Fig

Trying to install Win98SE onto a colleagues (why me ???) ancient PC (P60, 545mb HD, 32Mb RAM) Setup runs OK, copies all files to PC, gets to 100% and machine reboots for the first time. Get POST checks, then the beep where you would usually see the Windows splash screen (at the point where you can hit F8 if you're quick). Splash screen does not display, speaker beeps wildly and cannot press F5 or F8 for menu or do anything else other than power off.

Any clues?

TIA

Silent Monkey

Long shot. What was it running before?
P60 could have been WFWG. Try swapping out the memory or swapping the SIMMs around if you don't have any spares. There were lots of problems with systems that had been running perfectly with WFWG failing miserably with W95 due to the different way it used memory.

Diehard but not necessarily expert

Fig

Oh the heady days of DOS and WFWG Yep, was DOS 6.2 & WFWG, with 8mb RAM.

I swapped the SIMS earlier tonight as Win98 needs 16meg. So I stuck 32 meg in it.

Got a sackful of sims, so will try playing swapsy tomorrow to see if that solves it.


Cheers for the suggestion

DominicA

Remove ALL cards from the machine, use only one stick of RAM, disable any onboard extras in the BIOS... and try again

Fig

Remove ALL cards from the machine
Hmmm, could be interesting, it only has a graphics card (1 meg at that!)

use only one stick of RAM
Will Win98 run with only 8 meg? thought it needed minimum 16?

disable any onboard extras in the BIOS
Onboard extras, nope, not seen any of them

... and try again
I'm trying, I'm trying (very trying so my mummy says)

Thanks for the suggestions, the sarcasm is not pointed at you

TomM

To be honest I wouldnt bother, with a HD of under 600Mb that PC will be almost useless, stick office on thier and you will have about 50Mb left!

And you will get endless support calls as your doing the install! - benn there got the T shirt!

Fig

Yup, know that - but having opened my big mouth and said I'll put Win98 on, and having already removed the DOS/WFWG installs, I need to get it working, or if all else fails find some install disks for DOS6.2/WFWG3.11 and put it back as it was.

I remembered late last night why I stopped offering to do this sort of thing

Dr Hu

Win98SE sounds a bit ambitious to me! - I would have thought it should run a basic Win95 install ok though.

As for simms - on the 'classic' pentium, they have to be installed in pairs - and preferably matched pairs too remember!

I agree with the hard disk space issue too - even a small footpeint win95 install is goinf to be 250 odd megs - not much room for much else, plus a swapfile.

I presume the person you are doing this for is tighter than a ducks ****......to they squeak when they walk? - explain to them that sometimes you just have to call it a day

suba

ok, try this...

format the HDD. copy win98 install files into HDD, then install win98 from HDD. you probably have to select minimum installation with a HDD size of 0.5GB!

should be able to run win98 with 8mb. i got a thinkpad 486DX4 75mhz with 8mb to run win98, but dont expect it to run like a impreza turbo, not even close to a justy! more like a vivo going uphill

Fig

Dr Hu

Yup, have explained about the space issue until blue in the face, but they assure me they are not going to attempt to download loads of MP3s etc (just wait and see ). Wish I'd kept my mouth shut now, cos this is going to take more time than a complete build of a new machine, [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] and yes, the words tight, **** and duck did feature in the conversation


Suba, started with a format as you've suggested, after scratching my head for a while trying to remember how to access the CD from DOS Everything so far is pointing at RAM, so will put the original 8 meg bag onboard and see where we go.

Thanks all

father_jack

Do you want a copy of 95? I've got a couple lying about.

Fig

Thanks for the offer, think I have too somewhere under this pile of dust. Will get back to you if I need one, if thats OK.

Dr Hu

You need a boot disk with virtual CD drivers on it.

You can make one from a Win98/ME pc - make a 'rescue' diskette.

Boot off that - it loads CD rom drivers into ram - searches the PC for a cd drive then says something like:-

CD Drive is drive E:

The bang in the cd, make a directory on the newly formatted HD - MD Wintemp or somefink, then xcopy the files oout of win98 folder on CD onto HDD - then run the setup off the harddisk.

However I think you will be struggling for space to have the cd image on the HDD and the install.

dsmith

Win95 was 26 floppies (i have a set here ) . You should be able to get a full 95 Install for about 50 mb.

I have 98SE running on a 486DX2 66 with 64mb ram. Dog slow () but lets me get terminal services up which is what I wanted.

Deano

SeanT

Ive had problems on old machines that have a virus checking option in the Bios, make sure its disabled if it has because this used to cause the problem your describing...

TomM

Ahh, the wonder os old hardware!!

Iam sure everyone posting here knows how much of a crappy job this is turning out to be!!

suba

somehow i dont think memory is the issue coz memory is one of those thing that it will either work or it wont!

fdisk the HDD, give it a good format [1], then copy the win98 install files to the the HDD and install from there.

i was reading a microsoft exchange 5.0 book and the spec needed to run exchange 5.0 on a NT4 server was a 486DX2 66 (or better), 32mb of RAM (or more), 100mb of paging/swap file and 500mb of free HDD space (or more)!


[1] format it with /u and dont use /q

Silent Monkey

somehow i dont think memory is the issue coz memory is one of those thing that it will either work or it wont!

Wish I'd known that back in the W95 beta and early release days when I was working for Micro$oft. I wouldn't have wasted many many weeks proving to distributors, dealers and end users that a machine which ran DOS and WFWG flawlessly would not necessarily run W95 OK due to the way it used memory differently. Much of the memory around at the time had refresh problems which caused W95 problems.

I saw a couple of systems behave the way Fig describes but usually it was intermittent hangs and crashes.

Fig

Put memory back to original without success,

ended up FDISKing, reformatting and installing WIN98 (original) which took 173meg. Now working OK, has an image of the install cab files on the HD and still has 250+ meg to play with.

suba

hmmm... strange it work with win98 and not win98se. are both version either OEM or retail? how about install win98se after installing win98? you did say "diehard"! so need to "die harder" to get win98se on the PC

Fig

No idea suba, both were full retail jobbies ("for PCs without Windows") and guess what?.......





......Yep, its staying as Win98 its taken over 10 hours to get a basic machine with the basic operating system. As the owner is tighter than a tight thing in a tight thing competition, I'll be lucky to get a half-eaten apple as my reward.


One things for sure tho - NEVER AGAIN (Hmmm, seem to recall saying this in the past)

Thanks for all the help. Next step, gonna have a go installing WFWG 3.11 onto Caesar