VOGONS


First post, by gordesky1

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So i found a dell inspiron 8100 that has xp on it. I was wondering if there is windows 98 drivers for it? So far i can ony find xp drivers for it.. Why i wanted to put 98 on it i would think it would make a perfect win98 dos/98 machine.

Cause it has the ESS Maestro 3 PCI sound card in it. Which what i looked up can do sound blaster emu? And also has the geforce go 2 graphics in it.

Reply 1 of 11, by keenmaster486

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http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/pro … /drivers?os=wme

Chances are the ME drivers will work just fine.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 4 of 11, by gordesky1

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So far everything is working great with the winme drivers:) At first it had scaling issues making everything in a small windows but fixed that in the nvidia control panel.

And also found fn and f7 fixes dos games in windows. Tho is there anyway to get dos emu in native dos?

Other than that everything is working smooth.

Reply 5 of 11, by gordesky1

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I somewhat got dos emu in dos working. By putting c:\essaudio.com with the com file in c drive and some games work with it while other games will just either just play the music or have nothing at all...

I guess that's the best i can get to work with the ESS Maestro-3 card. Wish it was like my compaq 1675 with the nice ess solo 1 card in it which works on everything 🤣.. Wanted to get this 8100 going and used that for now cause my 1675 is in pretty bad shape with the cracking around the hinges which i cant find any replacement lids or hinges for it..

Reply 6 of 11, by guest_2

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I thought I would resurrect this thread after 4 years instead of creating another. Inspiron 8100 here too, all working great but why they put these terrible audio chips in is beyond me.
It does an OK job in Windows 98 SE with ESS Maestro PCI Audio (WDM) even DOS prompt games work with midi using Waveblaster.

Pure DOS though is another thing and fails to launch any programs or games
I've tried VDX drivers from ESS tech but these unfortunately do not work 'M3VXD_7129_Sign_29829'
Adding ESSAUDIO.COM, ESSAUDIO.INI to C: and updating the autoexec and config.sys allows things to launch but then it messes up Windows config. I eventually got Duke3d sound and music working in DOS, only to boot into Windows and audio not work with other games

Would it be easier buying something like a USB Soundblaster device like the Play 3 as mentioned here? - https://www.reddit.com/r/windows98/comments/i … for_windows_98/
Open to suggestions for PCMCIA cards too but devices like the Wavjammer and Yamaha SCP-55 are expensive and also very rare. I've read there can be issues with PCMCIA cards too. The Audigy 2 ZS card is readily available but apparently doesnt work with Win9X

Edit. A PCMCIA to PCI adapter would also work if such a thing exists (not PCI to PCMCIA) The closest thing that looks like what I imagine it would be is below. I would then connect a Soundblaster Live! or other PCI audio card that has better drivers including proper DOS emulation drivers in Win98

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/276181 … Bus_to_PCI.html

Thanks

Reply 7 of 11, by squelch41

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guest_2 wrote on 2021-08-31, 22:03:
I thought I would resurrect this thread after 4 years instead of creating another. Inspiron 8100 here too, all working great bu […]
Show full quote

I thought I would resurrect this thread after 4 years instead of creating another. Inspiron 8100 here too, all working great but why they put these terrible audio chips in is beyond me.
It does an OK job in Windows 98 SE with ESS Maestro PCI Audio (WDM) even DOS prompt games work with midi using Waveblaster.

Pure DOS though is another thing and fails to launch any programs or games
I've tried VDX drivers from ESS tech but these unfortunately do not work 'M3VXD_7129_Sign_29829'
Adding ESSAUDIO.COM, ESSAUDIO.INI to C: and updating the autoexec and config.sys allows things to launch but then it messes up Windows config. I eventually got Duke3d sound and music working in DOS, only to boot into Windows and audio not work with other games

Would it be easier buying something like a USB Soundblaster device like the Play 3 as mentioned here? - https://www.reddit.com/r/windows98/comments/i … for_windows_98/
Open to suggestions for PCMCIA cards too but devices like the Wavjammer and Yamaha SCP-55 are expensive and also very rare. I've read there can be issues with PCMCIA cards too. The Audigy 2 ZS card is readily available but apparently doesnt work with Win9X

Edit. A PCMCIA to PCI adapter would also work if such a thing exists (not PCI to PCMCIA) The closest thing that looks like what I imagine it would be is below. I would then connect a Soundblaster Live! or other PCI audio card that has better drivers including proper DOS emulation drivers in Win98

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/276181 … Bus_to_PCI.html

Thanks

Had one of these years ago - the docking station had pci slots in it.
Whether they'd work under DOS for sound cards I don't know (I used windows 2000 with mine), but if you see one eg on ebay, might be worth a shot.

