VOGONS


First post, by Deksor

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Hello !

Today I had this crazy idea : trying to get 100% compatibility with a core 2 duo motherboard with Windows 98SE.

The board I'm using here is a Gigabyte GA-VM900M and have been found few years ago in the scrap, but it works ok. It has all the features you'd expect from a 2007 motherboard (Socket 775, SATA 2, IDE, Floppy, PCI, PCI-E, DDR2 Memory ...) but its chipset is kinda special ...

It's a VIA P4M900 ! Apparently it was even used on socket 478 motherboards x)

After many hours of research, I managed to set everything up (chipset, bridges, usb, integrated video and even network !) ... except for the sound ... the sound is integrated as well and is done with Azalia HDA. For that, all I can find are Windows 2000 drivers ...

But wait ! These are WDM drivers, isn't there some way to try to force them to windows 98 ? If so, how can I do that ? or is there any third party drivers ?

I know, I could just install a PCI card to get sound, but this isn't my goal. But this is an experiment, my goal is not to "just" get sound, it's to get the entire motherboard 100% functionnal under Windows 98SE, and the sound is the only remaining step to reach that x)

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 1 of 11, by Roman555

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Deksor wrote:

... except for the sound ... the sound is integrated as well and is done with Azalia HDA. For that, all I can find are Windows 2000 drivers ...

It seems imposible to make it works. Because the High Definition Audio class driver doesn't exist for Win9x.
As a proof the post from msfn.org
https://msfn.org/board/topic/145836-realtek-a … &comment=969889

[ MS6168/PII-350/YMF754/98SE ]
[ 775i65G/E5500/9800Pro/Vortex2/ME ]

Reply 2 of 11, by derSammler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Deksor wrote:

it's to get the entire motherboard 100% functionnal under Windows 98SE, and the sound is the only remaining step to reach that x)

Are you aware that Windows 98SE is single core / single CPU only? You can never reach your goal, since you can't get Windows 98SE to fully use a Core2Duo CPU.

Reply 3 of 11, by SW-SSG

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

The last VIA southbridge to support AC'97 audio (as opposed to HD Audio/Azalia) was the VT8237R Plus. I don't think there were any P4M900 northbridge-based s775 boards that included that southbridge, so you may have to find a P4M890-based board instead (such as this one) to get "full Win98SE support" on a C2D-class board.

Main difference between P4M900 and P4M890 IIRC is a slower, non-DX9-supporting IGP.

Reply 4 of 11, by Deksor

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Well I don't care if one core don't get utilized, 98 never did that and never will. But it always supported sound.

Yes this definitely uses HDA. This was just an experiment done with stuff I already had, I'm not putting money in there ^^ (but at least that tip will help anybody wanting to do it for real ^^)

Thanks for all your answers !

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 5 of 11, by Kamerat

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Deksor wrote:

After many hours of research, I managed to set everything up (chipset, bridges, usb, integrated video and even network !) ... except for the sound ... the sound is integrated as well and is done with Azalia HDA. For that, all I can find are Windows 2000 drivers ...

Do you have a link to the video driver you're using? Got an Asus board with the same chipset but never found a driver for Windows 98. Unfortunately I never tried to set up the integrated audio as I'm using an ESS Solo-1 based card because of DOS gaming.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 7 of 11, by SPBHM

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

the audio on my p5v-vm ultra (alc660) seems to have drivers for 98, it can run a 45nm C2D (but it's not officially supported), I tested an e7300 on it for a bit, I noticed one problem which was the shutdown wouldn't work properly (it would do the process but it would stay in a black screen when it was done instead of powering off, replacing it back to a 65nm CPU fixes this behavior), but other than that it was ok, I added the microcode for 45nm CPUs to the bios and it was all detected properly, including SSE4.1 and so on.

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/3786466

but I never tried 98 on it

also the board is slow for C2D, the low memory performance really affects things.

Reply 8 of 11, by Deksor

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I don't have a link yet, but I'll share the archive as soon as I'm back home (the next weekend).

@SPBHM can you give me a link to that audio driver for 98 ? ^^

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 9 of 11, by SPBHM

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Deksor wrote:

I don't have a link yet, but I'll share the archive as soon as I'm back home (the next weekend).

@SPBHM can you give me a link to that audio driver for 98 ? ^^

my bad, I guess there is none, I probably confused it with the alc650

Reply 10 of 11, by Kamerat

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
SW-SSG wrote:

^I'd actually like to know, too. The IGP drivers for P4M900 on the VIA download site (even the oldest version from 2006) only support Win2K/XP.

Read at some other forum that the "K8M890CE and K8N890CE Display Driver" can be used. Downloaded the driver from VIA and it's working on my board. Had to manually install the driver as some PCI ID's didn't match.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 11 of 11, by Deksor

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Probably the same forum I've seen.

Sorry for not bringing the drivers, I completely forgot 🙁

Let's hope I won't forget the next weekend

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative