Too Fast for Win98?

[BC]

Hi

I just figured what was causing an annoying issue:
I was trying to retrofit Win98 to an Athlon 3000+
based eMachin T3065. The client had a slightly
older similar eMachine in his office that I had
done a similar retrofit on a few months ago for
practical reasons: his old Win98 PC had several
old proprietary legal programs that he either no
longer had the installation disks for; would not
work on WinXP, or else would require expensive
upgrades to work. I suggested letting me clone
over his old PC to the new one and seeing if I
can download the correct system software for
video, sound, et al. That worked out well and
the only Win98 driver I couldn't find was for the
built-in eMachine flashcard reader. Actually, he
was so thrilled at how simple and fast it was
with the retrofit (XP is such a slow, resource
hog) that he wanted a similar PC for his home.

Unfortunately the earlier eMachine was no longer
available but we got the nearest new equivalent
(which had no floppy drive, which sucks). But
although the specs looked very similar, Win98
refused to load up, regardless if it was from
cloning or from a fresh install (various Ios
and drive error messages.) I could boot to DOS
but even Safe mode wouldn't work. I tried small
partitions as well to no avail.

Finally, on a hunch, I tried putting in a spare,
smaller, slower hard drive, and the system came
up with no problems. So the tentative solution
we decided on is to replace the 160 GB drive with
a spare unused 40 Gb drive I have (even swap). I
would like to use the 160 gig if I could, but
the Phoenix/Award BIOS in the eMachine allows for
very limited adjustments and virtually no system
tweaks.

I'm curious if any of you have seen this problem
before and how was it resolved. Thanks in advance
for any info.

-BC

[Isaac]

(BC) wrote in news:dba7d68e.0406070646.476942b4
@posting.google.com:

> Hi
>
> I just figured what was causing an annoying issue:
> I was trying to retrofit Win98 to an Athlon 3000+
> based eMachin T3065. The client had a slightly
> older similar eMachine in his office that I had
> done a similar retrofit on a few months ago for
> practical reasons: his old Win98 PC had several
> old proprietary legal programs that he either no
> longer had the installation disks for; would not
> work on WinXP, or else would require expensive
> upgrades to work. I suggested letting me clone
> over his old PC to the new one and seeing if I
> can download the correct system software for
> video, sound, et al. That worked out well and
> the only Win98 driver I couldn't find was for the
> built-in eMachine flashcard reader. Actually, he
> was so thrilled at how simple and fast it was
> with the retrofit (XP is such a slow, resource
> hog) that he wanted a similar PC for his home.
>
> Unfortunately the earlier eMachine was no longer
> available but we got the nearest new equivalent
> (which had no floppy drive, which sucks). But
> although the specs looked very similar, Win98
> refused to load up, regardless if it was from
> cloning or from a fresh install (various Ios
> and drive error messages.) I could boot to DOS
> but even Safe mode wouldn't work. I tried small
> partitions as well to no avail.
>
> Finally, on a hunch, I tried putting in a spare,
> smaller, slower hard drive, and the system came
> up with no problems. So the tentative solution
> we decided on is to replace the 160 GB drive with
> a spare unused 40 Gb drive I have (even swap). I
> would like to use the 160 gig if I could, but
> the Phoenix/Award BIOS in the eMachine allows for
> very limited adjustments and virtually no system
> tweaks.
>
> I'm curious if any of you have seen this problem
> before and how was it resolved. Thanks in advance
> for any info.
>
> -BC
>

There is a known issue with W98 on fast processors. On a processor faster
than 2.1 GHz ndis.vxd causes a divide by zero error on startup. Microsoft
has a (paid) fix for this, but googling on 98 ndis 2.1 will find it for
free. I really have no idea of this could be your problem, since I don't
see how a slower disk could fix this. But you'll never know.

[Gary S. Terhune]

Tried partitioning that 160 GB disk? Lots of people claiming various limits
(I haven't kept track of them) but I believe the limit for a single
partition for WIn9x is 137 GB.

