I believe as long as there are W98SE chipset drivers available you are set! But this machine might be too new.

The good thing is that IBM has all the drivers on their site, so it shouldn't be an issue checking it out.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I believe as long as there are W98SE chipset drivers available you are set! But this machine might be too new.

The good thing is that IBM has all the drivers on their site, so it shouldn't be an issue checking it out.

Once you install the 98SE update pack, it is able to detect the AGP bus and everything else: to my delight. BEFORE installing it, the GPU was not detected. Being hot headed, I was getting mad about it. But you learn to cool down and troubleshoot.
Intel does offer the chipset drivers independently somewhere on their cryptic website.

The 98 drivers for the onboard stuff doesn't seem to work. To be honest, I'm not sure if those integrated components are meant for 98...
I prefer running my own cards anyways 😀

And I found THESE, FINALLY:
http://www.vath.co/product_info.php?products_id=50

Windows 98 stickers. Going to buy a fist-full of those.

I think ive read somewhere that windows 98 does'nt like cpus higher than 2ghz, you'll find out soon enough.

dirkmirk wrote:

I think ive read somewhere that windows 98 does'nt like cpus higher than 2ghz, you'll find out soon enough.

Win98SE is ok with this. I've run it on a 3.15ghz Northwood np. It's things like USB2.0, newer vid cards and ram > 512mb that are the real killers.

Yes, my current Win9x PC is P4 3.00E on 865PE chipset. With HT disabled in BIOS - ATi Calalyst not work with HT enabled.
Well, for the RAM - you always have msconfig and /maxmem= switch.
About videocards - yes, I still hope for the Win9x drivers for ALL Agp videocards, not only Radeon Xxxx and GeForce 6xxx.
USB 2.0 - work perfectly.
The only trouble for me - Win9x not boot with 1Tb HDD in the system...

dirkmirk wrote:

I think ive read somewhere that windows 98 does'nt like cpus higher than 2ghz, you'll find out soon enough.

Windows 98 doesn't like more than one CPU (there have been a handful who got 3+ Ghz processors running windows 98 ). I've been running this computer for about a week now with various DOS games and the like. No issues cropped up.
These particular machines do not support HT, which is good.

sgt76 wrote:

Win98SE is ok with this. I've run it on a 3.15ghz Northwood np. It's things like USB2.0, newer vid cards and ram > 512mb that are the real killers.

The thinkcentre I'm running it on does have USB 2.0 and 1GB of RAM (although do you need more than 512 MB in 98?!).
It runs fine from the games and tests I conducted upon it, and I do use it to transfer files over jump drives. Although they're probably operating at USB 1.0 speeds from how long it takes to transfer things.
You can modify 98 to accept 2GB, but anything beyond that will be rejected no matter what.

Gamecollector wrote:

Yes, my current Win9x PC is P4 3.00E on 865PE chipset. With HT disabled in BIOS - ATi Calalyst not work with HT enabled. Well, f […]
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Yes, my current Win9x PC is P4 3.00E on 865PE chipset. With HT disabled in BIOS - ATi Calalyst not work with HT enabled.
Well, for the RAM - you always have msconfig and /maxmem= switch.
About videocards - yes, I still hope for the Win9x drivers for ALL Agp videocards, not only Radeon Xxxx and GeForce 6xxx.
USB 2.0 - work perfectly.
The only trouble for me - Win9x not boot with 1Tb HDD in the system...

Windows 98 doesn't support NTFS.

Raymangold1992? I didn't know you were on here... but anyway I think one of those thinkcenters is overkill for win 98... I still use one with a 128MB vid card 2GB of RAM and a 3GHz P4 HT for my main rig!

3DfxNerd wrote:

Raymangold1992? I didn't know you were on here... but anyway I think one of those thinkcenters is overkill for win 98... I still use one with a 128MB vid card 2GB of RAM and a 3GHz P4 HT for my main rig!

Oh these computers can easily push windows 7; just pop in 4GB of RAM and you're set (yes I've been rescuing many 1GB DDR 333/400 sticks). But... I already have a core2 intellistation which maxes at 8GB of RAM, I unfortunately have to use this as my primary until I get my main intellistation up and running again (and yes there are thinkcentres that share the same chassis, but they're so watered down):

It's worth noting that there are still games which can be taxing to systems even like these for windows 9x gaming.
Nox can experience frame rate drops, even on these; but maybe it's not the CPU itself but another issue. It could even be the voodoo 4500 (using original reference drivers), I'd have to do tests to confirm.

Also, I do use this system for games the P1 can't handle.

