24-11-2021, 07:11 AM
OK, I have got Windows ME installed on a machine. I removed the CMOS battery holder off of my dead Compaq motherboard and replaced the broken CMOS battery holder on my spare P4 motherboard, however the spare P4 motherboard seems to be dead. The CPU fan just goes full speed and there is no signs of life from the video output or CMOS beep codes, and the I/O chip gets really hot.
So I have had to use my main P4 motherboard.
I managed to get Windows ME installed, it is a bit tricky as the installer CD is funny about hard disk formatting. I put the boot floppy image onto a floppy disc (from Windows XP), however even this was a bit of a mission as the floppy drive I was using was actually a bit faulty and had misaligned heads, so I used another one which was not as nice looking.
But the fdisk.exe programme wouldn't let me format the hard drive as it asked me to enter the volume label, but I couldn't write lower case characters!
So had to go back into XP, reformat it twice, give it a label with upper case characters and then format it in fdisc.
I had originally formatted it in FAT32 in Linux, but the WinME installer didn't like it.
When originally doing the installation, I had 1.5 GB of RAM only in the machine. It installed fine (pretty quickly too) and booted into ME. So I tried putting the full 2.5 GB of RAM in, but ME didn't like it and would crash on boot.
It was a bit unstable on 1.5 GB, so I reduced it to 1 GB, which was more stable, and have now reduced to 512 GB which is optimal.
Win ME runs real fast. I have managed to get some of the drivers for my hardware, and am currently trying to get the LAN sorted.
Pictures open instantly, much faster than W10.
The machine is pretty fast though, it is a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4, with 512 GB of RAM and a 40 GB hard drive which is much faster than required.
Microsoft has a recommended system requirements of a Pentium II, 300 MHz with 64 MB of RAM and 2 GB of free space.
Will use K-Meleon for the browser when I get it connected.
So I have had to use my main P4 motherboard.
I managed to get Windows ME installed, it is a bit tricky as the installer CD is funny about hard disk formatting. I put the boot floppy image onto a floppy disc (from Windows XP), however even this was a bit of a mission as the floppy drive I was using was actually a bit faulty and had misaligned heads, so I used another one which was not as nice looking.
But the fdisk.exe programme wouldn't let me format the hard drive as it asked me to enter the volume label, but I couldn't write lower case characters!
So had to go back into XP, reformat it twice, give it a label with upper case characters and then format it in fdisc.
I had originally formatted it in FAT32 in Linux, but the WinME installer didn't like it.
When originally doing the installation, I had 1.5 GB of RAM only in the machine. It installed fine (pretty quickly too) and booted into ME. So I tried putting the full 2.5 GB of RAM in, but ME didn't like it and would crash on boot.
It was a bit unstable on 1.5 GB, so I reduced it to 1 GB, which was more stable, and have now reduced to 512 GB which is optimal.
Win ME runs real fast. I have managed to get some of the drivers for my hardware, and am currently trying to get the LAN sorted.
Pictures open instantly, much faster than W10.
The machine is pretty fast though, it is a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4, with 512 GB of RAM and a 40 GB hard drive which is much faster than required.
Microsoft has a recommended system requirements of a Pentium II, 300 MHz with 64 MB of RAM and 2 GB of free space.
Will use K-Meleon for the browser when I get it connected.