JayPea

Verifying the installation brought up a pane which made no sense to me at the time: "KernelEx has been successfully installled and is now enabled for all applications. To make newer applications run or fix old applications crash, you may need to go to the KernelEx tab in the properties of application executable or its shortcut." The penny dropped, the tab was in Right Click/Properties and I selected Win2000 SP4 The two errors were for PDSAVER4 which is a debug tool, so nothing to be concerned about. The tests I've run have been trouble free, but the Firefox idiosyncracy of a special character on tabs represented by a thick bar occurs a few times and there are heiroglyphics for the % of zoom being used. All in all, am delighted. Thanks to you all for the help.

Since Firefox 3 and PDF Xchange are two of my most used applications, installed KernelEx 4.5 to take advantage of them under W98SE. GOOD: Firefox 3.6.16 is running fine (with the anomaly reported previously that tab names appear with a special character at the end represented as a solid bar) BAD: PDF Xchange 2.0 Build 54 will not install. After choosing English as the preferred language it reports an Error pane of "This program requires Windows version 5.0 or later". Both the full package (PDFX4.exe) and the viewer only (PDFXVwer.exe) react the same way. UGLY: Making the change recommended by RodgerOver in post 898516 to get past installation barriers did not help (temporarily change Version and VersionNumber at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion from "Windows 98" and "4.10.2222" to "Windows NT" and "5.20"). Something is awry because: The only other reference to PDF Xchange was in a response.... .... to which I could find no reply. PDF Xchange Build 54 must be checking more than CurrentVersion in the registry, but have no idea how to discover what it is or come up with a way to fake it out. There is nothing in the Wiki about Xchange. A copy of Build 47 would help determine whether the cause lies with the Build 54 or if something on my system is interfering with discovery. No luck so far in obtaining a copy. Given the depth of experience in this thread I am hopeful that there is an answer to be found. Any ideas out there on what might get me past the Error pane will be welcome indeed.

Thanks for the tips guys. There is little difference for my use between any of the Pro or Ultra models. To simplify matters, will go for a used board w/processor and memory that can be dropped into a current chassis.

I was thinking of content like wsxedcrfv posted, but can see how turning that into a product changes matters, it has to be accurate and then it gets burdensome. Where can one find a copy, there is no mention at http://rloew1.no-ip.com/ That's why I like Asus, every OS supported by a driver is listed. It's a crapshoot on some sites which do not even identify the revision level of a driver. Thanks, much appreciated. I've been a fan of AMD too, but switching back to Intel is an easy decision because all the integration work has been done. Time is on my side, and will watch for used or new MBs because I'm not keen on the idea of refurbs either. This has been a great thread. Great technical data that helped each other out, as well as helping those still to read it in days to come.

It's odd that the CD has Win98 drivers but the website does not. Your driver information is excellent, it's a "How To" guide for all of us. The Via website provided most of the drivers. > Via Bus Master PCI IDE controller > - Via 4-in-1 Driver set v510A VIA_HyperionPro_V524A.zip (at Via) VIA_HyperionPro_Chipset_V510A.zip (at CNET) > On-board network adapter (VIA Rhine II) > - VIA Rhine Family Driver v3.84a\X86 (from the web) via_rhine_ndis5_v384a.zip (at Via) > USB 2.0 Root Hub and VIA PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller > - source is VIA USB 2.0 Host Controller V 2.7 (from the web) VIA_USB2_V270p1-L.zip (at VIA) > VIA RAID Controller (this is otherwise known as the SATA drive controller) > - Via V-raid v5.80G driver set (downloadable from the web) vraid_driver_v550b.zip (at VIA) via_vraid_windows_v5.90a.zip (www.viaarena.com) The latest driver at the VIA site was 5.50 and there is a 5.90a at ViaArena but none of the links I found to 5.80g worked (one site said 'driver removed'). The HBA card by Tekgems which uses 5.80g links to ViaArena which comes up with "NoMatchingDrivers" I couldn't find the 2CoreDual anywhere at the Asrock site, but there are several PT880-based MBs at http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=775 VIA PT880 Ultra 4CoreDual-VSTA VIA PT880 Pro/Ultra 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 4CoreDual-SATA2 775Dual-VSTA VIA PT880Pro 775Dual-880Pro VIA PT880 775V88+ 775V88 The differences were: 1) the 775V88s have no PCI Express VGA, PT880Pro was the first of the AGP/PCIe generation. 2) the 775V88s and PT880Pro overviews state "Microsoft® Windows® 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit compliant" BUT driver download starts at Win2000 I don't know what to think, was referencing rloew in this thread. There are more listings for refurbished MBs than used. Even in the online stores they are refurbs. The two listings that were 'retail packaging/new" hadd no I/O shields though the refurbs have them. I'm convinced, these look like great boards. P.S. While exploring I came across a web page that would be invaluable to any buyer of the MB being supported at: http://marcovollo.blogspot.com/2010/12/amptron-p4m800-pro-drivers-winxpvista7.html

Totally agree. The early releases from Microsoft were not that great but later Win98SE releases were stellar. Disks may have caused more blue screens that Win98 did. IDE PIO gave status before the transfer occurred, so the validity of the last transfer was not known until the next transfer. Of course, if this transfer was corrupted, the OS blue screened before the next transfer happened. One of the host adapter companies (DTP?) used a caching driver which read n+1, and kept n. SCSI drives were an expensive alternative until IDE was enhanced to use DMA. It is surprising how much the need exists to keep Win98 functional in many companies. VAR programs that were never updated to W2K are still integrated into operations. It was either impossible to find a substitute or conversion was not economically justifiable. Solutions like those from rloew are widely used (I bet the list of rloew users would raise eyebrows). There is a broader universe of applications which were extremely popular on Win98 which can get by with part-measures like EMSMagic for EMM386. EMS Magic lets older commercial software like WordPerfect (ideal for lawyers) run under XP and Vista. Even some Win98 MBs have to use it if the vendor fragmented the space required for EMS pages with integrated devices. You had my attention here until I went to the download site: 4CoreDual-VSTA Download - Please Select Your Operation System: Drivers& Utilities Download - Windows Vista Drivers& Utilities Download - Windows Vista 64bit Drivers& Utilities Download - Windows XP Drivers& Utilities Download - Windows XP 64bit Drivers& Utilities Download - Windows 2000 What drivers are you using for Win98, old ones that came with earlier boards? You too have my attention, and I see you solved the driver problem with: * RFMaster's ASUS P5PE-VM is out of production. * wsxedcrfv's Asrock 4coredual VSTA is out of production * rloew's GigaByte MA785GM-US2H is on the trailing edge of availability A database of MBs that can run Win98 would be invaluable to those of us stuck in the past by choice or necessity. Has any thought been given to setting up a database of Win98-capable MBs that would have BIOS date and a list of drivers (and links to them)? In fact, there should not be any issues with providing copies of drivers in the public domain and providing links to those that are actively being sold. The sticky is 'almost' useful but has died for lack of input since 11/8/2007. This thread is way more progressive than anything else I've seen, it should be preserved and expanded. If not at this site, then Rloew, it seems like a natural extension to what you are doing now. I don't personally need TBPLUS but if it came with a zip file that had a database (MB models, BIOS date, drivers, add-on cards) plus copies of all the drivers themselves you would have me lined up with a credit card. Rloew, what are the chances of ever seeing a TBPLUS Plus?