Upgrading Win98 to XP on 1.4gh Athlon computer.

[toolman59]

Currently I am running Win98SE on a MSI K&T266 Pro motherboard with the VIA Appollo KT266 chipset and 1.4gh Athlon.

Are there any issues that would make an upgrade to WinXP on this system a hassle? There were some posts earlier in the year that highlighted various problems with this setup. Have patches and driver updates since then, cleared up these problems?

My main reason for upgrading would be for improved stability and better memory management.

Brian

 

[SESaskDFC]

Howdy:

Download the upgrade advisor and run it.. That will tell you what will or won't handle XP on your system..

http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Utility/1.0/WXP/EN-US/UpgAdv.exe

Murray

 

[KimLeece]

Yes - definately check all the hardware etc. One thing though - just about everyone (including Microsoft) says that it is better to do a clean - full install of XP rather than choosing the option to upgrade from your present system. This clears out any old problems - and gives a much more stable OS. Unless you want a dual boot situation, I'd go with a disk reformat - NTFS file system - full install.

Kim Leece

 

[smah]

I highly recommend a clean install - which by the way can be done with the upgrade cd as long as you have a quailifying product cd.

Make sure all your important data is backed up somewhere other than your primary partition. Boot with xp cd, insert the 98 cd when prompted for the qualifying product. When you get to the partitioning section, delete your existing primary partition (where 98 is installed). XP will format & install. You'll be a lot happier in the long run.

 

[paparazi]

Xp is really quite amazing and has the most complete driver database of any OS to date, but don't let this stop you from using the upgrade advisor to point out any possible problems if there are any and do your own checks on the supplied drivers disks of your add on periferals for XP support.
You don't want to be caught out after installation with a scanner you can no longer use because there are no XP drivers available.
Remember XP is memory hungry and needs 256mb ram to run sweetly (even though Microsoft say something silly like a 500CPU with 64mb ram) take it from me much more is needed.
As with all relatively new operating systems download all the latest upgrades for XP.
SP1 now available as an acumullative patch download but is quite big unless you have broadband (but I have seen it offered on many PC magazines as essential patches)
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[toolman59]

Thank you all for your advice, I will upgrade in the New Year with a clean installation and 512Mb of memory. At least I know basically that there are no real compatability problems with XP and my setup.

Happy Christmas

Brian

 

[jhowley58]

In the dim and distant past I bought a '98se OS CD. I upgraded from that to W2000Pro; a really nice, solid system. A couple of months back I upgraded from W2000 to XP Pro and I've suffered for it. All kinds of issues. Incompatibility and much worse - rebooting in 3/4 minutes!

I noticed a post in this thread which mentioned the fact that it is possible to do a 'clean install' using an XP pro upgrade disk if you've got a qualifying product CD (which I have). Does that also apply to the W2000Pro upgrade disk? Because I very much want to revert to W2000Pro.

If I no longer use XP pro will there be any difficulty in selling the original Upgrade CD? I have registered it etc with Microsoft.

John..

 

[smah]

jhowley58, I don't see anything about upgrading an upgrade, but even it didnot want to, the 98se is a qualifying product. Here's some reading:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/columns/honeycutt/02october07.asp

 

[PepeLeMokko]

Hello,
I installed XP and had some trouble before upgrading my BIOS.
So, if you get stuck with a black screen saying " Windows XP Setup" and a row of vertical lines, and nothing seems to move , consider flashing your BIOS ( with all necessary precautions , that is).
Good luck and happy New Year

 

[toolman59]

Thank you all for your replies. XP in 03.

Happpy New Year everybody!!


Brian