First post, by Hans Tork
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After taking ages, my Win 95 build is sort of complete. As of writing this post,I am still having issues with the motherboard and/or the PS/2 keyboard. However, I think I have gotten some decent time with the OS to document my experience.
First off, my hardware list:
Asus CUV4X Socket 370 motherboard(having issues so will probably need a replacement I reduced the speed im BIOS to 366 Mhz and now the issues are sorta gone)
Intel Pentium 3 Coppermine
Riva TNT2 64M Vanta(I had the better RIVA TNT2 but the motherboard refuses to display anything. Fortunately I also got the vanta as it was quite cheap)
SB AWE 64 CT4520
128 MB RAM
128 GB SSD(used qemu to make it bootable)
Probably the most valuable thing I learnt is how to use qemu to install Win 95 without a floppy or even a CD/DVD ROM!!!! I used qemu to make the 128 GB SSD bootable on my real PC using a Win 95 image and then transferred the SSD over to the retro one. Apparently you have to keep the SSD unallocated(ie do not make any partitions there), use FDISK(ideally a patched FDISK) on it from the qemu Win 95 boot disk to create a primary DOS partition and then format the boot partition to make it bootable. It took me a lot of time to figure out that making partitions before using the boot disk messes things up.
For the Win 95 OSR version, I went with the modified OSR 2.1 version(following the guide created by Leonardo). After a lot of trial and error I did manage to get a stable system running and even played pinball, Diablo 1&2 and Age of Empires 2 on the system. I did have a lot of crashes/BSODs before I figured out the bare minimum things to install to keep the system stable.
It seems disabling every port or resource not needed by the BIOS, getting the RLOEW patches, installing only the XUSB update and the VIA 4in1 drivers, the unofficial updates and installer(nothing else on the list), then Dx 7.0 and finally the gpu/sound drivers is the way to go. Win 95 gave me a BSOD everytime I installed Dx 8 and Plus! Themes. I also had to avoid setting up a network and the additional stuff on the unofficial updates pack as those installations also gave me issues. I cannot say if OSR 2.1 was a better choice than OSR 2.5 since I only installed OSR 2.5 once and it seemed okay till it kept on asking me to restart due to registry errors. I feel OSR 2.1 had less of those issues but I did not test the 2 versions comprehensively. Also it seems getting 7zip and Clone Drive is enough to run and test the games I want to play on the OS.
The above pictures were taken when I had Themes installed. I would not recommend installing as it later caused crashes for me.
All in all, I am quite satisfied with what I saw. The OS itself was pretty snappy and I did get to experience the authentic feeling of playing Diablo 1, Age of Empires 2(it was Win 98se but somewhat applicable) on Win 95. I would like to thank the forum members for chiming in with some sound advice in my initial post about the build.
Presently, due to the motherboard issue I am unable to use a keyboard or give an input when my system logs in to the Win 95 OS or even POSTs. I do plan to get a RIVA TNT2 in the future and also change the motherboard. Right now, I do not know if the motherboard is having problems or it is a PSU thing. It might even be something to do with the mouse/KB. I keep on getting a wheezing sound from the motherboard speaker and it seems some users with this motherboard previously had similar issues with their PS/2 ports. I hope to change the motherboard soon and update the post once everything is stable.
Fingers crossed but resetting the bios and rebooting a few times with only KB and then the mouse worked and the system can boot into Win 95. I still do not know what causes the issue but I can only pray that the system does not give me that annoying KB/mouse issue.
So the system is right now working with BIOS CPU speed set to 366 Mhz.
Ok after a lot of messing around and trying to fix the issue, I think I would ditch the motherboard. I even tried this fix as suggested in another thread, however the problem only worsened. I think a new motherboard has to be procured for my socket 370 build.
