eliot_new wrote on 2025-09-05, 10:01:

I guess, I can boot the PC from WIn 98 SE in DOS mode and run then AWFLASH....

Even better, put all the files you need on C:, reboot, on startup hit F8 and choose “7. safe mode command prompt only”

Ok, I found the download link:

https://www.gigabyte.com/de/Motherboard/GA-BX … support-dl-bios

Before I was on an URL with only one .bin file.

Now I will flash and tell what happened.

PS: I have to say thank you very much to User con 2 botones, who did this post:
Anybody use the unofficial Win 98 SP3 pack?

Thus I resolved a display bug in the Win98SE SP3.

I will write here as soon as I have completed the installation and configuration of my 2 retro PC's with Win98SE, WinXP SP3 32-bit and all my favorite games.

Good evening everybody here

thank you once again for all your answers!

Please help me.

I now have two retro PC systems (see signature).
I can play most of the games I've always wanted on both.
However, some games with EAX sound released after 2005 require more than a 1GHz CPU and more than 512MB of RAM.
Examples of this would be Bioshock or Crysis.
Since I don't want to build a third retro PC, I've been thinking about installing 32-bit Windows XP on my Asus H97M-Plus with an i7-4790K.
I have read online that an user named Fernando provides special drivers for this.
Question: has anyone had any good experience with this?
Has anyone installed 32-bit Windows XP on an H97 or Z97 board and later successfully added an Audigy 1 or 2 sound card?

Thx a lot in advance and I wish you a nice and pleasant weekend!

Kind regards from Switzerland

eliot_new wrote on 2025-10-10, 18:46:

Has anyone installed 32-bit Windows XP on an H97 or Z97 board and later successfully added an Audigy 1 or 2 sound card?

The unofficial “drivers” you are referring to only add inf files for device manager. Would it work if you modify setup media image? Mostly yes. If you want real windows xp support on Intel chipset go H81 or even better B75 since it provides native PCI.

Update:

I have decided to have 2x Retro-PC permanently and several others temporary (discover how it feels then sell it).

1. Asus CUSL2-C, P3 1Ghz, 512MB, FX5600 AGP, SB Audigy 1, Win98SE, WinXP
2. QDI BrillianX S1 440BX, P3 450, 768MB, V3-2k AGP, AWE64, PicoGUS, Win98SE, WinXP => could add an Yamaha 724 PCI as the QDI has SB-link (PC/PCI)

The experimental rigs I am currently planning only for experience reasons and maybe later sell it again:

3. QDI P5I430TX Titan IB+, P 100 Mhz, 32MB, Elsa S3 2MB PCI, FreeDOS => PicoGUS from (2) could be used here
4. Asus P5A rev 1.04, K6-3+/400, 64MB, V3-2k AGP (bought cheap a 2nd one), FreeDOS, Win98SE => AWE64 from (2) could be used here
5. Asus CUV4X-D incl. 2 x P3 1Ghz (got it for 110 € with CPUs) => the seller offers me to buy his remaining 4x512MB SDRAM, but I am hesitating. Even with Win2k, Win2k3, Vista32, Win7x32 I have only a test laboratory. In 2000 there were no games supporting 2x CPUs?

I will surely remain with number 1&2 and will decide what to do with rig 3, 4, 5 in the distant future.

What is astonishing:
currently a lot of people are selling on ebay.de some Voodoo 3 PCI and Voodoo 4 AGP graphics.
The prices for V3 PCI are much higher than V3 AGP, but AFAIK plattforms based upon Intel TX are too slow for a V3 PCI => do you know an use case where a V3 PCI is suitable?
I have also noticed the exagerated prices for alternative 3D graphics Permedia2, PowerVR(Kyro2), Rendition Verite 2200, S3 Savage4 Pro.

eliot_new wrote on 2025-11-01, 14:43:

5. Asus CUV4X-D incl. 2 x P3 1Ghz (got it for 110 € with CPUs) => the seller offers me to buy his remaining 4x512MB SDRAM, but I am hesitating. Even with Win2k, Win2k3, Vista32, Win7x32 I have only a test laboratory. In 2000 there were no games supporting 2x CPUs?

