Will Windows 98 recognize a P4 chip?

[poster]

Hey all, I was referred to this forum from another one I usually frequent, and I'm hoping someone here may be able to help me. I did a search for an answer to this question here and didn't find one, so here goes;

Will Windows 98 work ok on a machine with a P4 processor? I'm thinking building my own computer this time instead of ordering one from Dell or someone, and while pricing yesterday, a guy at a local component shop said I should buy WinXP because Win98 will think it's on a fast P3, not an actual Pentium 4. I just thought I run this by some people who know more than me and see what you thought. He didn't seem to be trying to sell me more than I needed with anything else I was looking for at the store so I'm just wondering if I can keep my Windows 98 and put it on my new computer when it's finished without problems. Thanks for any help!

 

[Pluto]

AFAIK, Win98 on a P4 system will work fine. You will need to load the Intel chipset drivers to support the update motherboard chipset, of course this is the case for higher end P3 chipsets like the i815 that came out after Win98 was released.

 

[bacillus]

yeah, you will need to install the chipset drivers just after installing win98 or else you'll see a load of red exclaimation marks in device manager.

 

[bacillus]

btw, poster1 welcome to the forums!

 

[poster]

Thanks for the help! I'm really looking forward to giving this a try. I've had a Compaq 486DX266 (Just figured out how to get a boot disk to actually load the CD ROM last night, so I just formatted it for the first time ever) and the Dell PII450 that I'm on right now. It's getting awful long in the teeth as you know, and with these two computers I've learned enough to give building one a try I hope. I put my own CD-RW, GF3 (Yes in a 450MHz) and RAM in the Dell, so I think I'm comfortatable enough to try this. I've noticed it's A LOT cheaper, and it lets me be really specific for what I want inside, as you all know. Last night I put the HDD from the Compaq in this one to back it up and put it on CDs so I wouldn't have to make 400 trips between 'em with 3.5 in disks 'cause I was in the mood to do (even a tiny amount) of computer work. It defragged pretty quick on the Dell.

If I can do the above to my curent comp (admittedly it's not much, but it was probably good practice), I should have th ebasics for building a rig, right? I hope so.

Thanks for the welcome too, btw. I was sent here from the only other boards I use a lot, SimHQ.com's. I trust them for probem solving 99% of the time I have a question, so I thought it would be good here if they recommended it. Thanks for your help so far, this place looks like a great forum/site to find expert help!

 

[Xtremetechie]

Dude, This is a great oppurtunity to consider migrating to a more mature operating system, win98 will run fine on a P4 however 2000 or XP will perform wonderfully on your new chip and also provide a miriad of features not available in 98, including better mem management, improved paging, and better looking ui's not available in win 98. You will also be able to actully secure your workstation if neccessary. Think about it if you can get a copy.

 

[poster]

Yeah, I saw it in use there at the store, and XP does look a lot better, not to mention the added features the slaesman mentioned while I was there. I can get it there for 160 CDN, which doesn't seem to be too bad, but I'll look around.
These chipset drivers you mentioned, will they be included with the processor itself, or with the mobo? I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to go hunting for 'em to et the correct ones. I might take a look at Me too, a couple of my friends have it but I'll compare 'em. Keeping in mind that I'm going to use this comp for gaming/internet, which, WinMe or XP, seems better?


Another thing; right now I'm forced to be in a "Must conserve system resources!" state of mind, and I run my comp with only Explorer/Systray on startup. Will either of the other OS's allow for a bare-bones boot if I want to? I guess I won't have to worry about saving every cpu cycle with a great machine like I'm planning, but I'm wondering if it's possible to do it the way I'm used to when I want.

Thanks again for your assistance. I would have came here long ago if I had known it was this great here.

 

[Xtremetechie]

Dude, Dont go with windows ME, its a piece of trash, with regards to P4 motherboard drivers in XP, you should have no problems at all, XP's driver support is excellent for new hardware, Legacy hardware can be tricky but new stuff works perrfectly. Also go to the driver download site of your new motherboard and get the absolutely latest drivers available, dont use the disk that came with the board, there might be some revisions since your board was actually manufactured. Also Microsoft went to great lengths to make XP driver support very user- friendly. Your P4 will smoke with XP, and it has the horsepower to support the resource intensive Ui's that windows XP offers.
So good luck and enjoy Northwood Bliss.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: poster1
Yeah, I saw it in use there at the store, and XP does look a lot better, not to mention the added features the slaesman mentioned while I was there. I can get it there for 160 CDN, which doesn't seem to be too bad, but I'll look around.
These chipset drivers you mentioned, will they be included with the processor itself, or with the mobo? I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to go hunting for 'em to et the correct ones. I might take a look at Me too, a couple of my friends have it but I'll compare 'em. Keeping in mind that I'm going to use this comp for gaming/internet, which, WinMe or XP, seems better?

Another thing; right now I'm forced to be in a "Must conserve system resources!" state of mind, and I run my comp with only Explorer/Systray on startup. Will either of the other OS's allow for a bare-bones boot if I want to? I guess I won't have to worry about saving every cpu cycle with a great machine like I'm planning, but I'm wondering if it's possible to do it the way I'm used to when I want.

