8.1 just for fun

[TechnoMage]

I've decided to just stay at home today, so just for fun....
I decided to try Windows 8.1 on my old Acer One Netbook. It's so old, it came pre-loaded with Win-XP/x86.
My previous attempts at updating the OS on that little beastie have all failed.
The hardest part of my day came when I went looking for a Flash Drive with Windows 8.1 on it. I found that I didn't have one, but I did find a DVD with that OS on it.
So I used a utility program to burn the ISO from the DVD to a spare Flash Drive. Then I was ready to start the install.

The little Netbook booted up just fine from the Flash Drive and the install of Windows 8.1/Pro/x86, went off without incident, just like it would on a much newer and higher performance PC. All be it, a little bit slower. The Netbook is maxed out with just 1.5GB of RAM. It came from Acer like that. The HD is buried deep inside the little PC, and would be really hard to change.

Before the upgrade, I did manage to get a Ghost Backup of the C: partition of the little HD in the Netbook. So if Win-8.1 ever goes sideways on me, I can always do a Ghost Restore, and
restore Win-XP to the little Netbook.
If there is a negative to the 8.1 install, it's that I wind up with a screen resolution of just 800x600. On a screen not much bigger than a post card, any higher resolution would result in text
too small to read. But, that's comparable to what I had with XP.
However my LAN/WiFi, and sound installed properly and both Work. All, thanks to the great hardware driver package in Windows 8.1.

This is all just a part of my Hobby, of experimenting with various OS's and is not done for any personal gain.
Cheers Mates!
TM
PS: Here's a screen shot of my System screen, cropped and resized, of course.

 

[Bree]

...just for fun.... I decided to try Windows 8.1 on my old Acer One Netbook. It's so old, it came pre-loaded with Win-XP/x86.... The Netbook is maxed out with just 1.5GB of RAM. It came from Acer like that.... with a screen resolution of just 800x600.

It's fun testing the limits of old hardware.

I have an Acer netbook too, but a little newer than yours. It came with Win7 Starter, boasts a whole 2GB RAM and a 1024x600 10" screen. Currently it's running Win10 x86 and gets regular use as my 'take-away' device for some light web browsing while on holiday.

But, just for fun, I've had it running Windows 11 x64 (well, 'walk' rather than 'run' - no 64-bit OS should be asked to live in anything with that little RAM )

 

[TechnoMage]

All too often, on one forum or another, someone is bemoaning how hard it is to install Windows X.X.
If a person gets the appropriate ISO for the OS they want to install, and then burn it to a Flash Drive, of sufficient size, using the latest version of "Rufus"....
then boot up their PC with the Flash Drive, the install is as easy as just answering a few prompts. I'm afraid that all too many, try to make something very hard out of something that is really so simple. It's Easy Peasy, Piece of cake, etc.

The hardest part of installing Windows 8.1 to my Acer One Netbook, yesterday, was waiting for the little laptop to do the install. Did I mention, it's really slow.
Other than the slowness, the install went off like Clockwork. Absolutely NO problems.

As a computer tech of over 40 years, I just wish I could be there when someone is having problems installing an OS.

Cheers Mates,
TM

 

[TechnoMage]

It's fun testing the limits of old hardware.

I have an Acer netbook too, but a little newer than yours. It came with Win7 Starter, boasts a whole 2GB RAM and a 1024x600 10" screen. Currently it's running Win10 x86 and gets regular use as my 'take-away' device for some light web browsing while on holiday.

But, just for fun, I've had it running Windows 11 x64 (well, 'walk' rather than 'run' - no 64-bit OS should be asked to live in anything with that little RAM )

My first Netbook was just new, from Acer and had only One (1) GB of ram. I had a problem with it, took it back to the store and got a replacement....the one I have now.
At the time, I was glad that it was maxed out to 1.5 GB of ram. It's always been my own "Take Away" laptop. A really FUN little computer.
I tried Windows 7 on the Netbook, and the video was really screwed up. Then much later, I tried Win-10 and likewise, NOT satisfactory. But Windows 8.1/Pro/x86 runs perfectly.
Max resolution is 800x600, but with such a small screen, that's OK.
I'm glad to hear that someone else has a netbook, and likes it.
Thank you,
TM

 

[TechnoMage]

I'm constantly reading where different guys recommend running Linux as a fix for many problems. I tried that once and found it useless. (for me)

However I recently had a chance to download and try a new OS called "Zorin". With the applications that it came preinstalled with it was almost useful.
But, not for me. Zorin is still out there, and I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried it, and what they might think of it. ???

