Windows 98SE on newer hardware

goldken51

I have been thinking of building a win 98se machine to be able to use my older games. But after reading about some of the problems some are having I am not sure if it will work now. I was planning on putting 98se on an SSD in one of my older am2 motherboards. I do have some even older pc,s with older slower processors, Now I have a question, does win 98se have to be used with older hardware machines?

Ken

SomeGuy

I've split the topic because it is a good question, but not quite directly related to the other thread.

The main problem with installing Windows 9x on newer hardware is drivers. You will have to research the compatiblity of each component (motherboard chipset/sound/video/IO controller, network card, etc) and search for compatible drivers.

I've installed Windows 9x on some newer hardware, but while it installed, it didn't have video drivers for the video card, and it also didn't have drivers for this SATA chipset so the motherboard had to run in IDE emulation mode.

I would expect an AM2 motherboard to probably install OK, but if it has integrated video/networking/etc you might need to disable those and use compatible PCI expansion cards instead.

For gaming, the important thing is really the video - you will want a card that has sufficent Directx/Direct3d support. A 2-d only VESA driver won't be sufficient.

Kurtisdede

Yes, the issue is drivers.
I installed Win98SE on newer hardware, Core 2 Duo, 2 GB Ram, Nvidia 8600 GT. I had some errors through the install. When I was finally able to get to the setup... well I did the setup like expected, but then when I rebooted, there was a ram issue. I fixed that and I booted but there were literally nothing to do, because no drivers for anything, pretty much. So I upgraded to Windows XP.

Icon

Why not just use VMWare Workstation or oracle Virtualbox?

goldken51

SomeGuy wrote:

I've split the topic because it is a good question, but not quite directly related to the other thread.

The main problem with installing Windows 9x on newer hardware is drivers. You will have to research the compatiblity of each component (motherboard chipset/sound/video/IO controller, network card, etc) and search for compatible drivers.

I've installed Windows 9x on some newer hardware, but while it installed, it didn't have video drivers for the video card, and it also didn't have drivers for this SATA chipset so the motherboard had to run in IDE emulation mode.

I would expect an AM2 motherboard to probably install OK, but if it has integrated video/networking/etc you might need to disable those and use compatible PCI expansion cards instead.

For gaming, the important thing is really the video - you will want a card that has sufficent Directx/Direct3d support. A 2-d only VESA driver won't be sufficient.

I appreciate the info. I do have an AM2 motherboard, I also have some older Motherboards still in older pc's, the only thing wrong with them is the HDD crashed. So maybe the best thing I could do for a start is to install my SSD drive and see what happens. I also have some old cpu's, one I have in a cubby hole on my desk is this old socket 5 or socket 7 cpu I looked up these specs for online.

Family Intel Pentium
CPU part numbers A80502133 is an OEM/tray microprocessor
A80502-133 is an OEM/tray microprocessor

Frequency ? 133 MHz
Bus speed ? 66 MHz
Clock multiplier ? 2
Package 296-pin Ceramic Staggered Pin Grid Array (SPGA)
1.95" x 1.95" (4.95 cm x 4.95 cm)
Sockets Socket 5
Socket 7
Introduction date 1-Jun-95
Upgrade options Pentium MMX overdrive 166
Pentium MMX overdrive 200

budyn2002

VirtualBox won't be good, because the games may run too fast. Running games on older hardware will be better. Windows 98 will work fine on newer hardware, but I suggest you using an older video card to make sure the drivers are compatible with Windows 98. I also suggest installing Second Edition and SP 2.1b for Windows 98. It will be much more compatible.

ibmpc5150

I know the latest motherboard for support Windows 9x is based on Intel 915P / 925X.

I use PCEM to launch Windows 9x on my i5 System.