Windows 98 Gaming PC: The Beige Build

almoststew1990 · 9 Mar 2017 at 12:32

Last night I got Windows installing after quite a bit of faffing with partitioning and formatting drives, followed by the CD re-writer drive not supporting basic generic drivers so the "drive was not ready" whenever I tried to run setup. As a last ditch I tried the DVD drive, which worked yay! I got Windows mostly installed last night but turned off my PC at one of the 'please restart' points. This morning It completed yay:

I tried to copy over some drivers using a USB stick and I need drivers for that, boo! I'll copy the USB stick drivers (and as many other drivers as I can) from a CD tonight when I get back home.

darael · 9 Mar 2017 at 18:43

Windows 98 SE should fly on that machine. If the machine is connected to the internet, there is sort of update pack that might be worth your while burning to CD as well: Windows 98, 98 SP1, 98 SE + ME Updates, Patches + (Hot)Fixes.

almoststew1990 · 9 Mar 2017 at 19:46

The next problem...

I installed drivers for the TNT2. Version 71.84, which seem to be fairly readily available from the various sources including the NVidia archive. However, when I try to launch 3DMark 99, it comes up saying I need to install a 3D Accelerator that can run DX6. In DXDiag, under the display tab, it lists my device as a "TNT2/TNT2 Pro" and says "DirectDraw: Acceleration Enabled" but "Direct3D: No Acceleration Available". It also lists my GPU as only having 2.5mb of total memory when it is the 16mb version!

Could this also be a bios AGP setting somewhere? I've installed the 440BX Chipset drivers.

I got the USB drivers working at least so I can shuttle drivers back and forth

...Edit- if I restart and run DXDIAG it says I have Direct3D acceleration, but when I run 3DMark 99 it then flickers the screen and nothing... I then run DXDIAG and it says no 3D acceleration

Edit edit- this also happens if I just 'test' the Direct3d in DXdiag

mmj_uk · 9 Mar 2017 at 20:05

You probably need to use older NVidia drivers from the late 90's, 71.84 are from 2005. What DirectX version do you have?

almoststew1990 · 9 Mar 2017 at 20:11

It says I have 6.1 installed (3DMark 99 offered to install it, but it was already installed). I've tried downloading earlier drivers from the Nvidia Archive website but for some reason the earlier I get "access denied messages" when I try to download anything.

mmj_uk · 9 Mar 2017 at 20:22

There's some older versions here:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=24

12.41 are from 2001 I'd try those first, if not even earlier.

almoststew1990 · 9 Mar 2017 at 20:25

Thanks very much that's very useful!

almoststew1990 · 9 Mar 2017 at 23:13

Success finally after doing a manual install method

No Control Panel but I suppose that could be installed separately if I was bothered. Ended up using version 4.12.01.0618, many iterations after the drivers used by reviewers so hopefully improved performance over the reviews!

Now onto some games

Enjoying the Quake 2 and 3 demo!

rene.agac · 10 Mar 2017 at 03:13

almoststew1990 said:
Windows 98se is about £20 on eBay so I've sourced it from elsewhere now! I still have a few bits to get hold of:

CPU (should be with me early next week)

Jumpers for the motherboard and my CD drives

Soundcard with Windows 98 drivers.

Also games! So far I have / on the way:

Driver (still got this from new in 1998)

Age of Empires 1 and 2

Empire Earth

The Sims

Sim City 3000

C&C Red Alert

GTA 3

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Definitely Fallout 2 and Theme Hospital !

ubersonic · 10 Mar 2017 at 10:27

almoststew1990 said:
Nice! I think someone here told me that a CF card would make the storage pretty nippy (similar to a new HDD PC). That just sounded a bit too complicated for me

I think it was me who told you that, it's what I use in my Win98 rig.

1: Get a CF card.
2: Get a CF to PATA adaptor.
3: Put the CF card in the PATA adaptor.
4: Put the PATA adaptor where the PATA HDD was.