If the price for the RAM is fine, I'd definitely do it 😎

For best sound compatibility in Windows , either the Ess Solo 1 or the yamaha 724.

If the games can be started from Windows , then I do not see a reason to start them from native dos.

eliot_new wrote on 2025-11-01, 14:43:

What is astonishing: currently a lot of people are selling on ebay.de some Voodoo 3 PCI and Voodoo 4 AGP graphics. The prices […]
Show full quote

What is astonishing:
currently a lot of people are selling on ebay.de some Voodoo 3 PCI and Voodoo 4 AGP graphics.
The prices for V3 PCI are much higher than V3 AGP, but AFAIK plattforms based upon Intel TX are too slow for a V3 PCI => do you know an use case where a V3 PCI is suitable?
I have also noticed the exagerated prices for alternative 3D graphics Permedia2, PowerVR(Kyro2), Rendition Verite 2200, S3 Savage4 Pro.

V3 PCI could also be desirable for later systems with buggy or lacking AGP.
Personally I also like the PCI version as can pair it with a stronger D3D AGP card and run 2 video cards in the same system, but don't think that's a very common setup.
The other graphics cards while never being popular like 3DFX are still interesting and fun to play around with if your interested in early 3d technology which drives prices up for "inferior" cards.

eliot_new wrote on 2025-11-01, 14:43:

4. Asus P5A rev 1.04, K6-3+/400, 64MB, V3-2k AGP

This is the good stuff and you can safely bump RAM for a well-rounded system.

Good morning everybody,

what do you think about wrapper for older 3D APIs?

I have just found this one:
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nrcqj8vlgt … &hl=de-DE&gl=CH

I will test it and tell you.

The reason why I am writing it here:

First I don't know whether there is a dedicated thread for software wrapper and second I have bought a cheap Rendition V2200 AGP card and will test it and post the results here.

Update: I bought cheap 3x different "old" AGP cards for testing with late 90s games:
1. Elephant Rendition Verite v2200 with 8MB
2. Creative Labs Extreme Permedia 2 with 4MB
3. Diamond Stealth ||| S450 Savage4 with 32MB

I have installed today new Win98SE with the first Rendition drivers V2k_2_3 downloaded from vogons drivers page.
vQuake 1 runs smoothly at 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 (Pentium 3 Katmai 450) and the image quality looks nice

PS:

vQuake 1 timedemo demo1, demo2, demo3 delivers 16.5 fps, 12.9 fps, 15.8 fps at 1024*768, quite smooth for single player on the easiest level.

timedemo demo 1 benchmarks

1152*864 = 13.3 fps
1024*768 = 16.5
800*600 = 21.3
640*480 = 31.1

I will now benchmark another Rendition patched games and post it here.

After that, I will install the Permedia 2 and do the same test in order to soo how it performs compared to Rendition v2200.

PS: (13/12/25)

Installed Win98SE on a new 32GB SD-Card along with the Creative Permedia 2 graphics card.

Installation and configuration of the Permedia drivers as well as Quake 2 were easy.

Currently Quake 2 allows me only 512*384 with default OpenGL: higher resolutions result into a forced software renderer.

Furthermore Quake 2 runs slowly, I feel < 10 fps, but at least it runs whereas on my Rendition v2200 card I couldn't run it today...

Tomorrow I will update the driver with another Permedia 2 and post the benchmarks.

Btw: I tried Quake 1 software mode: it allows me only 360 * 240 (IIRC Permedia 2 has no SVGA modes for DOS 3d shooter)

PS: (19/12/25)

GLQuake v0.97 => timedemo demo1, demo2, demo3 delivers on Diamond Stealth SIII S540 AGP 32MB:

33.6 fps,
30.6 fps,
32.2 fps

at 1024*768*32

Woow, Savage4 Chip feels like 2x speed of Rendition Verite and 3x Permedia 2

I will definitely keep the Diamond graphics card.

