Windows ME on a Ryzen 9 9900X? Yeah, it works on real hardware...! (No VM)

Video Description

Today it’s all about Windows Millennium going ZEN - running on AM5 hardware, on bare metal! A detailed article, along with some of the files and drivers used in this video, can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28-tries-later-9-142503729 Spoiler: once it stabilizes, ME actually beats Windows 98, 2000, and even Vista in 3DMark 2001! You might want to watch these related videos: *How to install Windows ME on modern hardware using cregfix.vxd: https://youtu.be/YILmK5xkRZc *How to install Nvidia 6/7000 GPUS on Windows 98/ME: https://youtu.be/iMyK-NJkSoo This is all the hardware used in this build. Parts marked with [*] were kindly provided by these cool brands: Kingston, Arctic, & StarTech (in order they arrived). CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X Motherboard: ASUS Prime X670 (AM5, AMI BIOS with CSM enabled, also has a handy PS/2 port) [*]Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 mm PRO AIO [*]Memory: Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 64 GB (2x32GB) GPU: Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS 256MB/256bit (PCIe) [*]Storage (main): Kingston Fury Renegade Gen 5 NVMe SSD 2 TB Storage (retro): 6.4GB Fujitsu IDE HDD manufactured in 1998 (with original 2003 Windows ME install) SATA SSDs: Kingston & SanDisk various models Sound Card: C-Media CMI8738 PCI (via StarTech PCIe-to-PCI enclosure) Network Card: Realtek RTL8139 PCI [*]Expansion Enclosure: StarTech PEX2PCI4 PCIe-to-PCI Enclosure Power Supply: Gigabyte 1000W PSU (kinda squeaky sometimes) Case: DarkFlash DY451L Keyboard: some PS/2 Keyboard Mouse: Logitech MX518 - emulated as PS/2, fixed using Windows 3.1 Logitech driver Serial Mouse: Tested and working Optical Drive: SATA CD/DVD Drive (fixed using Windows 98 CDVSD.VXD driver) Additional Controllers: VIA VT6421 PCI-to-SATA Controller [*]StarTech PEX2IDE PCIe-to-IDE Controller with a JMB368 chip [*]StarTech PEX1PCI1 PCI Express to PCI Adapter Card JMicron JMB582 PCIe SATA 3 Controller (2018 model) SATA-to-IDE Converter with JMB2030 chip Chapters: 00:00 – Intro: Windows 98 vs Windows ME on Ryzen 00:17 – Today’s experiment: ME on a Ryzen 9 9900X (bare metal) 01:02 – Why this works: x86 + legacy BIOS / CSM 01:56 – Build & sponsors (Kingston NVMe + DDR5, Arctic AIO, StarTech adapters) 03:00 – RAM limits & PatchMEM (handling 64 GB with a 32-bit OS) 03:57 – Unboxing a 2003 Fujitsu IDE drive (frozen-in-time ME) 04:36 – First boots & CREGFIX.VXD / blue-screen troubleshooting 06:07 – Back to the modern AM5 setup — SATA woes begin 06:47 – PCI to SATA (VIA VT6421) — initial success 07:55 – Testing native PCIe SATA (JMB582) — failures in legacy mode 09:43 – NVMe and IO.SYS: why ME can’t control NVMe drives 09:49 – Fresh install attempts & the Start Menu freeze 10:29 – PCI to PCI bridge conflict & resource overlap (GPU crash) 11:28 – Fixing mouse issues using LMOUSE.DRV (Windows 3.1 driver) 13:35 – Gaming: 3DMark 2001, Quake III, Serious Sam, Half-Life 2 15:36 – AHCI support with R. Loew drivers — big improvement 16:51 – Optical drives fixed using CDVSD.VXD from Windows 98 17:24 – Networking: Realtek 8139 card — online on ME! 18:22 – RetroZilla & FrogFind — browsing on Windows 9x in 2025 19:08 – Sound: C-Media CMI8738 PCI card via StarTech enclosure 20:02 – Restoring real DOS mode — tradeoffs vs AHCI 21:30 – Why ME was picky (design decisions & user pain) 21:35 – Moving the Fujitsu drive to a period-correct Intel board 22:30 – Nostalgia dive: Total Commander, ACDSee, WinRAR, Word 97 23:03 – Outro / Patreon & download files #WindowsME #RetroGaming #Ryzen9 #AM5 #RetroComputing #pcbuild #Windows98 #TechExperiment