people throw away are actually dead ... who knew?) Confirm that you have the A05 (latest) BIOS version; if not, go here: http://downloads.dell.com/Pages/Drivers/dimension-2400.html#BIOS to download and install the update flash. Once you have the latest BIOS, enter SETUP (F2 while starting) and click Integrated Devices (legacy ...). Turn OFF 'USB Emulation.' (Leave 'USB Controller' ON.) If emulation is on, you'll have two levels of OS trying to figure out what USB device(s) you have, it may take an hour to get the machine up, and there's a chance for two views of the same device and if you somehow write to both ... Use the Intel chipset ID utility to determine what you have. Most likely that'll be an Intel 82801 chipset and 82845G/GM/GV (...) graphics controller. 2. Format the C drive. NO, DO NOT try to save what's on it by not doing a format. With a different OS, a different 'home' machine, and perhaps other changes, anything you carry over without a reinstall is likely to bring cooties that will cause you no end of trouble. Plus the disk can't be defragged in the way a fresh install will be. 3. Boot from your Win 98 install CD, but DO NOT allow it to start the install. Instead, get a command line prompt and enter: SETUP /p i (that's pee eye ...) That switch is CRITICAL. The 90's were when Microsoft and others were figuring out how to make things automatic: PnP devices, ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface), and so on. A LOT of this stuff didn't work reliably and going back now with generic (not specific-to-Dell) Intel drivers and who knows what flavor of a Dell system to get Win 98 going can be, well, a week long nightmare if you let the robots play. Go ahead, ask how I know that. Robots have no sense of humor and do not give a d***. In particular the Intel graphic controller driver has IRQ conflicts caused by IRQ steering AND it has memory resource conflicts caused by ACPI. The SETUP command above (with /p i) tells '98 that your machine is too dumb to do that automation; it has to operate as if on a PC of the non-automated generation. Others who tried using third party video have reported the same problems with other makes. Just KILL ACPI at the start. This works FINE: How many strange devices will you plug and unplug in an average YEAR on this machine? And Win 98SE actually does well, discovering and installing them the old (software) way on a machine where a drunken robot isn't lurching about. Proceed with the WIN 98 install. It'll be the fastest one you ever saw. Depending on the make and model of your USB flash drive (and perhaps the phase of the moon) you MAY have working USB support; if so, you won't need the floppy. HOWEVER I've put Win 98SE on several old machines and never seen the built-in support really work, so probably you should: 4. Put in your floppy disk and double click NUSB36E. READ THE BRIEF EULA AS THE DIRECTIONS ARE THERE. They are simple, but you MUST follow them. In particular, note that you must first clean out all the Win-installed USB stuff AND THAT two reboots are necessary after the EXE finishes. EXCEPTIONS: You don't need to remove anything with 82801 in it (in Device Manager): These are real Intel chipset drivers packaged by Microsoft, NUSB won't improve them, and they can be left alone. You don't need to remove all the PCI unknown devices -- only any USB unknowns. 5. Insert your flash drive. Go to System - Device Manager and look at what you've got. Expand the USB device class at the bottom and look for a USB Mass Storage device. If you have that then open Windows Explorer: With NUSB 3.6 you should have a new drive letter (perhaps E) for your flash drive and you are good to go. If using NUSB 3.3 you probably have a bogus disk drive: Delete it. I donno why but after the NUSB 3.3 USB setup works the first time it'll keep on working. NUSB 3.6 fixed this. WHAT YOU GET from 'NUSB' is working USB support for mass storage devices. It IS NOT all-purpose USB support for printers, scanners, etc. If you want to better understand the USB issue and NUSB's fix for it, the fifty-some page discussion HERE: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/43605-maximus-decim-native-usb-drivers/?page=1 is literally invaluable. Time again to thank M-D who created NUSB and wrote much of the discussion, also several others whose detailed knowledge and patience made my project possible. Time to start with the software on your (newly working) USB flash drive. 6. Double click the AUTOPATCH download file. This installs the AUTOPATCH software and gives you an icon -- it does NO patching. STOP the flash drive and TAKE IT OUT. 7. Double click the new AUTOPATCH icon and watch it go. For the next 45 minutes or so it will install all kinds of fixes and essential basic software, looping through installing and restarting a dozen or more times. This is one of the very slickest packages I've ever seen and when it finishes, you'll have about the most up-to-date fresh install of Win 98SE that's possible. No kidding, this does over a hundred installs and while there are a couple of error messages, the thing seems to clean them up later on. I do recommend watching it, though: That's an awful lot of work to be allowed to happen in a closet. 8. NOW uninstall any generic graphic controller and install the Intel graphic controller by double clicking: WIN9X1361.EXE When you get the system back up you should have a new brightly colored icon at the lower right and Device Manager should say that your graphics adapter is Intel AND that the device is working properly -- no ugly yellow stuff. You can go to Display - Settings and set whatever your monitor is capable of, from the choices offered. At this point I'd install Desktop Resetter. While this will likely be the most stable Win 98SE you've seen, Win 98 punishes any slight passage of gas by scrambling your icons and DESREX gives you two additional choices when you right-click the desktop: Save Desktop and Restore Desktop. You still have a couple of uninstalled PCI devices -- Eithernet and sound -- but what (if anything) to do about them depends on what you want and they cause no trouble. You're on your own for the rest -- Internet access, your own software, whatever. If you will use the 'net, now's the time to install Firefox. 