I'm trying to install Windows 98SE on an old Thinkpad R32, which is a laptop from 2002. Any tips? I'm using the OEM Full disc, which is said to boot from CD so I don't need a floppy disk. It seems like the PC does not officially support 98SE but all the components should in theory.
It does have 512MB of RAM due to an upgrade, which butts up against the limit for vanilla 98.
wrote:Any tips?
Are you experiencing any problems so far? If not, why not try it and find out..?
wrote:wrote:Any tips?
Are you experiencing any problems so far? If not, why not try it and find out..?
Got a division overflow error when trying to format C:\ from the DOS prompt, but it seems to now be working when started from the 98SE installer. It told me to reboot after enabling large disk support and have my boot disk in drive A:\ (which doesn't exist), but after a reboot (that led to GRUB from the previous Linux install on this machine) and another reboot specifically booting from the CD, it is now formatting C:\.
It worked, surprisingly hassle-free. Only issue was the video driver requiring a higher version of DirectX than was installed with Windows 98 itself. So now I have what amounts to a very high-end Windows 98 machine if I have my facts right (1.7GHz CPU and a 16MB VRAM Mobility Radeon 7000.)
ACPI is not working, however. Apparently, they only released ACPI for Win2k and up for this machine (maybe WinME and up, but I can't find a download for that.) APM seems to require strange setup and a reinstall of Windows. Any ideas? The computer will not wake from sleep. Perhaps not a dealbreaker as it boots Windows 98 very quickly, but still a bit annoying.
There are Windows 98 drivers for ACPI for the R30 and R31, just not this machine, which is an R32.
Apparently ACPI can be disabled with just a registry change.
Re: Windows 98se reboots on shutdown
I've been able to install 98SE on ThinkPad T42s, those are 2004/2005 era machines.
HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
The only real issue when installing Windows 98 on newer machines (Aside from drivers) is RAM. A vanilla install of WIndows 98 or 98SE can only use 512MB of RAM. There are work arounds, but they don't extend that limit to a whole lot. Versions of Windows based on the NT kernel work GREAT with loads of RAM. Even NT4 and 5 you can throw tons of RAM at (Some versions even have PAE support for those inclined to be insane)
Big amount RAM is not problem absolutely. It can be resolve by replacing himem.sys on any old himem with 64MB limit, or patched (by me) version xmgr.sys with user selectable limit in 1 MB - 4 GB. i can upload it, if need. better solve 512 MB problem - RLP by RLoew (paid), with this can use original 9x himem.
Real problem with 9x on newest machines is destroying data on HDD, if used original system w/o patches and partition ended in more than 137 GB (128 GiB) absolute sector. But can used BigHDD (free), or Terabyte Unlimited (paid, again by RLoew)...
The system works great with SimCity 3000, and I'm installing Roller Coaster Tycoon right now. Sleep mode still doesn't work, I'll try to "slipstream" APM into the new installation if I ever upgrade the HDD, but for now, it boots up so quickly that sleep mode isn't a huge deal.
The GPU is some weird IBM branding, which apparently is an ATI Mobility Radeon 7000 with 16MB of vRAM. In case I ever play some 3D games, how does this compare to early Windows 98 cards (famous early Windows 98 gaming cards like the Voodoo for example.)
Just from the age, 16 MB of RAM, and the fact that it uses VRAM, I want to suggest it be about as powerful as a Riva TNT2, maybe a GeForce 128 if you push things a bit. The older you go the greater the disparity between desktop and portables become. This is about 2-4 ish years behind desktop gear. However this is just intuition. For Windows 98, however, if you can get some good drivers, I think it would make a pretty balanced card for Windows 98, especially for a portable system.
It looks like it's a DirectX 6 card, and lacks TnL.
It'd likely be a solid card for games up to about 1999/2000 or so.
