Which version of the drivers are you using?

TehGuy wrote on 2021-10-27, 17:27:

Which version of the drivers are you using?

77.72, also tried with 82.69 unofficial, no luck

Hi. Can you do recto/verso photo of the board. Knowing the exact model can help.
Awaiting for more information, try this v81.98 WHQL driver [https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/11/en-us] and let us know.
It seems Gigabyte didn't have any driver for Windows 98/Me for its GeForce 6 series on its website. Maybe this series wasn't supported on 9x OS so nVidia didn't included the DEV ID for Gigabyte GeForce 6600 cards in there official driver either?

Datadrainer wrote on 2021-10-27, 18:15:

Hi. Can you do recto/verso photo of the board. Knowing the exact model can help.
Awaiting for more information, try this v81.98 WHQL driver [https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/11/en-us] and let us know.
It seems Gigabyte didn't have any driver for Windows 98/Me for its GeForce 6 series on its website. Maybe this series wasn't supported on 9x OS so nVidia didn't included the DEV ID for Gigabyte GeForce 6600 cards in there official driver either?

The motherboard is an MSI P4M890-L.

I was talking about the video card.

Datadrainer wrote on 2021-10-27, 19:33:

I was talking about the video card.

Apologies. It's a GV-NX66128DP.

Weegee wrote on 2021-10-28, 02:02:

Datadrainer wrote on 2021-10-27, 19:33:

I was talking about the video card.

Apologies. It's a GV-NX66128DP.

a PCI-e card?

TehGuy wrote on 2021-10-28, 11:27:

Weegee wrote on 2021-10-28, 02:02:

Datadrainer wrote on 2021-10-27, 19:33:

I was talking about the video card.

Apologies. It's a GV-NX66128DP.

a PCI-e card?

Yes

My first guess was it was possible the card to be for OEM. So it could have had a modified BIOS (returning a different vendor or device id). As the card is not supported on Windows 9x by Gigabyte and no driver have explicit support for it. By modifying the NVAGP.inf file in the ForceWare extracted installation folder it would have been possible to make the card to work. But after some check, I found that the driver in my link, despite being announced to support GeForce 6 family does not have any entry for it. It support only chipset to NV3x architecture and GeForce 6 is NV4x architecture and consequently you card cannot work with Windows 98. This driver is the latest from nVidia to support Windows 9x.
BTW, I don't see the point to use such a "modern" hardware for Windows 98. Here is my explanation:
During the twenty's ATI and nVidia were doing tiny optimizations in their drivers for best seller games of the time, often by breaking compatibilities or performances for older games. Sometime because this older games (first gen Windows 95 games for the most) needed to be patched in the driver itself for them to work with newer video card. This have to be done because there was a lot of API back then for audio and video, game were ported from DOS too and 3D acceleration was new. Put all of that together and add time development constraints and you get badly programmed games working pretty well only in the environment they expect to find and were developed for.
In conclusion, from my POV a DOS/Win9x OS should be used only on hardware made for it and for using software that does not work well or does not work at all on more recent OS.

TehGuy wrote on 2021-10-28, 11:27:

Weegee wrote on 2021-10-28, 02:02:

Datadrainer wrote on 2021-10-27, 19:33:

I was talking about the video card.

Apologies. It's a GV-NX66128DP.

a PCI-e card?

Windows 98 can work with PCI-E card. Our friend Phil here have made a video about that [https://youtu.be/abYeIixYrbk]. But only cards with a driver for it.

Datadrainer wrote on 2021-10-28, 11:58:

My first guess was it was possible the card to be for OEM. So it could have had a modified BIOS (returning a different vendor or […]
Show full quote

My first guess was it was possible the card to be for OEM. So it could have had a modified BIOS (returning a different vendor or device id). As the card is not supported on Windows 9x by Gigabyte and no driver have explicit support for it. By modifying the NVAGP.inf file in the ForceWare extracted installation folder it would have been possible to make the card to work. But after some check, I found that the driver in my link, despite being announced to support GeForce 6 family does not have any entry for it. It support only chipset to NV3x architecture and GeForce 6 is NV4x architecture and consequently you card cannot work with Windows 98. This driver is the latest from nVidia to support Windows 9x.
BTW, I don't see the point to use such a "modern" hardware for Windows 98. Here is my explanation:
During the twenty's ATI and nVidia were doing tiny optimizations in their drivers for best seller games of the time, often by breaking compatibilities or performances for older games. Sometime because this older games (first gen Windows 95 games for the most) needed to be patched in the driver itself for them to work with newer video card. This have to be done because there was a lot of API back then for audio and video, game were ported from DOS too and 3D acceleration was new. Put all of that together and add time development constraints and you get badly programmed games working pretty well only in the environment they expect to find and were developed for.
In conclusion, from my POV a DOS/Win9x OS should be used only on hardware made for it and for using software that does not work well or does not work at all on more recent OS.

