I would check the drive for errors, then try installing from a differently-sourced version of Win98. Perhaps from Winworld or something. I've had failing drives throw all sorts of errors due to minor file corruption. If the drive checks out, before reinstalling, perhaps try the old faithful technique of pulling RAM and expansion cards one at a time with each test boot, to determine if any are causing issues no matter how illogical it may seem.

Mister Xiado wrote:

I would check the drive for errors, then try installing from a differently-sourced version of Win98. Perhaps from Winworld or something. I've had failing drives throw all sorts of errors due to minor file corruption. If the drive checks out, before reinstalling, perhaps try the old faithful technique of pulling RAM and expansion cards one at a time with each test boot, to determine if any are causing issues no matter how illogical it may seem.

I'm using a clean, original copy of Windows 98 FE from an actual CD. If I can avoid it, I don't use CDs I've burned for that sort of thing anymore. The only other CD I have is for Windows 98 SE, and I'm hoping I don't have to use that, but if I have to, I will. There may be damage that is just enough to stop it from copying, but I doubt it as it copies to my main PC with no problems.

For now, I will run SeaTools for DOS on both the Quantum Bigfoot and Quantum Fireball drives and see if any errors appear.

Just remove everything possible first, then add one item at a time.

You just need graphics card, one ram stick, cpu+fan and hard drive (with installation files from CD). Just use the one hard drive, you can change the default path for windows 98 installation files later.

Most of the times I have had problems installing windows is was a memory problem.

lost77 wrote:

Just remove everything possible first, then add one item at a time.

You just need graphics card, one ram stick, cpu+fan and hard drive (with installation files from CD). Just use the one hard drive, you can change the default path for windows 98 installation files later.

Most of the times I have had problems installing windows is was a memory problem.

That's why I ran MemTest on it, and it didn't show any errors. I would be very confused as to how bad RAM could pass a MemTest test, unless there's some extended test that I can run to double-check. I am using a new 64MB PC100 stick that I got recently, but the fact that MemTest said everything was okay makes me think that it's something other than the memory. If the HDDs pass the SeaTools tests, I will then switch out the dual 64MB sticks for a known good single 128MB stick.

[EDIT]

The Quantum Fireball passed both the short test and long test. The Quantum Bigfoot TX passed the short test, but as soon as the long test starts, it fails due to bad sectors. I'm going to attempt to repair the bad sectors using SeaTools, wish me luck.

Now I hopefully know why Windows 98 setup kept crashing- the installation media, aka the Bigfoot, was bad.

Removing the Quantum Bigfoot did nothing. Same as goes with switching to the 128MB memory stick. I even unplugged the IDE ZIP drive.

I'm becoming stupidly tired of these builds failing to function for various different reasons. It gets frustrating after working on the same problem for days without an end to the tunnel in sight.

Have you tried a different cd-rom/dvd-rom drive? It's possible the board might not like it, or that the drive just might be bad.

RetroLizard wrote:

Have you tried a different cd-rom/dvd-rom drive? It's possible the board might not like it, or that the drive just might be bad.

I was about to say this system used this CD drive before, but this motherboard didn't. The SE440BX-2 used this CD drive fairly effectively. It's known good with the SE440BX-2, and my main computer used it just fine when I had it hooked up with an IDE to USB adapter. If it's the CD drive conflicting with the motherboard, I'll have to use my other CD-ROM (56x, from 2000 as well, but electric yellow, and the case I'm using is barely yellowed at all 🤣). I had a different CD drive that I was using with the system for a little bit, but it died a few minutes after I started using it. I pulled it from the Dell Dimension V333c I have, seeing as it had a DOM of October 1998, which was older than the June 2000 DOM of the drive I was using before.

CD drive I'm currently using is a Samsung SC-148F.

Well, even if the colors don't match up, nothing wrong with trying a different drive or two to see what works.

RetroLizard wrote:

Well, even if the colors don't match up, nothing wrong with trying a different drive or two to see what works.

The color part was more of a joke than anything else. I'm about to head to bed, so I'll likely test that drive tomorrow. It should work with this motherboard- it comes out of the case this motherboard used for quite a long while. If it's the CD drive, it won't glitch out with this other one. I may just put it back in the case it was in before- the whole thing is yellowed, so it should match just fine.

Hope everything turns out well!

It won't work with the different CD drive. Same exact results.

[EDIT]

Windows 98 Second Edition crashes the same exact way, at the same exact time as Windows 98 FE.

Oof. And you're sure the disc(s) are good? No concerning scratches? (or any at all?)

RetroLizard wrote:

Oof. And you're sure the disc(s) are good? No concerning scratches? (or any at all?)

Sorry for the late-ish reply. I usually take a couple of days to stand back from whatever's going on so I can figure things out. The CD is okay. Works fine on other systems, however, while browsing through other forum posts, I happened to come across this:

Dual-boot 98SE/XP, 98/DOS hangs, XP is fine

I specifically found this:

ShovelKnight wrote:

In early 2000s I had a 440BX machine that was hanging every 5-10 minutes in Windows 98 but worked fine in Windows 2000 and XP. I vaguely remember that the problem was related to the AGP GART driver. I'm not sure it would affect pure DOS though.

The damn video card! I was using a different 16MB TNT2 while I used this motherboard prior, rather than the 32MB TNT2 I was using in my SE440BX-2. This is a 440BX system, alright, and I'm wondering if the video card is somehow incompatible with this specific motherboard. I'm going to try using the 16MB card instead of the 32MB and see what happens.

[EDIT]

Nope, not the video card. But it does work now- I removed the 500MHz Pentium III just to be sure, and put in the processor that the system was using prior, a Pentium III Coppermine 600MHz (100fsb). Sure enough, it went into Windows 98 setup just fine. No BSODs, nothing.

So my question is, is my Pentium III 500MHz dead, dying, or screeching in agony? Just to be safe, I will shut the system off, and re-insert the Pentium III 500MHz, and also make sure I use the configuration jumper this time. I may have not done it the first time, resulting in weirdness regarding the motherboard's configuration. Now that I have pin-pointed the problem, I figure that it's worth a shot.

my pentium 3 500 had some weird issues too but at least it let me install Windows 98 though, it was just buggy and caused windows to be unstable, when i put my Pentium II 233 in it, those issues went away.

athlon-power wrote:

So my question is, is my Pentium III 500MHz dead, dying, or screeching in agony? Just to be safe, I will shut the system off, and re-insert the Pentium III 500MHz, and also make sure I use the configuration jumper this time. I may have not done it the first time, resulting in weirdness regarding the motherboard's configuration. Now that I have pin-pointed the problem, I figure that it's worth a shot.

Hmm. Have you updated the bios, by any chance?