Guys,
If I hadn't participated in the phone call yesterday I'd find what an MS tech support person told me a bit farfetched. But, since I did I'm having a bit of a hard time questioning it. So, here goes the story.
Last week I built a new box (EPoX 4SDA+, P4-1.6A, 512MB DDR PC2100 (Crucial), Leadteck GeForce 3 Ti200 128MB DDR, Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB, LiteOn 16x/48x DVD, Yamaha 24x10x40 DX-RW, Enlight 7237 w/ Enermax 430w p.s.). I was all set to install Windows98 SE on it, to work best w/ a second box downstairs, on a Linksys 4 port router, connected to a RoadRunner cable connection. DirectX is version 8.1.
My first install consisted of drivers packaged w/ the respective hardware. I ghosted that to an image on another partition, and did a second install (after formating the drive), this time using the latest drivers for the respective hardware devices. All seemed to go well until I installed the one game I still play - MS Links2001 golf. The first time you fire up the game it starts in software rendering mode (for compatability), then it gives you the option of handing off the rendering functions to the video card. I clicked on the video card in the game's graphics setup and an error message said the card didn't meet the minimum requirements of the game <g>.
I got on the phone w/ MS support, and I have to say the guy was absolutely super. He worked w/ me for nearly two hours. We ran DXDIAG and that crashed, then exhibited a few weird behaviors before seeming to indicate all was well. We tried a number of things, including changing the vid card apeture, reducing the physical memory from 512 to 256MB, uninstalling DX8.1 and going to 7.0, uninstalling the 28.32 nVidia drivers for 23.11. None of these actions worked; in fact they put the system in such a state that it wouldn't even boot into Windows.
The bottom line: the MS guy said they've received reports of higher clocked Athlon XP's not working w/ Win98SE, and some reports of similar behavior w/ P4's. After the above long winded setup, my question is this: is what the MS guy said to me pure bunk? Or is it possible Win98SE is actually having problems w/ the speed/memory of this system?
FWIW recall that Win95 had trouble w/ higher clocked K6's (a timing issue, for which MS issued a patch). Is it possible that Win98SE is having the same timing issues w/ P4's and Athlon XP's? Are these processors having trouble w/ 16 bit operating systems?
I'd appreciate any input/thoughts/comments/etc. you might have on this. I blew the drive tonight (a WinXP Pro install that I pooched, and want to do over). I'd ideally like to get Win98SE to run on this system. Am I barking up the wrong tree w/ Win98SE? Should I resign myself to the fact that XP is in my future? If so, can you point me to a good XP tutorial?
If I hadn't participated in the phone call yesterday I'd find what an MS tech support person told me a bit farfetched. But, since I did I'm having a bit of a hard time questioning it. So, here goes the story.
Last week I built a new box (EPoX 4SDA+, P4-1.6A, 512MB DDR PC2100 (Crucial), Leadteck GeForce 3 Ti200 128MB DDR, Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB, LiteOn 16x/48x DVD, Yamaha 24x10x40 DX-RW, Enlight 7237 w/ Enermax 430w p.s.). I was all set to install Windows98 SE on it, to work best w/ a second box downstairs, on a Linksys 4 port router, connected to a RoadRunner cable connection. DirectX is version 8.1.
My first install consisted of drivers packaged w/ the respective hardware. I ghosted that to an image on another partition, and did a second install (after formating the drive), this time using the latest drivers for the respective hardware devices. All seemed to go well until I installed the one game I still play - MS Links2001 golf. The first time you fire up the game it starts in software rendering mode (for compatability), then it gives you the option of handing off the rendering functions to the video card. I clicked on the video card in the game's graphics setup and an error message said the card didn't meet the minimum requirements of the game <g>.
I got on the phone w/ MS support, and I have to say the guy was absolutely super. He worked w/ me for nearly two hours. We ran DXDIAG and that crashed, then exhibited a few weird behaviors before seeming to indicate all was well. We tried a number of things, including changing the vid card apeture, reducing the physical memory from 512 to 256MB, uninstalling DX8.1 and going to 7.0, uninstalling the 28.32 nVidia drivers for 23.11. None of these actions worked; in fact they put the system in such a state that it wouldn't even boot into Windows.
The bottom line: the MS guy said they've received reports of higher clocked Athlon XP's not working w/ Win98SE, and some reports of similar behavior w/ P4's. After the above long winded setup, my question is this: is what the MS guy said to me pure bunk? Or is it possible Win98SE is actually having problems w/ the speed/memory of this system?
FWIW recall that Win95 had trouble w/ higher clocked K6's (a timing issue, for which MS issued a patch). Is it possible that Win98SE is having the same timing issues w/ P4's and Athlon XP's? Are these processors having trouble w/ 16 bit operating systems?
I'd appreciate any input/thoughts/comments/etc. you might have on this. I blew the drive tonight (a WinXP Pro install that I pooched, and want to do over). I'd ideally like to get Win98SE to run on this system. Am I barking up the wrong tree w/ Win98SE? Should I resign myself to the fact that XP is in my future? If so, can you point me to a good XP tutorial?
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