980809     Windows98 and PS/55

1998 Aug. 
    Some of the members in the Room #4  tried to install Windows 98 on their MCA box.  Most of them reported that Win98 had some problem with IBM SCSI.  A reporter said he had no problem with his EIDE machine, 5530-L.  I had once installed Windows 98 PR edition ( Press Release edition ?) on my 51-N and I didn't get any remarkable problem with 51-N ( SPOCK onboard ).  OK,  It was time to test Windows 98 again if it really was incompatible with PS/55 and SPOCK or not.   I picked up my 5551-N to install the PR edition  again.

      PS/55  5551-NAB
        MEM         : 32MB
        CPU         : am5x86-133 4x 
        HD            : Conner CFP1060
        CD-ROM  : External Pioneer 4x speed
        Video        : Reply GD5426 SVGA 
        IML with onboard SPOCK SCSI controller 

       It took really a l-o-o-o-n-g time to finish installation. Everything seemed to be OK but  this time I got a yellow exclamation mark on IBM SPOCK SCSI  like other posters reported !!  I examined each reporters comments and my own data recorded when I had tested Win98 PR edition and I  realized that I had used a Cyrix CPU before and the reporters used am5x86 on their systems .   Then I changed am5x86 to Cyrix 5x86 GP100.   Bingo!   51-N worked fine without exclamation mark in front of SPOCK SCSI  and it run in 32-bit mode.   I again changed Cyrix to  AMD 5x86, DX4-100 and confirmed Windows98 could not recognize SPOCK SCSI properly with AMD5x86 and DX4-100. 

     Then I Picked up my 5551-R which is not an IML but with EIDE interface and installed Win98 on it.  51-R run in full featured  mode after I reset correct resource set giving IRQ 14 to standard ESDI/IDE HD controller.  51-R and Win98 didn't care for  CPUs .  But if I installed an IBM SPOCK SCSI and connect a SCSI HD to boot the system ( well,  no IDE device connected off from the onboard EIDE connector.  This combination worked fine under Win95 ),  51-R immediately turned into " MS-DOS compatibility mode" with an am5x86, DX4ODP-100 and PODP.  Only Cyrix solved the symptom. 

   If you really want to use Windows 98 on your PS/2s together with IBM SPOCK SCSI, 
   choose a Cyrix 5x86.  Please keep my advice......Neil Young and Sandy say so.


2002. Jan
      I had read in PS/2 News Group  that some of  PS/2 IML machine could run windows98 ( SE ) in full featured mode.  I could hardly believe it.   I should  test it by myself and confirm if it would work or not.  I got a Win98 CD English version and tried to install it on my 9577 Bermuda with a Cyrix 5x86/interposer on it.  BUT  9577-N could not recognize Cyrix !  It didn't boot!  It was really strange but a Cyrix 5x86 could not run on my Bermuda planar.  I did not know if  I  missed something. Wrong interposer setting ?   Incompatible interposer?  Wrong orientation of pin #1 ?   Couldn't figure it out.    Then I picked up 9585 with built-in FW SCSI-II/A and installed Win98 on it..  I again confirmed Win98 worked fine only with Cyrix 5x86.   Does anybody have the answer why only Cyrix CPU could run properly?


  UPDATED  on 2002/10/12
Always Don Peter has an answer. Pete wrote to the News Group 

  =================== quoted from news groupe message =======================
   Hi William !

  >Anyone ever tried the Spock driver files from Win95 on a Win98 system to see
  >if they would help solve the misbehavior that seems to occur with certain
  >processors?

  Did try that. No cure.
  The drivers are identical - apart from the version number that shows up when
  you query the driver version in control panel. The original problem sits
  deeper: it appears to be a bug in W98 IOSUBSYS that fails to properly assign
  system ressources on MCA machines.

  OTOH: hebrew and cyrillic versions of Win98 seem to be not affected. I'd
  installed a russian Win98 on e.g. a 8595-AKD with Spock and it worked perfectly
  well while neither the german nor the US/UK version did. Ran only in
  compatibility mode there.
  Same with a 77 Bermuda: german and US/UK no go - hebrew and russian W98 worked
  in 32-bit mode just fine.

 ====================================================================

  to be continued to #980810
 

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