OP, TM

 

[MGhee]

As a computer tech of over 40 years, I just wish I could be there when someone is having problems installing an OS.

I think I called your house back in 1981, I left a message asking you to come by my house... I was living in Tampa on W. Sligh Ave. - you never showed up

 

[TechnoMage]

I think I called your house back in 1981, I left a message asking you to come by my house... I was living in Tampa on W. Sligh Ave. - you never showed up

Well, sir I don't think you did. Sorree MGhee.
I did not move to FL till 1988, and even then I was not doing house calls to Tampa, that would be an almost 100 mile trip for me, from Ocala.
JFYI , in 1981 I was working in the CAT Research Labs in Mossville, Ill. And just building my first IBM compatible PC.
My computer repair work at the time was reserved for the Commodore 64 computer and 1541 Disk Drive.

 

[MGhee]

Well, sir I don't think you did. Sorree MGhee.
I did not move to FL till 1988, and even then I was not doing house calls to Tampa, that would be an almost 100 mile trip for me, from Ocala.
JFYI , in 1981 I was working in the CAT Research Labs in Mossville, Ill. And just building my first IBM compatible PC.
My computer repair work at the time was reserved for the Commodore 64 computer and 1541 Disk Drive.

Hi TM

Sounds like you've been around technology a good bit of your life - really cool.

BTW, I hope you know I was kidding, though I was in Tampa from 1980 to 1982

 

[TechnoMage]

MGhee,
My first job, when I got out of the ARMY in 1964, was with NCR. My aptitude for electronics was so high that they put me right into their Computer training program.
Their idea, not mine. The largest system I ever worked on/with was big enough to fill a house. It ran on vac. tubes.
OH, I worked on all the mechanical stuff too. What a ride!
So, MGhee, where are you now?

 

[TechnoMage]

Well, that thread just died a quick death!

Happy Holidays, Y'all

 

[spapakons]

Hello!

I've decided to just stay at home today, so just for fun....
I decided to try Windows 8.1 on my old Acer One Netbook. It's so old, it came pre-loaded with Win-XP/x86.
My previous attempts at updating the OS on that little beastie have all failed.
The hardest part of my day came when I went looking for a Flash Drive with Windows 8.1 on it. I found that I didn't have one, but I did find a DVD with that OS on it.
So I used a utility program to burn the ISO from the DVD to a spare Flash Drive. Then I was ready to start the install.

The little Netbook booted up just fine from the Flash Drive and the install of Windows 8.1/Pro/x86, went off without incident, just like it would on a much newer and higher performance PC. All be it, a little bit slower. The Netbook is maxed out with just 1.5GB of RAM. It came from Acer like that. The HD is buried deep inside the little PC, and would be really hard to change.

Before the upgrade, I did manage to get a Ghost Backup of the C: partition of the little HD in the Netbook. So if Win-8.1 ever goes sideways on me, I can always do a Ghost Restore, and
restore Win-XP to the little Netbook.
If there is a negative to the 8.1 install, it's that I wind up with a screen resolution of just 800x600. On a screen not much bigger than a post card, any higher resolution would result in text
too small to read. But, that's comparable to what I had with XP.
However my LAN/WiFi, and sound installed properly and both Work. All, thanks to the great hardware driver package in Windows 8.1.

This is all just a part of my Hobby, of experimenting with various OS's and is not done for any personal gain.
Cheers Mates!
TM
PS: Here's a screen shot of my System screen, cropped and resized, of course.
View attachment 71969

I guess you installed Windows 8.1 but did nothing about drivers. Windows could not identify your graphics card, hence it installed Microsoft Basic Display Adapter which has no hardware acceleration (all visual effects are done by the CPU) and the computer slows down considerably. The MBDA supports only standard resolutions, like 800x600, 1024x768 etc. Your netbook probably has native resolution of 1024x600, so MBDA's only option is 800x600. Use a utility such as Aida64 to find which is your chipset and graphics card. If your chipset is the infamous 915G, or 925G variant, then you are out of luck. There is no official or Microsoft WDDM driver, Windows 8.1 do not support XP graphics drivers (XPDM), so you are stuck with MBDA at 800x600, unless you use an external monitor. If you have 945G or newer, then you can use the latest Windows Vista or 7 32-bit driver. This will fix the resolution to the native 1024x600. There is also a registry hack to enable 1024x768 (so you could see the Windows 8 Metro Screen back in Windows 8.0), but this squeezes the picture to the native 1024x600 and is a little blur. I hope that helps.

