I had a p3b-f back when it was new, and I remember something about the ps/2 mouse causing issues. Switch to a usb model and disable ps/2 and see what happens. I dont remember what the problem was exactly, just that there was one.

Ok so I elected to not use a wired NIC on that PC, I installed my Netgear Wireless card and the problem has stopped completely even with full internet access.

Also I cleared up the shared IRQ 9 with certain devices by disabling the onboard IDE channels [since I use an Ultra66 Promise PCI card], that cleared that up instantly.

@luckybob

Thanks for that hint, i'll give that a go as well to see if I can squeeze a bit more frames out. 😉

Oh also something I always do is disable things I don't use. For example the serial and parallel ports or onboard sound if I have a dedicated Sound Card 😀

Well I cleared up the sound skipping when the AGP card stutters by installing the Wifi card, however internet access [just simply dhcp connecting to it, or simply having internet access period] regardless if the game supports online or not is absolutely messing with the AGP throughput for some reason. I disable internet, BAM full speed AGP access in my games; no stuttering, no missed frames, none of that, but if I reenable internet access its stutter city for my games.

Online games such as Q3, etc are a total no go because of the stuttering; net access causing 1-3 second or longer pauses in the on screen action and I have no idea why.

This is bugging me to no end, and I am hoping to find a resolution for it soon, i've never had issues like this with an AGP card before, ever. Is it an issue with Windows 98SE or something that i've forgotten about, or is there just something weird going on with my system?

Well, 12 years ago my "solution" was to use a 3Com 3c509 non-PnP ISA NIC and hard set the IRQ to clear up the conflict, but it sounds like you've eliminated that possibility.

What kind of encryption are you using on your wireless access point, if any?

Stull wrote:

Well, 12 years ago my "solution" was to use a 3Com 3c509 non-PnP ISA NIC and hard set the IRQ to clear up the conflict, but it sounds like you've eliminated that possibility.

What kind of encryption are you using on your wireless access point, if any?

AES encryption, btw i'd be using my 3Com 3c509 non-PnP ISA NIC if this motherboard had a free ISA slot, unfortunately it has only 1 ISA slot and that contains my SB16 card.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/articles/pcnotes.htm

DosFreak wrote:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/articles/pcnotes.htm

The sound is no longer stuttering because I added in a Wifi card, however the AGP throughput does still stutter anytime internet is "on"... i'm starting to think this is an issue with either Win98SE itself or perhaps 440BX chipsets?

Then adjust the pci latency for the NIC

I had a ECS S754 board once and this PCI TV tuner would freeze the machine every now and then. I tried EVERYTHING and I got so fed up that I purchased a new Asrock board and that didn't have any issues...

But congrats for solving the problem.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I had a ECS S754 board once and this PCI TV tuner would freeze the machine every now and then. I tried EVERYTHING and I got so fed up that I purchased a new Asrock board and that didn't have any issues...

But congrats for solving the problem.

Not quite resolved yet, but getting there...

im gonna take out my PSU out of my main PC and test it out on the Pentium III system and see if it's a PSU issue... I really doubt it, but then again the minimum WATT psu nvidia suggests is about a 300 watt for that FX 5500 and there is a 350 watt "generic" PSU in that PC, in this PC it's a 500watt Thermal take. 😜

PhaytalError wrote:

however the AGP throughput does still stutter

Maybe it's harddisk throughput stutter?

PhaytalError wrote:

I use an Ultra66 Promise PCI card]

Try removing this card and using the integrated IDE ports

PhaytalError wrote:

i'm starting to think this is an issue with either Win98SE itself or perhaps 440BX chipsets?

No way it could be that! But i'm almost out of ideas 🤣

sebaz_ri wrote:

Maybe it's harddisk throughput stutter?

