New PC, ME with old BIOS

So, I tried Normal Mode. Just as I'm sure you expected,
I got that same DOS error message about NDIS......want
to clue me as to what I should edit in system.ini?


William B. Lurie wrote:
> Further news, Mike....maybe it will surprise you as it did me.
> I connected the PC up again, with the partially-installed
> drive as Slave, my main drive as Master, and rebooted, this time
> asking to to go to the Slave. I started it up and F8 to the
> 98 HDD and it booted right into 98, Safe Mode. I'm hastening
> to tell you this, although I expect that you'll have responded
> to previous posting before you see this. I did verify that I
> can access msconfig but you haven't told me what to do there.
>
> Now I'm curious as to what will happen if I try Normal Mode...
>
> William B. Lurie wrote:
>> Mike, I am pleased to tell you all that I can,
>> the info coming from AIDA.
>> It is Compaq Presario Type 061, Model SR1900NX
>> The CPU is Intel Celeron D, 3.2GHz, significantly faster
>> than 2.1 GHz.
>> Video is ATI Radeon Express 256MB.
>> BIOS is Phoenix 3.03
>> Supports: DMI, APM, ACPI, PnP
>>
>> So far, I've had too much RAM, and my CPU runs too fast.
>> And I'm trying to run a Model-T engine in a Thunderbird.
>>
>> I'm beginning to get the impression that, even though I
>> came within 2 minutes of completing the 98 installation,
>> I really should just live with the VPC. I tried to go the
>> independent-HDD route because I was having trouble getting
>> peripherals to work under VPC.
>>
>> You did seem to hold out some hope, in asking for 'full
>> disclosure',but maybe I only saw what I wanted to see.
>>
>> You did mention that, since I pulled the excessive RAM,
>> "then you can do this in a number of ways with Windows
>> running and using MSConfig is one of those ways."
>> Uh, but I don't quite have Windows running. Can I
>> just start it up and maybe F8 and boot to Safe Mode?
>> Would that take, and what do I do when I get to system.ini?
>>
>> Mike M wrote:
>>> William B. Lurie <billurie.DeleteThis@nospam.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Okay, Mike, as you saw later, I did the short-term solution. I now
>>>> have 512MB of RAM and 98 (this HDD alone on the system) installs
>>>> almost to completion, halting with the error I more or less quoted,
>>>> "While initializing NDIS, Windows Protection Error. Restart".
>>>
>>> Oh dear, this is may be another hardware problem and could be due to
>>> the make/model network card you are using or even possibly your cpu
>>> speed. May I suggest you come clean and explain EXACTLY what hardware
>>> you are using for this system and again may I remind you that most
>>> recent hardware is unsuitable for running any Win 9x operating system
>>> other than in a virtual machine.
>>>
>>> For example see MS KB 312108 "Windows protection error in NDIS with a
>>> CPU that is faster than 2.1 GHz"
>>> (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=312108) could be applicable or at
>>> least explain a possible cause. See also MS KB273738 "How to
>>> Troubleshoot Windows Millennium Edition Startup Problems"
>>> (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=273738).
>>>
>>>> As for editing system.ini, I assume you mean from msconfig in Safe
>>>> Mode if I ever get there.....but how and to what? From a DOS prompt
>>>> when it halts there, perhaps?
>>>
>>> Your choice how you do this. What I consider to be the normal way is
>>> to boot to DOS using a floppy and edit it from the DOS prompt as this
>>> avoids pulling RAM but seeing as you've pulled RAM then you can do
>>> this in a number of ways with Windows running and using MSConfig is
>>> one of those ways.

> I did verify that I
> can access msconfig but you haven't told me what to do there.

I explicitly stated the edit that is required to system.ini. Let me try
and remind you of what was in my earlier post:
<quote>
To limit vcache, open system.ini and add the lines
[VCache]
MaxFileCache=512000
</quote>
--
Mike Maltby
mike.maltby DeleteThis @gmail.com


William B. Lurie <billurie DeleteThis @nospam.net> wrote:

> Further news, Mike....maybe it will surprise you as it did me.
> I connected the PC up again, with the partially-installed
> drive as Slave, my main drive as Master, and rebooted, this time
> asking to to go to the Slave. I started it up and F8 to the
> 98 HDD and it booted right into 98, Safe Mode. I'm hastening
> to tell you this, although I expect that you'll have responded
> to previous posting before you see this. I did verify that I
> can access msconfig but you haven't told me what to do there.
>
> Now I'm curious as to what will happen if I try Normal Mode...

Mike M wrote:
>> I did verify that I
>> can access msconfig but you haven't told me what to do there.
>
> I explicitly stated the edit that is required to system.ini. Let me try
> and remind you of what was in my earlier post:
> <quote>
> To limit vcache, open system.ini and add the lines
> [VCache]
> MaxFileCache=512000
> </quote>

Mike (and Mart):
I think I just have to give up this quest.
I think you fellows have diagnosed every problem and I've
complied with all your corrections and I'm still not there.

About the vcache and 512M, I mentioned that I couldn't get
the line in system.ini to look proper (in my eyes), and that was
the last improvement I installed at your request.

The question of clock speed has elicited the following very
strong comment from Gary Terhune, who is another of the MVPs
who have been trying to guide me in this quest:
-------------------------------------------------------
I give up!

YOU ALMOST CERTAINLY CANNOT RUN ANY KIND OF WINDOWS 95, 98, 98SE, ME or
NT (maybe even 2000) ON THAT MACHINE! I can almost guarantee you that.
You need drivers and there are no such things. They've never been written.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com
---------------------------------------------------------
Win98 does boot and work gracefully in Virtual PC on this
machine. There are limitations to overcome if I have no
alternative to running it that way, but maybe I'll be able to
work around those.

