nForce 430/GeForce 6150SE/Athlon 64 X2 3800+ -- Any hope of getting it working in 98SE or ME? \ VOGONS

nForce 430/GeForce 6150SE/Athlon 64 X2 3800+ -- Any hope of getting it working in 98SE or ME?

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First post, by Lost-Entrepreneur439

Posted on 2025-03-22, 20:35

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I have a Dell Inspiron 531s, it has an Athlon 64 X2 3800+, an nForce 430 chipset, the GPU is a GeForce 6150SE, and it has 1GB RAM. I've been trying to get Windows 98SE working on it, but I can't get it to work, I've been able to get 98SE to install by using the flag "/p i" when running SETUP.EXE from DOS, but after installing 98, I can't get the graphics driver installed, I tried multiple different GeForce 6 drivers, but every one I tried just gave me "Windows Protection Error", I saw some things on how to fix it, some people said you should try to disable onboard audio in the BIOS, that didn't work, someone said using ME fixed it for them, so I tried ME, nope, that just caused a shutdown on the Windows logo after installing the graphics driver. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get Windows 98SE or ME working on this system or is this computer just too new for Windows 9x?

Reply 1 of 8, by Horun

Posted on 2025-03-22, 22:33

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Yes too new. nVidia never released nf4 win9x drivers, just win2k/xp and up afaik. Have you tried disabling onboard video and use a good PCI vid card ?

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 8, by myne

Posted on 2025-03-23, 00:24

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Rlowes tools on archive.org might help

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Reply 3 of 8, by Lost-Entrepreneur439

Posted on 2025-03-23, 02:30

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Horun wrote on 2025-03-22, 22:33:

Yes too new. nVidia never released nf4 win9x drivers, just win2k/xp and up afaik. Have you tried disabling onboard video and use a good PCI vid card ?

They did have graphics support, on another system with the same chipset (but 6150LE instead of SE), I was able to get 98 working fine. Vintage video cards are impossible to get where I am, and I no longer have that other system.

Reply 4 of 8, by Lost-Entrepreneur439

Posted on 2025-03-23, 02:31

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myne wrote on 2025-03-23, 00:24:

Rlowes tools on archive.org might help

Which tools specifically? Iirc, rlowes had a lot of tools for 9x.

Reply 5 of 8, by Matchstick

Posted on 2025-03-23, 06:55

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Probably having issues due to the 1GB RAM.

98se by default only supports 512mb, this cause Windows Protection Errors, and other weird things.

PATCHMEM from Rudolph R. Loews archive should do it.
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/rudolph-r-loew-patches.html

Reply 6 of 8, by momaka

Posted on 2025-03-23, 14:28

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Matchstick wrote on 2025-03-23, 06:55:

Probably having issues due to the 1GB RAM.

98se by default only supports 512mb, this cause Windows Protection Errors, and other weird things.

^ This.

Also, if this was my system, I would not put Win9x on it - it'd just be a waste of a dual core CPU.
Moreover, I really dislike the nVidia 6150 chipsets, as they are extremely failure-prone. Actually, whichever OS you end up using on it, make sure to put a small fan on the chipset heatsink, or that system won't last long. The worst part is when these start half-dying but occasionally still working "fine". I have two systems like that: one works OK for the most part, minus the LAN port being dead *most* of the time and occasionally the system refusing to boot at all. The other one was dead when I found it. Gave it a reflow and brought it back to life. Then over time, the wireless died.

Reply 7 of 8, by mantis2001

Posted on 2025-08-17, 16:45

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I have same nForce 430 chipsets with Athlon II X2, the integrated display is 7025 (almost same to 6150) but failed win9x, even force install 6150 not working.

Reply 8 of 8, by shevalier

Posted on 2025-08-17, 17:10

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momaka wrote on 2025-03-23, 14:28:

Moreover, I really dislike the nVidia 6150 chipsets, as they are extremely failure-prone.

Yeah, NVIDIA hasn't had much luck with single-chip chipsets, since the nForce 3
I have a dual-chip 6100, and it's still going strong.

Lost-Entrepreneur439 wrote on 2025-03-22, 20:35:

I've been trying to get Windows 98SE working on it, but I can't get it to work

As far as I knew (I use Windows 2000), the Windows 98 drivers are quite functional for this chipset (not for video part).
If you have an available PCI-e 16x, then an external video card will be fine.
For example, FX5950 PCX or Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition.

PS.Just kidding.
X600 will be very good and sufficient.

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