Hello everyone,

I cannot install DirectX 8 on Windows 98SE since DirectX 8 supports Intel Pentium or equivilent (AMD K6) or higher, but my computer has DirectX 6.1a, and I need to install nvDVD (nVidia DVD), the DVD Player program on my system since I have a DVD burner. Is there a way I can bypass the DirectX requirements?

Thanks for your support.

seems like a tough situation. Wonder how long it would take a 486 to burn a DVD, lol.

I would recommend looking for an alternative DVD burning software for Windows 98. I'm sure one exists that doesn't require DX8. I just don't know which one that would be...

maybe an old version of WinDVD or something.

You need to find two unicorns and get them to copulate.

(Seriously, wrong technology combination here; DVD's and 486 machines really don't work well together period)

Could a 486 even sustain the IO required to burn a DVD without it failing?

I don't believe so. It'll take years for a single dvd to burn even if it did work.

I figured out how to install DirectX on my computer. I reformatted and reinstalled Windows 98SE with my 486 machine, finished up the installation on my server computer, installed DirectX 9.0c, nVidia DVD 2.2, and that was it.

and it works?? you can burn a DVD?

-- so, wait, you put the drive in a newer PC, booted to it, installed DX9 (on Windows 98. Yeah..), put the drive back in the 486, and it *worked*??

Yup. I now have nVidia DVD (nvDVD) installed on my PC as well, but since I don't have a mouse, I cannot switch from the file view to the DVD Player to watch DVDs on my 486 machine, but the Audio CDs work

Watching DVDs on a 486? lolno.

Unless you have a MPEG decoder card. But even then I'm sure it'd be awful.

wait you don't have a mouse on a win98 machine! i would understand if you were using Win1.x without a mouse, but win98 without a mouse. That is strange.

What's strange is that he's running Windows 98 on a 486... and that he's trying to use it like something more modern.

And yeah, an MPEG decoder card would be the only way you'd have a hope of watching DVD's on a 486. My 486 could barely handle a 128 Kbps MP3...

It is strange to run Windows 98SE without a mouse. I'm planning to buy one that has a PS/2 to Serial Adapter shipped with the mouse. The mouse I'm planning to get is a Logitech First Mouse Plus since my dad told me that using a USB mouse with a USB to PS/2 adapter connected to a PS/2 to Serial Adapter won't work that way at all. I might get an ISA Riser Card that has PCI slots so that I can hook up my USB 2.0 PCI Card, my nVidia GeForce MX 4000 PCI Video Card, and possibly a SATA controller card so that I can have a 160GB SATA Hard Drive in the system, or a Solid State Drive for my backups and data

An SSD on a 486 would be such a waste. You're better off building a new system than sinking all of your money into upgrades for an old system to do things it just wasn't meant to do.

If you put an SSD in an ancient 486 I'm going to shoot you and give it to somebody who will actually use it to it's potential.

I'm only joking of course but it would be a complete waste. I've done the let's soup up this ancient PC for lulz several times, and it loses it's novelty after an hour at most.

IMO the only good reason for spending money on a really old PC is if you're building a classic gaming rig like CoreDuo did.

lol...
@Windows7User: Just get a serial port mouse. I have one. But you could easily get one like for free, just ask anyone if they have old computer crap for you, lol. Mine's a Microsoft 2-button mouse, no scrollwheel. Came with a 386.

And really, I hope you're joking about the SATA card. You can't be serious... and are you really trying to buy an ISA SATA card anyway? If that PC were mine, I would still *use* it, sure. I'd probably use the smallest working hard drive in my collection, probably like 800MB, and install Windows for Workgroups 3.11. And there you have it, a PC that can run DOS games reasonably well. And Win31 Paintbrush, lol. But DVDs, SATA, SSD's? I didn't even spring for an SSD in my Phenom II! (No, not Pentium, Phenom.) *sigh*, seems you know how to annoy WinBoards.

- turned out to be more slightly off-topic than I'd hoped, read on, boredom/procrastination levels dependent -

One thing that amuses me (slightly off-topic) is the value trend of computers over time. I've heard theories such as the value is divided by two each year (was fun to graph, believe it's f(t)=P(.5^t), where P is the initial price.) Except the funny thing is the value actually does hit 0 at one point, and in many cases slightly below that (it costs money to recycle those things). As far as I can tell, at least right now, 10-12 year old computers are the cheapest available (i.e. closest to free, often times free.). Then 13-16-year-old PCs are just crap that people recycle; they essentially have a negative value.

And then eventually, to the slight amount of "insane" people like myself, their value turns around when they get to 17-20 years old, as "vintage", or "museum" pieces, or "vintage gaming PCs". It's actually fascinating. Look at eBay. it's really all in the way they sell it. A computer sold as a top-of-the-line (for its time) DOS gaming PC (which is really a rebuilt Pentium I or something, with Win95) are sometimes listed at insane amounts of money - often $70-150 and up. And then, the less people know about it, the cheaper they get (also depends on initial value, etc.) - you can find that perfect DOS gaming PC for $120, while a used Pentium III might be $5.00 plus shipping. Just weird.

I was joking about a SATA controller card, and a Solid State Drive. All the ports in my 486 system are ancient.

How the hell can a PCI -> ISA riser even work? They're incompatible buses, and even if they do somehow magically work, it'll be *slow as shit*

Not to mention the physical design of the thing, if such a thing did exist, you'd need a new case.

The only thing I could see for that is some kind of dongle to an external box. Which might make sense for something like PCI-E and Thunderbolt, but not PCI and ISA...

haha, well then, nice 'joke'

I wasn't joking when I wanted to destroy my Pentium II with overclocking. But apparently I gradually killed the motherboard's IDE I/O chip after the Xbox hotswap too late lol