Ah, fair enough.
Can you point me to a card that woyld work in this scenario? I'm assuming some FX series or 6200 or something along those lines.

Datadrainer wrote on 2021-10-28, 12:01:

Windows 98 can work with PCI-E card. Our friend Phil here have made a video about that [https://youtu.be/abYeIixYrbk]. But only cards with a driver for it.

I had more after that question as I went digging but just left it for verification so I didn't spew a bunch of wrong info as my first draft was about to be along the lines of "bruh PCIe dont work on Win98" before my googling spree

With nvflash https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-nvflash/ you can make a backup of the BIOS and with nibitor https://www.techpowerup.com/142137/nvidia-bio … on-6-1-released you can check if the bios corresponds to that card and edit it by yourself. You may need to look for the versions of these utilities that suits your needs.
I don't think that any OEM will mod a BIOS of a card that they did not make or especially made for them.
If it is a Gigabyte, it should have a Gigabyte BIOS.
Here they have a BIOS from a Geforce 6600 pci-e 128 mb by Gigabyte for your reference.
Beware if you try to flash this BIOS to your card because the VRAM chips may be of a different brand, have a PCI card to do an emergency flash if something goes wrong.

Hoping wrote on 2021-10-28, 14:53:

I don't think that any OEM will mod a BIOS of a card that they did not make or especially made for them.

That's why I asked to have photos at first. I don't know if Gigabyte had partnership with OEM, but if it was the case, it could had come with underclocked GPU and RAM. This is often the case to limit heat and reduce power consumption. Meaning a modified BIOS and an modified driver (with in most of the case the original manufacturer adding the card officially in there driver, but not always). But in case there is a driver available for the targeted OS, it is always possible to hack the BIOS (different frequencies) by editing it or it is also possible to just use a software solution as nVidia gave as an option for their ForceWare control panel.
Here it is the latest driver that does not have NV40 entries in its NVAGP.inf file so if you mean to change device ID in the BIOS, I don't see the point. The logical conclusion is that the latest available driver does not support such chipset. And that's why the card does not work. But the chipset is supported in Windows NT5.x as the same generation of the driver have entry for NV4x architecture. That is odd, but that is a fact.

Weegee wrote on 2021-10-28, 13:44:

Can you point me to a card that woyld work in this scenario? I'm assuming some FX series or 6200 or something along those lines.

If it had to be a nVidia PCI-E, maybe a GeForce FX 5750 as it work great with almost all DirectX 9.0a games. But the driver support have to be tested to be sure, it is a NV39 and there can be surprise. GeForce FX cards were not really appreciated back then, but they are not bad actually. It is just ATI fill the gap and the processing power compared to GeForce 4 was not very important, but that's only by comparing DirectX 7/8 games on both GPU, not DirectX 9 ones. But there is surely many other choices like ATI R300. I have not enough knowledge and experience for such a case, so maybe some other users will help you better on what to chose 😀

Maybe you can try this driver http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1413&menustate=0
In this thread another member also had problems with a 6600 but AGP.

Ok, I think I'm starting to give up a bit on nvidia. Would, by any chance, an x850 pro work? Phil's video shows it working, but i'm not sure about reliability.

OK, I know it's been a while, but here's the thing.
I ended up buying a Sapphire X850 PRO, sure enough, it works no problems.

Thanks to all, even if it was no luck with nvidia.

Weegee wrote on 2021-11-11, 07:27:

OK, I know it's been a while, but here's the thing.
I ended up buying a Sapphire X850 PRO, sure enough, it works no problems.

Thanks to all, even if it was no luck with nvidia.

Hi. Glad to know it. The important thing is to have a working PC that feats your needs 😀