Thanks again for your assistance. I would have came here long ago if I had known it was this great here.

The chipset drivers should come on the CD with the motherboards, or you can usually download them off their website.

Don't even consider WinME for ANYTHING whether gaming or otherwise! Trust me For gaming and internet usage, you don't need anything more than Win98SE - period. Saving all the cpu cycles you can for gaming is a must, which with WinXP or 2K, you need to know how to tweak and disable unnecessary services (which use unnecessary resources). Don't get me wrong here, WinXP is great for gaming, and everything else, and I suggest you get it if you can afford it.

 

[DeviousTrap]

Originally posted by: poster1
I might take a look at Me too, a couple of my friends have it but I'll compare 'em. Keeping in mind that I'm going to use this comp for gaming/internet, which, WinMe or XP, seems better

Xp is definataly a better OS as its based on Windows NT. But, whatever you do please do not go and get windows ME. Its cannot be compared to Win 2000/XP and its even worse than 98!

Another thing; right now I'm forced to be in a "Must conserve system resources!" state of mind, and I run my comp with only Explorer/Systray on startup. Will either of the other OS's allow for a bare-bones boot if I want to? I guess I won't have to worry about saving every cpu cycle with a great machine like I'm planning, but I'm wondering if it's possible to do it the way I'm used to when I want.

In windows 2000 it is a bit harder but nevertheless it is still possible. In windows XP you can just use msconfig as you did with windows 98.

Hope this helps

Edit> Xtremetechie and Thor beet me to it.

 

[poster]

Thanks again for the responses, this place is sweet. I consider myself really knowledgeable in comparison to the general public, but it's great to have a place like this for the serious questions. Admin even wrote me a letter saying they changed my nick to what I originally wanted. (I entered the wrong email address so I had to pick another.) It's still a crappy nick I had to choose cause all the cool ones I thought of were taken, but the thought waws there!

I'm not sure what version of Win98 I have, it says 4.10.1998 when I hit WinKey+Pause/Break, and if that's a date it seems I have an early version, so I dunno if it's SE or not. I probably will go with XP though. I tried a demo of Operation:Flashpoint on my friend's roomates' PIII 800, and my machine with Win98 killed it as far as FPS. It was a slideshow. Granted, I have the full ver with better code, and they prolly had a crappy generic graphics card, but OFP with my TNT1 was glassy next to it. Which I don't know whether it's any indication at WinME's gaming capability, but it's noteworthy.
I did notice that their computer didn't have msconfig too when I went to tinker with it, I'm glad XP does.

One more question (sorry for all the q's, but I'm kinda excited about finding a new forum and I'm psyched about building a comp); I have Win98 as mentioned, would it be ok to save the $ and buy the XP upgrade? I thought I'd to a fresh install of 98 and not tough a thing, then reboot and do the XP upgrade. Will this work alright or is it a better idea to get the full ver.?

 

[bacillus]

it says 4.10.1998

that win98 first edition you've got.
would suggest that if you want to migrate to xp then do a clean install & not an upgrade of a win98 install.
paradoxically you can do a clean install of xp with the upgrade xp cd provided you have your win98 cd available at install!

 

[Bloodstein]

Originally posted by: Xtremetechie
Dude, Dont go with windows ME, its a piece of trash, with regards to P4 motherboard drivers in XP, you should have no problems at all, XP's driver support is excellent for new hardware, Legacy hardware can be tricky but new stuff works perrfectly. Also go to the driver download site of your new motherboard and get the absolutely latest drivers available, dont use the disk that came with the board, there might be some revisions since your board was actually manufactured. Also Microsoft went to great lengths to make XP driver support very user- friendly. Your P4 will smoke with XP, and it has the horsepower to support the resource intensive Ui's that windows XP offers.
So good luck and enjoy Northwood Bliss.

I find it rather amusing that microsoft released Me.....knowing very well that xp was just around the corner and that anyone that bought Me basically wasted every dollar they spend.

 

[poster]

"paradoxically you can do a clean install of xp with the upgrade xp cd provided you have your win98 cd available at install!"

Yep, I've got my Win98 CD right here. How would this clean install of XP you mention work? Just install Win98 regularly and get it up and running, then pop in the XP cd to install it right over a 'straight off the disc' version of Win98 that hasn't been patched, regedited, etc.?

If so, that's what I was planning on doing, I'm assuming that's what you're talking about above bacillus, correct? Or is there a way to get at a full XP on the XP Upgrade disc if you have Win 98's cd key or something?

 

[poster]

I got the answer straightened out at SimHQ.com's forum. You only need the Win98 Disc to prove that you have previously purchased a working copy of the old OS. The 300$ version is for peole who haven't bought any earlier Windows, and the 150$ version is the same disc as far as contents (it's the whole version, not the missing files to turn '98 into XP) , but cheaper because you have bought an earlier version of Windows. But you have to prove it by popping in said earlier version, ie your Windows 98 disc. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I got the whole picture here finally.