Not that I would put Win9x on such a monster-sized partition. Larger than
8GB is a waste for FAT32 partitions with a lot of small files.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"BC" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi
>
> I just figured what was causing an annoying issue:
> I was trying to retrofit Win98 to an Athlon 3000+
> based eMachin T3065. The client had a slightly
> older similar eMachine in his office that I had
> done a similar retrofit on a few months ago for
> practical reasons: his old Win98 PC had several
> old proprietary legal programs that he either no
> longer had the installation disks for; would not
> work on WinXP, or else would require expensive
> upgrades to work. I suggested letting me clone
> over his old PC to the new one and seeing if I
> can download the correct system software for
> video, sound, et al. That worked out well and
> the only Win98 driver I couldn't find was for the
> built-in eMachine flashcard reader. Actually, he
> was so thrilled at how simple and fast it was
> with the retrofit (XP is such a slow, resource
> hog) that he wanted a similar PC for his home.
>
> Unfortunately the earlier eMachine was no longer
> available but we got the nearest new equivalent
> (which had no floppy drive, which sucks). But
> although the specs looked very similar, Win98
> refused to load up, regardless if it was from
> cloning or from a fresh install (various Ios
> and drive error messages.) I could boot to DOS
> but even Safe mode wouldn't work. I tried small
> partitions as well to no avail.
>
> Finally, on a hunch, I tried putting in a spare,
> smaller, slower hard drive, and the system came
> up with no problems. So the tentative solution
> we decided on is to replace the 160 GB drive with
> a spare unused 40 Gb drive I have (even swap). I
> would like to use the 160 gig if I could, but
> the Phoenix/Award BIOS in the eMachine allows for
> very limited adjustments and virtually no system
> tweaks.
>
> I'm curious if any of you have seen this problem
> before and how was it resolved. Thanks in advance
> for any info.
>
> -BC

[Brian A.]

Purchase a controller card. They have their own BIOS. I use a WD1600 in 2 machines
with 98SE, 1 uses a Promise Ultra 100 TX2 and the other is a newer Promise Ultra 133
TX2. Cost = approx. $35.00 US.

--
Brian A.

Jack of all trades, Master of none.
One can never truly be a master as there is always more to learn.


"BC" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi
>
> I just figured what was causing an annoying issue:
> I was trying to retrofit Win98 to an Athlon 3000+
> based eMachin T3065. The client had a slightly
> older similar eMachine in his office that I had
> done a similar retrofit on a few months ago for
> practical reasons: his old Win98 PC had several
> old proprietary legal programs that he either no
> longer had the installation disks for; would not
> work on WinXP, or else would require expensive
> upgrades to work. I suggested letting me clone
> over his old PC to the new one and seeing if I
> can download the correct system software for
> video, sound, et al. That worked out well and
> the only Win98 driver I couldn't find was for the
> built-in eMachine flashcard reader. Actually, he
> was so thrilled at how simple and fast it was
> with the retrofit (XP is such a slow, resource
> hog) that he wanted a similar PC for his home.
>
> Unfortunately the earlier eMachine was no longer
> available but we got the nearest new equivalent
> (which had no floppy drive, which sucks). But
> although the specs looked very similar, Win98
> refused to load up, regardless if it was from
> cloning or from a fresh install (various Ios
> and drive error messages.) I could boot to DOS
> but even Safe mode wouldn't work. I tried small
> partitions as well to no avail.
>
> Finally, on a hunch, I tried putting in a spare,
> smaller, slower hard drive, and the system came
> up with no problems. So the tentative solution
> we decided on is to replace the 160 GB drive with
> a spare unused 40 Gb drive I have (even swap). I
> would like to use the 160 gig if I could, but
> the Phoenix/Award BIOS in the eMachine allows for
> very limited adjustments and virtually no system
> tweaks.
>
> I'm curious if any of you have seen this problem
> before and how was it resolved. Thanks in advance
> for any info.
>
> -BC

[BC]

"Brian A." <GoneFishn@aFarAwayLake> wrote in message >...
> Purchase a controller card. They have their own BIOS. I use a WD1600 in 2 machines
> with 98SE, 1 uses a Promise Ultra 100 TX2 and the other is a newer Promise Ultra 133
> TX2. Cost = approx. $35.00 US.
>
> --
> Brian A.
>
> Jack of all trades, Master of none.
> One can never truly be a master as there is always more to learn.
>

Hmmm....that could be a cheap enough thing to try. I'll
look into it -- thanks.

-BC

[BC]

"Gary S. Terhune" > wrote in message >...
> Tried partitioning that 160 GB disk? Lots of people claiming various limits
> (I haven't kept track of them) but I believe the limit for a single
> partition for WIn9x is 137 GB.
>
> Not that I would put Win9x on such a monster-sized partition. Larger than
> 8GB is a waste for FAT32 partitions with a lot of small files.
>
> --
> Gary S. Terhune
> MS MVP for Win9x

Actually, I started off using a 30 Gb C: partition and
then tried smaller ones.

