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Reply 460 of 895, by sofakng

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Here's another strange question... (I've also posted over on the Video forum)

Is it possible to prevent the output from being doublescanned?

For example, lots of games are using 320x200 but the VGA card (?) doublescans the output as 640x400. Normally this isn't an issue but I'm testing a new upscaler than can upscale to 1440p but 640x400p is too much. However, 240p (320x200) is not a problem.

Reply 461 of 895, by NachtRave

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sofakng wrote on 2022-10-13, 20:18:

Here's another strange question... (I've also posted over on the Video forum)

Is it possible to prevent the output from being doublescanned?

For example, lots of games are using 320x200 but the VGA card (?) doublescans the output as 640x400. Normally this isn't an issue but I'm testing a new upscaler than can upscale to 1440p but 640x400p is too much. However, 240p (320x200) is not a problem.

That’s an honestly really good question. I’m not exactly sure what the output exactly is, as I’m using an OSSC for doing the conversion to HDMI (mostly as an audio mix-in that isn’t laggy).

Reply 462 of 895, by NachtRave

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Duffman wrote on 2022-10-13, 15:08:
Thanks alot for the Info. should help. […]
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Thanks alot for the Info. should help.

Ah, I see that the Hardware ID for the IDE controller is PCI\VEN_17F3&DEV_1011 - the driver currently expects PCI\VEN_17F3&DEV_1010 since I wasn't sure which one we had in the WeeCee.
I'll get that changed, fingers crossed hopefully it'll work.

Also, here is that VGA driver I found that might give OpenGL in Windows 98, just an INF mod here, hopefully it works. Give it a try.

Okay gave second one here a try and still no dice. Gonna see if I can’t force it somehow. Attached screenshot of result.

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Reply 463 of 895, by NachtRave

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Okay well, I tried reinstalling driver for the main entry (not the individual IDE primary/secondary controllers) and got the driver installed.

Looks like it liked the MOD folder for initially selecting the driver, but then needed the ORG folder for full install. I don't know what files it copied over, but let me play around with it some more when I have some free time.

Ultimately the device item is still having trouble tho (exclamation point next to driver), still has drive C/D on compatibility mode drivers.

Reply 464 of 895, by NachtRave

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Bodge wire connection on SN10. The red wire is a bit taunt from being cut a hair short, but it works. I had enough of possibly burning the wire coating right next to where it was soldered into, so I’ve just become accustomed to fitting a tiny bit of heat shrink on the end to hide any blemishes like that (not that I needed it on this one). Overall looks pretty good.

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Reply 465 of 895, by Duffman

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NachtRave, Can you install this modded driver onto the "Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller" instead? I believe that should be the right device for this driver (It'd be nice if Windows 98's Device Manager would tell you the Hardware ID so you know for sure though)

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 466 of 895, by Duffman

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Ah, I see you posted additional pics on ebay

When you got that X installation disk error message were you able to manually point to the MOD folder for the driver? or did it get stuck there?
What code is Device Manager giving for the yellow exclamation mark after you installed the driver?
Can you click on "Driver Details" and get a list of the driver files?

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 467 of 895, by NachtRave

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Duffman wrote on 2022-10-14, 04:24:

NachtRave, Can you install this modded driver onto the "Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller" instead? I believe that should be the right device for this driver (It'd be nice if Windows 98's Device Manager would tell you the Hardware ID so you know for sure though)

Alright had a chance to sit down and try this again, copying the MOD folder overtop of the ORG folder and then installing from there.

Initially restarted and got a "Windows Protection Fault" starting Win98... Uhoh... Reset and boot back up, and get the following device status in device manager: "Windows stopped responding while attempting to start this device, and therefore will never attempt to start this device again (code 11) For more information, look up ASD in Windows Help" - drive C/D still in compatibility mode, still have a ! next to ITE IT8211 ATA/ATAPI Controller.

Well, was worth the shot, but no dice.

