Everybody has that specific thing that they're nostalgic for, so I wont kink-shame you. 😀

Everything I'm gonna say is just my own experience and I'm by no means an expert, but you should be in luck because I think most of the motherboards from that era(Pentium 3-ish) will have a boot screen that looks like that. I couldn't give you a definitive list, but I'm pretty sure that the Gigabyte and Asus boards I have from that time all look like that.

Again, I can't say for certain, but I think the boards to watch out for would most likely be the custom ones from pre-built systems. They tend to show the company logo instead. At least, that's what I've seen.

Hello and welcome!

Can't give you a full list of them either, but the Award BIOS is quite common with Socket 7, Slot 1 and Socket 370 motherboards. You will preferably want one that is from the Coppermine/Tualatin (Pentium III) era that has the AGP slot for such cards.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-11-17, 19:51:

Hello and welcome!

Can't give you a full list of them either, but the Award BIOS is quite common with Socket 7, Slot 1 and Socket 370 motherboards. You will preferably want one that is from the Coppermine/Tualatin (Pentium III) era that has the AGP slot for such cards.

Thanks! But then will those kind of motherboards support putting Core2Duo or high-end (for Win98 era) processors along with high-end GPUs like X850?

xtreger wrote on 2023-11-17, 20:09:

Thanks! But then will those kind of motherboards support putting Core2Duo or high-end (for Win98 era) processors along with high-end GPUs like X850?

I'm not aware of any LGA775 motherboard with the Award BIOS that displays the Energy Star logo during POST.

xtreger wrote on 2023-11-17, 20:09:

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-11-17, 19:51:

Hello and welcome!

Can't give you a full list of them either, but the Award BIOS is quite common with Socket 7, Slot 1 and Socket 370 motherboards. You will preferably want one that is from the Coppermine/Tualatin (Pentium III) era that has the AGP slot for such cards.

Thanks! But then will those kind of motherboards support putting Core2Duo or high-end (for Win98 era) processors along with high-end GPUs like X850?

Microsoft banned textual POST screens in the PC 98 guide for the "Designed for Windows" logo requirements. https://tams.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/lehre/ … e/docs/pc98.pdf see PDF pages 52-53. So--at least by default--they start to disappear from prebuilts soon after.

However, there were definitely some Pentium 4 boards that still used Award v6.00 and used that screen and might be suitable for those video cards. AOpen comes to mind. I also remember having an Acer Pentium D system where the graphical POST could be disabled, reverting it to the Award Energy Star screen.

Be aware that beyond the Socket 7/Socket 370 era, they start omitting the memory count and floppy test, so the screen flashes by so quickly you might not be able to appreciate it.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-11-17, 19:51:

Hello and welcome!

Can't give you a full list of them either, but the Award BIOS is quite common with Socket 7, Slot 1 and Socket 370 motherboards. You will preferably want one that is from the Coppermine/Tualatin (Pentium III) era that has the AGP slot for such cards.

Socket 478 too. I don't remember if it had the exact screen with the Energy Star logo, but I had an Abit IS7 that had Award BIOS. My AM2 Biostar K8M800 board (for my so far unsuccessful Win98 project) also has Award BIOS.

My sense is that a lot of the Taiwanese guys started to switch to AMI maybe... around the early C2D era? But otherwise, Award was the most likely BIOS on a Taiwanese retail board.

VivienM wrote on 2023-11-17, 22:54:

My sense is that a lot of the Taiwanese guys started to switch to AMI maybe... around the early C2D era? But otherwise, Award was the most likely BIOS on a Taiwanese retail board.

The switch appears to have happened around the Socket 478 platform. I used to have an ASRock P4i65G motherboard which came with AMI BIOS.

Actually... the switch was finally done for good around 1156/1155. I have had early 1155 boards (Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 rev1) that had the classic Phoenix-AwardBIOS.
It was only by around 3rd or 4th gen they finally switched into UEFI AMIBIOS (IIRC AMI is the only to make UEFI BIOS (if you don't count Insyde on laptops, I guess?) for mainboards.)

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-18, 00:08:

Actually... the switch was finally done for good around 1156/1155. I have had early 1155 boards (Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 rev1) that had the classic Phoenix-AwardBIOS.
It was only by around 3rd or 4th gen they finally switched into UEFI AMIBIOS (IIRC AMI is the only to make UEFI BIOS (if you don't count Insyde on laptops, I guess?) for mainboards.)

So Gigabyte stuck with Award longer than, say, Asus? I've had... at least three... Asus C2D/C2Q LGA775 boards and I'm pretty sure they were all AMI.

I wonder what MSI or DFI used. Never had a board from either.

And actually... that may explain why I bought Asus over Gigabyte back then. Didn't want Award BIOS if I could at all avoid it.

🤣 in the 90's and early 200's many of my friends wanted the Award bios not the AMI, back then the AMI lacked features that Award included.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-18, 00:08:

Actually... the switch was finally done for good around 1156/1155. I have had early 1155 boards (Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 rev1) that had the classic Phoenix-AwardBIOS.
It was only by around 3rd or 4th gen they finally switched into UEFI AMIBIOS (IIRC AMI is the only to make UEFI BIOS (if you don't count Insyde on laptops, I guess?) for mainboards.)

