I've tried every driver package over on vogonsdrivers.com, but I've had no success getting the card detected correctly. It may work for one boot, but on the next one it says there's a problem with the video card and gets stuck at 640x480x16. Has anyone had success getting this to work correctly?
Yup the GF2 GTS works quite well with 98SE. There are many driver releases to choose from. I suggest anything 45.23 or older.
Stay with DirectX 7.0a or older unless you absolutely need 8+.
Sounds like you might have some hardware problem or software conflict. Try pulling any PCI cards out if there are any.
What are the specs for the rest of the system? Do you have the chipset drivers installed?
Those are good questions. Why can't I think of everything. Oh well. 😀
wrote:Stay with DirectX 7.0a or older unless you absolutely need 8+.
There are many video drivers for Windows 98/ME that require DirectX8+ to work (but I don't think the generic nVidia drivers are part of those), hence the reason why DirectX8-9 is chosen for some 9x builds even if it's not otherwise needed. From what you explained in the past, the only piece of hardware that doesn't get along with DX7.1+ is the Aureal Vortex 2 sound card depending on the driver versions, but who knows if the OP has one of those installed in his system?
Also, the last time I tried to use nVidia 45.23 drivers with 98SE's stock DirectX 6.1, Direct3D refused to work (haven't tried DX7, though).
FWIW DX8.0 is fine for GF2GTS even in 2000. I've hadn't had a problem with mine on that.
wrote:What are the specs for the rest of the system? Do you have the chipset drivers installed?
It's an Asus CUV4X-V mobo with a P3-1GHZ CPU, a Sound Blaster 16 (ISA), and 3COM Etherlink III PCI installed. I just tried installing the only drivers I could find for it (they're labeled 4-in-1 drivers), but this doesn't seem to be helping much.
I use one with 45.23 drivers and DirectX 9 on Windows 98SE with zero problems.
Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.
Try this driver:
Is there a way to disable the integrated S3 Savage4 in BIOS that you haven't tried yet?
wrote:wrote:Stay with DirectX 7.0a or older unless you absolutely need 8+.
There are many video drivers for Windows 98/ME that require DirectX8+ to work (but I don't think the generic nVidia drivers are part of those), hence the reason why DirectX8-9 is chosen for some 9x builds even if it's not otherwise needed. From what you explained in the past, the only piece of hardware that doesn't get along with DX7.1+ is the Aureal Vortex 2 sound card depending on the driver versions, but who knows if the OP has one of those installed in his system?
Also, the last time I tried to use nVidia 45.23 drivers with 98SE's stock DirectX 6.1, Direct3D refused to work (haven't tried DX7, though).
Ok yeah I should specify DirectX >6.1 and <7.1 (WinMe special DX7). Just install DirectX 7.0a and be happy. Unless you want to run a game that needs 8+. 😎
I have used up to Radeon 9800 and GeForce 6 with DX7a. So I'm not aware of which drivers require DX8+.
If I remember correctly, the SBLive and Audigy cards on VXD drivers are also problematic beyond DirectX 7.0a. Something changed with respect to DirectX and VXD support. It may depend on the game. I did some testing with Homeworld years ago, because I was having system freezes after quitting the game and trying to launch it again. DDhelp or the kernel crash and then the system freezes. I tried different motherboards, 98SE and ME, video cards, drivers for everything, ran the most basic setup, etc. It turned out that pulling the sound card was the fix. I dug through Google Groups and old forums for DDHelp crash talk and found hints about DirectX 8 being troublesome. Read about VXDs and WDMs and the transition. WDM sound drivers should be fine, but with Creative cards the VXDs are the way to go if possible.
The GF2 GTS works up to driver version 71.84. After that, support was dropped.
"works" being a stretch anyway. Its regressions really start from 61.76 and after.
I've recently installed several nVidia drivers (from 5.32 to 45.23) on a VIA MVP3 board with DirectX 7.0a on Win98SE with a Geforce2 MX. All the versions I tried in that range worked without any malfunctions (other than some being slow). I don't think the GTS' compatibility would be any different, and your chipset is a newer generation than mine.
Have you tried getting other AGP cards to be detected correctly on this install, or even on previous installs with this board?
This sounds awfully much to me like a problem with the VIA AGP driver. It's reminiscent of problems I remember having on my MVP3 chipset when it's AGP isn't set up right.
Geforce (and maybe all nVidia) cards require the AGP support to be working correctly. Some other early AGP cards don't (3dfx, maybe others) because they don't utilize AGP features.
I don't know anything about that board, but maybe there are some BIOS settings (visible, or possibly not visible) that are causing AGP to misbehave.
