Blitz compatibility Win98 SE Pentium III
Community Forums/General Help/Blitz compatibility Win98 SE Pentium III
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| Recently I purchased a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 from an online auction. It runs Windows 98 Second Edition and has the following system specifications. Hard Drive: 20.0 Gigs Operating System: Windows 98 SE Memory (RAM): 256 Megs Processor Type: Intel Pentium III (for Mobile) Processor Speed: 850MHz I know things aren't going to work perfectly but shouldn't Blitz3D, BlitzBasic or BlitzMax run if I have DirectX7.0a installed? I mainly bought the machine to run my older DOS applications but thought it could be capable of greater things. |
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| Blitz3d and Blitzplus should fun fine. You'll struggle with Blitzmax. |
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| Blitz3D and BlitzBasic will work fine, as they were designed for that sort of machine (at least, ignoring features that were added later in B3D's life like cubemapping or boned animations... those might not). I have run B3D myself on a weaker machine even than that, in the mists of the very distant past. Don't expect anything to be fast though. Can't speak for BlitzMax. Just please consider replacing the OS if you are going to connect it to the internet (those specs provide pleeeenty of power for an ultralight Linux distro to dual boot - might make a good machine for learning about that too). Last edited 2012 |
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| Blitz compatibility Win98 SE Pentium III I had Blitz3D more than ten years ago. It ran just fine on my 300MHz Pentium 2 with Win98, and later SE. It was a desktop machine with 128MB of RAM and some medium to low end nvidia card. I can't remember the details. Last edited 2012 |
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| Windows XP has had so many impacting updates it will run awful on that. Leaving 2k or 98 (eww!) Yuo are better off with a lightweight linux on that rig. Try Xubuntu, DSL or Puppy, all quite different but will at least make it -useable-, and you will be able to use modern browsers and stuff as well as being MUCH more secure. If it has an OGL compatible card* that you -should- be able to do bmax stuff on it I have on a PIII with a ATI radeon thing using XUbuntu. Last edited 2012 |
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| If Xubuntu runs at all on that machine it will be barely better than XP. Xubuntu hasn't actually been "lightweight" for years, and won't function properly with less than 384MB RAM. It's just an aesthetic alternative to Ubuntu-proper. The other two are good suggestions though. |
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| i am running it on a dual boot P3 compaq nc410 512MB and it can -just- about run XP (it is slow and not nice to use). Xubuntu is quite useable though. I agree Xubuntu is heavier than DSL or Puppy but still a lot lighter than XP. @CW if you do want to run Xubuntu you may want to upgrade the ram to 512 or 1024 (almost any scrap laptop of that age will do as organ donor if right ram type) Otherwise look at other two. Last edited 2012 |
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| BlitzMax 1.28 will run just fine on Win98. After that, you'll need to install some unicode thingie to run programs, but again, it should run fine. Blitz3D should also run without problems. (Until very recently I had a working P2-400, with a 256mb graphics card, that could run pretty much everything I threw at it... to bad the PSU died and I didn't get a new one) |
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| better than XP I fell out with XP a while back as it is based on WinNT and most of the older programs simply refuse to operate amongst it. please consider replacing the OS Id much rather not do that. I have had many troubles after changing the OS on my other machines. namely hard drive failures and system crashes. :( |
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| I fell out with XP a while back as it is based on WinNT and most of the older programs simply refuse to operate amongst it. Well all windows after and including W2K have been NT based (you really need to get used to that one :D) Id much rather not do that. I have had many troubles after changing the OS on my other machines. namely hard drive failures and system crashes. :( If that happend it was most likely because the disks were already knackered. Not because you installed an OS.Last edited 2012 |
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| If that happend it was most likely because the disks were already knackered. Not because you installed an OS. Still better safe than sorry. :D all windows after and including W2K have been NT based (you really need to get used to that one :D) I suppose that is true but something about xpea reminds me of fisher price and playschool :D Really Though, when you use a lot of older programs and games you really need to have something backward compatible. The DOS Box just gives me lag, lack of memory and tons graphical errors. :( |
