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tired of windows 98/2k failures

By tech_wiz03 ·
I am still trying to get a stable configuration of windows. It's been 9 months now and each windows op system is flakey at best.

I need a system with 3 op systems win98, win2k and linux-mandrake9.1. Originally installed win98se-oem and win2k in one partition set a second partition aside for swap space, a third for data and a forth for linux. linux worked 100% and alway has, win98 runs for few days then slows to crawl and starts giving trouble, win2k does the same and when i install vb.net/visual studio.net system starts crashing. Under this configuration all hardware and drivers work fine.

Repartioned system and put win2k on it's own partition, now win98 refuses to recognise mbo based sound, win2k refuses to recognise scanner, and linux still works great. System under win98 crashes, system under win2k crashes

Upgraded win98se-oem to win98se-box set now scanner, printer, usb ports, firewall, anti-virus, memory guardian all are having troubles. win2k still crashes under vb.net/studio.net and won't see scanner.

Wiped everything, installed just win2k and system runs but very slow and crashes under vb.net

specs: AMD-K7SEM with onboard sis630/730 video sis900 fast ethernet sis1870 sound 120GB harddisk 1.2 & 1.44 floppy K7-1400+ CPU 128mb memory cdrom x52 cdr/w x48x16x48 panasonic kxp1123 printer cannon 4100 printer.

someone must be able to help I'm loosing too much time on this thanks

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by Curacao_Dejavu In reply to tired of windows 98/2k fa ...

Ok,

let's go 1 by 1, you are having too many symptons and they are not related to each other.

1. create 3 partitions. each os has to have it own partition, and when you install a program it has (prefered) to go to that particular partition.
The first partition has to be fat16.

regarding win98se: install the win98se right away,then install the nessesary pacthes and update before installing any additional programs.
of course makes sure that you have the correct win98 drivers for the hardware and software.

This shouldn't give troubles, get the win98 stable before proceding to go with the other os's.


regarding w2k.
for one 128 MB memory is too litle (this explains the slowness your experiencing, MS at one time suggested even 64MB, in practice you need 256 MB memory to work at a decent speed.)
From other users I know that AMD systems gives some problems, you have install 1: sp4 of w2k and 2 update the bios of your motherboard and in combination with the sound issue get the correct 2k driver for the soundcard form the manufacturer of the motherboard.

whenever you install w2k or windowsxp you have to check with 1 MS if it's compatible (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl) 2: the manufacturer of the hardware (and 3 what I use too
http://www.ntcompatible.com/ which is a independent website of MS)
That explains why the scanner and the mbo doesn't work.

regarding visual basic; in ntcompatible.com I see that is is compatible with w2k, so that issue is strange. Pls verify also if possible give the excact version of visual basic and I will look it up. You can contact the manufacturer too.

Install the sp4 and additional pacthes before installing any software.

Linux works, so no comment on that.


Leopold

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by Curacao_Dejavu In reply to

ms requirements are 1 thing, real world experience is another.the requirements of ms are on barebone systems, real world is when you have actually applcations installed and not only the os. Install office or coreldraw or norton for example and you will notice a big performance hit.

Although IE 6 works well, I should have suggested IE 5. IE 6 uses more memory indeed than IE 5.(which will be solved with more memory , you really need more for when you are going to install w2k)

For the internet speed you have to check with the ISP itself. Working for 1 myself and knowing the competition, there are lots of terms whats the minimum speed, till which amount you can burst, how it's actually calculated etc.
30K for now seems like a 1 MB link.
We use www.bandwidthplace.com to check the links.
Actual downloading may very of websites, etc, there are to many factors to consider, when downloading a file.

Keep me posted,

Leopold

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by Curacao_Dejavu In reply to

I thought I was subscribed to this question but obviously was not.
ieradicator was not a good idea, they claim to do remove IE but lots of times they break more than to fix.
I was going to suggest Mozilla as a browser that's faster than IE. The whole IE problem started with IE 5 when MS decided to tie the IE to the OS. contact me via email on how to proceed. We can reinstall IE 6 or start again with a new install and leave ie4 and install mozilla.
Regarding the startup programs, for now what really needs to is that antivirus and the maybe zonealarm, the rest be can started manually.
at work we just use generic text as the driver for the printer.
I don't understand what you are saying abouth the sound.

