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Ultimate 98SE PC - Ultimate Disappointment


MrMateczko

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EDIT: See this post, this project is abandoned:

I'll have my 7900 GTO very shortly. So with that, I will have all the parts to make my ultimate 98SE PC. The catch is to have it as seamless as with my main, modern PC build, with as little part swapping as possible.

It will have these parts:

- ASRock H110M-DVS R3.0 motherboard with the latest 1.20 UEFI BIOS.

It has CSM and PS/2 Simulator options, it can run 98SE, as I've showcased in this topic (but it was running from USB flash drive at that time and was not usable too much)

Realtek LAN drivers for 98SE from their website works flawlessly with this motherboard as seen above as well.

- Intel Pentium G4560

With its high single core performance, it maybe(?) will compete with current 98SE kings in ranks of the Core 2 Duo E8600 and alike.

- 2x4GB sticks of DDR4 RAM 2400MHz

I'll limit it with either HIMEMX.EXE or MaxPhysPage in SYSTEM.INI to either 512MB or 1024MB (with Xeno's VCACHE.VXD patch)

- GoodRam Iridium Pro 240GB SSD

It hosts my modern Win7 installation, currently it works as a single NTFS partition running in MBR mode, it will not be used. (maybe it will be used with a read-only NTFS driver, as I don't want any data loss to try the Paragon's utility, but...no risk, no fun :) )

- Inno3D GeForce GTX 1050 Ti X2 GPU

It won't be used, obviously :) It gives graphical glitches right at the beginning of the Win98 setup! Surprisingly, the Intel HD 610 built into the CPU did not.

- MSI GeForce 7900 GTO 512MB

I'll use the 82.69 drivers, they should work, hopefully. I don't know/care if they run in Windows 7, but I'll get used to GPU swapping :)

I will overclock the GPU using RivaTuner in 98SE, obviously, I've done it all before on my old 98SE rig.

-Generic "3D Sound" Chinese USB Audio Device

Maybe it will provide some sound. :whistle: Works on Win7, haven't tested it on 98SE yet.

- Less important stuff: Seasonic Eco 430W PSU, Aerocool QS-182 Case

- 98SE will be located on the separate Toshiba P300 1TB SATA HDD

To not waste the whole 1TB of space, I've used only the 60GB portion at the beginning of the drive for a FAT32 98SE partition, the rest is a second, NTFS partition for data storage.

I'll be testing as soon as I get the 7900 GTO. I know I might require a SATA and/or an NVIDIA patch, but I want to work without them as long as possible.

Who needs ESDI_506.PDR anyways? Isn't 16bit disk access fun with all its file operation delays?

Edited by MrMateczko
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Umm...If I was interested in generic drivers, I would not buy a 7900 GTO. :) I will try to run it without the NVIDIA patch.

I'm more happy to see that my partition plan will not blow things up.

@dencorso I know about this, I've used it to make the first DOS part (Win3.1) of the Win95/Win98 setup in 1024x768x256. It looks nice, but is not what I'm looking for :)

Edited by MrMateczko
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I'll get my paycheck on about the 10th next month, maybe then we'll talk about the patches, for now, I'll just use my experience with 98SE and modern hardware. Need to have something more than VBEMP and USB 2.0 disk speeds.

@rloew How should I contact you to obtain a SATA Compatibility Testing Program should I need one?

EDIT: Main post edited, reflecting current situation, it's looking good, here's how partitions and disks stack up: To make the partition bootable, I've used Rufus to make a MS-DOS USB bootdisk (need Win8.1 or below, can't do it on Win10, no, FreeDOS will not work), then I've downloaded FORMAT.COM from here (no ramdrive) , and used it to format it. Then I've copied the command.com and io.sys to the partion, and voila!

 

Przechwytywanie.PNG

Edited by MrMateczko
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Realtek LAN drivers for 98SE from their website works flawlessly with this motherboard as seen above as well.

  Are you sure about this, what is exactly NIC number i always managed to install driver, not after restart i got Exclamation mark and it was not working.

Xeno patch, what is it about?

Russian bear VESA driver is working i think up to 1600x1200x32bit and direct draw gaming is working too , 60FPS in Unreal tournament 640x480 (bigger i didnt tested) and on Radeon X1300, but there issues like not working command promt - black screen. For FPS measurment i have used FPS 1.9D

Edited by ruthan
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On 8/16/2017 at 11:39 AM, dencorso said:

Yeah. And if you want the best possible stability and performance, you should cut short your own suffering and adopt RLoew's patches.

What programs are you using to benchmark the stability and performance of 98SE in your testing?

 

Found the referral to the older Windows 3.11 and 9X Safe Mode video drivers.

http://web.archive.org/web/20050219090234/http://oldfiles.org.uk/powerload/win3x.htm

 

 

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1 hour ago, ruthan said:

  Are you sure about this, what is exactly NIC number i always managed to install driver, not after restart i got Exclamation mark and it was not working.

Xeno patch, what is it about?

Russian bear VESA driver is working i think up to 1600x1200x32bit and direct draw gaming is working too , 60FPS in Unreal tournament 640x480 (bigger i didnt tested) and on Radeon X1300, but there issues like not working command promt - black screen. For FPS measurment i have used FPS 1.9D

The Xeno patch seems to just limit the Vcache setting from what I read.  I never used it in my tests.  My safe mode seems to work with over 512MB no problem with my method and no Window file system patching.

Try DOSBOX with the Russian Bear VESA driver does it work?

Which graphic card was installed? or was this using Radeon x1300 with Bear driver?

 

Edited by 98SE
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1 hour ago, ruthan said:

   Dosbox on Windows 98, its running?

   Yeah im using Radeon X1300 with Bear drivers.

 

Did you test any DOS games (which ones)?

Can you try removing your "Graphics card" and let the BIOS choose the Intel iGPU instead for the graphics?

See if the DOSBOX works with the Bear Driver and the Intel HD Graphics chip on your Z97.

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Did you test any DOS games (which ones)?

Can you try removing your "Graphics card" and let the BIOS choose the Intel iGPU instead for the graphics?

See if the DOSBOX works with the Bear Driver and the Intel HD Graphics chip on your Z97.

 

  No i have not time and now im back, so sometimes next week..

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1 hour ago, ruthan said:

  No i have not time and now im back, so sometimes next week..

Just installed GeForce 6600GT.  Tried your trick and it worked.  Now I have to add a sound card for audio.  I forgot about 98 driver hell.  P4 was so much easier with PnP.

DOSBOX working with Bear.

Now we need Intel HD HDMI audio out driver for 98SE.  Portable Gaming on the Go with USB Flash.

I wonder why this trick was necessary.  Lone Crusader must have had a hell of a time detecting his motherboard.

Edited by 98SE
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Now we need Intel HD HDMI audio out driver for 98SE

    You never know if Rloew dont have another patch in the pocket.. but HDMI audio in Win98, i dont believe that it will work. Solution is USB audio, i didnt try to find smallest USB audio card, but could small as old volume controlls for discman and walkman..

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