Windows 98 on an XP Dell Laptop

amaizyng · September 11, 2020

I have an old Dell Latitude D520 that originally ran Win XP. I installed Win 98SE on it, but it's missing a bunch of drivers. I don't need to install all of them, since I don't plan to go online with it and I don't anticipate using a USB (I have plenty of left over CDs to transfer data). My plans for the laptop include enjoying the nostalgia of the quirky screensavers and themes, reminiscing about my first laptop (an NEC running Win 98), and playing old CDs like Freddi Fish, Spy Fox, and Pajama Sam. So far, I'm only able to run in 16 colors (bleh) and no sound comes, except for a startling beep when I press the "wrong" key in DOS or some other noise when I press something in device manager (can't remember how to replicate it right now). I've tried playing sounds through Sounds in the Control Panel, but it does not let me play it.

So far, I've used Retro Systems Revival to install some 3rd party ICH7 chipset, DirectX 9.0c, and Intel 945M Graphics.

and before you say it, no I don't want to use a VM. Not only have 2 ISOs not worked on VirtualBox, but I specifically want to put this on Bare Metal.

The laptop currently has, I believe, a Core 2 Duo T2300, more than enough RAM (I had to edit system.ini to limit the maximum RAM), and 80GB HDD 7200RPM. If you need any more info, feel free to ask.

Thanks, y'all!

emosun · September 11, 2020

15 minutes ago, amaizyng said:

If you need any more info, feel free to ask.

is there any particular reason you feel that they would have bothered making any of the required drivers for such an os for this laptop?

amaizyng · September 11, 2020

I don't think they specifically made any "out of the box" drivers compatible with 98, but I read on Retro Systems Revival that the chipset can be backwards compatible with 98. I was sort of able to install the graphics driver, but there was something about the IDE that I needed to install. Supposedly the drivers can be compatible with a workaround. I'm not necessarily looking for drivers that will work. I'm asking for help on how to make the drivers (from the Dell website or otherwise) work on 98SE in any way, shape, or form. Similarly, someone got their Latitude D600 (which is about 2 years older than the D520) to work with 98, and they made a file with a bunch of drivers that worked with it.