Leopold

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by tech_wiz03 In reply to

Poster rated this answer.
Again your right! ieradicator did leave a few non-serious holes but biggest trouble is that while i can gain stability by dumping ie#, anytime i hit a microsoft sponcered site ie comes back with newest version and clears all my settings and customization so i will just have to live with ie5 waisting my resources.

I wiped everything, finally got clean win98 install by not have internet active, installing firewall and marking microsoft apps as never allowed outbound or inbound. With MS interference gone my everything now works in win98 except my old dm printer. As it turns out win98se full version won't support old printers on an epp/ecp printer port so added second print port and it works. Tried ie4 but I have some apps that have ie5 req'd.
Using opera whenever possible. Installed updates only for strictly windows (not ie# ) req'mnts.

Used the same technique with win2k and now have stable install too. Win2k Hotfix keeps removing Scanner twain driver from mfg at each reboot putting back microsofts version without EPP support so will have to live with MS crap here I think. With
IE6 replaced with IE5 vb.net now installs and only crashes if I have yahoo chat or debug enabled while building an app.

PS I don't have you email address or i would have emailed you!

Thanks for your help

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by sgt_shultz In reply to tired of windows 98/2k fa ...

here is another bit of info for you maybe: vb studio has buggy version of mdm.exe (microsoft debug manager) you can turn it off but it comes back like bad penny so find the file and rename it...that will improve performance. you probably have system resource conflicts with your devices...or are you just ranting? if linux is so great, how come you going to so much trouble to load windows? (i'm *teasing!*)

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by tech_wiz03 In reply to

Yes your right visual studio/ VB.net has a buggy mdm.exe renaming it did fix performance but appears to cause problems during build cycle so use script to kill it when not building and another when building to reactivate it.

thanks for your help

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by tech_wiz03 In reply to tired of windows 98/2k fa ...

Re: last commenter/teaser: Linux is great but does not support my webcam or scanner or provide me with ability to support people using win anything. I desire win98 cause it will run apps that i regularly use to help others. The only reason for me even considering win 2k is becauseI need it for .net development although it seems to be too much bother at this point.

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by tech_wiz03 In reply to tired of windows 98/2k fa ...

Point value changed by question poster.

ok
1) checked out hardware and requirements at microsoft and my system is well with-in specs

2) repartioned with 9 needed partitons 1 primary 8 extended

3) installed win98se-oem +patches+upgrades + mbo drivers all seems perfect but internet running very slow (my adsl speed 2-7mb throughput is barely 30kb) and ie6 is hogging all the memory

4) changed vcache to fixed 8192 and locked swap at 512mb fixed size which sped up applications but didn't inprove slow ie6.

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by tech_wiz03 In reply to tired of windows 98/2k fa ...

Win98 issue:
the oem version:
all hardware works ok
before patches and updates had plenty of
free memory after went from 89% free to
14% free. changing vache & swap increased
memory back up to 74% free.
at start-up there seems to be a bottleneck
as programs all try and begin at same
time ie: ZoneAlarms+systemsafe+Antivir
+incd+mixer+yahoo-messenger+ocr+
sisdrivers+Anti-ad all try to start at
same instant resulting in "protection
fault"
before updates adsl throughput is
consistantly about 240kb/s after it slows
to 30kb/s , if i use ieradicator to
delete ie6 and switch to opera as browser
adsl speed comes back to 112kb/s but i
loose yahoo-mail and yahoo-messenger
functionality
MS sponsored sites either give trouble
complaining about outlook express being
missing and ie# being missing, or force
my system to re-install the crap.
The box-set version:
as above except now panasonic kxp1123
printer prints garbage even with new
drivers! and sound card drivers on
installing microsoft ones instead of
correct mbo ones.

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by Deadly Ernest In reply to tired of windows 98/2k fa ...

Don't know if this is any good to you, but if you ever decide to wipe the HDD and start again I suggest you do the following.

Format the HDD with a partition for each o/s and one for data using FAT32.
Load Linux
Load Win 98
Load Win 2K

If I was doing this I would actually use a system with Win XP Pro to partition and format the HDD partitions FAT32, as this would allow me to create multiple primary partitions and thus be able to load both Linux and Windows into Primary Partitions and not a Logical Drive in an Extended partition.

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