VOGONS


First post, by The Sandman

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Hi there,
been reading for a while in this forum and could make use of some great tips regarding to old hardware. I recently built an AMD Athlon XP rig with a GeForce 6600GT/Radeon 9800 hooked up to a Samsung 931BF TFT with it's drivers installed and SB Live! 4670 in my Abit NF7-S Rev. 2.0.

Thanks to a topic I found here, I was even able to make SB Pro emulation work under Windows ME.

But my new problem is as follows: 3D-Games do work like they supposed to, but Dos-Windows are giving me only a black screen when the GeForce is in the system. I tried the latest FW from the nV website (has that nasty shutdown-issue) 77.xx and even FW 66.94. Still no luck. Putting the Radeon in makes even games like Orion Burger and the Riddle of the Master Lu work like a charm (despite the fact that you have to mess around with EMS and XMS-Stuff).

E: Orion and Lu do also work with the GeForce...

Is it just me or do you guys encounter the same issue when using the last GF with win9x support?

Last edited by The Sandman on 2015-07-27, 14:15. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 10, by Yasashii

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I had some problems with gfx on Windows 98 with a GeForce 2 MX. The thing is, those cards are too new for some games so compatibility problems will occur, sometimes indifferently of the driver version.

For me the fix was simple: In Windows 98 there is a gfx hardware acceleration slider somewhere. Turning it off completely made a lot of DoS and early Windows games work just fine. Might want to try that but I'm not sure if there is such a slider on Windows ME since I never used that OS.

Reply 2 of 10, by skitters

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I'm pretty sure the "black screen" problem is an issue with old VESA modes.
It happens on certain games from the mid-1990's.
ATI generally supported older VESA modes better than Nvidia.

Some people used Scitech Display Doctor with their Nvidia cards.

And I believe VDMSound has a built-in option to support VESA.

Reply 4 of 10, by leileilol

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My issues with a GF2 in Win9X some 15 years ago were pretty much this. Drivers got really upset over textmode to the point my BSODs were a permanent black screen instead.

though looking back it might've been a VIA AGP-related issue for me? Because i'm not seeing it happen on Intel boards.... and the problem went away when I switched from a GF2 to something else, like... TNT2 ultra, Radeon 7200, Kyro II, Savage2000, etc.

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long live PCem

Reply 5 of 10, by The Sandman

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I did some tests with these alternate drivers you guys suggested, but the black screen under Windows ME remains (guess that will happen under W98, too).

Oddly enough Windows XP is able to run Stunts4D and Winter Games (nV and ATI) - both games refuse to work with Win ME.
You only need VDMSound for SB emulation.

Maybe both ATI and nV dropped support for special resolutions or something hardware related and Microsoft has some kind of emulation up and running within XP. Well thanks for help

Reply 6 of 10, by filipetolhuizen

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I think it worth trying Win98, at the time WinME was released, it was still unfinished. I think it's the worst Win9x OS.
Those later Win9x nvidia drivers are also terrible.

Reply 9 of 10, by leileilol

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filipetolhuizen wrote:

I think it worth trying Win98, at the time WinME was released, it was still unfinished. I think it's the worst Win9x OS.
Those later Win9x nvidia drivers are also terrible.

Same issues occur in Win98SE. You can't excuse WinME infamy for every problem.

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long live PCem