RJDog wrote:Thanks for the link! I was able to find a download here to solve my Win3.1 install Y2K problem 🤣
You're welcome! 😀
Microsoft did also release a "Year 2000" CD back then.
It was shipped with several computer magazines and contained the new File Managers for Windows 3.1x..
Wait, here's a picture of it:
tayyare wrote:Thanks a lot for this valuable explanation. I was using Windows 3.11 from time to time all in 2GB partitions, so it's good to know I'm not looking for a potential data corruption or something. 😊
No problem, glad I could help with that. 😁
Also, data corruption shouldn't happen with the FastDisk drivers.
The one that ships with Windows is very paranoid and only operates if it is absolutely sure everything is fine.
That's why the "enable 32 disk access" box in 386 enhanced settings was often not visible.
Notebooks were also a reason, because they often used strange power saving features.
I've already seen one that supported some kind of "hibernation mode" in hardware (swap memory to disk).
I think it was called sometimes "overlay mode" or similar, because they had LEDs named "OVL" or "overlay".
The only source I was able to find about this is an article from 1992.
These are a few other "pros" of FastDisk that comes to mind :
- It enhances support for multiple DOS sessions in Windows (sessions in backround can be kept in virtual memory)
- Supports multi-sector reads/writes (MicroHouse version)
- Windows can stay in protected-mode, no/less BIOS calls via V86
- Stability is enhanced (prevents deadlock situations, see above)
There's a great article about the insides of the original FastDisk driver at OS/2 Museum called "How to please WDCTRL".
It's is *very* technical, but also explains well why the original driver nolonger works on modern drives (that's where the MicroHouse version comes into play).
kikenovic wrote:Thanks Jo, I feel better now about this "time machine".
You read my mind, last night I placed an order for a Cirrus based card.
Speaking of 8 gig drives, I recently refurbished an OG Xbox 8GB drive and divided it in 4 (never done it before). It'll make a nice spare.
Cool, I heard of Cirrus cards beeing quite nice! 😀
We had some talk about them here at Vogons about a month ago or so.
That beeing said, I'm not familiar with them yet, though. (Shame on me!) 😅
All I know is that they are quite fast, similar to the S3 Trios (perhaps even better).
And that they were quite popular in the later japanese PC98 models (what's PC98 ?).
- To improve Windows (3.1) performance! 😀
You can find several benchmark utilities in the Vogons thread "Best PCI VGA card for Windows 3.11 performance?"
This thread was started several months before we discussed the Cirrus cards.
-
Also check out The GUI Gallery page and Phil's Benchmark archive.
Two other random pages I've found are The386 page and Conrad's home.
Another page I used to visit was Caiman.us. It was such a lovely site .. 🙁
It had a huge number of Win9x/XP games, as well as some Windows 3.1 games.
-
Btw, I'm also often using the WQHLT driver for my virtual machines and on my dedicated MOD player box.
It helps to keep the fans quiet and issues a "CPUHLT" instruction directly to the processor each time when Windows is idle.
It's worth a try if the "APM" setting (BIOS-driven) in Windows setup doesn't do so well and the rig is running over a longer time..
The driver was mentioned in the "CPU load reduction for Windows 3.1" thread here at vogons.
The WQGHLT tool is also part of the 31pack :
http://www.scampers.org/steve/vmware/
But again, it's just an purely optional thing. If your rig is mainly used for gaming
and works otherwise well, then there's no need for it. 😀
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
//My video channel//