It's not exactly rocket surgery

almoststew1990 · 10 Mar 2017 at 21:10

I was brave today and updated the bios, which meant learning how to format bootable floppies from DOS and copy command :cool:

Now I can put the PIII 550 in

But first... some benchmarks... (the quake benchmarking is strange... does it play

PII 450MHz:
Quake 2 (Demo 1) 640*480: 54.3fps
Quake 2 (Demo 1) 1024*768: 50.3fps
Quake 3 (Demo 1) 640*480: 46.8fps
Quake 3 (Demo 1) 1024*768: 44.5fps
3DMark 1999 PC: 3759
3DMark 1999 CPU: 4247
3DMark 2000: 1619

Here is a video of me playing Quake 3, whilst I change CPU

LewisRaz · 11 Mar 2017 at 09:54

Nice! Also thanks to who posted that w98 update site. Saved that for myself

almoststew1990 · 11 Mar 2017 at 16:54

I've got a new problem now

Sometimes, after a few hours of the PC being on, the computer will crash with a black screen with tiny green bars along the top. It will then reoccur after a few minutes.

This has happened mostly when I am trying to install something, but occasionally when a game is loading up. At first I thought it was something to do the graphics drivers but I uninstalled them and it still crashed (although with this error message this time)

Any ideas what this could be? RAM? The Hard drive passed a full HDTune test before it was used

darael · 11 Mar 2017 at 17:13

I'd start with the basics first - check voltages and temperatures, then reseat the memory. Might also be worth running Memtest too.

almoststew1990 · 11 Mar 2017 at 17:26

I've put the memory in again and it still did it. I don't think its the temps as the case is open at the moment (but i dont have a CPU or GPU temp anyway- the motherboard temp doesnt seem to go over 30c).

I then tried each of the sticks of RAM and it turns out one doesn't work or doesn't play ncie with the other two (i notice now that it is "PC100 - 322- 620" whereas the other two are "PC100 - 222 - 620" if that makes a difference). It seems to be working now!

mmj_uk · 11 Mar 2017 at 17:48

It could be a capacitor issue with such old hardware, often they need replacing.

snakefood · 13 Mar 2017 at 08:45

almoststew1990 said:
I've put the memory in again and it still did it. I don't think its the temps as the case is open at the moment (but i dont have a CPU or GPU temp anyway- the motherboard temp doesnt seem to go over 30c).

I then tried each of the sticks of RAM and it turns out one doesn't work or doesn't play ncie with the other two (i notice now that it is "PC100 - 322- 620" whereas the other two are "PC100 - 222 - 620" if that makes a difference). It seems to be working now!

Sounds like they are tuned for different sets of timings, could well be the cause of instability.

almoststew1990 · 13 Mar 2017 at 09:16

Yeah, with the two same sticks only I've had no problems for at least 24h! I tried using my 4200ti for better performance in later games but the drivers won't properly install so I don't get proper 3d acceleration. So back to the TNT2 (which needs a manual driver install in device manager) I go!

I've been playing Balder's Gate, which I've never played before, not sure what I think of it yet...

almoststew1990 · 13 Mar 2017 at 20:40

I can't get the PIII to work :/ all the fans spin up like it did when the coppermine CPU was used, but no POST or beeps. The CPU is stone cold too, so I know it isn't doing anything. It doesn't fit as snugly in the motherboard retention clips as the Pentium II, which is a really nice *snap* into place. Any ideas? I've got the jumpers set up correctly and I've reset the CMOS...

In the mean time I have overclocked my PII 450 to 504MHz and gained 6FPS in Quake 3!!!!

cee-S-dee · 14 Mar 2017 at 23:05

Great build.. I saw this posted on Vogon's. I love putting retro builds together. I've just finished My Pentium 200MMX which is great for Dos gaming. The thing i seem to be addicted to is ISA sound cards. I have quite a few now.

Not sure why the PIII CPU's are not working on your board. The P2B is supposed to be one of the "good" Pentium boards. Have you considered trying a S370 CPU in a 'Sloket'?