I have an old IBM Thinkpad 560 that runs Windows 98 SE that I sometimes use for sending SNES ROMs to my Game Doctor SF7, but it only has 2GB of hard disk and no USB so it is a bit cumbersome to transfer files to and from. It has an external CD and floppy drive and I would burn CDs for transferring large amounts of data, but it was not the easiest method. I even used a PCMCIA Ethernet card for networking with my main computer from time to time, but Windows 98 didn't always want to play nice with my Windows 7 main computer.
I decided to buy a Dell Inspiron 3800 to try and alleviate some of the shortcomings with my Thinkpad 560. Here are the specs:
Intel Celeron 600MHz
192MB RAM
6GB Hard Disk
DVD drive
parallel port
serial port
56K modem
single USB port on the back which is most likely USB 1.1
I also bought an internal/external floppy drive since it's needed in case I have to boot from CD. I can also use the floppy drive to make game images for my SF7.
It comes with Windows ME pre-installed, but I was thinking about putting Windows 98 SE on it instead. I haven't used Windows ME, but I have heard that it's not the most popular Windows 9x release. I could try Windows 2000, but I don't want to run Windows NT to avoid parallel port driver issues.
My main goal is to have a working parallel port so I can use it with my Game Doctor SF7 and my GameShark for my Gameboy. I have a SanDisk 64GB flash drive that is USB 2.0 and I'm hoping that Windows 98 SE has drivers for a USB mass storage device and also that my flash drives are backwards compatible with USB 1.1.
What are some recommendations on system configurations for my Dell Inspiron 3800?
If you have any reason to look for another machine, I strongly recommend a ThinkPad T43 for this task. It will run 32-bit Windows 7, even with aero, as it has a Radeon X300, and direct3D will work. At the same time, it has a parallel port, which I've used for programming EPROMS without issues. I have gotten this setup working with Windows XP and 7, without a need for a pre-NT system. I'd give Windows 2000 a try in your case, as you won't have to do any nonsense setting up USB Mass storage device support.
Thanks for the tips. If the Inspiron 3800 doesn't work out, I will look into getting a Thinkpad T43. It looks like the Inspiron 3800 doesn't have built-in networking so I'll have to find my PCMCIA 3Com card or get a wireless card if I want to go online. I will try Windows 2000 once I get the 3800 and floppy drive from eBay some point next week.
I had tried installing a PCI Rosewill RC 303 parallel/serial I/O card in my desktop, but for some reason, it won't communicate with my Game Doctor SF7 from my Windows XP 32-bit installation. I run Windows 8 64-bit as my main OS but boot into Windows XP 32bit every so often. I'm not sure if it's because my desktop was built in 2010 or not, but it should have better compatibility if running from a 32-bit OS. I may try Ubuntu to see if I get better results on my desktop. This was one of the main reasons for me getting a 32-bit laptop for legacy hardware support. I had hoped that my desktop could communicate through the PCI parallel port to my SF7, but apparently not (or I'm doing something incorrectly). I seem to remember it was much easier on my Thinkpad 560. All I had to do was start up uCON64 and connect my parallel cable and it sent the ROM.
I'll assume you are using giveio or userport?
I tried nearly every kernel mode driver I could find for parallel port access, but no success in Windows XP on my desktop (Userport, giveio, io.dll, inpout32.dll). I did manage to get Ubuntu thinking it was sending roms to my SF7, but my SF7 wasn't receiving the roms. I had to change the protocol to GD3 for ucon64 to think it was sending roms. I run Ubuntu 12.10 x64 on my desktop and I thought if anything, it should work in Linux a bit easier since there's less hurdles to jump over in Linux with low level hardware access. I've pulled the parallel port PCI card for now and will install it again if I can actually figure out how to get my PC to talk to my SF7.
In any case though, I will be receiving my Inspiron 3800 today so I will give that a shot. I'm fairly confident that I will have no issues with sending roms from the Inspiron. I'll post back after I've had time to do some tests.
Unfortunately, I'm having problems with getting my Inspiron 3800 to communicate with my Game Doctor SF7. I'm not sure if it's the parallel port mode, but the default is ECP and I can switch between bi-directional, normal and ECP in the BIOS. Games will not attempt to send in GD6 mode and will only partially send in GD3 mode. The sent game isn't playable as ucon64 never seems to actually finish transferring the first 8mbits of the game.
I decided to stay with Windows ME for the time being to see if it works better with Windows 9x versus Windows NT. I will have to dig up my IBM Thinkpad 560 when I go back to my parent's house in a little while and see how I configured that computer to communicate with my SF7.
Precisely why I am building my own USB flasher. This parallel port business is !=
I decided to install Windows 98 SE on the laptop to see if that had better compatibility. However, I still get the same problems with ucon64 mingw32, Visual C++ win32, and DOS. I'm beginning to wonder if it's my parallel cable not being wired correctly. I read on Cherry Rom's forums that you need a bi-directional or switchbox cable which I'm not sure I have currently. I will have to see if I have one at my parent's house when I go back to see them in a couple of weeks.
If all else fails, I could just install a floppy drive emulator in my SF7 and use a USB flash drive to store every rom in virtual floppy disks. It would be cumbersome to navigate through each virtual floppy without a keypad interface since most floppy drive emulators only have up/down buttons on the front panel. It would breathe new life into my SF7 though and might be worth looking into at some point.
There's something nostalgic about having a laptop running Windows 98 SE and playing all of my old PC games without an emulation compatibility layer that most newer PCs implement to run old software. I ordered a 40GB 2.5" hard drive for my Inspiron 3800 so I don't feel so squeezed for space on my stock 5GB hard drive. Windows 98 SE hardly even takes 200MB of space, but I'd like a little wiggle room for installing some more software. I even have wifi working with my WPA2 wireless network using a Netgear WPN511 PCMCIA card. It's difficult to find antivirus software that is even beneficial to install on Windows 98 since it's been unsupported for several years now, but I do like going online with it occasionally. Also, no modern Internet browser works with Windows 98 SE, but I may upgrade to Windows XP at some point if I can get my parallel cable to interface with my SF7 correctly. I managed to get Firefox 8.0 working through KernelEx for the time being. At least that's better than Internet Explorer 5.5 lol.