Can't find VXD AC'97 Driver for Win98SE \ VOGONS

Can't find VXD AC'97 Driver for Win98SE

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by Cacofiend

Posted on 2022-12-14, 12:16

Cacofiend Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2022-12-14, 11:33

Howdy. I got myself into retro gaming a month ago and built this rig:

I intend to dualboot Win98/WinXP. I got an X-Fi Fatal1ty sound card, which lacks the Win98 drivers, because 99% of the gaming I'll be doing on XP.
I figure it doesn't matter, I'll just use the integrated sound card on Win98. Unfortunately, I can't get it to work. Something about the drivers...

I am a bit confused as to what motherboard I have, since MSI doesn't officially list mine. Here's how it looks:

It's red, and on it, two things are written

- 865PE Neo2-P
- MS-6728 Ver:2

MSI website only lists the following motherboards, none of which are mine:

My BIOS version is 3.31A.
On the website, a bios of that version doesn't seem to exist for any of the listed boards.

Neo2-P Platinum looks the closest to mine by name, but mine is not Platinum - different color and mine has an active cooler on the north bridge.

I found this website that lists my mobo, but is of no help otherwise.

Anyway, they all have this for Audio in the manual:

Their website lists no audio drivers for Windows 98. They list audio drivers for WinXP, and IN THE DESCRIPTION OF SAID DRIVER, IT SAYS SUPPORT FOR WIN98. Installing this drivers wrecks the Windows installation, some mscsrv32.exe error and Windows can't load. I suppose this is why they delisted it from the Win98 section.

Vogons has two drivers for AC'97: 3.41 and 3.62
Both are WMD for Win98. They install fine and Windows claims to have a sound device. Everything seems correct -- unfortunately, it makes no sound.

Installing VXD for Win95 from the same source produces no sound either.
Realtek has a later driver, 4.06 I think, but after installation the sound device has an exclamation mark in the device manager.

I found two instances of similar problem on the internet. The owners have fixed the problem by "installing a VXD driver". Where did they get their hands on a Win98 VXD driver? Does it exist, or did they mean a Win95 driver?

I don't think I can solve it on my own, so I come to you.

Reply 1 of 8, by Tiido

Posted on 2022-12-14, 12:53

Tiido Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2974
Joined: 2018-01-14, 04:40
Location: Norway (used to be Estonia)

There's a good chance you're missing two jumpers on the AC97 header to pass sound to output at back when no front panel cable is connected. Does the onboard sound work in XP or you have not yet tried ? If it is silent there too, this most likely is the problem.

VXD driver is almost certainly win95 one, I'm pretty sure there never was one specifically for 98 (the push was toward WDM and have VXD permanently buried).

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 2 of 8, by zyga64

Posted on 2022-12-14, 13:58

zyga64 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 645
Joined: 2014-03-12, 14:38

Cacofiend wrote on 2022-12-14, 12:16:

Vogons has two drivers for AC'97: 3.41 and 3.62

There is also 3.26 here: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1 … menustate=41,37
It wouldn't hurt to try 😀

And I have 3.72 on my HDD if you are interested, but file is too big to upload it here (15.6 MB). It's changelog mentions quite a few improvements over 3.62 version.

1) VLSI SCAMP /286@20 /4M /CL-GD5422 /CMI8330
2) i420EX /486DX33 /16M /TGUI9440 /GUS+ALS100+MT32PI
3) i430FX /K6-2@400 /64M /Rage Pro PCI /ES1370+YMF718
4) i440BX /P!!!750 /256M /MX440 /SBLive!
5) iB75 /3470s /4G /HD7750 /HDA

Reply 3 of 8, by Cacofiend

Posted on 2022-12-14, 14:21

Cacofiend Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2022-12-14, 11:33

Tiido wrote on 2022-12-14, 12:53:

There's a good chance you're missing two jumpers on the AC97 header

I removed the HD_AUDIO cable and placed the two jumpers back just to check, no dice.
I don't have XP installed yet.

zyga64 wrote on 2022-12-14, 13:58:

There is also 3.26 here: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1 … menustate=41,37
It wouldn't hurt to try 😀

Thanks, will give it a try.