Furthermore I tested Deus Ex 1 with
S3 Metal: looks great, little bit too dark and after some minutes the game crashes
D3D: looks ok, the sound is distorted whenever a person speaks, the text of a dialogue is jagged, meaning it's readable but the presentation is unsightly
OpenGL: looks ok, Display errors with the pump-action shotgun, otherwise fast and robust without crashes

Wheel of Time: currently testing in with S3 Metal, D3D, OpenGL and will report later the results

Creative Exxtreme Value 4MB Permedia 2 AGP results on P3-450, with only 64 MB RAM:

Quake 1 640x480x16 = 18.9 fps
Quake 2 640x480x16 = 6.7 fps

I m testing a recently bought Elsa Victory Erazor 4MB AGP Riva 128 and neither GL Q1 nor Q2 wanted to run.

After changing Windows desktop to 16 bit, they started.

Quake 2:

640x480x16 = 46.7 fps
800x600x16 = 33.2 fps
960x720x16 = ?
1024x768x16 = crash, it doesn't run

QL Quake 1:
640x480x16 = 49.8 fps

Update on my Miro Hiscore 3dfx with 6MB RAM.

I had to install and maintain the old driver from 1998, as the newer one from 1999 is causing crashes with Quake 2.

Here is the answer from ChatGPT why:

"The November 14, 1998 driver is precisely the version that stably supports Voodoo 1 with 6MB of RAM

this is the well-known Legacy Glide 1.03/1.04 version, which also works for Quake 2 under Windows 98SE.

The newer driver causes the error message: FXMEMMAP.VXD caused a fatal exception."

Sounds like you're having a good time with your retro build. 😀 Thanks for sharing!

For sound mayby Soundblaster LIVE/AUDIGY for Windows and ESS-Solo for Dos OPL. You could probably run them in paralell if no conflicts.

Yamaha YMF PCI card would work well for DOS also.

midgard wrote on 2026-01-07, 00:55:

For sound mayby Soundblaster LIVE/AUDIGY for Windows and ESS-Solo for Dos OPL. You could probably run them in paralell if no conflicts.

Yamaha YMF PCI card would work well for DOS also.

Thank you for mentioning all this!

Indeed I have following hardware waiting to be assembled / put in one of my planned future retro PC projects:

FX 5600 AGP (I have 2x of them)
FX 5200 AGP,
GF 4 Ti 4200 AGP,
GF 3 Ti 200 AGP,
Riva TNT2 M64 - 32MB AGP
V3-2k AGP (I have 2 of them)
V3-3k AGP (I have 2 of them)
Matrox G100 AGP
Matrox m3d PowerVR2,
Diamond V1 with 4MB I bought yesterday to replace the Miro 6MB,
Canopus Pure 3D 6MB (I will sell it, as I don't need 2x 3dfx V1 with 6MB)
AWE64 value (I have 2 of them) ISA
PicoGUS 2.0 (I have 2 of them) ISA
Yamaha 192 DXG YMF724-E PCI
SV 550 YMF724-E PCI
SB Audigy 1 (I have 3 of them)
SB Audigy 2 ZS
QDI Brillian S1 with 440BX FSB 100 only + 450 Mhz P3-Katmai
QDI Brillian X with 440BX and FSB 133 + 533 Mhz, 550 Mhz P3-Katmai (I bought 3x Katmai CPUs when the were cheap)
Asus CUVX-2D Dual with 2x P3-1Ghz Coppermine
Asus CUSL2-C with 1x P3-1Ghz Coppermine
Samsung 80 GB HDD
Seagate 80 GB HDD (I have 2 of them)
8x 32GB sd-card SanDisc along with SD2IDE adapter
LG H24N IDE (I have 2 of them)
LG H60N SATA H58N SATA along with SATA2IDE adapter
Toshiba 240GB SATA 3 along with SATA2IDE adapter
Ali 5271 USB 2.0 PCI card (I have 3 of them)
Ali 5271 USB + Firewire PCI card
IDE UDMA 66/100 PCI card
Intel FastEthernet 100 PCI card
Adaptec AH2940 SCSI Ultra
SCSI CDROM drive UltraPlex 40max

sold as the turned out to be useless:

