SPECIAL WIN98 UPDATE If your machine has less than 66Mhz, when Windows98 installation is attempted an error message is returned that "a minimum of 66Mhz is required". Win98 installation permits several documented methods of setup. To see them: select the "Win98" folder from your Win98 CD. From File on the Menu Bar in Windows Explorer, select "DOS PROMPT HERE" [Get Power Toys free from Microsoft for this handy capability]. At the DOS Prompt type: "setup /?" [no quotes]; a list of switches will be returned showing different setup options. However there is a switch not in this list that will permit installation of Windows98 on a machine with less than 66Mhz. It is as follows: where D:\ is the drive letter of your CD-ROM. This switch will ignore the hardware check of your system. But before you attempt this over-ride, prepare your system first: 1- Make a Win95 emergency Start-up Floppy. Add to this floppy three files: 2- Make as much room as possible on your hard-disk by moving programs/folders to your portable drives. Windows may warn you about these moves, but if you need space [Win98 wants about 200MB for setup] you must move them or delete and re-install later. 4- Run Scandisk and Defrag to check for errors and optimize used-cluster location. 4- Backup your hard-disk and your Registry. 5- If you have a compressed hard-drive, there must be adequate free space on the host drive [usually H:\] for Win98 to install - about 1.5MB. Use Drvspace in the Windows folder to increase the size of the host drive. [Select "adjust free space" from File on the Menu Bar in Windows Explorer.] 6- After completing your preparations, shut down running apps. From the Start/Run box type: If after the first Win98 screen is displayed, no error message appears, you will have successfully over-ridden the 66+Mhz requirement. 7- What to expect with Win98? The results will depend on your system. From my installation, the system responds in most cases as well or better than the former Windows95/IE4.x configuration. Since you have less than 66Mhz, you are not in the "power class" anyway. But this work-around may well be a better financial decision than purchasing a new machine or upgrading hardware [where feasible]. 8- You are taking a risk with this over-ride; it is not published by Microsoft; results will vary. The foregoing information is a suggestion; something may go wrong; either forget Win98 as an "upgrade" or accept the risk and try the above setup method. The following tip comes from CptSiskoX@geocities.com who wrote on 7/9/98: Win98 will not normally install on any CPU without a math coprocessor which was a major annoyance for a friend of mine as he has a 486 SX/2 66 MHz with no math coprocessor. No emulators would work and it seemed hopeless. Your tip allowed him to install Win98 and it runs better than Win95 OSR2 did on his system. So the "setup /nm" command also bypasses math-coprocessor detection/requirements for Win98 setup. After installation finished it booted up fine. Send E-Mail Found a bug or problem with your Microsoft/Windows software? |