Reply 468 of 895, by Duffman

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Damn!

I'll have to test this myself on the real hardware to try and fix this - that is assuming I win the auction though.

are you putting any more WeeCee's up in case I lose the Auction?

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 469 of 895, by NachtRave

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Duffman wrote on 2022-10-14, 07:31:

Damn!

I'll have to test this myself on the real hardware to try and fix this - that is assuming I win the auction though.

are you putting any more WeeCee's up in case I lose the Auction?

Up to SN11. Just got SN10 finished, will start on last board soon, but will be selling these off for the rest of the month.

Reply 470 of 895, by Duffman

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I've got another idea that I'll try -

Port ReactOS UniATA driver to Windows 98. I'll use 86Box on my end for testing.

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 471 of 895, by Duffman

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Welp, I got Windows 98's Device Manager to show "This Device is working properly" with the UniATA driver... But is isn't actually working and Drive C is in MS-DOS mode still...

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I guess this is a dead end too.

I know this is a bit of a long shot, but has anyone tried rloew's SATA patch to see if that does anything? I recall that it was the "Primary IDE Controller (single fifo)" that was showing the yellow exclamation mark? It runs on the ESDI_506.pdr which rloew's SATA patch modifies, maybe we'll get lucky and it'll just happen to fix it?

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 472 of 895, by NachtRave

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Duffman wrote on 2022-10-14, 19:24:
Welp, I got Windows 98's Device Manager to show "This Device is working properly" with the UniATA driver... But is isn't actuall […]
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Welp, I got Windows 98's Device Manager to show "This Device is working properly" with the UniATA driver... But is isn't actually working and Drive C is in MS-DOS mode still...

uniata_properly_maybe.png

uniata_fileslist.png

I guess this is a dead end too.

I know this is a bit of a long shot, but has anyone tried rloew's SATA patch to see if that does anything? I recall that it was the "Primary IDE Controller (single fifo)" that was showing the yellow exclamation mark? It runs on the ESDI_506.pdr which rloew's SATA patch modifies, maybe we'll get lucky and it'll just happen to fix it?

Do you just want me to outright sell you one so that you can do this detective work? I would pay dearly for a real solution to this, especially if it meant we could mount virtual CD images without the OS crashing. That would be beyond amazing, but my fear is that we are such a custom piece of hardware that some amount of driver tampering is going to be required to get it fully working.

@rasteri - have you tried XP on weeCee yet? I haven't tried yet, but I might try formatting up a card with it just to see how it performs on the weeCee, especially in regards to mounting of files. If we had a working XP install, dual booted with a Win98/DOS install, that might be a forward point, too. Alas, I think last time we tried it didn't work out really.

Anyways, @Duffman, I was going to start work on SN11 today - just the smaller SMD work for now - did you want to maybe arrange with me something so I can get it into your hands a bit quicker / not through eBay/auction? I have PayPal and Venmo, either works, say 650 for unit + shipping (negotiable ofc)? I could put some extra stuff on the card for you, including some of the things we've tested prior that didn't work. Maybe you might spot something that works? Dunno, how confident are you on your abilities to look into/resolve the issue? I would say if you've like, written device drivers, maybe we could even just outright give you one, or maybe at reduced cost, just so that the community as a whole benefits - but I guess for me I'd like to know your skill/comfort level with such an arrangement.

Reply 473 of 895, by fluxrez

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Just wanted to pop in and give props to @NachtRave. I purchased one of these on eBay. The presentation of what he is selling online is awesome. The instructions are really good. Half the things I was planning to do (like backing up the SD Card before using it) are right there in the instructions. And warnings about certain "errors" that are considered normal. Also, quite a bit of stuff I haven't thought of.

