Old Windows 98 Issues

[CacoDoomer]

I explain it all in the video. I hope someone here has the answer. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppUXMzrGINE

[SavageCorona]

My guess about the screen flickering on games is something is wrong with whatever it uses to display graphics (I assume not a graphics card) or it might be the cable in the monitor.

[Jello]

Probably won't help, but a few years ago I was having an issue with a computer. The display would turn pink or reddish and flicker, and it was the PSU going bad, after replacing with a higher wattage PSU it worked fine. However you said in the video that you just put a new PSU in it, so unless the new one is bad that's probably not the issue. Have you tried the PSU in a different computer? Again, I doubt this is the cause, but it does look similar to the issue I had.

[A.K.]

Is it running with an on-board graphics display?

[SYS]

Since the CMOS is screwed, you could try adjusting the defaults of the following:

Video BIOS Shadow
Enabled (default): maps the VGA BIOS
to system RAM for
greater performance.
Disabled: No mapping of the VGA BIOS
to system RAM

Assign IRQ for VGA
Choose Enabled or Disabled (default) <- probably need to know the IRQ number of the video card in question.

Video BIOS Cacheable
Default is Enabled can also try disabling that.

Other things you can do: swap out vga cable, try a different display, try a different video card. Has to be one of those three, or the motherboard just gone plain 'ole screwy.

[Maes]

Well, let's see if I can offer anything with my 20+ experience of dealing and fixing such machines....

First of all, most PCs of that vintage are particularly prone to develop all sorts of "mystery" hardware bugs and/or having individual components like the video card or the disk controllers fail.

What's weird in your case is how you get flickering/sync problems only when you play DOS games. Both Windows and those games use graphics though, the only real difference being that whenever you run anything DOS, CPU usage is fixed at 100% (there was no HALT/SLEEP function in 8088/8086 and 386-based software) and that taxes the PSU and, most importantly, the mobo's onboard voltage regulators. Unless you did a check/recap, changing the PSU alone won't help if those are overdue.

This may indicate a failing power PSU (though you mentioned changing it), and/or failing onboard caps/regulators (more likely, due to the age), which cause the video card to be "starved" of power only when you run DOS games or apps with 100% CPU usage. Video cards themselves are not eternal, but may also fail.

Also, try changing IDE channel (one of them might be bust) or better yet, switch to a PCI controller card and disable the integrated one (this way, you can even use SATA).

It also wouldn't hurt to do a memory/RAM check with a stress-test tool like memtest. I see that your mobo is one of those weird transitional ones having both 72-pin the more "modern" SDRAM slots. Which ones are you using? On such an old mobo, ANYTHING must be regarded as potentially failing.

Finally, a factor not to overlook is cooling: OK, those old Pentium CPUs can work even without a heat sink (ask me how I know!) or a fan, but depending on the make and model (there was also AMD and Cyrix back them) your results may vary. Make sure everything is getting cooled as it should, including parts which normally weren't cooled in such old mobos, like the North/Southbridge chips.

[Sokoro]

Time to buy new computer?

[SYS]

Win 98 virtual machine on a modern computer :)

Maes said:

Well, let's see if I can offer anything with my 20+ experience of dealing and fixing such machines....

First of all, most PCs of that vintage are particularly prone to develop all sorts of "mystery" hardware bugs and/or having individual components like the video card or the disk controllers fail.

What's weird in your case is how you get flickering/sync problems only when you play DOS games. Both Windows and those games use graphics though, the only real difference being that whenever you run anything DOS, CPU usage is fixed at 100% (there was no HALT/SLEEP function in 8088/8086 and 386-based software) and that taxes the PSU and, most importantly, the mobo's onboard voltage regulators. Unless you did a check/recap, changing the PSU alone won't help if those are overdue.

I noticed there were some power saving features in the BIOS too, but if it's the caps then it won't do much:

Power Management
Choose Max, Saving, User Define,
Disabled (default), or Min. Saving.

PM Control by APM
Choose Yes (default) or No. Choose Yes
if the operating system has APM
functions, choose No otherwise.

Video Off Method
Choose Blank Screen (default), DPMS, or
V/H Sync+Blank. You can choose either
DPMS or V/H Sync+Blank when the
monitor has the Green function. Choose
Blank when the monitor has no Green
function.

Doze Mode
This option sets the CPU speed down to
33 MHz to conserve power.


Standby Mode
Standby Mode turns off the VGA monitor,
choose a mode for the different timers.

Suspend Mode
Suspend Mode turns off the CPU, thus
saving the energy of the systems.

HDD Power Down
When the set time has elapsed, the BIOS
sends a command to the HDD to power
down.

Wake-Up Event
Set these IRQs individually. Activity
detected from any enabled IRQ channel
(ON) will wake up the system.

Maes said:

Finally, a factor not to overlook is cooling: OK, those old Pentium CPUs can work even without a heat sink (ask me how I know!) or a fan, but depending on the make and model (there was also AMD and Cyrix back them) your results may vary. Make sure everything is getting cooled as it should, including parts which normally weren't cooled in such old mobos, like the North/Southbridge chips.

Looking at the mobo manual it had jumper settings for Cyrix, AMD, & Intel processors. Quite impressive, I never knew they did motherboards with multi processor socket support. That's so unheard of. It would be surreal to see a board partner do a modern AMD & Intel board. But probably very pointless and costly.

[Quast]

Maes said:

OK, those old Pentium CPUs can work even without a heat sink (ask me how I know!)

Lemme guess, you licked your thumb and placed it on the cpu?

[Maes]

SYS said:

Looking at the mobo manual it had jumper settings for Cyrix, AMD, & Intel processors. Quite impressive, I never knew they did motherboards with multi processor socket support. That's so unheard of. It would be surreal to see a board partner do a modern AMD & Intel board. But probably very pointless and costly.

Well, the whole thing was simplified by the fact that they all used the same socket (Socket 7) ;-)

Back then, AMD and Cyrix based their business model exactly on providing plug-in alternatives to the "official" product. Usually AMD & Cyrix CPUs beat Intel's at frequency parity, and were somewhat cheaper.

For whatever reason however, after the Pentium 1 (or 2), AMD and Intel each used their own sockets. In theory they could still develop CPUs for "each other's" sockets, e.g compete directly, but the business model has changed.

Quast said:

Lemme guess, you licked your thumb and placed it on the cpu?

Well, once I left one overnight with a stuck fan, and nothing happened to it. Also, they could be grossly overclocked (e.g a 133 MHz unit could easily go to 166, a 25% improvement, or even beyond). The very first models (66 and 75 Mhz) were actually sold without heat sinks. But it helped that they had very large dies.

[Enderkevin13]

Someone's Not Getting Windows 10.