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| Still better safe than sorry. If you want better safe than sorry, you would immediately stop using Windows 98. It's infamously unstable, and totally unsupported (which is exactly the same as "unsafe"). D4NM4N is right. There's no reason to assume your disk broke because of Linux without direct evidence, because frankly that sort of thing just doesn't happen. Using Linux is the safe option. something about xpea reminds me of fisher price and playschool So change the UI theme. when you use a lot of older programs and games you really need to have something backward compatible Actually what you need to be doing is moving away from anything dependent on DOS. Port it, find a new bottom layer for it, run MS-DOS in a virtual machine... whatever. There's absolutely no reason to use Windows 98. Last edited 2012 |
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| Still better safe than sorry. If you are connected to the internet in any way shape or form, using Windows 98 is horribly *unsafe*. There are literally dozens of known exploits in the wild for windows 98 for which MS didn't release any security updates, since it's past its end-of-life date. If your windows 98 machine is connected to the internet it will only be a matter of time before it's a member of a random spammer's botnet (or worse), causing headaches for others on the internet. Since there IS no way to fully patch a windows 98 machine (thanks to the end-of-life status), this case study would apply to your machine even after download all available updates: http://www.zdnetasia.com/study-unpatched-pcs-compromised-in-20-minutes-39190452.htm (Yes, it's old, but the situation remains the same. Be afraid.) |
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| Windows 98 is horribly *unsafe*. Is this any good? http://www.clamwin.com/ There's absolutely no reason to use Windows 98. I suppose there is no need in using my WinCE netbook from 1999 either then??? |
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| Is this any good? http://www.clamwin.com/ If you run it on Windows 98, it'd still be like mopping up water with the tap completely open, and the faucet handle broken off. Anyway -- It's OK for the major virusses, but it won't find the majority of malware and botnets and other random software that some scriptkiddy from a Chinese IP address will be running in the background. |
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| is there anything else for malware/adware bots etc? |
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| Yes: Microsoft Security Essentials (not sure about Win98 compatibility), AVG, Avast for antivirus, and MalwareBytes, spybot, ad-Aware for malware... But NONE of those are going to be of much help to you -- not even close. Windows 98 became unsupported (=no security patches) in 2006, a whopping 6 years ago. Even a fully patched win98 machines contains dozens of known vulnerabilities with exploit code in the wild. There *are* networks of compromised machines that are actively scanning IP ranges looking for other vulnerable machines to exploit. The entire foundation of any 6-years-past-end-of-life OS itself is essentially made of Swiss cheese , and no amount of security software is going to change that. Sooner or later you *will* get hacked (there's quite a few botnets out there that automatically scan IP ranges for exploitable machines) If a hacker can exploit a vulnerability, they can launch or install whatever program they want on your computer. The door has been left unlocked 6 years ago. Anyway, many of these are not necessarily known virusses/malware, which means that they will have no problems getting them to run on your box no matter how many security programs you are running. And even if your security software will detect and quarantine one malicious program that manages to get on, they may not be so lucky the next day. or the next day. or the next day. It's a long-lost battle for Windows 95/98/Me. Finally: Even if you don't care about your own security or data, running Win98 on an internet-connected computer makes you a bad neighbor, plain and simple. Your soon-to-be-infected computer will cause headaches for other people -- either by actively relaying email spam, or by being part of a Denial-of-service botnet that will try to crash other networks, or who knows what else. If you insist on running Win98 we can't stop you of course, but at least do the neighborly thing and make sure it's not connected to the internet, ever. |
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| and no amount of security software is going to change that The "Dont go on the Web with it" might work thou. And as said, nicest thing to do to your "neighbours".I have a satellite pro which I mostly just use as a stereo system. (And it runs Bmax) Before web books, taking the top part off the unit was the smallest PC I had, and I would take it on train trips and the like Last edited 2012 |
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| I agree Xubuntu is heavier than DSL or Puppy but still a lot lighter than XP. I doubt that, I still run XP perfectly on some machines with less than 256MB RAM, and one of them is a Celeron 633MHz. |
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| Okay got a small problem. I turn on the notebook and the screen is garbled and white streaks and lines run through the display. I think this could be a bad screen because it works plugged into my desktop PC's monitor. Should I consider replacing the LCD? The machine will work perfect when plugged into the external monitor... I found a cheap lcd replacement for around $40-50 (new). Should I get it? |
