Just run Rain or one of its contemporary rivals to execute halt - and remain blissfully happy with Win98SE?

Windows 98 does support HLT (CPU idle). It's just that in some situations (for instance when you're running it in a VM) you may have to force ACPI support when you run the installer.

You do so by starting setup like this:

setup /p j

Not sure if this is also necessary for Windows Me, but it may very well be the case.

I'm using AmnHLT in my Windows 9x VMs. It really works.
However, I'm not using them for games, but to run old productivity software (VB6, Delphi 3, Atmel Studio etc).
Raine and other utilities might be better for gaming purposes, not sure.

leonardo wrote on 2024-06-19, 21:51:

Just run Rain or one of its contemporary rivals to execute halt - and remain blissfully happy with Win98SE?

I prefer to have it built in to the OS if possible. I know it's silly, but it's just how I am. 🤣
Of course, if ME doesn't support HLT and I can't get 98 to cool down even after forcing ACPI (below) I may have to get Rain anyway.

digger wrote on 2024-06-19, 21:52:

Windows 98 does support HLT (CPU idle). It's just that in some situations (for instance when you're running it in a VM) you may […]
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Windows 98 does support HLT (CPU idle). It's just that in some situations (for instance when you're running it in a VM) you may have to force ACPI support when you run the installer.

You do so by starting setup like this:

setup /p j

Not sure if this is also necessary for Windows Me, but it may very well be the case.

Hmm, this is interesting! I've never set up Win98 like that (on real hardware). Many moons ago I had an IBM with a passively cooled P3 that ran too hot to touch on 98 and much cooler w/ 2000 and XP. All because I never knew to force ACPI during 98 install? I'll try this out - thanks!

If I remember correctly, you may also have to check in your BIOS settings whether ACPI is enabled. Legacy APM will probably not work.

Good luck!

There was real hardware with broken ACPI support and Win98 looks for this during setup. If it finds this it will install in APM mode. Win2K and WinME have further ACPI refinements.

Almost made its way in back with Windows 95 but had to be backed out: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20 … 828-00/?p=42753

Just to update you guys on this - I've installed Windows 98SE with forced ACPI support, and proper CPU idle seems to be working! I haven't found any software that can read CPU power draw on this P4 laptop, but the fan mostly stays off at the desktop and turns on right away when it's running a game. So HLT seems to be working. I want to thank you guys for the help, and saving me from ME! 🤣

@jakethompson1 - that's an interesting read!

You're welcome. We all need to be saved from ourselves every once and awhile. 😉

Just an academic curiosity - if some of these early systems had buggy or bad ACPI implementations, and Windows disables ACPI for this reason - could there be a potential downside to forcing APCI enabled? I'm curious as to which way I would go in the future. If Rain only executes hlt, and ACPI enables Windows to execute hlt, but then also does something else - I may want to not have the "something else" I guess. Does this make sense? Any graybeards around that know something?

leonardo wrote on 2024-06-20, 19:02:

Just an academic curiosity - if some of these early systems had buggy or bad ACPI implementations, and Windows disables ACPI for this reason - could there be a potential downside to forcing APCI enabled? I'm curious as to which way I would go in the future. If Rain only executes hlt, and ACPI enables Windows to execute hlt, but then also does something else - I may want to not have the "something else" I guess. Does this make sense? Any graybeards around that know something?

Anything with a Pentium 4 should have fully working ACPI, as it looks like you can't enable HyperThreading without it.

I'd keep ACPI shut off on anything that has ISA slots, though.