Reply 4 of 8, by Cacofiend

Posted on 2022-12-14, 14:59

Cacofiend Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2022-12-14, 11:33

3.26 VXD for Win98Gold throws a blue screen.
WMD makes no sound.

Reply 5 of 8, by zyga64

Posted on 2022-12-14, 16:32

zyga64 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 645
Joined: 2014-03-12, 14:38

Cacofiend wrote on 2022-12-14, 14:59:

3.26 VXD for Win98Gold throws a blue screen.
WMD makes no sound.

Maybe it's just broken ?I have one Asus board on which the AC97 codec suddenly stopped making sounds. In device manager everything looks normal, it just silent.

Anyway here is 3.72 (from my Dropbox) https://www.dropbox.com/s/bswzuddmja03khn/Rea … _VP001.zip?dl=0

Reply 6 of 8, by darry

Posted on 2022-12-14, 18:16

darry Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 5804
Joined: 2014-01-20, 06:27
Location: Canada

At this point, unless you're out of available PCI slots, I suggest you get a Windows 9x compatible PCI sound card instead of fighting with the onboard audio.

Reply 7 of 8, by Roman555

Posted on 2022-12-14, 21:22

Roman555 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2018-05-16, 08:14
Location: Ukraine

From Realtek FAQ:

Q4: I am using Windows 98 4.10.1998. When installing drivers for win 95/98, I have delay in sounds in games like FIFA 2001. With the win 98 SE drivers all is OK. Why the drivers for win 98 are different from the drivers for win 98SE? The SPIDF would be in the "device manager"? Why my Power DVD doesn't recognize the SPDIF output? The SPDIF output is in communication with the Realtek chip?

A4: We offer two different types of audio drivers for MS Windows OSes. The WDM driver is for Win98SE or later versions and the VXD driver is for Win98/95. Recommended by MS, the WDM driver had better not be used on Win98. That is why we normally use the VXD driver for Win98 (4.10.1998). If you don't encounter any problems using the WDM driver with Win98, you can keep on with it.
For some reasons, we do not support DirectSound directly in the VXD driver. We just have the DirectSound software emulation layer do it for us. I think that is why you have delay in sounds in DirectSound games. We suggest you to upgrade your OS to Win98SE or later versions. Our WDM driver has more powerful features, such as EAX support, and it will support DirectSound better than the VXD driver.

Our AC'97 CODECs support the SPDIF function on P4B with the WDM driver. With limitation of the MS kernel driver, the Win98SE cannot support SPDIF with AC-3 format without MS QFE269601 installed on Win98SE. If you want to play AC-3 format under Win98SE, QFE269601 should be installed. If you want to play AC-3 format under Win2000, service pack 2 should be installed. WinMe and WinXP can support AC-3 format without any patch files from MS. For Wave (PCM) format, all Windows OSes can be played with the WDM driver.

There's a folder "win98gold" in the archive. Maybe it'll help...

Attachments

Filename

wdm_a322.exe

File size

2.81 MiB

Downloads

58 downloads

File comment

Realtek (Avance Logic) ver. A3.22

File license

Fair use/fair dealing exception

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

Reply 8 of 8, by Cacofiend

Posted on 2022-12-19, 22:26

Cacofiend Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2022-12-14, 11:33

Got the dualboot going, the sound doesn't work in XP either, so must be a dead integrated sound card.

Curiously enough, x-fi fatality worked fine in XP, but only for an hour. Now it seems to be dead, too. Doesn't show up in the list of devices anymore. During that hour, it made a super short, but very loud high pitch noise a couple of times, to the point of hurting my ears. Must've been its way of saying goodbye.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Sound

Main menu

Common searches