Oh yeah, I love Windows ME!

GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
edited January 2004 in Science & Tech
Do not adjust your monitors! I have pronounced my love for one of the most universally hated versions of Windows to date.

Why? Sure, it's just Windows 98 with more drivers included, but there's one thing I love about the 9x windows'. You can swap motherboards on them and it's not the end of the world. One time (out of three attempts) I got a WinXP HD to adjust to a new motherboard and chipset. But with 98/ME it's a breeze. I just started up into safe mode the first time and deleted all references to the old chipset (this may not have even been necessary), and once I started up regularly it loaded up all the drivers for the new board automatically.

I'm just thrilled. I screwed around with the old board on my mom's work computer (400mhz Celeron on an Aopen board) for hours with no luck. Couldn't find out what the particularly sad-sounding error beep code meant. Popped in a new 1300mhz Duron on an old MSI 6340 board (KT133) and this computer got one hell of an overhaul, cheap and easy.

And no BSODs!!! :thumbsup:

(oh, and I just happened to have added 1300 mhz to my folding arsenal, tee hee :D )

Comments

  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Bite your tongue.... ME... Mediocre Environment
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    I may be wrong but I think you can do the same with XP (dunno about 2K). You just have to delete a certain registry entry. I don't have to cause I usually have OS images around :p
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited July 2003
    I have to say, to this day, I still regret buying Windows ME. That was £80 down the toilet and for what, daily BSOD's and jurky graphics. After just 2 months, I had moved to Windows 2000. Perhaps one of the more smarter moves I made back then.

    I'm glad you're getting on well with Windows ME Gargoyle, but I have to say, I doubt that will last very long.;)
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited July 2003
    Sol you've had good luck swapping mobos w/o a reinstall... So what?

    You're still stuck with the 9x kernel. Drivers will become available less and less over the next year, and I believe Microsoft will drop all support on the OS next year as well.

    Not to mention, it wont perform nearly as well as a fine tuned 2K/XP system, seeing as how bloated the OS really is.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Good enough for my mom's real estate program, winamp, and Office 2k. She managed to run Win95 on an old packard bell for 2 years and didn't kill it, so as long as Bonzai Buddy and his jungle pals don't find a home on this box, it should be fine. :D

    Of course I wouldn't run WinME on my main box that I game and do video and audio editing on; I'm just thrilled about an easy swap :)

    Black Hawk - When I swapped mobos in XP, I used a registry file that MS has on their site for just such an occassion. It supposedly ads in a reference for every major chipset. Worked once, moving from a p3 Dell to a ECS K7S5A, but didn't work on a couple of other boxes. Hey, with Windows, 1 out of 3 ain't bad ;D
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited July 2003
    Me? Microsoft Error?
    I suppose Gargoyle is the only satisfied consumer of Windows Me. :)

    God, I remember installing it on a oh-so-stable Via MVP3 Super7-based system (AMD K6-III 400). After a fresh install and installing the latest Via 4-in-1 drivers (4.29 at the time), it promptly crashed the system. :) I DON'T miss those days :D
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Said it before and i'll say it again, never had any problems with WinME on any of my 3 machines and most my mates use/d it and they have no problems either.

    NS
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2003
    ME was a load of crap that never should have been released. The only time ME is good and reliable is when the computer is off.
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited July 2003
    I think ME is one of those O/Ss that has to have the correct hardware because if there is any incompatability the whole system is unstable.

    I had WinME and it was absolutely horrible. Most of the time just trying to run Notepad would cause WinME to crash.

    Upgraded that system to W2K and all was better.

    The whole 9x series, ME included, was pretty crappy, but ME was by far the worst. W2K has been great, though! Much nicer than NT4 visually, and loads easier to install hardware.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    It's so weird to hear about the problems people have had with WinME. I've never had any!

    I always thought that the reason that people didn't like it was because they were bitter because they bought an upgrade that was essentially just a few new drivers and an added restore feature.

    It's also funny to hear how many people love Win2k, when it ran like crap on my old system, and yet I've heard of it running well on worse systems. The laws of windows are reversed with me, eh?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    My single attempt at Windows ME (Thank the lord for, er, borrowing) resulted in a freshly installed operating system crashing on its own power in 30 minutes. Imagine that.

    I hasn't even installed anything yet.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    ...but: I made myself put ME on one of my old K63 computers just so I could get to know it a little, in case I ever had to work on one.

