get hdtune
http://www.hdtune.com/
run a benchmark and post a screenshot

The 430TX chipset can't cache anything more than 64 MB RAM. In DOS having more than this may not be a big problem (I doubt many DOS applications are even going to use that amount), but in Windows you may well end up with bad performance due to how it fills RAM. Try running only 64 MB.

Besides, your PC doesn't meet the minimal requirements for Diablo II, so I'm not sure why you are even expecting good performance here.

Davros wrote:

get hdtune
http://www.hdtune.com/
run a benchmark and post a screenshot

unfortunately hdtune doesn't work on Win98SE 🙁 do you know any other tool?
edit: i found aida64 to have some Benchmark Tools included. I'll post the results below.

d1stortion wrote:

The 430TX chipset can't cache anything more than 64 MB RAM. In DOS having more than this may not be a big problem (I doubt many DOS applications are even going to use that amount), but in Windows you may well end up with bad performance due to how it fills RAM. Try running only 64 MB.

Thanks, I'll try to get smaller Memory modules somewhere. as a first step I could only reduce to one module (128MB).. 🙁

d1stortion wrote:

Besides, your PC doesn't meet the minimal requirements for Diablo II, so I'm not sure why you are even expecting good performance here.

I'm quite sure that Diablo 2 worked very well on my old P1 150MHz Box years ago, thanks to the mighty Voodoo 3 Card 😀 But thanks for that hint anyway, I didn't check the sysrequirements of Diablo 2.

CPU usage is not correct, process Explorer and also the Windows integrated System Monitor state about 20-30% constant load (from the Moment Aida64 is started, even without benchmarking).
edit: Windows integrated System Monitor says also 100% coninuous cpu load. process Explorer says 20-30%. weird...

This however consumes very much CPU power, almost 100% cpu load all the time.

I'd say your certainly in pio mode
your board supports udma/33
does it have dma drivers (a lot of boards around that time needed them)
you said in the bios you can choose between pio modes is there an auto setting ?

i've spent the last few hours searching Intel storage Drivers which will probably enable dma, but i could only find Intel inf update Utility (which installed fine).
also the "dma" Checkbox stays enabled in the properties of the hard disk after a reboot and it also makes a difference wether it is enabled or not. if it's disabled, i only get about 8mb/s in the first benchmark...

To enable DMA just download the Intel INF and then go to the Device Manager on your Control Panel, find the Disk Controllers and enable DMA on them. It should work 😀.

Much like d1stortion said, the 430TX can only cache up to 64MB and installing any more than that will make the system feel sluggish. Try to find a 64MB DIMM, even 128MB will be a problem for the system!
Also, while GTA should have been running perfectly fine, Diablo II will certainly have a hard time on the MMX.

You could try using higher multipliers to get this MMX to 200MHz or even 233MHz. MMX 166s are usually binned 200 or 233 chips, so they should work just fine at those frequencies and will give you a small boost.

I beleive these are the correct drivers
http://www.intel.com/design/software/drivers/ … finst_pv2_1.htm

also some reading
http://winhlp.com/node/10

news:

-installed Drivers referred by davros
-installed one 32mb sd ram module
-checked bios (again) for udma Settings, set pio mode to Auto on all drives

bios shows during boot for my hard disk:
PIO Mode 4, UDMA Mode 2

Aida 64 says: supported UDMA Mode: 5, current running UDMA Mode: 2
DMA Checkbox still stays ticked after reboot, which indicates that dma should be enabled

still gta is veeery slow in Windows mode (in dos mode fast as hell) and Benchmark results are the same, and also cpu load stays at 100% during Benchmark.

should i really try the steps "remove/reinstall ide Controller" and so on like mentioned in davros's link?

is it possible that this seagate 60gb drive doesn't Support udma33 anymore? there's nothing else connected to that ide channel, disk connected to the end of the cable and set to master.
the bios only recognizes 8gb of the disk, can that be the reason? it didn't bother me much because 8gb is quite enough and i assume that there is a bios Limitation which i can't get around anyway (except ddo which i don't like much).

also i have an ISA soundcard in that System, can this be the reason? I'm not sure but sometimes it feels like GTA is getting slower when playing many Sound effects...
edit: turned off ingame Sound and Music, GTA still slow...

I'd trash all unofficial "service packs"/drivers. Something like this released in recent times is meant for people still running these old OS for web browsing etc. on newer PCs, not a vintage system like yours.

reinstalled on another 40GB Seagate IDE hard disk using Seagate Diskwizard booted from floppy disks.
plain win98se from cd + Omega 3dfx Drivers + DirectX 9.0c + inf update Utility, enabled dma mode -> same Problems 🙁

do you think it could be the unofficial Omega Driver? People were using that one earlier without any issues...

You can always try original 3dfx and reference drivers - here's a site that hosts a variety:

http://www.falconfly.de/voodoo3.htm

I've had good luck with the Unofficial SPs, though I usually only install the Basic Updates and Performance Tweaks, and the IE Core stuff which is sometimes needed for the Supplements/Desktop updates to work.

Yeah, go with reference and why use DX9c? I wouldn't use anything newer than DirectX 7.0 on V1/V2/V3.

Hi

tried now with reference Drivers and DirectX 7, although I already had 9.0c installed and simply overwrote it with 7.0 (what may cause issues 😁) by changing the Version variable in the registry.
Still the same, GTA 1 in Windows mode unplayable.

