Windows 3.1

[madtownidiot]

Oh, and in regard to the mechanic thing ... isn't it ironic that the man who can fix cars often himself rides in some old beat up junker that needs to be started up in a special way? This is probably not all mechanics but I've seen quite a few where this is the case.

It's usually a testament to the mechanics' (or an old hackers') skill to have some old beat up junker that has to be started in some special way.. nobody else would know how to keep it running.. combined with a lifetime of being underpaid for his work.

 

[Night Hawk]

Aww geee... I have the latest version of Windows on here running a Phenom II X4 and 8gb of ram but still have to have a look at some of the old memorable moments!

 

[sygnus21]

98 will have problems on any system with more the 512mb of memory installed.

Not a problem. I'll just stick with 512. It's not like the machine will be for primary use anyway, just something to play with. Plus it will be nice to throw some of those old games on it.

For 98 the driver support dropped off about 6-7yrs. ago on just about everything. It's day had come! In fact the last time other then on a VM I saw 98 running was on an old Socket A case with a pair of 512s and a 128mb AGP card. Once the newer boards came out 98 was lost in the shuffle.

At least one thing is for sure. If you have an old system still running you may be fortunate enough to find device drivers for those classic oldies and be able to run them there.

Since I'm a pack rat I pretty much have all the hardware to put a 98 machine together - MB, CPU (P4 1.8gig), RAM, GPU (3dfx Voodoo 5500), SC (Creative AWE64 Gold), HD (80gig).

I've even got old copies of programs like Office, Adobe, and IE6. As for drivers, again, this is where being a pack rate comes in handy

As for why do this??? Because it can be done... and it's fun

 

[madtownidiot]

I still have a working copy of doom 95.. but nothing that can play it

 

[Night Hawk]

DOSBox and some DB supported alternate versions of the same games can be found and bought. There's a few sites that archive the old titles. Those tend to have made deals with the original manufacturers and take a small portion of any purchase to maintain the site.

The option for DOSBox itself isn't the same as seen for VMs on the other simply being a dos emulator not a full virtual machine to start with.

For a "blast from the past" you have to laugh when first hearing an old 8bit dos game coming through your new build's surround sound setup when you originally only had sound through a tiny speaker on the main board back in those days! The best part of two decades has already passed by at this point.

 

[Trucidation]

Oh, and in regard to the mechanic thing ... isn't it ironic that the man who can fix cars often himself rides in some old beat up junker that needs to be started up in a special way? This is probably not all mechanics but I've seen quite a few where this is the case.

It's usually a testament to the mechanics' (or an old hackers') skill to have some old beat up junker that has to be started in some special way.. nobody else would know how to keep it running.. combined with a lifetime of being underpaid for his work.

Yeah, it seems to be a combination of skill + underpaid. I'm all thumbs when it comes to cars but even I notice that most mechanics I've come across drive fixer-uppers. But just because the exterior looks like crap doesn't mean the parts inside are too.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Oh, and in regard to the mechanic thing ... isn't it ironic that the man who can fix cars often himself rides in some old beat up junker that needs to be started up in a special way? This is probably not all mechanics but I've seen quite a few where this is the case.

Yes, definitely. My wife has a 2007 Subaru Legacy, and most of the shop guys all drive modded Imprezas or regular versions of their cars. I have a 2005 BMW 325xi, and if any of their shops guys have BMWs, they are usually older ones, but quite well maintained I would think. I guess it is somewhat like IT folks. My computer at home will put to shame the one I use everyday in the office, but that goes back to what I was saying to the OP...that part of the job of any IT staffer is to know, be familiar with, and endorse newer technologies. How could I listen to someone justify new system upgrades when they don't even keep their home system within a decade of being current?

 

[Night Hawk]

Just because someone decides to keep an old museum piece running doesn't mean they don't have the latest on their main system. I have a few old tankers here but just finished up with the second of two entirely new builds.

I'm interested in finding out some of the system specs on the old 3.1 system there in fact. That would tend to show who was making some of the better hardwares at the time.

 

[madtownidiot]

Last computer I had with 3.1 cost $2000 for 4 MB RAM, an i486 overdrive, and a 120 MB HDD

 

[Night Hawk]

You had that large a drive! The old 386 only saw 50mb on that one! :roflmao:

At least I was able to swap out the 500mb for a 1.4gb on the Packard Bell 486 that came along afterwards but mainly saw 95 there. Later I set up a triple boot of 3.1, 95, and 98SE on one of the early custom cases having a 95 upgrade disk along with the full version 98SE and 6 floppies for 3.1 now having a problem with Floppy #1.

 

[madtownidiot]

That was pretty much top of the line for 1992... Funny how it still costs about $2000 for a good desktop system

 

[DeaconFrost]

Just because someone decides to keep an old museum piece running doesn't mean they don't have the latest on their main system.

Very true, unless the OP clearly stated that this was their primary PC.

 

[sygnus21]

Just because someone decides to keep an old museum piece running doesn't mean they don't have the latest on their main system. I have a few old tankers here but just finished up with the second of two entirely new builds.