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| I found a cheap lcd replacement for around $40-50 (new). Should I get it? Isn't that basically enough to just replace the whole unit and pretend this never happened? Also, who is even making "new" LCD replacements for a machine that old? If it's not original run from the original manufacturer, there's a very good chance it won't work properly (it'll probably be "close enough for government work", but a real pain to use; might not fit correctly, wrong colours etc.). Generic parts often don't quite match the specification: I just had a nasty experience with some myself. As a general rule I think machines that old aren't worth repairing. As soon as you fix the monitor the hard disk and wireless will break... I would say you need to be prepared to spend just a tiny bit more and at least get something from this century. The original eeePC can be found for that kind of price range and is significantly newer, faster and smaller. |
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| Isn't that basically enough to just replace the whole unit and pretend this never happened? im not sure but I paid about $200 (with tax and shipping) for the unit. Makes me think I got screwed out of a great big wad of cash! >:( Okay this one looks to be 'name brand' (not cheap though). http://www.screentekinc.com/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_4600--14.1-inch--1024x768-xga-laptop-lcd-screen.shtml Should this solve my display problem? Last edited 2012 Last edited 2012 |
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| I'd say you did get a bad deal paying $200 for the PC mentioned above...my phone has better specs than that... |
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| Was the bust screen mentioned on the auction listing? If not, send it back for a refund and consider it a lucky escape. $200 is about 10x too much for what you've got. |
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| I doubt that, I still run XP perfectly on some machines with less than 256MB RAM It depends what you mean by perfectly. I have also had XP running on a 600Mhz Celeron with 256Mb and it was far from it. I later installed Xubuntu on same machine, and while neither was able to comfortably run more than a few biggish apps at a time with that amount of hz/ram I can guarantee you that the latter won hands down in many ways.With XP and an old machine, once you install all the service packs, security patches (and all your software) etc etc.. you suffer a -huge- performance hit, especially after -using- it for a few months, as the usual "Progressive Windows Slowdown "Bit Rot" Phenomenon" affects low spec PCs all the more. So.... neither will run perfectly with <512MB (or even <3096MB imho!), but some run more "perfectly" than others :D Last edited 2012 |
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| Was the bust screen mentioned on the auction listing? No it was listed as being refurbished send it back for a refund What if the person will not accept a refund? What if the guy took down his ebay account the next day + has made it where he cannot be contacted? What if I didn't use paypal? My professional opinion is that I am officially screwed! If I don't get this thing returned, Im going to be spending quite a pretty penny getting this piece of junk fixed! And I just found out that most of the drivers are either not installed correctly or not installed at all. |
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| What if the person will not accept a refund? He's obliged to, if it's faulty and was not listed as such. What if the guy took down his ebay account the next day + has made it where he cannot be contacted? Open a case with eBay. What if I didn't use paypal? You bought from eBay and didn't use Paypal? My professional opinion is that I am officially screwed! ...and stupid. You forgot stupid. |
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| What if the person will not accept a refund? What if the guy took down his ebay account the next day + has made it where he cannot be contacted? What if I didn't use paypal? Are you asking, or are you saying those things happened? Usually you will get a refund, because several thousand good feedback and a perfect seller record is worth far more than a measly couple of hundred dollars. Of course you bought it using PayPal from someone with good feedback and an established record or business. Right? Please don't ever not do that. If you didn't do that... this is your expensive lesson. Last edited 2012 |
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| Open a case with ebay How can I do that? You bought from eBay and didn't use Paypal? I dont have a paypal account. (like everyone does) ...and stupid. You forgot stupid. Normally I would strongly disagree with you, but in this case you are probably right! XD Are you asking, or are you saying those things happened? Oh it happened alright! :( this is your expensive lesson again, I cannot deny this! Last edited 2012 |
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| Just for future reference: Laptops are among the most fraud-sensitive items to be sold on ebay, there's a LOT of bad apples in the mix. (Mostly people using hijacked accounts selling laptops, and then never shipping anything after receiving the money. There's a reason there's so many ebay login harvesting scams) |
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| Everything is fine now! :) I contacted the bank and they will have my money back within the next 10 to 15 days. Im never going to buy a computer on ebay ever again. :P Thanks for everyone here's advice and help! :) Thank You! (= |