2.0.0.20 is basic, a quick install, and will work correctly under 98 SE on many sites, it's the minimum. If you need more sites, add-ons, etc. then also install a later (XP-dependent) version. For post-FF 2.0.0.20 start by installing the unicode module linked on the KernelEx download page, then KernelEx itself. There are no instructions: Just double click the d/l's in turn. Then go ahead and install the later Firefox. -- If you need Java, go with 3.5.19 or earlier. 3.6.28 is considered a good stable FF. Some people have gotten 10.0.23 to work but I could not. -- If your post-2.0 FF hangs, try disabling crash reporting and auto-updating. Can also try right clicking the FF icon and under 'properties kernelex' select Win 2000 rather than 'default' which is Win XP. This has worked for some people but not for me. -- If you get garbage characters displayed in some places go to Options->Content->Fonts & colors->Advanced and UNCHECK 'Allow pages to choose their own fonts.' There are obsolete fonts out there that won't display correctly. I installed FF 2.0.0.20 using defaults. Then I said 'custom install' and put 8.0.1 in a separate folder. I renamed both desktop icons including the version number. I can start FF 2 for a smoothly working browser that allows bookmarks, 'default browser' status and more but won't display all sites. Or I can start FF 8 and see most all web sites except those that display using Java but lose bookmarking, etc. Gee, less than twelve years after support ended, Win 98SE is maturing nicely. Comments -- especially corrections! -- welcome!
  13. Did you look to see if Intel supported that chipset for Win 95? I'm assuming Dell doesn't, but if Intel does then you would have a good chance. I have a Dell 2400 running Win98 (actually, 98SE2ME as of tonight) by that route. Dell denies knowledge of the 82845 chipset for Win 98 but Intell supports it and with a few flip-flops and some standing on my head, it works.
  14. I've just done a clean install of latest version of 98SE2ME; two anomalies noted: 1. During the extract phase I got the a message along the lines of "EXTRACT32.DLL missing export CABINET.DLL24" The extract continued and in time the system rebooted. 2. Right at the end I got the message "C\PROGRAM missing ..." (Usual stuff about make sure you have the path right, blah, blah ...) Checking for the (supposed to be) newly installed games (clues from coolman and problemchyld) sure enough the new shortcuts are there but the gamezone folder isn't. The various missing folders don't seem to be anywhere. My ME cab files are on C: so it's not as simple as they get dropped in the root segment of whatever drive cabs are on. Known problems, certainly tolerable. I can tidy up the games one way or the other by hand -- I think. Otherwise no problems; all the functions that were working on this machine before the installation are still okay and those that were broken, are still broken. :-) VERY smooth; I've used earlier versions for maybe a decade? More? And my 98SE2ME machine was the main machine, used a couple to a few hours daily, 7 days, for most of that time.
  15. First -- dencorso -- the problem I had (couldn't leave a USB flash device plugged in and bring up Win 98) was fully solved by disabling 'USB Controllers' in the BIOS and nothing more needs to be done for that. I can live with the fact that the CD drive gets a different letter depending on whether the flash drive is installed or not. I did not know about Letter Assigner; I found and downloaded a copy by following the Wayback link. Don't need it now, but I long ago gave up trying to decide what software I would never ever need. That's why I have NUSB, actually, and from fairly early days -- 3.0 at least. That one is on my 98SE2ME laptop and I think I have 2.x saved somewhere. On to the NEXT problem on this DELL 2400/Win 98SE machine. Since this machine was never supported by Dell for Win 98 this has been interesting and I may write it up as member project if no one else has done so. (Now that 98SE is fully working the next step on that machine is getting a truly awful -- but interesting -- game card to play, 'just because.' This is a Riptide 90079-2 -- sound, joystick, MIDI, and modem in one PCI slot, apparently only OEM in a bunch of Win 98 HP machines. I have all the drivers but my first attempt was killed by an excess of IRQ conflicts and I have a lot to learn about solving those. One thing I learned from this thread was the use of Safe Mode to get complete reporting from Device Manager.) I very much appreciate the educational material, especially rloew's tutorial which clarified much. I was aware that having two views of the same device could be fatal so I did nothing to cause a write to that device. I am curious about exactly what was going on during the near-hour long process of Windows coming up (when the BIOS USB support was enabled). If I understand correctly, DOS takes the BIOS info but Windows still discovers the device on its own and with no coordination, you get two routes to the same one. But -- why did this take so long? For some reason this brings to mind: "But they argued all night, o'er which had the right to do what with which, and to whom." As I see things I now have ONLY the Windows view, which on this machine is plenty quick.
×
×
  • Create New...