Dell Dimension 3000 - Windows 98SE install and setup

Intro:

This will be a run down on how to get Windows 98SE to work on the Dell Dimension 3000 with a Pentium 4 and 1GB of ram. If you want to dual boot with Win2k or some other OS, it is vital to install Windows 98 FIRST (or at least the easiest way).

Why? Because I wanted the cheapest all in one Win98 machine I could find on eBay (as of March 2021, I snagged it at $70.)

Unfortunately, the official support page for the machine only offers Win2k and WinXP drivers. Nothing earlier than that.

Support for Dimension 3000 | Drivers & Downloads | Dell US

No problem, we'll just search for earlier drivers right? Well, we ARE in luck with the integrated Intel Extreme 2 graphics, but not for the ADI soundmax driver.

If you want sound, you will have to buy a PCI sound blaster card.

Try to avoid Dell OEMs from ebay. But, if you have no other choice: it will work but there will be no hardware acceleration and no support for DOS sound (at this point I spent about two weeks trying to figure out how to get sound working in Win98, I currently don't feel like putting more time to get DOS to work). I personally got the Sound blaster SB0200 OEM card for $10.

You will need some way to install the USB driver without a flash drive! Either burn it to a CD or use a floppy disk.

With that out of the way, let's get started!

Pre-install setup:

1. Boot into BIOS and disable integrated audio for now to avoid confusion installing sound card drivers.
2. Insert your Win98SE install disc and save changes to exit.
3. Press F12 to start boot menu.
4. Select IDE CD ROM drive.
5. Select boot with CD ROM support.
1. You should see a DOS prompt now.
6. Start FDISK to partition your hard drive.
1. Follow this guide on how to correctly partition your drive.
7. Once you reboot, boot to CD ROM with support again to DOS prompt.
8. Run the command format c: /s
   
9. (Optional but recommended) Copy Win98 disc to hard drive (Source).
1.  Go to CD C:
2. Create a new directory directory.
1. md Windows, md Options, md Cabs
3.  CD windows \ options \ cabs
4. Copy win98 cd
1. copy e:\win98\*.*
10. Run the command setup /p i.
1. This switch is necessary with the Dimension 3000 to avoid hardware errors and to ensure a full install. You will be losing power saving features doing this, but this is the only way to install the OS correctly.
11. Finally, install Windows 98!
1. If you copied install to HD:
1. When installing Windows, be sure to specify "Other Directory" and make sure it installs to C:\Windows. Click yes if it asks you're sure to do this.
   

Booting into Windows: 

After installing Windows, you should be at the desktop now.

IMPORTANT IF YOU HAVE 1GB OF RAM

• You will have to make a system tweak to allow usage of 1GB of RAM, or else you will run into out of memory issues. Seems to be a limitation of Win98 if using more than 512MB (Source).

• Open c:\windows\system.ini in a text editor. Scroll down to the section titled VCACHE and add these two lines:

  MinFileCache=1024
  
  MaxFileCache=524288
  

  If you’re using 1 GB of RAM, you may want to set MaxFileCache to 262144 instead.

Installing the drivers: 

You'll probably need WinZip to extract the drivers.

Install the drivers in this order and reboot after each install!

1. Latest Intel Chipset Drivers (last one down the page).
1. You'll probably run across a windows protection error when you first reboot after install. Just turn off the computer and turn it back on and it should continue installing.
2. USB drivers to use flash drives 
1. I used nusb36e.exe.
3. OEM Sound card 
1. Run CTZAPXX and install WDM driver.
   
1. If you are experiencing crashes, disable audio acceleration via DXDIAG > SOUND > No Acceleration
4. win9x1361 Intel Graphics Drivers (really hard to find btw).
5. DirectX8.1
   
6. Unofficial Service Pack 3 for stability 
1. Install core files and direct x 9.

Backup archive with everything included (click here)

Finishing up and Closing: 

After you get everything working, it's time to install the finishing software and GAMESSS.

• Dameon Tools (iso mounter).
• Make sure auto mount and auto start is disabled.
  
• Myabandonware (free abandoned games) 

With that, I hope you were able to easily install Windows 98SE on a machine that wasn't supposed to run it!

Personally, I'll be enjoying NFS2 SE. :)