I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Just wanted to say Hi. and within a few weeks I should be knee deep in DOS games 😀

Reply 474 of 895, by Duffman

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NachtRave wrote on 2022-10-14, 22:21:

Do you just want me to outright sell you one so that you can do this detective work? I would pay dearly for a real solution to this, especially if it meant we could mount virtual CD images without the OS crashing. That would be beyond amazing, but my fear is that we are such a custom piece of hardware that some amount of driver tampering is going to be required to get it fully working.

@rasteri - have you tried XP on weeCee yet? I haven't tried yet, but I might try formatting up a card with it just to see how it performs on the weeCee, especially in regards to mounting of files. If we had a working XP install, dual booted with a Win98/DOS install, that might be a forward point, too. Alas, I think last time we tried it didn't work out really.

Anyways, @Duffman, I was going to start work on SN11 today - just the smaller SMD work for now - did you want to maybe arrange with me something so I can get it into your hands a bit quicker / not through eBay/auction? I have PayPal and Venmo, either works, say 650 for unit + shipping (negotiable ofc)? I could put some extra stuff on the card for you, including some of the things we've tested prior that didn't work. Maybe you might spot something that works? Dunno, how confident are you on your abilities to look into/resolve the issue? I would say if you've like, written device drivers, maybe we could even just outright give you one, or maybe at reduced cost, just so that the community as a whole benefits - but I guess for me I'd like to know your skill/comfort level with such an arrangement.

Oh yeah! That'd be awesome!
Keep in mind I'm in Australia so shipping will cost a bit more.
Also I don't know if it's possible to cancel my bids for the Auction on SN8?

I'd really like to get my hands on rloew's source code, particularly his debugging tools AHCI driver as I'm sure there's a treasure trove of knowledge in thereon how to write good 9x drivers to be found there.

Sadly I think it's been lost since his passing, R.I.P rloew

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 475 of 895, by Duffman

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Something I forgot to ask, is the USB Port on the WeeCee 1.1 or 2.0?

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 476 of 895, by SScorpio

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Duffman wrote on 2022-10-15, 04:42:

I'd really like to get my hands on rloew's source code, particularly his debugging tools AHCI driver as I'm sure there's a treasure trove of knowledge in thereon how to write good 9x drivers to be found there.

Sadly I think it's been lost since his passing, R.I.P rloew

It's been about 20 years, and I wasn't the one doing the coding for them. But I remember it being more of the fact that all of them ran at ring 0 with no protection so a bad driver could bring down the system unlike today, and Windows being able to recover from GPU driver crashes.

I still remember the struggles though, as the drivers were for the original Razor Boomslang mice. The mouse driver got direct access to the Windows frame buffer and wrote to it for the fancy on the fly while in-game graphical DPI selection. Sadly that small company closed less than a year later, but whoever else Razor contracted for development kept using the same code for a while. I think it was 4-5 years later and the easter egg with the original dev names in the configuration app still worked and showed the original people.

Reply 477 of 895, by Duffman

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NachtRave, Can you post a Screenshot of the error message that Device Manager has been showing for the IDE Controller?

Is it on the "Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller" or "Primary IDE Controller [dual fifo]" or both?

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 478 of 895, by rasteri

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NachtRave wrote on 2022-10-14, 22:21:

@rasteri - have you tried XP on weeCee yet? I haven't tried yet, but I might try formatting up a card with it just to see how it performs on the weeCee, especially in regards to mounting of files. If we had a working XP install, dual booted with a Win98/DOS install, that might be a forward point, too. Alas, I think last time we tried it didn't work out really.

Yep the SD card works much faster on XP. And indeed every other OS I tried (Dos, Linux) is fast too. It's literally just a Windows 98 problem.

Windows XP just uses the standard generic IDE drivers, and obvs DOS doesn't use any drivers at all.

Reply 479 of 895, by Duffman

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@rasteri
Perhaps XP's generic IDE drivers can be ported to 98? assuming there is enough functionality implemented in NTKERN.VXD it might be possible.

Do you know if there is any documentation on what is implemented in NTKERN.VXD? I could look at it with a disassembler but that's the slow way.

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)