V4P895P3 VLB Motherboard AMD 486 133MHz
64mb RAM, CF 4Gb HDD,
Realtek 8019 ethernet + XT-IDE bios ROM, ES1869 soundcard, VLB Cirrus Logic GD5428 1mb VGA

440bx MSI 6119, modified slocket , Tualitin Celeron 1.2Ghz 256mb SD-RAM, CF 4GB HDD, FX5200 gfx

Reply 8 of 11, by guest_2

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Had one of these years ago - the docking station had pci slots in it.
Whether they'd work under DOS for sound cards I don't know (I used windows 2000 with mine), but if you see one eg on ebay, might be worth a shot.

Ta for the quick reply. I guess a huge powered docking station sort of defeats the purpose of laptops somewhat 😁
It’s harder than I initially thought finding a way of getting DOS and general good quality audio from a laptop that cost around $3000 in 2001.
Im tempted to try a USB Soundblaster play 3 or maybe a PCMCIA Audigy 2ZS but Win98se drivers could be an issue.
I guess the Inspiron 8100 was designed to run Win2000 / XP

Another option is also using the parallel port with something like ‘ OPL3 LPT - FM Synthesizer Synth Sound Card for Parallel Port Yamaha YMF262 DB25’

Reply 9 of 11, by squelch41

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Ta for the quick reply. I guess a huge powered docking station sort of defeats the purpose of laptops somewhat 😁

It certainly does 😀
The dock is pretty beefy!
I used it back in the day as my sound jack socket broke and I had a big desk!

An ols PCMCIA sound card might work if you can find one. Used to have one years ago in a 486 laptop and worked fine for dos games.

PCMCIA Sound Cards

V4P895P3 VLB Motherboard AMD 486 133MHz
64mb RAM, CF 4Gb HDD,
Realtek 8019 ethernet + XT-IDE bios ROM, ES1869 soundcard, VLB Cirrus Logic GD5428 1mb VGA

440bx MSI 6119, modified slocket , Tualitin Celeron 1.2Ghz 256mb SD-RAM, CF 4GB HDD, FX5200 gfx

Reply 10 of 11, by guest_2

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squelch41 wrote on 2021-09-03, 21:05:
It certainly does :) The dock is pretty beefy! I used it back in the day as my sound jack socket broke and I had a big desk! […]
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Ta for the quick reply. I guess a huge powered docking station sort of defeats the purpose of laptops somewhat 😁

It certainly does 😀
The dock is pretty beefy!
I used it back in the day as my sound jack socket broke and I had a big desk!

An ols PCMCIA sound card might work if you can find one. Used to have one years ago in a 486 laptop and worked fine for dos games.

PCMCIA Sound Cards

Sorry, I thought I replied to this post. Thanks for the link, I had found that page a while back but hoped I wouldnt need a PCMCIA soundcard. I have since posted a few times in there 😀

Reply 11 of 11, by guest_2

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gordesky1 wrote on 2017-01-27, 02:41:

I somewhat got dos emu in dos working. By putting c:\essaudio.com with the com file in c drive and some games work with it while other games will just either just play the music or have nothing at all...

I guess that's the best i can get to work with the ESS Maestro-3 card. Wish it was like my compaq 1675 with the nice ess solo 1 card in it which works on everything 🤣.. Wanted to get this 8100 going and used that for now cause my 1675 is in pretty bad shape with the cracking around the hinges which i cant find any replacement lids or hinges for it..

Was this with the standard Inspiron 8100 Maestro WDM drivers? I attmepted VXD drivers with com file and DOS game could launch but as you say with just music or nothing at all. It also however broke Win 98 support