RandomStranger wrote on 2022-10-30, 06:09:

Then I guess the severity of the issue can also change based on the system.

Nexxen wrote on 2022-10-03, 07:29:

That message is a known issue with ram above 512 (or 768) with Win98. Unless you downgrade, it'll always display that. […]
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retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2022-10-02, 23:43:

unfortunatly, I don't have a 256mb stick, just two 1GB sticks

That message is a known issue with ram above 512 (or 768) with Win98.
Unless you downgrade, it'll always display that.

There is a registry hack. Look for Win 98 1gb registry hack, it'll come up here IIRC.
I could be wrong on sizes, you have a starting point.

That's indeed a possibility, newer chipsets that can handle 1gb+ natively I would imagine have less issues than older systems that couldn't, but 98SE itself will be the reason for many of the known ones that occur regardless of the hardware used, which can be patched out with 3rd party fixes and workarounds that hide the extra memory from 98SE.

Successfully removed 15-pin VGA connector from PCI card. I followed a few tips from Necroware and managed to remove it without causing additional damage. Now I have to wait for the new part to arrive...

Well done. That's a very clean job, and the through-holes are all open and ready for a new component. Sometimes the hardest part is getting those cleared after removing a part.

I've been organizing a box of diskettes to image while listening to tapes from a box cassettes. See this tower of drivers? I will share them with you all very soon.

How should I go about it?

Trying to work out how to get network connectivity on a Windows 98SE build.

Recently, I made a Pentium II build:

• CPU: Pentium II 400MHz
• RAM: 128MB SDRAM
• Video: NVidia Riva 128ZX + 3Dfx Voodoo 2
• Audio: SoundBlaster Live!
• Storage: 20GB Western Digital IDE HDD
• IDE CD-ROM drive and a Floppy drive

It works really well: Half-Life 640x480 runs at constant 60 FPS 😃

Unfortunately, the CRT monitor I bought for this build is broken: it's too bright!
I will replace it and also install the 2-pin cable for CD audio digital output.

Today I did some test for LAN multiplayer (both TCP and IPX) between this PC and the other Pentium MMX one I have.

In the image, you can see the broken monitor 😁

I've set up my HP Vectra for triple-booting DOS6.22, Win98 and Win2000. No drivers yet, but W2k seems to have baked in drivers for everything.
I'll be curious what can the on-board Crystal CS4280-CM audio chip do in DOS. I didn't find too much about it.

That's a cool little boot manager. I have GRUB4DOS on my other machine, and it isn't nearly as pretty.

Spent about 4-5 hours trying to get Orpheus I and GUS Classic sound card combo working in my 486 DX/2-66 setup.

Along the way ran into some issues and learned a few things:

1. Setting the GUS base port to 230 apparently causes a conflict with port 330 for General MIDI. Weirdly enough GM music worked fine in Doom and Doom2, just not with any other games. Spent a couple hours just on this issue.
2. The GUS needs a BLASTER environment variable or it won't initialize.
3. Day of the Tentacle refused to work with the ORPHINIT driver for digital audio. Setup would detect the card, but would result in a black screen on startup. The UNISOUND driver in comparison worked just fine. General MIDI worked fine with both drivers.
4. Using the GUS line-in for mixing was problematic. Certain games (Dark Forces and Warcraft) disable its line-in on start up. I did find a utility on this page to overcome this issue, though it is a bit annoying to deal with. Oddly the GUS Extreme didn't have this problem.
5. Using the Orpheus I's line-in was problematic, since the volume level on it was far too low. Even trying to set higher volumes via ORPHINIT didn't improve things much. Compared to the GUS line-in, the Orpheus line-in cuts volume at least by half.

Ultimately I got things working, but still have two lingering, minor issues.

One is aforementioned mixer on the GUS line-in issue. The other is that I've noticed significant popping noises anytime a game initializes audio. In some games this can happen multiple times loading, switching to a cut-scene, etc. These aren't complete deal breakers but again just a bit annoying.

In the end, I think I may just go back to the GUS Extreme. I had zero issues with audio quality, line-in mixer, or anything else. Everything just worked. I may instead pair it with an MPU401-ITC and external MIDI modules. I have a feeling I'll want both MT-32 and General MIDI support, so going with external modules probably makes the most sense.

Meanwhile the Orpheus card may find its way into a future 386 build. Less sure about the GUS Classic; maybe I'll try it with a future Pentium build if I can find a motherboard that can accommodate it.

I've had weird phantom issues with cards that were solved by swapping to another slot. An AWE32 I had would produce garbled sound in the bottom ISA slot of the boad I had on my test bench, but not the slot above it. I had two other AWE32s (although different models) which didn't have this issue.

It's worth a shot, if you still want this configuration. It would also help to confirm the issue by testing in a different motherboard, to eliminate the possibility of a hardware conflict with this one specifically.

