stuck at windows 98 splash screen

[iliketurtles50000]

Checklist

• I have searched the issue tracker and was unable to find an open or closed issue matching what I'm seeing.
• (If the issue occurs AFTER or DURING Windows 9x's hardware detection phase) I have tried to install with Skip legacy non-PnP hardware detection phase to [OFF] and the issue still occurs.
• (If the issue occurs AFTER or DURING Windows 9x's hardware detection phase) I have tried to install with the integrated driver library set to [OFF] and the issue still occurs.
• I understand that support is provided voluntarily for free, and that the author is not Microsoft and can/will probably not fix bugs in the operating system code itself. I also understand that it is impossible to support every single hardware combination out there.

What happened?

The Usb boots fine, I can get through installation, but coming to first boot, it freezes on the windows 98 splashscreen. Does not make it to driver installation.

Linux dmesg output

No response

Target Motherboard, CPU and RAM

motherboard: HP Mini 210 622357-001. CPU Intel Atom N550. 1x2GB DDR3

Target GPU and Sound card(s)

Intel GMA 3150

Target Storage Devices

80GB 2006 Mac Mini Sata Fujitsu MHV2080BH

Boot method

USB key

Reference image

Windows 98 SE Micro

Additional context

No response

[littlecgoodwin-ctrl]

I am stuck experiencing a similar issue.

[oerg866]

Not sure how to help here, I have no machine like this to reproduce, but it seems to be a common occurrence on machines of this class so I'll keep it open until I know what's going on

…

On Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 16:51 littlecgoodwin-ctrl ***@***.***> wrote: *littlecgoodwin-ctrl* left a comment (oerg866/win98-quickinstall#110) <#110 (comment)> I am stuck experiencing a similar issue. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#110?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAISOPL7TAVWC3UWMWEUXXL4R227VA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMJQGM3DANJYGQ42M4TFMFZW63VKON2WE43DOJUWEZLEUVSXMZLOOSWGM33PORSXEX3DNRUWG2Y#issuecomment-4103605849>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAISOPLWSXP6VA4KS55T63D4R227VAVCNFSM6AAAAACW2DKFUWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHM2DCMBTGYYDKOBUHE> . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[LordOfMice]

Not sure how to help here

As usual - insulation problems of boot starts from BOOTLOG.TXT always. It is directly dedicated exactly for such situaltion. So I recommend to add this step into your template of problem reporting for any boot problem.

[oerg866]

Good point... I don't do too much troubleshooting myself, because usually when I encounter serious 9x issues, I just use another board %-)

[alonzohedgehog]

I have a similar issue on my dell latitude 3380 where after completing the usb boot steps I just get stuck on the splash screen where the blue loading bar just continually goes across with no progress. I am thinking it may be an issue with my usb ports since they're usb 2.0 super speed but unsure since I cant really try another computer with different port types.

[williamdes]

Same issue with 98,tried ME and got the error KRNL386.exe

Lenovo ThinkPad P70

[ExistingPerson1321]

Same issue here, on dell latitude e7440

[KiasAttila]

It was a similar issue with my Dell Vostro 1015. All i did was change the sata operation mode in the bios from ahci to ata, and now it boots fine!

[littlecgoodwin-ctrl]

I think the issue is not to do with Quicknistall but actually how Windows 98 is handling Quickinstall instillations on mid 2000s to early 2010’s laptops. All these issues are similar to what I experienced where you get either a kernel error on ME and a vmm file error on 98. I did try the install for both on a VM and it ran perfectly. I think we all just need to figure out what it is with this era of laptop that is causing the issue.

[oerg866]

I'll be honest, I would love to help here, but I don't own any laptops from that era and frankly I don't know why people are trying to install Win98 on these things in such masses, considering there are no accelerated graphics drivers for any of them :\

[ExistingPerson1321]

@KiasAttila I'm my bios I only have ahci (currently using) and raid on and disabled. Would raid work with it? Also I think there are more errors because when I clicked escape during the splash screen it displayed a more common error for me where himem.sys was missing. I'm not sure if it's the same with you but on every device I tried it would say that.

[williamdes]

I'll be honest, I would love to help here, but I don't own any laptops from that era and frankly I don't know why people are trying to install Win98 on these things in such masses, considering there are no accelerated graphics drivers for any of them :\

I have a ThinkPad P73 from 2019 and I am stuck on the splash screen
Windows ME does the same.
And the ISO to install Windows 2000 ends up stuck in the install

Let me know what I can debug to help