Regardless, this IBM has one of the nicest chassis for an OEM pc ever IMHO. Looks retro and all business.

Regardless, this IBM has one of the nicest chassis for an OEM pc ever IMHO. Looks retro and all business.

raymangold22 wrote:

Windows 98 doesn't support NTFS.

You don't understood the trouble.
Not booting even with an unpartitioned 1 Tb HDDs. Looks like the boot loader code is scanning all hard drives for the FAT/FAT32 volumes and somethind is overflow.
By the way, WinME itself is working perfectly with a 1Tb HDDs, I just must disable such drives in the BIOS, to pass the bootloader.

I wouldn't run Windows 7 on my thinkcenter... I don't want to push my only good machine too hard and kill it, 🤣.

3DfxNerd wrote:

I wouldn't run Windows 7 on my thinkcenter... I don't want to push my only good machine too hard and kill it, 🤣.

There's only two things that would kill it:
#1 The FSB heatsinks get VERY hot, I really think they should be changed with something larger. Regardless of what OS you run, the FSB will get hot regardless of what it processes.
#2 Chemi-con KZG capacitors. Many of these (A51p?) Thinkcentres have random batches of caps chosen by the factory. Many are Rubycon MBZ, other are Chemicon KZG.

The KZGs will burst open or short circuit after 5 years. The Rubycon MBZs are still fine in all of the systems I own.

So check the CPU filter caps (these old thinkcentres have a bunch of polymers to back it up, but you don't want to stress anything). The KZG chemicons will be brown, the MBZs will be royal purple.

I have to recap five IBMs. They're piled up in my closet pending.

Very nice...although I do believe a 1.2Ghz P3 Tualatin is the pinnacle of Win98 goodness. Low powered, supported chipsets and plenty of power for Win98 games. Pick up the right board and you have ISA, PCI and AGP support in one box.

Mention of the caps reminds me of an Athlon XP desktop I built for my mom awhile back. Nearly every single visible capacitor on the motherboard is bulging or busted and yet, the machine still POSTs and boots into Windows XP. What a trooper of a board.

mine has solid state caps... very rare on OEM P4 boards

valnar wrote:

Very nice...although I do believe a 1.2Ghz P3 Tualatin is the pinnacle of Win98 goodness. Low powered, supported chipsets and plenty of power for Win98 games. Pick up the right board and you have ISA, PCI and AGP support in one box.

Yes I agree. However, a tualatin will still struggle on more intensive applications & software.
(In my scenario, I wanted IBM computers--as I have no tolerance for other brands-- and these poor things landed right onto my lap; oddly enough I always wanted one of these computers).

3DfxNerd wrote:

mine has solid state caps... very rare on OEM P4 boards

"polymer" (as mentioned above) is the same thing as a "solid state" capacitor, but it's more specific as there are many different kinds of solid state caps.
Tantulum capacitors (my favourite) for example, are different from polymers, yet both are solid state.

In the real IBM made computers (not referring to computers made by lenovo in late 2003 and after), you'll always see polymer or tantulum CPU filter caps. ALL of my P4 IBMs have loads of polymer CPU caps.
My P1 uses tantulums (the little orange & yellow rectangles) instead of polymers.

But yeah, there are sparse electrolytic capacitors that still have to be replaced. I don't really NEED to as all of the systems still operate normally, but it's important to take care of the components.

the Netvistas made from 2000 - 2002 all had electrolytics in them for the cpu VRM circuitry, and some tantulums in random places throughout the board. and Lenovo (the fake IBM, 🤣) never made a single netvista...and I thought lenovo took over in 2004.

3DfxNerd wrote:

the Netvistas made from 2000 - 2002 all had electrolytics in them for the cpu VRM circuitry, and some tantulums in random places throughout the board. and Lenovo (the fake IBM, 🤣) never made a single netvista...and I thought lenovo took over in 2004.

Humorously enough the press-released date for the lenovo take over is 2005, but that's just to hide the fact. Samuel Palmisano's idea was to slowly transition lenovo in to get customers used to it, and then remove the IBM branding entirely. Of course Lou Gerstner was always against selling the IBM divisions; but hey, Palmisano lacked a proper education, so without that, his decisions were illogical...
They were sneaking behind the scenes in late 2003 (I worked with some late 2003 thinkcentres that had lenovo tags on them: and would you know it, no polymer filter sections!).

What makes it hard to distinguish is the fact lenovo was using IBM-designed chassis... and even put IBM logos on their lenovo-made systemboards (BIOS chips internally have lenovo plastered inside them).