Agreed.

Anyway I'm currently working on my Windows 98SE build. I'm kind of miffed right now as I can't find my Creative AWE64 Gold soundcard. Not sure if I threw it out or not. Looks like I'll have to go with my Creative Live.

I'm also trying to decide if I want to go with my 3Dfx Voodoo 5500, or go with something like an ATI 8500, or 9700.

System specs thus far....

Abit BE6 II, ver 1.0
Pentuim 3 733MHz
512Meg SD RAM PC-133
Western Digital 30Gig HD
Creative Live Soundcard
Plextor PleXwriter 40/12/40A
Samsung floppy drive
Antec 400W PS
Antec Mid Tower case

Now I just have to hope all those old parts still work .... then get the OS loaded along with drivers.

Will let you know how it goes sometime tomorrow

 

[madtownidiot]

In at least one way, 3.1, 95, and 98 were each a much more solid OS than windows 7. Windows 7 will fail to start anytime you add or enable hardware that wasn't present during the install without first installing drivers for it. You can't upgrade a HDD, CPU or motherboard, activate a TPM or a serial port or even change HDD modes without having reinstall windows or at least reactivate it. You can't even move a windows 7 image to a new HDD in the same system without getting approval from microsoft. Window 7 also won't let you stay connected to any network for very long unless it can contact microsoft at least once a day. I've seen the proof of that by trying to use a hardware firewall in addition to the Comodo firewall to contain all system processes to a local area while running firefox on a sandbox. The network location service and windows firewall double as spyware for microsoft. I think it's pure bulls*** on microsofts' part, and now I can see why some people won't upgrade..In the 90s you could swap HDDs between 2 totally different systems and the OS would almost always boot, recognize the different hardware configuration in each and make the appropriate changes without any B$, so long as both systems had hardware that was natively supported by the OS.

 

[Night Hawk]

I just replaced the main board earlier this summer when a faulty supply tripped a 20a breaker right when going to power up. The exact same make and model replaced the first without any reinstall needed. But previously when finding the particular memory on the supported list was what the board required the first Sata III drive's installation had to be replaced with a fresh install on one of the Sata II drives.

Going from OCZ GOLD memory to Mushkin Enhanced posed a problem with the first install on the new build. The OCZ was 1.9v for the board requiring 1.5v - 1.65v according to the manual that came with the board not the "supported"? memory list which saw the 1600 default speed backclocked to 1066mhz.

As far as addon devices the flash drives, printer, external drive enclosure, tv tuner card never required a fresh install when added on. You simply needed to install the drivers/application when necessary to make the printer or tv tuner card available. When reinstalling the nic card removed for working on another pair of cases(1 new, 1 refurbished) I simply had to see the network configuration tended to.

As for your 98 project, sygnus21, you may want to check this one out for that model board as far as chipset drivers for 98 thru XP as well as the last bios version apparently. DriversCollection.com 98

You'll likely need to check out other sites like guru3d for the older video drivers.

 

[polarbear]

Win95 still running here. hehe kids love it.

 

[Night Hawk]

When first taking a look at 98SE I had the same reaction at first as many had for Vista! W95 was much lighter and had the programs I later saw running on 98. We know how the rest went where sooner or later you upgrade!

As far as 3.1 I was trying that oldie go onto a DOSBox setup when having the old case running with that having a floppy drive in a 5.25" adapter at the time. I wouldn't be going for any usb floppy drive however but could simply yank the drive bay adapter out of the old case when maybe feeling upto it. :sarc:

 

[sygnus21]

As for your 98 project, sygnus21, you may want to check this one out for that model board as far as chipset drivers for 98 thru XP as well as the last bios version apparently. DriversCollection.com 98

You'll likely need to check out other sites like guru3d for the older video drivers.

Thanks. Being the pack rat that I am, I'm fairly confident I have most drivers for what I'm installing, and I have the original driver disk for the motherboard should I run into problems... a driver is better than no driver

Anyways thanks for the link, I'm sure I'll be looking there for something.

As for the BIOS, I have the latest one for that board unless they came out with an unofficial BIOS long after the board was retired, though you never know.

Right now I'm getting getting all the power connections hooked up and doing some wire management before powering up and hoping everything still works

Later.

 

[Night Hawk]

I have to look over an old 98 case once a PS/2 keyboard can be found with a Slot one cpu in it! Those proceed the Socket As where you slide the cpu and heat sink attached down plastic rails to see everything locked into place. A pain to swap out however! The old plastic tracks can be brittle!

That will be passed along between one family cousins while the vpu in that won't support any new lcd too well. The most out of 98 was 1024x768! That will stink if the parents end up buying a widescreen model for sure. Plus none of the original board or other disks came with the old custom case since apparently it was used by an uncle those many years back prior to an upgrade into XP.

Some of the sites that still manage to archive the old stuff can save you at times!

 

[sygnus21]

I Posted my own 98 build thread here... http://www.sevenforums.com/software/122905-building-windows-98-machine.html