Did you enable DMA on both the HDD and DVDROM within Win98? You may need to install the VIA 4-in-1 driver for DMA to work properly.

It's also possible the video driver isn't supporting DXVA. That laptop has ATI Rage LT, right? If so look here for details about its DXVA support and drivers:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060427060938/www … hosein/rpro.htm

Yep both are on dma in properties, Will try the 4 in 1 drivers. I just tried the drivers on that site you link and still have the same issue:( I just don't understand this should be playing dvds smoothly... Cause the 1692 didn't have a issue doing it which is pretty much the same hardware.. I thought it was hardware fault somewhere, But when i had 98 on my compaq 700us everything work fine except dvd playback too pretty much had the same issue as the 1675, Till i install xp on it and playback is perfect. I also have another laptop with win98 which is a xp laptop a dell c640 which has no issues at all on dvds but than again the cpu is a 2.4ghz p4 with a 32mb ati 7500 probably over powering 98 even if it did have the same issue 🤣

Also installed all updates for win98se with the unofficial pack.

Also i notice in my computer it just says undefined instead of the dvd name? it was like this on the Compaq 700us when it had 98 also..

Was thinking of putting another hdd in it and install xp just too see if it does it on there too. but not keeping it on xp cause i bought it for dos/98 gaming which is perfect for those. or doing a dual boot and if xp works good with dvds will just use xp for dvds and that,s it.

Could you please use better punctuation and capitalization in your posts? Right now they are kinda hard to read.

With the amount of RAM you have, DVDs should play fine with hardware acceleration (you need a video card supporting MPEG decoding for DVDs though). Without hardware acceleration things might get bottlenecked on the CPU. However, the DVD reading behaviour description does sound like your DVD drive has problems reading the discs. Depending on the age of the drive and the amount of use it saw that could be due to a hardware issue such as a dying laser or dirt on the lens, or simply due to compatibility issues with certain DVDs (some drives choke on badly mastered DVDs or DVDs with a high error rate).

Software may be a issue, too. DXVA was not supported on Win 98, so players had to have their own acceleration support.

Your best choice would be using an old version of PowerDVD that supports your video card (maybe PowerDVD 1.6?).

Another option would be using an old version of GeeXboX (a bootable Linux CD). It was able to software decode DVDs on my Pentium II @ 333 (I don't remember if it was over clocked to 375 when I did the tests). You'll need to boot from CD, but you won't need to install anything on your HDD.

P.S.: I made those tests with GeeXboX 0.9 and 1.0. Later versions are "heavier" so they run slower on low end computers. BTW GeeXboX runs from RAM, the CD can be ejected after loading so you can load your own DVD.

how does the dvd drive work?
does it always spin up and down?

have you tryed to copy the dvd to hdd and play it fron there ? (works only on unprotected dvds)

Sorry guys not used to typing on phone.. But yea im not sure if the dvd is on its way out but than again the compaq 700us did the same thing when it was on windows 98 but is fine on xp.

Nope the dvd is pretty quiet after it loads, I just don't get it with the same software the 1692 had which i finally found it still has the issues. Cant install the dvd files on the hdd right now cause ony 6gb Hdd, The dvds are the ones i used to play on the 1692 house on the haunted hill and sometimes they come back very old dvds.

Is there isos for geexbox 0.9 1.0? Cause i cant find any bootable isos for older versions than 1.5.

I did check the cpu % with a software while playing and the % will be 90 to 98% while running.

gordesky1 wrote:

Is there isos for geexbox 0.9 1.0? Cause i cant find any bootable isos for older versions than 1.5.

Where exactly were you looking..?
http://download.geexbox.org/releases/

I had a preference for MoviX back in the day, since it has a better UI, but old versions of Geexbox are probably more up-to-date as far as drivers and playback are concerned.

I don't know about Windows 98, but for my retro Windows XP system with a DVD drive, I had minor issues with most higher-level DVD playback software, so I switched to VLC Player. It's small and fast and it plays my DVDs smooth as silk Not sure how to get it working for Windows 98 - there's either an older version or they suggest using some kind of compatibility layer for Windows 2000/XP programs to run on Windows 98. Check out their website and see if that might not work better for you.

Just tried geexbox-0.90-1.iso on it and its worse its like 2fps.. and about 2inchs of the screen on bottom is gobbled.. When i get the chance i will either pop my old 1692 drive into this one which i have to take most of the laptop apart to even do that.. Or just put in a bigger hdd and try playing them from the hdd.

Even tho the drive play everything else fast i guess it cant handle dvds... Even tho after loading the drive is smooth and quiet... Just don.t get it tho the 700us was the same on 98 but on xp its fine...

I'm getting confused about exactly what you're doing. You're running Geexbox on exactly the same hardware – motherboard, cpu, drive, and everything else – that gave you smooth playback in Windows XP?

does it play well if you copy the files to hd? how long does it need to copy the files?

Jorpho wrote:

I'm getting confused about exactly what you're doing. You're running Geexbox on exactly the same hardware – motherboard, cpu, drive, and everything else – that gave you smooth playback in Windows XP?

The xp im talking about is on the 700us while the 1675 1692 is win98 laptops. I never tried xp on the 1675 yet. What im saying if it wasn't clear in the other posts the compaq 700us had the same problem as the 1675 with dvds when 98 was installed on it. But when i installed xp back on it dvds was smooth.

mrau wrote:

does it play well if you copy the files to hd? how long does it need to copy the files?

Didn't try it yet because of 6gb hdd and the dvd is almost 5gbs. So i need to put a bigger hdd in it before i do that.

I wonder can i put the dvd files on a flash and play it from there? Or will it be to slow compare to the dvd rom?

it would show if data transfer really was the root of this issue, you may copy a part of the files if thats helpful, vlc can play damaged multipart movies

Have a update. I found another 1675 on ebay days ago cause i needed parts from it for my current one lcd casing cause mine is cracked.. But turns out the parts machine turn into a full working laptop So thats my current one now. The weird thing is. i took the hdd out of my old one and put it in this one and guess what same dvd issue....

So i pop the the one it came with back in cause it does have win98fe and also have the recovery partition still intact and works so i restored it back to factory and dvds play smoothly..... But on win98se they slow down and choppy.. So it was nothing wrong with the hardware.

Is there a reason behind this? Cause i ran the same drivers software on the windows 98se install and it still had issues.

I would like to have 98se on it cause it seems much stabler than fe and faster, But yea dvd doesn't play smoothly... I tried using a win98se upgrade cd to try upgrading it too see if that worked but it errors out with a white error box after checking the the c drive... So thats a no go.