VOGONS


First post, by Kralizec

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This is my first post here so: Hello! Nice to meet you!

What I want to do: put together a PC to use with DOS and Windows 98SE.
What hardware I have:
- motherboard: Lucky Tech P5MVP3 with bios rev C
- CPUs: K6-2 500 MHz, K6-2+ 550 Mhz, MMX 166, MMx 200, MMX 233
- RAM: EDO 2 x 8Mb, EDO 2 x 16 Mb, SDRAM 128 PC100, SDRAM 128 PC133
- video cards: on PCI some S3, on AGP: ATI Rage PRO, GeForce 4 MX440, GeForce 256 SDR Creative CT6940 with only VGA output, GeForce 256 SDR NONAME with VGA and DVI output
- power source: something new and good on ATX
- hdd: actually "no" hdd but 8 Gb SD card with adapter
- adapter card for USB (don't know yeat the speed of USB) used for USB optical mouse
- sound cards: many to choose from (nothing fancy)

What I did till now: install Windows 98SE and "everything" was working (CPU KS-2, RAM SDRAM 128 PC100, no sound card, SD card 8 GB). I'll return to this "everything" later.

My first issue that I want to solve is to update the BIOS (now rev C) to a modified version D in order to be able to use K6-2+.
I tried to use the BIOS from here: Getting the AMD K6-2+ / K6-III+ to work on your Super Socket 7 board
I also tried to use the original version of BIOS rev D.
Both tries with the same result: an error.

The attachment bios error.jpg is no longer available

To flash the BIOS I first entered into "Safe mode and only command prompt" mode and from there I run the Award Flasher versions 7.63 and 8.99.
I could save the existing BIOS on SD card without any problem but when I give the command to write the new BIOS file I get the error: "Unknown Flash Type".
What could be the problem what solution do I have?
Is there any way that the bios could be blocked? I couldn't find anything about something like that in documentation or on web.

My second problem is with the GeForce 256 cards under Windows 98.
With both of them after installing the Nvidia driver the image was only some vertical lines with all the drivers for Win 98 that I tried.
With same configuration and same driver the GeForce 4 mx440 worked without any problem (tested with 3DMark 2001 SE).
What driver should I use in order to be able to use those GeForce 256 under Windows.
While booting or when I use a generic driver under Windows everything works and the image is ok.

I thought that my both two cards were faulty but I test them on another PC: ABit AB-NF7-S V2.x, AMD Athlon XP 2000+, RAM 1 Gb DDR400, Windows 7 Professional, Nvidia driver 71.89
Both of them run the 3DMark 2001 SE several times without problems (at least the Creative GeForce 256).

The attachment GF256.jpg is no longer available

So: what driver and settings I must use in order to run this cards under Windows 98?

And my last problem (for now) is with the Noname GeForce 256 card.
While running it under Windows 7 the image from card was with artefacts. Please see the attached image.

The attachment GF256 faulty.jpg is no longer available

What could it be?
At the first attempt to run 3DMark on this card the program gave me an error: No supported card installed (or something like that). I pulled out and reinserted into motherboard and it "worked".
Maybe the memory modules? I tried to push on memory modules while running. No change.
The GPU chip?
The card VGA connector? I'll try to use a spray for contacts ...The cable is ok, no problem with the others cards.
I tried to use the DVI output in combination with 2 different adapters DVI to HDMI but no signal was received by the TV this way.
On the video card are only 2 SMD style electrolytic capacitors, all the others are ceramic types.
I'll try to replace those 2.
What else can I do to fix the card?

Long post but I thank you for any idea on each of my issues.

Reply 1 of 7, by Demolition-Man

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I can't help with your problems with the graphics card, my Geforce 256 is long gone. As always, my recommendation for the BIOS is Uniflash 1.40.

Reply 2 of 7, by caejr73

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Kralizec what nVIDIA drivers were you using? According to Wikipedia, final driver version for GeForce 256 is 71.84 released on March 11, 2005.

Reply 3 of 7, by Gmlb256

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Stay away from late nVidia drivers for Windows 9x, they aren't reliable. I suggest sticking with early Detonator drivers such 8.05 or 12.41 for the GeForce 256 on the SS7 computer.

Reply 4 of 7, by Kralizec

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On Windows 98SE I tried this nVidia drivers:
- nvidia_9x_3.68
- nvidia_9x_28.32
- nvidia_9x_29.42
- nvidia_9x_71.84

On Windows 7 I used 71.89 driver and it worked without problems.

Reply 5 of 7, by Kralizec

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I found the issue with not be able to update the BIOS.
I had to move the JP20 jumper from 12V to 5V option and after that the update using Award Flasher versions 7.63.
Now the AMD k6-2+ 550Mhz is working.

Now I have problems with running 3DMark 2001 SE which reports that "no DirectX 8.1 compatible 3D accelerator" was detected even if I use a GeForce 4 mx440 card and that is what is displayed in Device manager.
I have VIA_4in1_443v driver and nVidia nvidia_9x_28.32 driver installed.

Reply 6 of 7, by Demolition-Man

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Edit: ok sorry!

Last edited by Demolition-Man on 2024-06-12, 16:40. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 7 of 7, by Gmlb256

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Apparently, people still don't have a grasp on how DirectX works. 🤦

If anyone didn't notice before, the OP ran 3DMark 2001 successfully with two GeForce 256 cards on Windows 7. I assume that the issue on Windows 98 is caused by not having the DirectX 8.1 runtime libraries installed.