Win98 won't load after install

A

anamosity

n00b
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
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46
Hi, I am trying to help a buddy out. He just bought new hardware, nothing to fancy.

BIOSTAR NF4ST-A9
MWAVE 512MB DDR400
XFX GEFORCE 6200 256MB PCI EXPRESS
WD 80GB 800JD SATA 7200RPM 8MB

He only wants to run Win98 cuz he doesnt do anything, and will be used for work only. Does not want to buy WinXP. So I broughtover my copy of Winxp to see if it would work. Installs WinXP and boots to the desktop without any problems. Install Win98 just fine. Goto boot and it just hangs after about 10 seconds of booting. I am at a loss now on what to tell him other than go get a copy of XP.
 
I dont think pci express is supported under windows98, someone seconds that??

oldmx
 
Wow...would you put skateboard wheels on a Ferrari??? It's an absolute crime to not load XP on that machine.
 
Hey Its not my machine, I fully understand where youre coming from. I Was not aware of the pci express card and win98 not working together though. Thanks for the input.
 
Windows 98/ME is a POS operating system. It has no place on any system even semi-robust for the sole purpose of running hardware and software produced in the last four years.

I wouldn't call it insane to not run Windows XP on a system like that because Windows 2000 would be alright as well. Although Windows XP would be the preferred choice, Windows 2000 is also an ok choice.

But it certainly is insane to run Windows 98/ME on such a system.
 
We'll I told him his choices and he is looking to swap out the pci-express video card with a agp card. He says the biostar motherboard has a AGp slot on it, but it says XAGP. all so ther is a sticker on the agp slot saying "Do not use a 3.3 volt agp card in this motherboard." I assume this means its 8x agp capable. So hes gonna try and find a agp 6200 card to use.
He is pretty stuck on the win98. Because he owns the software that will run on 98. Upgrading to WinXP compatible will run him around $1000.00. He is not ready to spend that amount.
 
Has he tested this software in XP under the compatibility mode?
 
Sadly, I'm loading windows 95 on a machine right now... :(

However, there's about a 99.5% chance your friends an idiot. No offense. Windows 9x should not be used on current day hardware unless the "work" he's doing requires an app that only runs on a 9x. In my case the software won't even run on 98.

I simply doubt he's in that .5%, and only "wants" windows 98.
 
No offense taken. While he is not the brightest individual where it comes to computers, he isn't a complete idiot. His number one concern is not spending the money($100.00 to $150.00) for WinXP and then having to pay for the software upgrade for his company software($700.00). I have talked to him in detail about choices and what not on computer parts and software. He is very firm about waiting until 2007 to upgrade software.
 
If he wants to go cheaper. Install XP, then use Virtual PC or VMWare to run Windows 98 in a virtual machine.

This is what we do in our production environment for some old legacy software. We have the 98 virtual machines set so they can't access the network.

Virtual PC is $99 bucks. You can also do different network stuff to protect the 98 machine. Don't forget. 98 is susceptible to the WMF flaw that MS patched on Windows 2000 and Windows XP last week, but it will not be patched since the exploit doesn't meet "Critical" patch criteria (it is harder to exploit).
 
What's the point of waiting that long? One more year or so and Vista will RTM and that all his software is going to be old again. Sure, everything ages fast in the technology world, but that's not an excuse to run Win98. I'm quite sure most of those programs will work in XP using the compatability mode feature on the .exe files.
 
If he doesnt want to purchase WinXP have him install a linux distribution such as Ubuntu on that machine. Matter of fact, he should do that anyway.

Anyways, ubuntu can be very easy to maintain and in my experience actually offers a more consistent and polished desktop environment (in gnome anyway) than XP, especially better than 98.
 
anamosity said:
I would assume not, since he does not have a copy.
Click to expand...
well why don't you install your copy on his machine so he can test it? and if it works he can just get Windows XP instead of getting a new graphics card.
 
Whatsisname said:
If he doesnt want to purchase WinXP have him install a linux distribution such as Ubuntu on that machine. Matter of fact, he should do that anyway.

Anyways, ubuntu can be very easy to maintain and in my experience actually offers a more consistent and polished desktop environment (in gnome anyway) than XP, especially better than 98.
Click to expand...
Um, he said he needs to run apps that work only under 98 and not xp. I don't think running all those apps under Wine is what he's looking for :)
 
Pixeleet said:
Um, he said he needs to run apps that work only under 98 and not xp. I don't think running all those apps under Wine is what he's looking for :)
Click to expand...


Windows XP compatibility Mode. Lets you run legacy programs, and is part of any standard XP install.
 
AcidTone said:
Windows XP compatibility Mode. Lets you run legacy programs, and is part of any standard XP install.
Click to expand...
Right, so how does that apply to linux? ;) (read the thread)
 
AcidTone said:
Windows XP compatibility Mode. Lets you run legacy programs, and is part of any standard XP install.
Click to expand...
So I took over my copy of WINXP pro and installed it. Slaved his older had drive and ran the compatililty thing. His program is up and running fine. So now I think he will just buy a copy of WINXP. Thanks everybody for the info and pushing in the right direction.
 
he doesnt want to pay for WinXP. He doesnt have many other options.

Pixeleet said:
Um, he said he needs to run apps that work only under 98 and not xp. I don't think running all those apps under Wine is what he's looking for :)
Click to expand...
 
Phoenix86 said:
Right, so how does that apply to linux? ;) (read the thread)
Click to expand...


forgot to edit out the part about wine. I was just trying to get the OP to try and use the Winxp compatibility mode before he went out and bought new hadware.


Edit: I am a bit retarded i just looked at that and have no idea why I quoted that post, really doesnt make any sense. Well at least he did what everyone was trying to get him to do.
 
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