wrote:
Is it possible to install Win98se on this computer?
Computer brand (unknown), probably homemade.
The motherboard is a ASUS M2A-VM
ATI Radeon X1250 chipset
ATI SB600 southbridge
Bios Phoenix version ASUS M2A-VM ACPI BIOS revision 1705 dated 3-28-08
Processor -
AMD Anthhlon 64 3200+
Socket AM2 (940).
2g RAM
500G harddrive (5 partitions).
I'd like to install Win98se -and- XP Sp3 (dual boot)
Is it possible on this system?
Where might I find the drivers (if it is possible).
Yes, and no.
For the RAM part of your install, the steps would be:
1) Do the first phase of installation.
2) On the reboot, don't let the second boot of Windows
start, and instead reboot with a Linux CD, or any other
thing that gives you a text editor. You edit a setting
that prevents the OS from seeing more than 512MB of RAM.
This is essential for stability on Win98.
3) Reboot, and let the system do the second boot cycle
of the Win98 install. Finish the install.
*******
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253912
System.ini
[vcache]
MaxFileCache=524288
With over 1GB of physical memory present, the Vcache change wouldn't
be enough. You can tell Win98 to ignore memory, using
[386enh]
MaxPhysPage=20000 (hexidecimal, means throw away anything above 512MB)
*******
The main reason this isn't a good idea, is finding a
Win98 driver for the 690G. If you can find one of those,
then it might be worth seriously pursuing. If you have a
PCI Express video card or a PCI video card with Win98
driver, then again, you're in business. There aren't a lot
of PCI Express cards suitable, so it would mean using PCI.
(I have a PCI FX5200 I could use.)
I've installed Win98 on a Core2 system, and it was possible
because the chipset was VIA, and they had support "back to
the dawn of time". One of the advantages of not fixing or
improving the hardware blocks in the chipset :-) Win98 can
only use one core of the processor, but feels pretty fast
when you're done. I was able to do the install, on my
4GB WD drive, with room to spare. So it doesn't take a lot
of disk space.
I had to trim down the visible RAM, to make this installation
possible. The machine had 2x1GB installed, to run other
Windows OSes, and the hack to disable some of the RAM was
needed to make it work. Win98 is OK at 512MB, things get
tricky between 512MB and 1GB, and above 1GB nothing good
is going to happen. Partially due to how the AGP address
space was handled or something.
Only a few PCI Express era ATI video devices, got drivers
for older OSes. The reason I could do my install, is my Core2
motherboard had both AGP and PCI Express video (it's a weird
Asrock motherboard), and I happened to be using an old AGP
card at the time.
It's one amazing motherboard. DDR or DDR2 memory. AGP (brown
slot) or PCI Express (purple slot) video cards. A parallel
port connector. PS/2 connectors. USB. Ethernet. IDE and SATA
connectors (could use more SATA). VIA chipset has SATAII bug fixed.
Only thing really wrong with it (for $65), is the
BIOS developers seemed to have "lawyer troubles", and
weren't allowed to properly finish the BIOS. Something
was going on behind the scenes. Production of boards
stopped, when they ran out of VIA chipsets.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/4Core...%20R2.0(m).jpg
I've had everything between Win98 and Windows 8 on that thing.
On Windows 8, I would need a PCI Express video card, as my
AGP is too old to have a driver. I ran Windows 8 preview on it.
Both CPU cores work in that case.
Paul