I had similar problem with a PCI slot in another board, where one of my video cards wouldn't work in a one of the slots. Other cards, even other video cards, would work fine, but not this one.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-10-30, 21:12:

I've had weird phantom issues with cards that were solved by swapping to another slot. An AWE32 I had would produce garbled sound in the bottom ISA slot of the boad I had on my test bench, but not the slot above it. I had two other AWE32s (although different models) which didn't have this issue.

It's worth a shot, if you still want this configuration. It would also help to confirm the issue by testing in a different motherboard, to eliminate the possibility of a hardware conflict with this one specifically.

I had similar problem with a PCI slot in another board, where one of my video cards wouldn't work in a one of the slots. Other cards, even other video cards, would work fine, but not this one.

That's a good point about trying different slots. Not sure if it will fix the popping noises, but I suppose its worth a shot. I suspect the issue is related to the UNISOUND driver though, as I found it became more apparent when I switched to it. Maybe it's a volume setting issue?

Unfortunately I don't have another MB to test the GUS Classic, since it won't fit on my other Pentium boards. I suppose I could try it in a 386, but l don't know if it would really work that well on that setup to begin with.

In the end, I'm just trying to achieve GUS, SB Pro and MIDI support with relatively clean audio output. I'm not married to any particular setup as long as it achieves those goals (and I have the h/w on hand to build it).

Managed to get my copy of Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge to work on my Windows 98 Second Edition machine, resolving the "divide overflow" error message that kept occurring.

Was there a definable solution to that, or "I just screwed around with stuff and suddenly it started working." ... which happens a lot, I swear computers are just needy little buggers, just want the attention, pat them on the head more when they do stuff right or some crap.

There is a patch for one of the more common divide by zero errors, I forget which one exactly. Some others continue to persistent on CPUs that are too fast, despite there being patches already that are support to have fixed it, such as with Monkey Island.

Currently sending DSK and PO images from my MacBook Air A1466 4GB/1TB/Monterey/1.6 system to my Laser 128 using the USB to serial and serial to null modem adapters and a few blank 360KB diskettes (140KB/side and I'll buy a notch so I can make double-sided diskettes).

So far, the drive on the Laser 128 is working great and no issues so far. All that's left is to buy a joystick and get my 9" PVM connected to either RGB or composite (mostly RGB since I can make a cable that can convert from the connection in the back to RCA as RGB + csync and RGBHV + intensity, which I'll have to find the pinout for my 1341 since it supports digital RGB).

Continued setting up the Vectra. The DOS partition got a CDROM driver, Norton Commander and some games, and the Win98 partition got it's drivers, a nice wallpaper, and some useful software... and some games. I didn't find a separate DOS driver for the on-board sound card. It supposed to have some degree of DOS compatibility, but I've only found Windows drivers. Maybe it's one of those that automatically installs the DOS drivers along with the ones for Windows?

My plan was that once I'm done, I'll sell or trade it, but I'm starting to feel a growing urge to keep it despite I absolutely don't need it. This is my most redundant performance range from Pentium II 266 to Pentium III 733 3 SLOT-1 systems and 5 or 6 CPUs excluding the Vectra, not to mention slotkets and 3 Socket370 PCs with another 5 or 6 CPUs. And also this one has the lowest upgrade potential. But it's so cooperative and well behaved.

Tested to boot some 20+ socket A cpus.
They are a pain in the ass, always hard press the heatsink or no beep.
Lots of paste on fingers and a lot of wiping.

But it was good to kill time.

Successfully finished changing the DSTN panel on my Toshiba Satellite 400CS to a TFT panel. Somehow I ended up with a real 400CDT too and I'm pondering which of the two to keep. I went from 0x 640x480 really-dos-compatible games laptop to 2x.

I'm glad I didn't have to use the Ampire VA-type LCD panel since now I want to use it with a PC104 build, and make a PC104 gravis ultrasound, or at least see if it's possible. The PCBs would be nice n cheap

Nexxen: why would they not beep? Thermal issues or the chips really need the heatsink pressure to operate?

About a week ago I bought this Dell Ultrascan P991 (clone of a Sony CPD-G400).

The color on it had a decidedly greenish tint and anything above ~10 brightness would get really washed out. This looked pretty bad in games with darker graphics and predominant grey or brown hues (esp. Doom, Doom2, and Heretic).

I was getting to the point where I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it.

Tonight I discovered the monitor's "Color Return" setting which apparently readjusts internal voltages to provide an image closer to factory original. It does require the monitor stay powered on for 30 minutes beforehand, which is probably why I never tried it previously.

Ran it tonight and wow, it was like a whole new monitor! Washed out imagery is gone along with that green tint. Greys actually look grey again!

Now I'm definitely hanging onto this monitor. 😁

That's very interesting! It looks like this might be a good combination with a future recap. I wonder if these are useful calibrations to be done after a basic refurbishment like that.

That monitor looks incredible.