    This computer is in my bedroom, and is basically used as an mp3 terminal.

    It won't even do a simple thing like that right. I agree with a2jfreak - with the right hardware it might be fine, but good luck trying to iron-out any compatibility issues.

    But hey, as the old-time baseball player Lefty Gomez said "I'd rather be lucky than good".

    Glad it works for you.


    Prof
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    NightShade737 said
    Said it before and i'll say it again, never had any problems with WinME on any of my 3 machines and most my mates use/d it and they have no problems either.

    NS

    I also never had any major issues when I moved from 98 to ME. It worked just fine for me until 2K had enough drivers to handle my hardware.

    ME was never bad with me. My friend still has the same install on her PC from a year ago (and her machine couldn't handle 2K at all well) and it works fine.
    a2jfreak said
    I think ME is one of those O/Ss that has to have the correct hardware because if there is any incompatability the whole system is stable.

    I had WinME and it was absolutely horrible. Most of the time just trying to run Notepad would cause WinME to crash.

    Upgraded that system to W2K and all was better.

    The whole 9x series, ME included, was pretty crappy, but ME was by far the worst. W2K has been great, though! Much nicer than NT4 visually, and loads easier to install hardware.

    ME with decent hardware will run fine.

    Gargoyle.. you are luckier than most with ME ;) It CAN be a slug of an OS. Just depends on what you do with it. Wouldn't suit me but works just fine for MP3/web/email/bit of office user :thumbsup:
  • MERRICKMERRICK In the studio or on a stage
    edited August 2003
    For the record I believe that these are the reg entries you must delete if changing a mobo:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM
    Delete this folder the last time you're on your old mobo. Install your new mobo and Windows will then discover the new mobo and do what it needs to.

    I think in win2k
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\ENUM
    But I'm not sure.

    I clipped this form a computer shopper article and I have never tried it. Thought I'd post it anyway.
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    doesnt windows 98 have a max performance thingy? like it can only utilize so many MHZ...i KNOW it can only utilize up to 512megs of ram
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited August 2003
    Close.

    The actual code is more like this:

    if (CPUSpeed() > 300) waste_time;
    if (CPUSpeed() > 500) { waste_time(); waste_time(); }
    if (CPUSpeed() > 700) { waste_time(); waste_time(); waste_time(); }
    if (CPUSpeed() > 1000) { for( ; ; ) ; }
    WuGgaRoO said
    doesnt windows 98 have a max performance thingy? like it can only utilize so many MHZ...i KNOW it can only utilize up to 512megs of ram
  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited August 2003
    I had WinME installed for a month and hated it. Of all the 9x kernels, Win98SE was the best. WinME ran like a snail on a K6-2 500 w/128MB of RAM.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited August 2003
    I agree with danball 1976 completely.

    I got to really like 98se - so much that I delayed going to XPpro for a long time. Now I'm a big XPpro fan, though.


    Prof
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited August 2003
    I too love 98, it gave a few good years of fun, but once I got my hands on 2000's NT stability, there was no turning back. Even if it didn't play half the games 98 could.
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited December 2003
    i prefere xp a better veriaty of stuuf

    Little bothered strikes again! :banghead:
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited December 2003
    All I have to say about installing a new mobo into xp and having issues...

    1 wordish

    sysprep

    run it shut down, do your swaps, boot up, let the system reinstall your new hardware and your set...

    Gobbles
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    Urgh, Windows ME was the operating system that came with my first Dell p3 500. Upon purchasing the laptop, I thought that I had made the right choice in selecting ME over 98 SE. :bs:
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Holy Thread Revival Batman! (apprently 9 months old.... which makes no sense).

    I used WinME and.... dejavous... oh yeah, I've already replied once.
    Just need to state it again, I had no problems with it and found it to be a more streamlined and compatible version of 98SE basically.
  • polarys425polarys425 Harrisonburg, VA
    edited December 2003
    to this day i cant get my dad to let go of Windows Me. he always claims he has stuff that wont work on XP, yet can never tell me exactly what wont work.

    myself, i've been using XP ever since i paid $10 to download RC1 & RC2 and have never looked back.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Enverex wrote:
    Holy Thread Revival Batman!

    That reminds me... I wonder if my mother's computer I installed it on is still running? :-/
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