 

[Bree]

Your netbook probably has native resolution of 1024x600, so MBDA's only option is 800x600.

The MBDA supports 1024x600 on my netbook (Acer Aspire One D270, Intel Atom N2600)

 

[spapakons]

Then some incompatible driver doesn't allow 1024x600. The solution is the same, install proper graphics drivers.

I recently saw a netbook running Windows XP which had Intel graphics installed but the driver wasn't 100% compatible, so it was stuck with 800x600. The screen's native resolution was 800x480, so the desktop was larger and you had to scroll up and down. Not very convenient. After updating to the latest graphics driver, you could set the native resolution of 800x480 to see the whole desktop. I think you get the idea.

 

[TechnoMage]

I'm perfectly happy with what I have. At least these old eyes can still read it.
Not really in to playing with drivers, to get a higher resolution that I couldn't even read.
I've sent post cards, larger than the screen on this little Netbook.
Thanks guys, for all your suggestions. Appreciated!
Wishing Y'all a great 2022.
TM

 

[TechnoMage]

Windows 8.1, revisited:

It's been quite a while since I started this thread. And I've just rejuvenated a really OLD eMachine, by installing Windows 8.1/Pro/x86 on it and then adding a 3.5" Floppy disk drive.

The specs on the old eMachine: The CPU is an AMD Athlon, 64, 3000+ 1.86GHz.
For several years, it's run Windows 7/Ultimate/x86. But it's just getting tired, and it was my last Win-7 machine. The motherboard came with an IDE port, Floppy Disk Drive port, 4 SATA II ports, and seven USB ports. Originally it also had on-board Lan, Sound, and Video.
It was quite a PC for it's time.

So yesterday, I connected a spare HD to the SATA drive cable and booted up with my Windows/Pro/x86 flash drive and started the install. The install went as smooth as silk, but,
the 8.1 installer did not have drivers for the lan and sound, for that OLD eMachine.
So, I'm using a USB WiFi gizmo, and a Sabrent USB sound device. So now I have workable LAN and sound.

The only thing left to do was to see if that Floppy Drive port on the Motherboard actually worked.
And, would it work in Windows 8.1. ???
So today, I pulled a floppy drive out of a very old Compaq PC, recently given to me.
And, with a lot of hunting, I finally found the cables to connect that old floppy drive to the eMachine motherboard. Then I opened up the drive, to clean and oil it, before I ever put the power to it.
With the little floppy drive connected, but laying next to the PC, on the bench, I began the test.

PTL! It worked just fine, and I booted up the PC with several old DOS floppies that I still had, from the days when I serviced hundreds of PC's, both personal and business, that still ran DOS.
It even did a Disk To Disk copy, with narry a problem. Now, for the first time in a decade, I have a desktop PC, running Windows 8.1/Pro with a Floppy Disk Drive in it. WOW! Who would'a thunk it?

I don't have the correct mounting bracket to put a 3.5" Floppy Drive in a 5.25" drive bay, but I made do with the drive spacers that I do have.

You probably won't see too many PC's that run Windows 8.1, that also have a floppy drive on them.
But I have one, and it's been fun, and I LOVE it! Just for fun!

Cheers Mates!
TM

 

[endeavor]

You probably won't see too many PC's that run Windows 8.1, that also have a floppy drive on them.
But I have one, and it's been fun, and I LOVE it! Just for fun!

I do <vbg>
Not only does my tower have a floppy drive mounted in the drive bay, but also a Zip 100 <g>
..and the tower triple boots live not only to Win8.1, but also Win7/Win10/ and Vista as well.

I also have 3 other towers that are much newer, they each triple boots OS's too, and like you being an old tech just wanted to have that nostalgia of them having floppy ability since I also have things I can run with them (not often or necessary but like you, it's for nostalgic sake and just to have the ability. Runs everything from my SpinRite license, to even WordStar ...oh yeah ..the DOS days.
However on my newer towers I chose to run them not in the drive bay, but via USB with these:
<<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KX8EMOO>>
...I bought a few of these 5 years back for just $14.95 each, and they work well. I have to admit though I rarely need to use them in todays world, but it's nice to have, as you said, just for fun, and just because we can!

