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Reply 20 of 36, by Solplay

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Try these three drivers: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&i … 6UTBaNEy2bYY2kV

Your driver version is 4.13.01.3205, assuming that you have downloaded it from Lenovo's EOL archive. It doesn't hurt to try the older or newer versions at this point, though.

Reply 21 of 36, by superdonut

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dr_st wrote on 2021-01-28, 18:07:

I wonder if you have a corrupt HIMEM.SYS or something... or an MBR virus.

I made a clean install of windows98 killing everything on the HDD with fdisk beforehand.
I'm curious if there are other R31 users who have windows 98 and don't have issues with DOS games...

Reply 22 of 36, by superdonut

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Solplay wrote on 2021-01-28, 18:38:

Try these three drivers: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&i … 6UTBaNEy2bYY2kV

Your driver version is 4.13.01.3205, assuming that you have downloaded it from Lenovo's EOL archive. It doesn't hurt to try the older or newer versions at this point, though.

Driver version is exactly 4.13.01.3205, downloaded from the thinkpads website though.
Will download the drivers with your link and burn a CD-R with them in a while, thanks! Will keep you posted

Reply 24 of 36, by Solplay

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I'm guessing that the video controller isn't the issue, for now at least.

As this problem seems to be rather... complicated, I'd like you to state your R31's amount of RAM and the storage drive that is used to install Windows 98 SE. It would be also appreciated if you could check the storage drive's health as well, because failing drives will further complicate the situation.

I have more questions regarding software: is this a vanilla Windows 98 SE with no hotfixes or service packs installed? Did you update your R31's BIOS to the newest version too? Are there any IRQ conflicts?

Reply 25 of 36, by superdonut

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Thanks for asking!

There is a single DIMM SDRAM 128 Mb module inserted into DIMM Slot 2 (tried inserting it into slot 1 as well).
8 Mb are reserved for the video memory, 120 is available.
I've tried installing vanilla windows 98 SE and vanilla windows XP SP2. Windows 98 required installing the drivers (downloaded a bunch of them at thinkpads dot com site). Windows XP didn't require installing any drivers. Both 98 and XP crashed the same way when starting warcraft 2 (crashed, then quit to desktop and showed a part of the screen with some noisy pixels, that were representing some GUI elements, that where present in other area of the screen, but with bigger scale). Exactly the same windows 98 successfully ran exactly the same warcraft 2 when installed in the virtual box (did this to check if the distributives are ok).
I've updated the BIOS yesterday, it's now version: 1FETF1WW (3.11)
As for the IRQ conflicts I checked the system properties -> computer properties -> there's a list or IRQs, no error messages there.
Not sure I know how to check HDD health, scandisk didn't find errors though.

This problem makes me think the R31 thinkpads could not run DOS memory extenders at all.

Reply 26 of 36, by superdonut

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The aforementioned visual artefacts may imply that DOS application somehow writes or affects the memory segment that is reserved by the video system (or it's just a red herring).
Sometimes (every time?) when system wakes up from hibernation there's BSOD with the same error code

0Eh

Reply 27 of 36, by Solplay

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Download CrystalDiskMark v2.2.0p_9x from this website: https://www.usbdev.ru/files/crystaldiskmark/

Run it, then you should get a clear report on the HDD's health.

I'm nearly out of ideas at this point. Have you tried changing the 'driver memory footprint' or similar in the graphics control panel? A low setting would be advisable.

Reply 28 of 36, by superdonut

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Solplay wrote on 2021-01-30, 12:59:

Download CrystalDiskMark v2.2.0p_9x from this website: https://www.usbdev.ru/files/crystaldiskmark/

Run it, then you should get a clear report on the HDD's health.

I'm nearly out of ideas at this point. Have you tried changing the 'driver memory footprint' or similar in the graphics control panel? A low setting would be advisable.

No problems with CrystalDiskMark.
Thanks for your suggestions. I'm out of ideas too. As a last chance I've tried installing vanilla windows XP back and every driver from the thinkpads site. No luck running warcraft 2.

Reply 31 of 36, by dr_st

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superdonut wrote on 2021-03-17, 12:54:

Found out that recovery disks don't exist for R31, just recovery partition on the HDD =(

IIRC, IBM laptops allow you to burn a set of recovery disks, if you have a valid recovery partition. There was a tool to do that. But I never owned an R31 so I don't know if this feature was available for that model specifically.

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

Reply 32 of 36, by superdonut

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dr_st wrote on 2021-03-17, 13:35:
superdonut wrote on 2021-03-17, 12:54:

Found out that recovery disks don't exist for R31, just recovery partition on the HDD =(

IIRC, IBM laptops allow you to burn a set of recovery disks, if you have a valid recovery partition. There was a tool to do that. But I never owned an R31 so I don't know if this feature was available for that model specifically.

There was originally a recovery partition, but it has gone a long time ago:(

Reply 34 of 36, by TheMLGladiator

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VileR wrote on 2021-03-18, 17:51:

Memory's rusty, but wasn't there a Win9x executable patch for Carmageddon? Or was that just for Splat Pack?

I think both, Carmageddon came with both DOS and Windows 9x executables.

Reply 35 of 36, by superdonut

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I accidentally found out that some DOS games require VBE (VESA BIOS Extensions) and this is what R31 lacks.
There's a UNIVESA thing (universal VESA BIOS extension), and when started it says "Supported video card not detected - installation aborted". And here comes another question, how comes that Intel 82830M Graphics are not compatible with VESA?