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| I have bought old refubished laptops on ebay. XP machines with dual core processors for £220. Never had a problem. But, I chose very carefully, and made sure the seller had feedback that was good (and a couple of bad cases actually helps IMO). I wouldn't write it off, as it's a great place to pick up old business laptops people are selling off. |
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| Remember now you have stopped payment the computer belongs to the original seller. It is your responsibility to return the laptop as soon as reasonable. Its very possible that the laptop is al-right, just with a small internal connection problem created during transit. Either way saying "It doesn't work therefore I was ripped off" is unfair (I paid £160 for mine in 2005 refurbished retail, so I think it was overpriced) I don't know if your seller was an individual or a retail outlet selling on Ebay. But Generally without being able to look at the Laptop, paying 15% - 20% more for a good retail outlet is probably a good bet. |
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| Either way saying "It doesn't work therefore I was ripped off" is unfair Even though the person who sold it has since closed their eBay account and gone into hiding? This guy knew it was faulty when he sold it, and did a disappearing act as soon as the deal was done. If you can smell a rat, it's usually because there's a rat about.As well as getting your money back and returning it you might also consider contacting whatever your equivalent of the Citizen's Advice Bureau is. He is obviously a crook and I'd guess he won't have any hesitation in selling his broken laptop onto somebody else as soon as he gets it back from you. |
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| @Gfk. Maybe Ive read it wrong, but no one has claimed that the seller closed their eBay account and went into hiding?. Wicker simply asked what he should do IF that happened. Possibly that is what has happened, but I think my point has been proven, that even thou the buyer hasnt claimed this as true, a slight fault has led you to think it is a con, whereas it might simply be that the lcd ribbon is slightly loose. Ive had this myself were Ive sold something and been accused of ripping the buyer off (For a engraver), when it was simply a driver issue. Which was soon fixed. In this case, and assuming that the "What if" paragraph isnt the situation, I thin the seller should have been contacted (or at least tried to contact) before payment was stopped. |
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| @Gfk. Maybe Ive read it wrong, but no one has claimed that the seller closed their eBay account and went into hiding? This... What if the person will not accept a refund? What if the guy took down his ebay account the next day + has made it where he cannot be contacted? What if I didn't use paypal? Then this... Are you asking, or are you saying those things happened? Followed by this... Oh it happened alright! :( Possibly that is what has happened, but I think my point has been proven Nothing's been proven. You've got an opinion which may or may not be correct* - that's hardly proof.[edit] * Oh, and in light of the things quoted above, you're probably not correct. Last edited 2012 |
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| Ahh, missed the confirmation. (You could have been nicer about it thou;( (Ps, you where probably as nice as Id have been, but then Im not nice) Last edited 2012 |
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| Ahh, missed the confirmation. I was being nice, I thought. Maybe you read it wrong. Again. ;) (You could have been nicer about it thou;( |
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| I have bought old refubished laptops on ebay Just be sure not to buy anything from seller laptop-express77 or Xpress-Laptops and if you get a package from a Sid Barre out of Maine, Be prepared to call your lawyer! :P I was being nice, ...and stupid. You forgot stupid GfK, You called me stupid and that isn't being nice although what I did was sort of stupid I guess... Buying from a seller with 99.3% positive feedback. :P EDIT: Almost forgot, the seller put down Paypal's # instead of his actual contact information. He definitely knew what he was doing as a conman :D Last edited 2012 |
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| Not to say anything, but that OS is 14 years old. I wouldn't experiment with Blitz[any] on it. |
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| Buying from a seller with 99.3% positive feedback. From my experience, that is not a good percentage. I avoid dealing with anybody who has less than 99.8%. |
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| UPDATE: Now they say I cant get my money back because I would have to send the machine back first. I am not going to do that because then that crook would have both my money and the machine and my old man wants to make a project out of it I'd rather just make the best of things and fix it back up. I have a genuine copy of Windows XP Home Edition x86 and am going to repair the screen myself. Im going to replace the CPU, GPU and anything else I might could replace over time. I am fully aware of how to replace computer parts but not in laptops. The only thing I can do there is take out the battery and replace broken/faulty displays. How well would XP work on this machine compared to the OS it already has? Can I install XP in 98 or would I need to boot from the dvd? When I say how well I mean how fast will it work. Thanks for the advice GaryV :) Last edited 2012 |
