[Tommy]

This computer basically has an AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 5000+ processor in it and I have disabled the second core on it. I have an 80GB hard drive and dumbed it down to 1GB of RAM. I'm using a stock Windows 98 Second Edition installation disk and have no issues until I get to the final part of setup. The screen just turns black and in fact the monitor light turns orange like it's not receiving a signal anymore. It acts as if it is frozen up. Anyone have any ideas of what my next course of action is. I didn't modify anything in the setup itself.

This post has been edited by Tommy: 17 January 2013 - 08:56 PM

[jumper]

Drop the RAM to 512MB until you get SE installed. Then you will have multiple options to get it back above 1GB. (see stickie topic about running with >1GB, etc.)

If the HDD/controller is SATA, you'll probably need to look for a compatibity mode for it in the BIOS.

This post has been edited by jumper: 17 January 2013 - 11:40 PM

[Tommy]

Unfortunately at this time, I only have 2 1GB sticks of RAM, so I'd have to try getting a 512MB stick. The computer *is* SATA but the hard drive I'm using is IDE. Whether the settings are actually appropriate, I'm not sure. They should be if I'm using IDE but maybe not. I don't really think that setting would make a difference though since my laptop seems to do the same thing. I never truly had success getting Windows 98 installed and running on a newer computer, even with some of the tips I found. I'm more of the Windows 2000 guy rather than the Windows 98 guy so this is where I'm looking for some help.

This post has been edited by Tommy: 17 January 2013 - 11:47 PM

[LoneCrusader]

You will have to get the RAM to 512MB or less, or take your pick between:

- "tweaks" (which will get you to ~1.2GB if they work; I personally have never been able to get them working)
or
- rloew's RAM Limitation Patch (which is not free, but worth the price, as it enables using up to 4GB without any other modifications).


It doesn't matter if your HDD is IDE if it is connected to a SATA port. The motherboard interface is what matters. You will either have to:

- set the SATA controllers to "Legacy" or "IDE" mode in the BIOS
or
- invest in another of rloew's patches.


If your HDD is larger than 137GB, then you will also need a patch for that.

Once you know the "must haves" for setting up a 98 system, it's not hard, but you have to know and understand the things you must do first, or you will have nothing but headache.

[submix8c]

Interjection (re - 512mb) - You can use an EBD Floppy and EDIT.COM to modify the appropriate files. See stickies.

As for the other two items, as specified above. SATA, definitely - 137gb workarounds exist (again, see Stickies) although you STILL can only use the max. You have Win2k, so you could Dual-Boot and use the remainder as NTFS (will never be "seen").

[Tommy]

I have tried EDIT.COM to change things like the vcache and MaxPhysPage values and yet it still seems to have issues. It was kind of interesting because I left the 2GBs of RAM in by accident and went to install Windows 98 with it. Of course, first reboot I got it said insufficient amount of memory. I took the one stick out and dropped it down to 1GB and rebooted, this time it proceeded without saying insufficient memory. But I have tried this same thing with my Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop and even with the approperiate settings changed, I still couldn't get it to work. *MAYBE* this will give a hint though...just maybe....I generally CAN boot into safe mode. Just not into regular mode. I think there were a few times I couldn't even get into safe mode but there were times I could. It almost seems as though after it installs hardware, that's when things go haywire. I left the CD out during the second part of installation and everything went just fine, rebooted and did the third part of setup. It booted into regular mode but then of course it asked for my Win98 CD to install all these drivers. So I did and installed everything. Once I did that and rebooted....that was it. It wouldn't boot into regular mode again.

As for the hard drive, I stated in my original post that it was only 80GBs so I'm perfectly safe with the 137GB barrier

And also, there is just 1 IDE port on the motherboard which is what I have my hard drive plugged into. I don't have a SATA to IDE connector.

This post has been edited by Tommy: 18 January 2013 - 11:52 AM

[submix8c]

Huh! Mine has 2gb RAM.
SYSTEM.INI (inserted line) -

[386Enh]
MaxPhysPage=48000 <-try lowering that

SYSTEM.CB (full file) -

[Keyboard]
layout=kbdus.kbd

[Intl]
ACP=1252
OEMCP=437
SystemLocale=00000409

[boot]
*DisplayFallback=0

[386Enh]
MaxPhysPage=40000

Note that I also had a problem with "AGP Aperture Size" in the BIOS - had to use a value of 128mb. Also note I have an add-in AGP card thus the "stolen RAM" for onboard Video was "released to the OS".

(My PC is listed in the GT 1gb RAM topic)

[Tommy]

We had some success!! I just followed @submix8c's settings and even though for some odd reason, I had to boot into safemode first and then into regular mode, it worked!!

However, it won't do it again. I can't imagine this being an issue but I didn't have a CD Drive hooked up at the time and when I got back into regular mode, it asked for my CD and it wanted to copy a file, I think it was related to DHCP but I can't remember the name. Well, I couldn't do it so I just canceled and I got to the desktop. Everything seemed normal but then when I restarted, I got a problem saying such and such couldn't be found and if you deleted this file on purpose, try copying it from whatever. Well, I removed all my networking features from the Network control panel icon in safemode, which got rid of the message, but now I'm back to where it'll freeze on the Win98 logo. This is interesting though, the monitor would go blank and act like I turned the computer off, but if I hit a key on the keyboard, it would come back up but just be frozen on the Win98 logo. However, it wasn't 100% frozen because I could still press caps lock and such and the lights would blink. But as far as progressing to the OS in normal mode, that wasn't working.

[rloew]

Try disabling the motherboard video.

[Tommy]

rloew, on 18 January 2013 - 05:44 PM, said:

Try disabling the motherboard video.

Thanks for the suggestion, sadly, it didn't work. I still have the same results.

[dencorso]

There's no sense in trying to save a first install gone wrong, particularly when it never exactly reached the point of working decently.
Reinstall from scratch, you've had just installed anyway.
Before the first reboot add MaxPhysPage=40000 and, under [vcache], MaxFileCache=393216 to both SYSTEM.INI and SYSTEM.CB.
Let's see how it behaves afterwards.