For these old parts I usually get the directx from game discs, they were almost always included with the game and I have a bunch of magazine bundle CDs and DVDs from the late-90s all the way up to the mid-2000s. I pick one a month after the graphics card's release and try those drivers first.

You could also check the archive.org for backed up driver CDs. It doesn't have to be for the exact same model, just one from that or the next generation.

Though the one's hosted by the original GPU or graphics card manufacturer should work too I experienced issues drivers coming from them.

Try an older version of the driver.

https://archive.org/details/ATIRadeonDriverCDATI_070703A2003

You can also get the Catalyst 4.3 driver for W2k from vogonsdrivers.com

If it finally comes down to it, manually get the exact dev&ven data for your card, and add them to the driver's .inf, then manually install it with the update driver wizard.

Win2k does not enforce signatures.

For some cards, this is the only way to make them working in certaun configurations.

Still getting the same issues.

I have tried the old disk usage method, and I also tried the Vogons drivers. Nothing worked, I tried to manually set the inf files as drivers, but that did not work either.

Sounds like you have an aftermarket card that is not directly listed in the .inf

Just get the pciid fir your card out of the device manager, and put a new entry in the .inf, then manually install it.

wierd_w wrote on 2024-06-16, 10:44:

Just get the pciid fir your card out of the device manager, and put a new entry in the .inf, then manually install it.

Mine is a Windows 2000 machine, it does not show it there.

Then find it in regedit at

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\PCI\

like shown here

Record its PCI and VEN numbers (you dont really need the subsys, usually) then populate an entry in the .INF for it.

Yea it worked. Thanks.

I basically had this problem in ~2006.

Bought a laptop with Radeon Xpress200M graphics, it came with XP Home and I wanted to run 2000. Toshiba offered a driver that would install under XP, but not 2000. IIRC I looked at inf hacking because I knew it was possible, but for some reason had no luck.

Ended up putting XP Pro from the work MSDN folder on it. And OSX for intel, Ubuntu and Slackware, which ended with Slackware and XP shoe-horned into the smallest partition I could get away with.

Good to see you got peak-Windows working 😀

In some cases, especially with mobility versions of chips, the main oem driver packs seem to go out of their way to 'not support!' The chip in question, while supporting THE IDENTICAL CHIPS (architecturally) in the nonmobility version.

Since the mobility version and the desktop discrete version use the same architecture, THE SAME DRIVER applies. The difference is 100% marketing, and legal bullshit.

This is what I mean when I said 'the only way to get them working in certain configurations.'

Sadly, microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, has made prodding the driver ever increasingly difficult to do, because 'wooooooo! It MIGHT compromise the system!'

Nevermind that in all other ways besides the damn inf, it is a mshwql certified driver. (Eyeroll)

Similar shenanigans are at play with old scanners, which intrinsically JUST wrap the GENERIC WIA driver. 'Nooooo! Not supported! Buy the NEEEEWW one!'

Nevermind that with just a few tweaks, it installs and works with WIA on new versions of windows just fine. (You just have to go through increasingly onerous degrees of hurdle jumping to get windows to stop having a hissyfit over the 'unsigned driver' that asks to install a WINDOWS STANDARD COMPONENT. Because SECURITY.)

This is the EXACT situation with my (now ancient) mictotek ScanMaker 4800.

It is last officially supported on winxp, IIRC.

WORKS JUST FINE on win10 x64. (And aside from even MOAR tight fisted driver hysterics from MS, would likely work JUST FINE in win11 too.)

The driver only calls WIA. That's all. No other .sys or anything.

'Nope! Buy the Neeeeeew one!' (We beg you!)

(Hrrumph!)

progman.exe wrote on 2024-06-17, 14:54:

Good to see you got peak-Windows working 😀

I run Arch now, it is not really the hardness that got me, it is the fact that the internet from back then does not have a lot of issues vividly documented as, for example, the Linux tech forums for nowadays.

I am wondering if you can install new drivers on older cards using this method (like if some card is "softly" unsupported.)

Yea just like wierd_w said, I was thinking that mine may have came with "separate" (which are actually drivers with the vendor number and the other stuff in sync with the card) drivers or something. Because I know that there is a lot of manufacturers who would do that.

I have a Persian board partner manufactured FX5500, next up will be to see if that has the same issues or not.