The HDD led doesn't come on at times of stutter. That's how it acts though as if it's swap, but it's really not.

sebaz_ri wrote:

Try removing this card and using the integrated IDE ports

Tried that lastnight

sebaz_ri wrote:

No way it could be that! But i'm almost out of ideas 🤣

🤣, I am too, I can remember back in the day when 440BX was still "the bomb" I was able to run Quake 3 online with my ASUS P3B-F v1.04 [same modle of motherboard I use now] overclocked Pentium III 450 @ 558Mhz, 256mb RAM, and Voodoo 3 3500TV and broadband on Windows 98 and never had this issue. That's why im confused as to what is going on, it didn't happen back then, so why is this happening now? 😵

I found the culprit! It's SOMETHING installed from the Unofficial Windows 98 SE SP3 by user PROBLEMCHYLD from the MSFN forums, that is causing the issue.

I re-re-re-REinstalled [yes, i've reinstalled multiple times trying to track down this but and now I finally have!], this time just plain jane vanilla Windows 98 SE, installed the latest Intel 440BX chipset drivers, the latest Nvidia drivers, and DirectX 9.0c... the issue was not occuring. I then installed the Service Pack and blamo, the issue resurrected itself! So it seems that I am gonna have to track down the "evil doer" package, and report the bug to PROBLEMCHYLD.

you sir have more patience with windows 98 than I do! I probably would have set the damn thing on fire by now!

PhaytalError wrote:

I found the culprit! It's SOMETHING installed from the Unofficial Windows 98 SE SP3 by user PROBLEMCHYLD from the MSFN forums, that is causing the issue.

That's why i don't install some unofficial patchs, the only 'unofficial' thing in my W98 systems is the unofficial usb driver, nothing more

PhaytalError wrote:

installed the latest Intel 440BX chipset drivers, the latest Nvidia drivers

You don't need the latest intel drivers, and also the 61.76 driver have the best speed/compatibility ratio, instead of the latest 81.98 driver (i tested 61.76 with a Geforce4 MX4000 in my P3 1GHz 440bx system and this was the most stable,because 81.98 was even faster but it did have compatibility problems with GTA3 and Unreal Tournament)

Also in this thread
Hardware issue or just the games?
you mentioned that you have frameskipping with Voodoo 3 and Unreal,and that maybe was caused also by the unofficial SP3

EDIT:So basically now i know that installing SP3 is asking for trouble

Hi sebaz_ri,

Yeah i'm suspecting the stutter on the Voodoo 3 as also being related to the SP3 bug. I'll be reinstalling Win98 SE today [probably multiple times] because I need to see which patch in the SP3 is causing the issue, and then report it.

luckybob wrote:

you sir have more patience with windows 98 than I do! I probably would have set the damn thing on fire by now!

🤣, yeah years ago I wouldn't have had the patience at all, but now that im 31 i'm starting to get more patient about things in life. Although this issue has been nothing but a huge thorn in my side. 😜

I know quite a bit about DOS but this thread really makes me want to do some W98SE projects. I have some experience as a kid just before I went overseas (I had a PII 300 with a Voodoo 2 and I left in 99/2000). The last games I seem to recall playing under W98SE was Wing Commander Prophecy, some Star Wars game, Blade Runner?, Tomb Raider 2 and a few other games.

And XP was just around the corner I believe. (1 or 2 years later).

I will have to do heaps of reading in order to get things right. Patches... Isn't W98SE not supported anymore?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I know quite a bit about DOS but this thread really makes me want to do some W98SE projects. I have some experience as a kid just before I went overseas (I had a PII 300 with a Voodoo 2 and I left in 99/2000). The last games I seem to recall playing under W98SE was Wing Commander Prophecy, some Star Wars game, Blade Runner?, Tomb Raider 2 and a few other games.

And XP was just around the corner I believe. (1 or 2 years later).

I will have to do heaps of reading in order to get things right. Patches... Isn't W98SE not supported anymore?

Do you mean official support from MS? I'm not sure if you can even download the last patches from them anymore. You'd probably have to find a website of someone who has them archived.

sliderider wrote:

Do you mean official support from MS? I'm not sure if you can even download the last patches from them anymore. You'd probably have to find a website of someone who has them archived.

Yes that's basically what I mean. Like an offline Service Pack or something like that. Or did Windows 98SE update through the Internet just like XP?

I guess for playing games patches aren't that super serious right? As long as the main drivers are good (chipset, graphics, video card, directX and all of that).

I did find that third party USB driver so I could use USB Flash drives. Very handy 😀