I even took an old spare Win98 PC, hooked up the 160 GB
drive to it, imaged the contents from the old hard drive
to the 160, made the 160 the C: drive, had it boot up
successfully on the old PC, moved it to the new eMachine,
tried booting it off there, and....nada. The same old
Ios and "severe" disk errors. I then tried "upgrading"
the drive to Windows 2000 as a test, but it didn't see
any of the Win98 stuff and so it installed without adding
any of the applications.

I think I'm going to try that controller idea a little
further down in the thread, but thanks for the input.

What bugs me is that the slightly older Athlon-based
eMachine with a 120 Gb drive and much of the same specs
easily handled the retrofit.

-BC

[Gary S. Terhune]

Just thought I'd mention it. Hope the controller works for you.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"BC" > wrote in message
om...
> "Gary S. Terhune" > wrote in message
>...
> > Tried partitioning that 160 GB disk? Lots of people claiming various
limits
> > (I haven't kept track of them) but I believe the limit for a single
> > partition for WIn9x is 137 GB.
> >
> > Not that I would put Win9x on such a monster-sized partition. Larger
than
> > 8GB is a waste for FAT32 partitions with a lot of small files.
> >
> > --
> > Gary S. Terhune
> > MS MVP for Win9x
>
> Actually, I started off using a 30 Gb C: partition and
> then tried smaller ones.
>
> I even took an old spare Win98 PC, hooked up the 160 GB
> drive to it, imaged the contents from the old hard drive
> to the 160, made the 160 the C: drive, had it boot up
> successfully on the old PC, moved it to the new eMachine,
> tried booting it off there, and....nada. The same old
> Ios and "severe" disk errors. I then tried "upgrading"
> the drive to Windows 2000 as a test, but it didn't see
> any of the Win98 stuff and so it installed without adding
> any of the applications.
>
> I think I'm going to try that controller idea a little
> further down in the thread, but thanks for the input.
>
> What bugs me is that the slightly older Athlon-based
> eMachine with a 120 Gb drive and much of the same specs
> easily handled the retrofit.
>
> -BC

[ArtWilder]

You are correct, Gary and the 2.1 gigahertz limit is only 98 First Edition
and there is a patch. On 98SE the 2.1 Gigahertz patch is already fixed.

"Gary S. Terhune" > wrote in message
...
> Tried partitioning that 160 GB disk? Lots of people claiming various
limits
> (I haven't kept track of them) but I believe the limit for a single
> partition for WIn9x is 137 GB.
>
> Not that I would put Win9x on such a monster-sized partition. Larger than
> 8GB is a waste for FAT32 partitions with a lot of small files.
>
> --
> Gary S. Terhune
> MS MVP for Win9x
>
> "BC" > wrote in message
> om...
> > Hi
> >
> > I just figured what was causing an annoying issue:
> > I was trying to retrofit Win98 to an Athlon 3000+
> > based eMachin T3065. The client had a slightly
> > older similar eMachine in his office that I had
> > done a similar retrofit on a few months ago for
> > practical reasons: his old Win98 PC had several
> > old proprietary legal programs that he either no
> > longer had the installation disks for; would not
> > work on WinXP, or else would require expensive
> > upgrades to work. I suggested letting me clone
> > over his old PC to the new one and seeing if I
> > can download the correct system software for
> > video, sound, et al. That worked out well and
> > the only Win98 driver I couldn't find was for the
> > built-in eMachine flashcard reader. Actually, he
> > was so thrilled at how simple and fast it was
> > with the retrofit (XP is such a slow, resource
> > hog) that he wanted a similar PC for his home.
> >
> > Unfortunately the earlier eMachine was no longer
> > available but we got the nearest new equivalent
> > (which had no floppy drive, which sucks). But
> > although the specs looked very similar, Win98
> > refused to load up, regardless if it was from
> > cloning or from a fresh install (various Ios
> > and drive error messages.) I could boot to DOS
> > but even Safe mode wouldn't work. I tried small
> > partitions as well to no avail.
> >
> > Finally, on a hunch, I tried putting in a spare,
> > smaller, slower hard drive, and the system came
> > up with no problems. So the tentative solution
> > we decided on is to replace the 160 GB drive with
> > a spare unused 40 Gb drive I have (even swap). I
> > would like to use the 160 gig if I could, but
> > the Phoenix/Award BIOS in the eMachine allows for
> > very limited adjustments and virtually no system
> > tweaks.
> >
> > I'm curious if any of you have seen this problem
> > before and how was it resolved. Thanks in advance
> > for any info.
> >
> > -BC
>