If you can give me your opinion Win2k gurus :)

[pr-man 1]

Ok my system is as follows:

 

Celeron 300a@464 on a Abit BH6 Rev 1.01 (BX chipset, running newest ACPI compliant bios QN dated 5-29-00) 192 megs pc100,8.4 gig Western Digital UDMA-33 Matrox G400 32 meg SH, SBlive Value, Supra Express 56i ISA, with other odds and ends

 

I am currently using Win2k pro but used Win98 in the past. My question is in your opinion considering my current system and the fact that I play alot of games, watch alot of DVDs, also use my computer for Internet, word processing, and some image manipulation (getting into this more since I got my digital camera). Which OS is best for me to use out of Win2k and Win98 (not SE) Thx guys

[Cardinal 0]

It really depends on your knowledge of computer software. Windows 2000, being based on the NT kernel is so much more stable as anyone can tell you. It's a very versatile and powerful operating system that (after some tweaking) is actually faster than windows 98. The problem is though, many hardware companies (like creative)are so slack they don't release drivers for windows 2000. Or if they do, they are poor in quality compared to win98. Therefore, support for hardware is slightly less in win2000 then it is in win98. Most games (new or old) will run right out of box in 98 but not in 2000. If you have relatively new hardware and want a stable OS go win2000. If you want to lead a simplistic life and feel under confident with your computer skills, go win 98.

[euankirkhope 0]

NT4 is the best. None of this "lets have DX7 and ACPI" It pure hardware simplicity. PnP is even a no no unless you install afterwards from directly from the CDROM. Plays all the Quakes blissfully, Ah sigh the good ol' days.

 

If its questionable it wouldn't work in NT4 fullstop. That way it really was stable. Win2k is still a bit unfinished however. Take my machine for instance I keep on getting stupid errors like:

 

The protected system file c:\winnt\system32\ksinterf.ax could not be verified as valid because Windows File Protection is terminating. Use the SFC utility to verify the integrity of the file at a later time.

 

Or, this ones extremely common:

The instruction at "0x00231803" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read".

 

Like so:

The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.

 

Don't know what this is but it certainly fills up the event log:

 

Unable to read the disk performance information from the system. Disk performance counters must be enabled for at least one physical disk or logical volume in order for these counters to appear. Disk performance counters can be enabled by using the Hardware Device Manager property pages. Status code returned is data DWORD 0.

 

Not to mention hourly fastfat.sys, and Kmode exception bsod's ammongst many other interesting ones. The last one (10 mins ago) was something about driver_power_status being unknown?

 

Looks like its time for a re-install. But will it be NT4 or NT5?

[someone_nt 0]

This may sound a bit too harsh, but wasn't MS-DOS far more stable than any Windows OS? Do you remember seeing KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED in DOS?

 

The only problems you could eventually face would be not having enough conventional memory free.

 

Windows 2000 is great if your hardware likes it, otherwise you will be ****ed (yeah! As it sounds:****ED):

In my PC:

 

- Asus p5 motherboards need a bios update (1010 beta 2) and ali agp driver 0.20.

 

-Creative SBlive needs better drivers (Liveware 2000 sucks, and no liveware 3 until mid-may...).

 

-Riva TNT cards need both a bios update (There was a previous post about this issuo some days ago), and drivers not newer than 3.78 RC. Otherwise, spect crashes when using internet apps.

 

But AFTER ALL THIS UPGRADING, YOU GET AN OS FAR BETTER THAN ANY 9X STUFF. No more crashes, and faster than anything (well, excluding Linux, of course).

 

To be true, Windows 2000 is better than Windows ME, which as I always though, sucks!

[pr-man 1]

Wel;l to be honest Win2k is stable as hell on my system and I never get any errors or blue screens, there are a few things in the evnt viewer I may post here cuz I dont understand them. Honestly Im just wondering if the gaming performance will go up as video drivers mature for Win2k. Gaming performance is nice right now, but I still ong for win98 scores. pr-man

[ThC 129 0]

You will see a more stable windows 2k once SP1 is out. I have the beta on my system and a lot of the freezes from games are gone now. Plus Im running DX 8 and its rock solid. Windows ME is the last of the 9x kernals so no matter what. Unless you can get software for free use 2k, otherwise use both since HD's are coming up in size and down in price.

[euankirkhope 0]

Well... maybe seti@home + mysteriously dead case fan, could be the cause of the probs! I've re-installed and it seams fine. (for now). So thats what the burning smell was... I though is was something to do with the cd writer...that cup of water sure cooled it down... its really really quiet now...

[JediBaron 0]

haha - overheating will cause a multitude of errors on any system no matter what os. For anyone reading this post:

If you smell something burning - your in deep s**t! Get your PC fixed, take it back, shoot it with a .22 in the back yard, just don't keep running it!

[Gambler FEX online 0]

Yep, it's the hardware drivers that needs to get out of beta.

 

- G400 max just got new bios but needs new drivers (latest are over 4 months old!)

 

- Creative SB Live as someone just said, very bugged drivers and few features (no s/p-dif passthrough)

 

I'm going to ditch this g400 card, hardware is nothing without software and Matrox has never had good enough driver support for a gamer like me. I'll probably buy an Elsa geforce2 card, it supports sMP in quake 3.

[nam ng 0]

I've same exact same rev and mobo (except Celeron533 @824Mhz, MX300 plus some odds&ends ) as yours, running W2K most of the time since RC3 (99% of the time)... have not had any BSODs either; for a better W2K gaming experience I'd suggest getting rid of that G400 and go with Nvidia's; even using the old TNT it was better/ faster than W9x and for the last 5 weeks using GeForce DDR (not the newer GeForce GTS) it's never been better especially with 5.22 driver release.

 

I'd never thought ever to see NEMU running full speed in most N64 games at 640x480x32 with 3x3 FSAA enabled... but it DOES. Now if I can get IMPACT to work under W2K then I can dump W9x, perhaps someone here knows how???

 

[This message has been edited by nam ng (edited 13 June 2000).]