 

[TechnoMage]

I retired from Computer work, 16 years ago, and have not done much since.
I recently decided to either get that old eMachine working correctly or take a hammer to it.
For long time, it's been like a yo yo....up and down. Very frustrating. I couldn't really do anything with it.
Yesterday, I finally figured out that the #2 ram slot was BAD. I have two 1GB ram sticks, and as long as I installed them in slots #1 and #3, everything worked perfectly. Like Hamilton Smith used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together". lol

So this morning, I put the old Windows 7 HD back in the HD rack, along side the Win-8.1 drive, and cabled it up. With the two drives installed side by side, the 8.1 drive will boot up the PC if I do nothing, but I can boot to Win-7 by just pushing the F-10 key at boot, and thus use the Boot Menu.
And, of course, I can also boot to a Floppy disk, CD or Flash Drive.
It's as functional and versatile as I need it to be. My main OS over 12 PC's, is Windows 8.1/Pro/64 or X86 where necessary.

But, today I've found somewhat of a mystery. The cpu on this little old PC is an AMD Athlon 3000+, (64) so it would seem logical that it would run a 64 bit OS. Eh? Well, it won't!!!
Even when I try to boot up with a Flash Drive or CD with a 64 bit OS on it, it just sits there and spins forever. Never boots!
Both of the OS's that run on this PC are x86.

Spinrite 6? Dang, that's old! I bought that program from Gibson Research many years ago. But, I don't have any reason to use it anymore. The new SATA III drives are just so much more reliable. Likewise "PC Tools". Now there was a PROGRAM!
Again, not much use today.
Do you remember ever doing a Low Level Drive format? I did that a lot, back in the day, still use it to do a DEEP Format on an older drive, occasionally. It also blocks out bad sectors.
I guess I'm dating myself! Eh?
I also used to re-align the old IBM, Full Height, 5.25" Floppy Drives. And the C-1541 Commodore drives too. Dang, them were the days!
Cheers Mate!
TM

 

[endeavor]

I have licensed SpinRite v5 & v6, and fwiw the next version will be released within a year I would estimate; he's working on it now.

I boot most all my OS's these days with an SSD of course (still have one tower that's using a spinner, but rarely need to boot her up anymore) ..but I do have and use plenty of large spinners (2TB & 6TB) for large file storage since it's much more economical, and most importantly I already have a dozen of them.

Yes my first Desktop back in the 80's did have a 5.25 floppy drive in it too, yes. Actually I just brought her to the computer dump a few years ago since it would not work anymore, and I had no future use for it.

 

[TechnoMage]

I have licensed SpinRite v5 & v6, and fwiw the next version will be released within a year I would estimate; he's working on it now.

I boot most all my OS's these days with an SSD of course (still have one tower that's using a spinner, but rarely need to boot her up anymore) ..but I do have and use plenty of large spinners (2TB & 6TB) for large file storage since it's much more economical, and most importantly I already have a dozen of them.

Yes my first Desktop back in the 80's did have a 5.25 floppy drive in it too, yes. Actually I just brought her to the computer dump a few years ago since it would not work anymore, and I had no future use for it.

I've kind of been out of touch with Steve Gibson, for several years now. I think the last program I got from him was "Never 10", which I do use a lot. A new Spinrite would be nice, I guess, but of no use on SSD's, which I use exclusively now on all my main PC's.
While I was still a working tech, people were forever giving me their old PC's. Just a few years ago, I took 14 old desktops to the electronics recycling center. I still have 12 working PC's, 4 desktops and 8 Portables. It's a full time job, just keeping them all up to date.

Speaking of Spinrite, , , I have a Hitachi Deskstar (aka, Deathstar) that I think might be bad. I think I'll run Spinrite on it, just to make sure, one way or the other. I've not used that program for years....I hope I can remember how.

 

[starvinmarvin]

Hello!


I guess you installed Windows 8.1 but did nothing about drivers. Windows could not identify your graphics card, hence it installed Microsoft Basic Display Adapter which has no hardware acceleration (all visual effects are done by the CPU) and the computer slows down considerably. The MBDA supports only standard resolutions, like 800x600, 1024x768 etc. Your netbook probably has native resolution of 1024x600, so MBDA's only option is 800x600. Use a utility such as Aida64 to find which is your chipset and graphics card. If your chipset is the infamous 915G, or 925G variant, then you are out of luck. There is no official or Microsoft WDDM driver, Windows 8.1 do not support XP graphics drivers (XPDM), so you are stuck with MBDA at 800x600, unless you use an external monitor. If you have 945G or newer, then you can use the latest Windows Vista or 7 32-bit driver. This will fix the resolution to the native 1024x600. There is also a registry hack to enable 1024x768 (so you could see the Windows 8 Metro Screen back in Windows 8.0), but this squeezes the picture to the native 1024x600 and is a little blur. I hope that helps.

Sometimes a BIOS update may allow a newer OS to work. Not often, but maybe worth a try.