If you fellows want to breathe a sigh of relief and drop this
Don Quixote-type effort, I'm agreeable, and appreciative of all
your efforts over this past several days and nights. But before
we go, please tell me, if you can, if there is a clean link to
whatever I should install after I have Win98 installed from my
original 98 installation CD, in a Virtual PC.....and before I
install Windows ME from my upgrade CD.......and what upgrades
to Windows ME to install after that. I can't find then on the
Microsoft Download Site.

It's a shame that you didn't give more details of the new machine from the
start as that would have saved a lot of time for all concerned. Use VPC
if you want to need to run 9x software which won't run in Win95 or
Win98/Me compatibility mode on a modern OS (XP or Vista). If you need usb
support, not that that much old software uses usb, then you might need to
use VMWare instead of VPC.
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows
mike.maltby.TakeThisOut@gmail.com


William B. Lurie <billurie.TakeThisOut@nospam.net> wrote:

> Mike (and Mart):
> I think I just have to give up this quest.
> I think you fellows have diagnosed every problem and I've
> complied with all your corrections and I'm still not there.
>
> About the vcache and 512M, I mentioned that I couldn't get
> the line in system.ini to look proper (in my eyes), and that was
> the last improvement I installed at your request.
>
> The question of clock speed has elicited the following very
> strong comment from Gary Terhune, who is another of the MVPs
> who have been trying to guide me in this quest:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> I give up!
>
> YOU ALMOST CERTAINLY CANNOT RUN ANY KIND OF WINDOWS 95, 98, 98SE, ME
> or NT (maybe even 2000) ON THAT MACHINE! I can almost guarantee you
> that. You need drivers and there are no such things. They've never
> been written.

I think you've pretty well summed it up Mike - the devil is in the detail
although I think I did mention WinMe/motherboard incompatibility somewhere
in the thread. But once you went delving into VMWare and VPC - then being on
XPHome - I effectively wrote myself out of the script.

Mart


"Mike M" <No_Spam.TakeThisOut@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message
news:OMDCB6jmIHA.5268@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> It's a shame that you didn't give more details of the new machine from the
> start as that would have saved a lot of time for all concerned. Use VPC
> if you want to need to run 9x software which won't run in Win95 or
> Win98/Me compatibility mode on a modern OS (XP or Vista). If you need usb
> support, not that that much old software uses usb, then you might need to
> use VMWare instead of VPC.
> --
> Mike Maltby
> MS-MVP Windows
> mike.maltby.TakeThisOut@gmail.com
>
>
> William B. Lurie <billurie.TakeThisOut@nospam.net> wrote:
>
>> Mike (and Mart):
>> I think I just have to give up this quest.
>> I think you fellows have diagnosed every problem and I've
>> complied with all your corrections and I'm still not there.
>>
>> About the vcache and 512M, I mentioned that I couldn't get
>> the line in system.ini to look proper (in my eyes), and that was
>> the last improvement I installed at your request.
>>
>> The question of clock speed has elicited the following very
>> strong comment from Gary Terhune, who is another of the MVPs
>> who have been trying to guide me in this quest:
>> -------------------------------------------------------
>> I give up!
>>
>> YOU ALMOST CERTAINLY CANNOT RUN ANY KIND OF WINDOWS 95, 98, 98SE, ME
>> or NT (maybe even 2000) ON THAT MACHINE! I can almost guarantee you
>> that. You need drivers and there are no such things. They've never
>> been written.
>

I guess my last question is, after installing Win98
in my VPC, and upgrading to Win ME with my upgrade
CD, are there any fixes or improvements for ME, or was
it just perfect when released?

Mart wrote:
> I think you've pretty well summed it up Mike - the devil is in the detail
> although I think I did mention WinMe/motherboard incompatibility somewhere
> in the thread. But once you went delving into VMWare and VPC - then being on
> XPHome - I effectively wrote myself out of the script.
>
> Mart
>
>
> "Mike M" <No_Spam.RemoveThis@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message
> news:OMDCB6jmIHA.5268@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> It's a shame that you didn't give more details of the new machine from the
>> start as that would have saved a lot of time for all concerned. Use VPC
>> if you want to need to run 9x software which won't run in Win95 or
>> Win98/Me compatibility mode on a modern OS (XP or Vista). If you need usb
>> support, not that that much old software uses usb, then you might need to
>> use VMWare instead of VPC.
>> --
>> Mike Maltby
>> MS-MVP Windows
>> mike.maltby.RemoveThis@gmail.com
>>
>>
>> William B. Lurie <billurie.RemoveThis@nospam.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Mike (and Mart):
>>> I think I just have to give up this quest.
>>> I think you fellows have diagnosed every problem and I've
>>> complied with all your corrections and I'm still not there.
>>>
>>> About the vcache and 512M, I mentioned that I couldn't get
>>> the line in system.ini to look proper (in my eyes), and that was
>>> the last improvement I installed at your request.
>>>
>>> The question of clock speed has elicited the following very
>>> strong comment from Gary Terhune, who is another of the MVPs
>>> who have been trying to guide me in this quest:
>>> -------------------------------------------------------
>>> I give up!
>>>
>>> YOU ALMOST CERTAINLY CANNOT RUN ANY KIND OF WINDOWS 95, 98, 98SE, ME
>>> or NT (maybe even 2000) ON THAT MACHINE! I can almost guarantee you
>>> that. You need drivers and there are no such things. They've never
>>> been written.
>
>