If there's an option for the AGP speed, try turning it down. If the max is AGP 4X then set it to 2X, or even slower if you want to experiment. On VIA chipsets, the max supported AGP speed isn't necessary or useful, it's just there to break things.
If you're at a loss, then I'd try resetting the CMOS and then loading defaults. Occasionally the CMOS settings on a motherboard can get corrupted in a way that's not visible in the setup menu. There are hidden settings that the user never sees, so a CMOS reset can ensure those are not messed up. This is grasping at straws, but it's a possibility.
On my super-7 board, the BIOS settings weren't corrupt, but there was a BIOS setting that had to be set a certain way for AGP to work, even though it appeared to have nothing to do with AGP. I don't think your chipset is quite as braindead as my MVP3, but still, it reminds me of that experience.
I'm not sure how critical the order of operations is, but AGP needs to first be in a working configuration at the BIOS/hardware level, then the VIA AGP driver (included with the "4-in-1" drivers) needs to be successfully installed, and finally the nVidia driver after that.
wrote:Ok yeah I should specify DirectX >6.1 and <7.1 (WinMe special DX7). Just install DirectX 7.0a and be happy. Unless you want to run a game that needs 8+. 😎
I have used up to Radeon 9800 and GeForce 6 with DX7a. So I'm not aware of which drivers require DX8+.
If I remember correctly, the SBLive and Audigy cards on VXD drivers are also problematic beyond DirectX 7.0a. Something changed with respect to DirectX and VXD support. It may depend on the game. I did some testing with Homeworld years ago, because I was having system freezes after quitting the game and trying to launch it again. DDhelp or the kernel crash and then the system freezes. I tried different motherboards, 98SE and ME, video cards, drivers for everything, ran the most basic setup, etc. It turned out that pulling the sound card was the fix. I dug through Google Groups and old forums for DDHelp crash talk and found hints about DirectX 8 being troublesome. Read about VXDs and WDMs and the transition. WDM sound drivers should be fine, but with Creative cards the VXDs are the way to go if possible.
What about Dell OEM video driver packages (mainly for their laptops)? I have an ATI Rage 128 Ultra Dell OEM AGP video card and several Dell laptops whose video drivers require DirectX 8+ to be installed before they'll even allow me to install the video drivers for Windows 98/ME/2000. As for sound drivers, I've never had issues with those on DirectX 8.1, and the freezing issues I once encountered had nothing to do with my DirectX version because they still happened even when I tried 6.1 and 7.0.
I'm not trying to offend you in any way, I'm just pointing out that I've never encountered the issues you've had with newer DirectX versions.
wrote:What about Dell OEM video driver packages (mainly for their laptops)? I have an ATI Rage 128 Ultra Dell OEM AGP video card and several Dell laptops whose video drivers require DirectX 8+ to be installed before they'll even allow me to install the video drivers for Windows 98/ME/2000. As for sound drivers, I've never had issues with those on DirectX 8.1, and the freezing issues I once encountered had nothing to do with my DirectX version because they still happened even when I tried 6.1 and 7.0.
I'm not trying to offend you in any way, I'm just pointing out that I've never encountered the issues you've had with newer DirectX versions.
Ah yes I do have one of those Dell Rage 128 cards and the requirement is something I recall now. I think some of the Radeon drivers also tell you to install 8/9. You can ignore the requirement. The card will still work even in 3D with DX7. I have a feeling the DX8 requirement is related to DXVA.
As for the sound issue, I'm sure that is limited to some sound drivers and games. There are one or two scenarios I know will repeatably cause a freeze.
wrote:"works" being a stretch anyway. Its regressions really start from 61.76 and after.
Any sources for that? I'm using a GF2 GTS with 71.84 and did not run into any issues so far.
wrote:Any sources for that? I'm using a GF2 GTS with 71.84 and did not run into any issues so far.
There is really no reason, why to run such a "new" driver on such an "old" card.
Socket 775 - ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA, Pentium E6500K, 4GB RAM, Radeon 9800XT, ESS Solo-1, Win 98/XP
Socket A - Chaintech CT-7AIA, AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1GB RAM, Radeon 9600XT, ESS ES1869F, Win 98
When CPU is fast enough, most likely there will be no problem running even 71.84. Yes, there might be some fearures missing, but that is game specific... so it is very well possible you will never run into problems. But of course when using GF2 on PIII 500, then it is best to use as old driver as possible.
Btw - speaking of directX versions - I believe there are some instability problems when running glide games on Voodoo2 SLI using windows 9x with DX9c installed. Those problems disappeared when using only DX 8.x or 9b. But this is slightly OT here. 😀
HW museum.cz - my collection of PC hardware