-3Dmark 99 gives about 1000 3dmark Points and all Benchmarks run around 10fps at Default Settings. I can't remember exactly but I think that this box should perform way better
-dxdiag says that DirectDraw and Direct3D works fine, the tests there are running smoothly.

@Tincup:
I was about 10 years old when I had my own Win98SE box and by far I didn't have the knowledge I have now - and I've forgotten many things too. May I ask you to list some of your Basic updates and Performance tweaks, IE core stuff, and so on? I'll then document that and implement it on my future Win 98 installations 😀

However - I see 4 possibilities here what might be Happening with my P1 box:
- I'm too stupid to setup Win98 the right way on contemporary Hardware
- The Mainboard, and/or chipset and/or Drivers are crap
- I'm blinded by the Performance of recent machines and everything i saw is perfectly normal
- some Kind of defective Hardware is causing the issues

Could well be that the Windows version of GTA is just a bad port. Try Forsaken, where you should get over 60 FPS or Turok (demo has a built-in benchmark).

ok will try that asap, thx!

nemail wrote:

May I ask you to list some of your Basic updates and Performance tweaks, IE core stuff, and so on? I'll then document that and implement it on my future Win 98 installations

I was referring to the Service Pack component options - I only select a few:
Critical Updates
IE6 Core [I find this is needed to enable some desktop/graphic features, tho I'm strictly offline]
Performance Tweaks

I seem to get equal results with SP 2 or 3.

Beyond that I install W98se with as few of the optional components as possible , then:
Visual Basic 6 runtimes
nusb33 [it should be in the SP but if I get USB issues I reapply it]
DirectX 9.0c [I like it, it's very reverse compatible, and it's always seemed the most stable of the W98se supported Dx releases - the last in fact]

Motherboard chipset drivers
Audio drivers
Video Drivers

Then usefull system apps like 7zip, MagicDisk/DaemonTools, Acrobat 5, CPUz & GPUz, etc.

That's about it..

Have you checked Device Manager for any ! entries? Maybe your drives are operating in Compatibility mode or there is some resource conflict.
I think you should fresh install at this point as you may be getting orphaned driver/dll conflicts from all the fussing..

tincup wrote:

I was referring to the Service Pack component options - I only select a few: Critical Updates IE6 Core [I find this is needed […]
Show full quote

nemail wrote:

May I ask you to list some of your Basic updates and Performance tweaks, IE core stuff, and so on? I'll then document that and implement it on my future Win 98 installations

I was referring to the Service Pack component options - I only select a few:
Critical Updates
IE6 Core [I find this is needed to enable some desktop/graphic features, tho I'm strictly offline]
Performance Tweaks

I seem to get equal results with SP 2 or 3.

ah i see.. i'm using the Windows 98SE Update Pack 2.1d (German) from here:
http://winfuture.de/downloadvorschalt,1350.html,d.Yms

can't remember any IE6 option there... which SP are you using?

tincup wrote:

Beyond that I install W98se with as few of the optional components as possible , then: Visual Basic 6 nusb33 [it should be in th […]
Show full quote

Beyond that I install W98se with as few of the optional components as possible , then:
Visual Basic 6
nusb33 [it should be in the SP but if I get USB issues I reapply it]
DirectX 9.0c [I like it, it's very reverse compatible, and it's always seemed the most stable of the W98se supported Dx releases - the last in fact]

you talking about the full VB6 IDE or just the runtimes?
nusb33 is a mass storage Driver or....?
DirectX 9.0c: f2bnp told me not to use anything newer than DX7 with my Voodoo Card... I forgot everything about installing DirectX so i was not sure whether DirectX was backward compatible or not...

tincup wrote:

Motherboard chipset drivers Audio drivers Video Drivers Then usefull system apps like 7zip, MagicDisk/DaemonTools, Acrobat 5, C […]
Show full quote

Motherboard chipset drivers
Audio drivers
Video Drivers

Then usefull system apps like 7zip, MagicDisk/DaemonTools, Acrobat 5, CPUz & GPUz, etc.

sure Thing...

tincup wrote:

That's about it.. Have you checked Device Manager for any ! entries? Maybe your drives are operating in Compatibility mode or t […]
Show full quote

That's about it..

Have you checked Device Manager for any ! entries? Maybe your drives are operating in Compatibility mode or there is some resource conflict.
I think you should fresh install at this point as you may be getting orphaned driver/dll conflicts from all the fussing..

yeah, no yellow exclamation marks, no compatibility warnings, everything seems to work perfect, except the fact that the System feels way slower than it should be according to my memories.
Didn't test that Forsaken/Turok thing yet, though.

What I've done yesterday is reinstall everything from scratch on another hard disk, didn't work the way it should either...
I've also tested NFS Porsche Unleashed which should work with a P1 200MHz and a 4MB graphics card. It worked with about 12fps, I've expected more, due to the Voodoo 3 card and I'm also not sure if I have played that on my P1 150MHz years ago or if it already was my K6-2/400...

VB6 - yes, just the runtimes - under 2mb. Some apps/games need it so I pop it in.

DirectX can't really be over-installed with a older version. If you want to go back, best to start fresh. That said I use 90c with my W98se.

Your system *should* feel snappy on the desktop. Opening closing panels and menus should be sharp. Is the system lagging on just the normal stuff?

NFS Porsche system requirements list a P200mmx as the minimum CPU required, so you know what that means haha... probably really needs a P450+ for full res-good FPS, and crappy performance on a 1997 P200 era rig...