w32u wrote on 2022-02-20, 17:26:

Hey everyone. Recently I've bought an old PC (probably the cheapest one in our town) for retro gaming purposes. Here are the spe […]
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Hey everyone.
Recently I've bought an old PC (probably the cheapest one in our town) for retro gaming purposes. Here are the specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8SR533 rev 2.0 (based on SiS 645 chipset)
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz Willamette
RAM: 1 GB DDR stick from Kingston (works in 333 MHz mode)
GPU: GeForce 2 MX400 64 mb (AGP, 128-bit bus)
PSU: Some chinese "CODEGEN" that has 350w in it (as the title says)
HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 30GB IDE HDD

So, the problem is in the GPU not working properly exclusively in Windows 98 - it works only in 640x480 16 colors mode. I haven't checked it in ME yet, but in Windows XP it works as it's supposed to (I've run 3DMark 2000 succesfully).
If I try to set higher resolution or color mode, either I get an error saying "There is a problem with your display settings. The adapter type is incorrect, or the current settings do not work with your hardware" or it just goes to black screen with a blinking cursor until the next hard reset.

IMG_20220220_192352.jpg
IMG_20220220_192402.jpg

Before the GPU driver installation I've installed SiS AGP Drivers from Vogons Drivers Library and IDE drivers from Gigabyte website. I've tried several GPU driver versions (12.41, 21.83, 45.23), but none of them have worked for me.
What can I do with all of this? Can I get the card working?

I have stupid question, but have you installed DirectX 7 or 8 at least before installing the display drivers?

Windows 98 ships with DirectX 6 by default, I believe. Edit: I'm using 21.83 and I had to install DirectX 8.

Boot into safe mode and delete all video cards from device manager.

I know that Win98 is limited to 512 megs of RAM. I don't know exactly how it reacts when installed to a machine that's over this limit because I've never tried it - I've always run 512 max for install, though I did install the R. Loew memory patch on one machine, then upgraded it to 1024 just to test it out (it seems to work just fine, no issues so far). I'd suggest reducing the RAM to the 512 limit and starting over from there.

leonardo wrote on 2022-02-20, 19:25:

I have stupid question, but have you installed DirectX 7 or 8 at least before installing the display drivers?

Windows 98 ships with DirectX 6 by default, I believe. Edit: I'm using 21.83 and I had to install DirectX 8.

I did this one time (installed DX7.0a before drivers), but it didn't help. Therefore I'll investigate it further.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-02-20, 19:26:

Boot into safe mode and delete all video cards from device manager.

I have already done that, haven't worked.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-02-20, 19:34:

I know that Win98 is limited to 512 megs of RAM. I don't know exactly how it reacts when installed to a machine that's over this limit because I've never tried it - I've always run 512 max for install, though I did install the R. Loew memory patch on one machine, then upgraded it to 1024 just to test it out (it seems to work just fine, no issues so far). I'd suggest reducing the RAM to the 512 limit and starting over from there.

I guess that's an interesting idea, but I don't know if Win98 setup will override existing config.sys (I want to limit RAM with Himemx). But for now I'll try that from an already installed system.

Do you see anything in the device manager?
Some kind of error code?

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-02-20, 20:56:

Do you see anything in the device manager?
Some kind of error code?

No, the device manager doesn't show any error, rather it shows that the videocard is working properly

Do you have the proper Directx version or windows updates for the driver your using?

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2022-02-21, 05:00:

Do you have the proper Directx version or windows updates for the driver your using?

If I only knew what DirectX version is needed for 45.23 drivers. I'll try installing DirectX 8 later

So, I have some kind of progress.
When I installed DX8.2 from here and installed 45.23 drivers, I got a new error saying:

Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.

I assume the problem can be in my RAM (I have a whole 1GB of it), but will Himemx with /MAX=524288 (limit to 512MB) do something about it? Or should I do something different?

I was right: it was all about RAM and DirectX.
So, what I have done to get GF2 MX400 working is:
1. Installed DX8.2
2. Installed Detonator 45.23 driver
3. After getting Windows protection error, turned himemx according to this post, but also limited RAM to 512 MB with the /MAX=524288 switch
4. Booted to the system just fine, got the 32-bit color mode and 75 Hz of the monitor
5. Removed the /MAX switch from config.sys

Now it works just fine! Thank you all for helping me

Excellent news! I'm glad to hear everything is working properly now

Still need to limit to 512MB or get pair of memory modules 512MB total. win 9SE does not like large ram.

Cheers,

pentiumspeed wrote on 2022-02-21, 19:37:

Still need to limit to 512MB or get pair of memory modules 512MB total. win 9SE does not like large ram.

Cheers,

While with Himemx it works normal with 1GB, I still plan to buy two 256MB sticks. I guess that's a plenty of RAM for my purposes too.

Hello! This is my first post in Vogons 😀

I'm trying to set up a W98-era PC with these specs:

- Motherboard: DFI P2XBL rev. D1 (440BX)
- RAM: 512 Mb @ 133 Mhz
- CPU: Pentium III 550 Mhz (Katmai)
- Graphics: Geforce 2 MX 400 64 Mb AGP
- Audio: Sound Blaster PC128
- Drives: 8 GB HDD, LG 52x CD-ROM, 3.5” floppy
- NIC TX PCI 10/100 3Com EtherLink XL card

I'm following this installation guide:

Generic Win98SE Installation & Setup Guide

But I'm having trouble with the Geforce2 MX 400 card. Just after W98 and 440BX drivers, I'm installing DirectX 8.2 and Nvidia drivers 45.23 (in that order), just like w32u in this thread. But the card refuses to be installed, throwing a variety of errors and even blue screens (0E Exception).

Previously, I tried DirectX 7 with older Nvidia drivers, to no avail. Is there a safe combination of DirectX and drivers for this card? Could it be in conflict with some other hardware? Is there some installation step I'm overlooking? Or maybe it's a faulty card? In case it's better to change it, any advice about a more compatible model would be appreciated (my plan is to install music composition software, and some games not newer than 2001 and not too demanding).

Thank you so much!

I’ve kept trying and it got installed, finally! Just in case any other user gets stuck like me, these have been my steps:

- I upgraded the motherboard BIOS to the last one I’ve found out there (05/30/2000, take in account that this one is for revision D): https://es.driverscollection.com/?file_id=14872

- I tried to install nvidia 45.43 drivers again over DirectX 8.1. I got some error related to gdi32.dll — Windows asked to force quit the process and then it asked to reboot.

- W98 started up again… and finally the geforce2 got recognized! A glorious hi-res desktop @ 75 hz was the proof 😀

I’ve not tested any games nor software for now. I’ll report here if I find any problems.