Those Win9x Crashes on Fast Machines…

It is well known that Win9x variants prior to Windows 98 have a tendency to crash on fast CPUs. The definition of fast" is of course fuzzy but the problems were known to occur on AMD K6-2 processors running at 350 MHz or faster as early as 1998. This led to some acrimony when Microsoft attempted to charge $35 for the fix. The crashes were intermittent on the 350 MHz parts but harder to avoid with faster clock speeds.

The problem soon started affecting other CPUs with higher frequencies, but it didn't affect Intel processors for a while. Were Intel CPUs somehow better? Not exactly, but there was a reason for that; more about it later.

I have been long aware of this problem but never looked into the details. And when I did, at first I didn't realize it. An acquaintance mentioned that Windows 3.11 for Workgroups no longer works in a VM.

A good and interesting read.