1. Elsa Erazor Riva 128 PCI
2. Elsa Erazor Riva 128 AGP
3. Elsa Winner Trio64 PCI

Current PC retro project I m developping now step by step:

Asus P5A
AMD K6-3 / 400 => will never oc, as I want to look back and run most good DOS and some few good WIN games 1992-1998
64MB SDRAM (I have bought 3x 128MB and will put them in as soon as they arrive)
Spea Mirage Trio64 PCI 2MB (in Bios I can switch init display first to PCI/AGP to use it under MSDOS 622)
Rendition Verite v2200 AGP 8MB (for all DOS and WIN Rendition games)
Miro Hiscore V1 PCI 6MB (for all DOS and WIN Glide games)
Future desire: Matrox m3d => in case I succeed in installing it properly in Win98SE I would have 3 several propietary graphics api (Glide, RRline, PowerVR) along with D3D and OpenGL
ESS1938 onboard sound chip => it functions 100% under MSDOS 622 and I hope I can make it run Direct Sound on Win98SE
AWE64 value ISA => DOS / WIN
Pico GUS 2.0 ISA => DOS only
32GB sdcard (3 partitions, FAT16,FAT32,FAT32)
LG H24N DVD-RAM burner SATA
Primary FAT16 MSDOS622 - 2GB
Ext/Logic FAT32 Win98SE - 4GB
Ext/Logic FAT32 - 26 GB

To my surprise: even Deus Ex 1 runs ok with DX 7.0 along with either v2200 D3D renderer or V1 3dfx renderer with 640x480 low details

To my 2nd surprise: I was able to run Quake 2 on V1 with 22.1 fps for a short time. After installing a new driver I got a blue screen then de-installed it, re-installed the older one and once again 9.5 fps (no idea why).

Btw: because of my goal 1992-1998 games I use ChatGPT which is advising me how to use STMUL to slowdown in case I wanted to play U7, Wing Commander and other speed sensitive games.

At the moment I m focusing in installing the best drivers for the V1 and the v2200, Quake 2 must achieve once again the 22.1 fps.

Furthermore I strive to make it possible to run the Solo1 onboard sound chip along with the AWE64 under Win98SE and furthermore along with AWE64value and PicoGUS 2.0 under MSDOS 622.

Fortunately ChatGPT has transformed Phils DOS Boot menu into an advanced with choice between the 3 sound cards, either of them running fine at the moment.

I will post the final results here as soon as I succeed in installing and making everything stable.

PS: forgot to mention, that I have ready another 2 Retro PC ready to play, this means not all the hardware above is alone:

1. Asus CUSL2-C Intel 815P, P3-1Ghz Coppermine, 512 MB SDRAM PC133, MSI FX5600, SB Audigy 1, Ali 5271 USB+FireWire card, Toshiba 240 GB SSD with SATA2IDE adapter, LG H60N with adapter (dgVoodoo 2 emulation will run here)
2. QDI Brilian X S1 Intel 440BX FSB100, P3-450 Katmai, 768 MB SDRAM PC133, V3-2k, AWE64 + 32MB SIMM adapter, PicoGUS 2.0 + 32GB MT32/GS/GM adapter, Samsung 80GB HDD, LG H58N with adapter

The games I played on these 2 Retro PC: Deus Ex 1, WoT, Quake 1, Quake 2, Tomb Raider 1, Midtown Madness, Doom 1, Doom 2, Hexen 1, Hexen 2, Heretic 1, Heretic 2

The last 2 weeks I spent a lot of time in developing my AMD K6-3 400 rig (MSDOS 622, Phil's boot menu, Win98SE dual-boot, finding drivers for v2200, V1, Ali 5 AGP vgart 1.82, AWE64, ESS1938, a lot try and error)