Oh! So this Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 has that boot screen I want. And will it run Win98 to your knowledge?

xtreger wrote on 2023-11-18, 05:29:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-18, 00:08:

Actually... the switch was finally done for good around 1156/1155. I have had early 1155 boards (Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 rev1) that had the classic Phoenix-AwardBIOS.
It was only by around 3rd or 4th gen they finally switched into UEFI AMIBIOS (IIRC AMI is the only to make UEFI BIOS (if you don't count Insyde on laptops, I guess?) for mainboards.)

Oh! So this Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 has that boot screen I want. And will it run Win98 to your knowledge?

Possibly, though I haven't tested that.

xtreger wrote on 2023-11-18, 05:29:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-18, 00:08:

Actually... the switch was finally done for good around 1156/1155. I have had early 1155 boards (Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 rev1) that had the classic Phoenix-AwardBIOS.
It was only by around 3rd or 4th gen they finally switched into UEFI AMIBIOS (IIRC AMI is the only to make UEFI BIOS (if you don't count Insyde on laptops, I guess?) for mainboards.)

Oh! So this Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 has that boot screen I want. And will it run Win98 to your knowledge?

That's a Sandy Bridge board. If you said you wanted Win98 without too much hassle, that's probably... about ten years too new.

VivienM wrote on 2023-11-18, 12:00:

xtreger wrote on 2023-11-18, 05:29:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-18, 00:08:

Actually... the switch was finally done for good around 1156/1155. I have had early 1155 boards (Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 rev1) that had the classic Phoenix-AwardBIOS.
It was only by around 3rd or 4th gen they finally switched into UEFI AMIBIOS (IIRC AMI is the only to make UEFI BIOS (if you don't count Insyde on laptops, I guess?) for mainboards.)

Oh! So this Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 has that boot screen I want. And will it run Win98 to your knowledge?

That's a Sandy Bridge board. If you said you wanted Win98 without too much hassle, that's probably... about ten years too new.

Aiii.. so the search continues. Everyone has been very helpful, but I'm afraid a beginner like me can't make sense of something like "socket so and so motherboard will have Award BIOS". Since it's tough for me to know which have Win98 compatibility. If you know any specific examples, could you help me out? Pliss

xtreger wrote on 2023-11-18, 15:49:

Aiii.. so the search continues. Everyone has been very helpful, but I'm afraid a beginner like me can't make sense of something like "socket so and so motherboard will have Award BIOS". Since it's tough for me to know which have Win98 compatibility. If you know any specific examples, could you help me out? Pliss

Here is how I think you should approach the problem:
1. Pick a platform. Socket 478, Socket A/462, Socket 754 are probably the simplest for a late 98 machine. Add socket 370 or even Slot 1 if you wanted to go a bit older on the Intel side. LGA775 is trickier - the i865 boards with good processor support are now rare/expensive, the other chipsets throw you into PCI-E/SATA/DDR2 land. And the newer you go, the fewer Award BIOSes and the more work will be required to get 98SE running happily.

2. Pick a chipset. Some chipsets are going to be more problematic than others, e.g. I think Via is preferable to nForce for Windows 98. Others may correct me on that one.

3. Once you've got a platform/chipset in mind, look for motherboards you can actually buy with that combination (remember, we're talking things that were made 18-23 years ago - supply is going to be spotty, not to mention a lot of socket 462 boards in particular would have fallen victim to bad caps 15 years ago and been e-wasted), then (assuming the manufacturer is still around, e.g. MSI/Asus/Gigabyte) download their manuals and take a look. You can tell very quickly from the manual if it has an Award or AMI BIOS; the manual may even have a photo of the exact startup screen if you want to confirm it has the energy star logo (I suspect all Award BIOSes do... but... that might be wrong). You can also tell quite quickly from the manual and the downloads section of the manufacturer web site whether it is officially supported for 98SE or not.

(Also, before you buy anything, confirm you can get a compatible processor you like and a heat sink fan for the processor. Socket 478 or even LGA775 HSFs are not plentiful at the local computer store anymore...)

xtreger wrote on 2023-11-18, 15:49:

Aiii.. so the search continues. Everyone has been very helpful, but I'm afraid a beginner like me can't make sense of something like "socket so and so motherboard will have Award BIOS". Since it's tough for me to know which have Win98 compatibility. If you know any specific examples, could you help me out? Pliss

If you can't find anything, I have an AX4SG-UN board and P4HT 2.6GHz board you can have for the cost of shipping if you're in the US.

One more super noob question - if a motherboard has AMI bios, is it possible to change it to award bios with the energy star thing? Can I overwrite the BIOS with another? I tried googling for this, but didn't find a direct answer (or I am bad at googling).

xtreger wrote on 2023-12-13, 10:11:

One more super noob question - if a motherboard has AMI bios, is it possible to change it to award bios with the energy star thing? Can I overwrite the BIOS with another? I tried googling for this, but didn't find a direct answer (or I am bad at googling).

Not really, unless you are some super-duper mad genius. Award/AMI provide BIOSes that are heavily customized by motherboard manufacturers, so... if your motherboard manufacturer's engineers didn't customize an Award BIOS for that motherboard, I think you would struggle to get an Award BIOS running on it.