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| Don't waste more money replacing the CPU, it will make little difference in the scheme of things. To change the GPU you'll need to replace the whole motherboard as it's integrated. The RAM it uses will be obsolete and difficult if not impossible to find, and thats even if it'll take any more than it already has. XP should work - just. But ultimately you need face facts that you've bought a lemon. |
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| I think ill just leave the GPU alone then :) Replacing the screen and installing XP should solve my problem then right? If there is something wrong with the inverter or the cable plugged into the back of the screen where can I find another cable or inverter at a reasonable price? How is New Egg? |
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| You're still talking about spending far more on repairing this thing than it would cost you to simply buy something better. I don't think there is any economically sensible way to go about this, because the machine simply has no significant value even when in working order. |
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| But ultimately you need face facts that you've bought a lemon In which I intend to make lemonade |
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| To quote cave johnson: "Make life take the lemons back!" Seriously though, cut your losses. You're just throwing good money after bad, and it will always remain a boat anchor even if you do upgrade it as far as it will go... Just call it a learning experience, and don't waste more money on it... |
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| Now they say I cant get my money back because I would have to send the machine back first. why did you think you would be able to get your money back AND keep the machine? Anyway the best way to get all the parts you need is to buy the same model laptop on ebay. In which case you might as well get a working one (Im assuming "they" is the bank) Last edited 2012 |
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| @H&K: What I meant was I didn't want the crook to get the machine and then keep my money. It makes perfect sense. I have no way to contact him on ebay either. What should I do if were to send the thing back and never get back my money??? sort of reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzGOJJmrPNo Here is the listing on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Toshiba-Satellite-Pro-4600-Laptop-20-gig-HD-Windows-98-SE-DVD-Floppy?item=270891507539&cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D4%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8282814016818749968#ht_1873wt_1037 Last edited 2012 |
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| Just send the thing back. Basicly you might have been ripped off, but eitherway what you have is useless. If you keep it, which you have decided to do, then you have no right at all to a refund. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Working-Toshiba-Satellite-Pro-4600-Pentium-III-900MHz-Laptop-Project-PC-/390410147503?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item5ae64216af#ht_607wt_698 Last edited 2012 |
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| What should I do if were to send the thing back and never get back my money??? Earn life experience points, so you'll take precautions and won't get scammed next time? but seriously: If you payed by creditcard and don't end up receiving your money back in a timely fashion after returning the laptop (keep your shipping receipt!), then there is still something else you can do: you can get your creditcard company to issue a chargeback for fraud / misrepresentation, by explaining to them that what you received wasn't was was promised, and that the product has been returned to the seller. But anyway, for future reference: - A 12-year old laptop is not even close to being worth $179. Heck, in most areas it wouldn't even be worth the $20 you paid for shipping it. If there are any consumer electronics recycling depots in your area you can probably walk away with an armload of better laptops for free if you ask them nicely. You can buy brand new netbooks starting at ~$269 that have 4 times the memory, at least 4 times the CPU power, 4 times the drive space, better on-board graphics, better display, come with at least a 1-year manufacturers' warranty, come with a modern OS (windows 7), has a new battery that will last for hours instead of minutes, comes with HDMI, 802.11N, built-in webcam, and half the weight of the Satellite... For example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230359 finally: don't try to circumvent the 'normal' checkout procedures of the auction sites, or they won't be of any assistance if there are problems. Heck, if you went directly to the seller bypassing ebay/paypal you wouldn't even be able to leave negative feedback if you get scammed.(So... If there is a dud machine in the bunch, it's much less risky for them to foist it off on you rather than sell it 'properly' through an auction) |
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| Final thought: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkBx9ceJq0Q |
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| What should I do if were to send the thing back and never get back my money? You'd still have no money, but at least you wouldn't have to pay someone to take the laptop away? So, net win! Seriously, if you're still hanging onto this thing, please send it back. If the chap doesn't pay there will be further steps you can take. |
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