Dolenc wrote on 2021-05-10, 10:54:

I found a solution! […]
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I found a solution!

It bothered me, cus it clearly works for some users. So I used RaBiT bios editor, to edit the original bios, just changed the name(ups the T at XT got trimmed) and device IDs, copied all 4 values from a reference x850 xt rom.

Rebooted, it reinstalled the drivers and there we go...

Tried one game quickly to confirm 3d works and it does.

Problem solved!

So you have found that solution, you have to edit bios, absolutely strange I think.

So I have the same card as yours I think, I can see the PCB is exactly the same.

How do you extract the bios from the card to edit with Rabit 2.2.0?

And how you flashed then after editing?

Well, if you read the actual fix above, you would see that the other person edited the card's BIOS.

The easier fix is to look at the PCI ID of the card and add it to the driver .inf file.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-05-26, 22:32:

Well, if you read the actual fix above, you would see that the other person edited the card's BIOS.

The easier fix is to look at the PCI ID of the card and add it to the driver .inf file.

It's ok for me to edit the bios, I did a lot of times... But I ask what program can I use to extract the bios and what one to flash (considering the right version for this videocard)

Dolenc wrote on 2021-05-10, 10:54:

I found a solution! […]
Show full quote

I found a solution!

It bothered me, cus it clearly works for some users. So I used RaBiT bios editor, to edit the original bios, just changed the name(ups the T at XT got trimmed) and device IDs, copied all 4 values from a reference x850 xt rom.

Rebooted, it reinstalled the drivers and there we go...

Tried one game quickly to confirm 3d works and it does.

Problem solved!

Ehy I tried to follow your procedure but Atiflash and Flashrom modified by W1zzard says me ERROR 0FL01 Preserve ROM settings ROM no erased, even if I forced it with the -f -p flags.

The only difference is the SSID that mismached.

What can I do now?

I have a card that isn't flashable? I don't think so.

I used the Atiflash 3.09

Ok, after a long search I managed to find this command so I manage to flash the bios changing the subsystemid of the card.

atiflash -f -p 0 -atmel modbios.bin -newbios

Now I try to install regularly the 6.2 ME drivers.

And the procedure completed regular!

Finally I managed, thanks to the other users that make me try to do, after some troubles I did it! Now my X850XT from XpertVision (Palit) managed to work in Windows 98SE!!!

So nice, finally I can smile.

Could you explain how you modified the bios, how you got to dump it, and what values to what did you change?
I‘m going to get an ax850 series card, and I want to replace my current 7800GS with that card due to compatibility and stability problems. I‘m afraid I‘ll run into some of the issues as well since I‘m a problem magnet in terms of „luck“.
I‘d really appreciate it 😀

You download modded "ati flashrom", think I used this one here.
I boot into dos with bootable usb just cus I have it ready anyway, think should work in Win too.

Save the bios with the command "flashrom -s 0 bios4you.rom"
Edit the bios with that Rabit bios editor or change hex values.
Flash with the command "flashrom -f -p 0 bios2moon.rom"

Thats about it.

Dolenc wrote on 2021-06-14, 17:43:

You download modded "ati flashrom", think I used this one here. I boot into dos with bootable usb just cus I have it ready anywa […]
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You download modded "ati flashrom", think I used this one here.
I boot into dos with bootable usb just cus I have it ready anyway, think should work in Win too.

Save the bios with the command "flashrom -s 0 bios4you.rom"
Edit the bios with that Rabit bios editor or change hex values.
Flash with the command "flashrom -f -p 0 bios2moon.rom"

Thats about it.

Confirm, that's the procedure I did for my x850xt agp and it worked.
The only thing that it is not explained was the particular command to type in DOS mode (with the booting diskette) to permit to flash the video card bios.

But after a long search I found the one command that worked for my Xpertvision x850xt.

You can find three post upper.

I also got an "Palit XpertVision Radeon X850 XT 256MB AGP" that is not working under Windows 98 with the Catalyst 6.2 and its beta support for the X850 series.

Following the "guide" above to flash a new bios on this card, will make them work under Windows 98. The problem with this type of card appears to be a missing "SubVendor ID" and "SubSystem ID" in the bios of the card. It seems empty or "0000" instead of "1002" and so Windows 98 accept the driver for this card.

Here are the steps for future folks having this problem:
1. Download flashrom2.40 and the RaBiT BIOS Editor 2.2.0 and unpack:
- https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ati-flashrom/
- https://www.techpowerup.com/download/rabit-bios-editor/
2. Restart in DOS-Mode and go to the flashrom folder
3. Save your cards BIOS with: "flashrom -s 0 b850raw.rom"
4. Exit DOS-Mode to Windows and open the "b850raw.rom" with the RaBiT.
5. Change the values "SubSystem ID" from "0000" to "0312" and "SubVendor ID" from "0000" to "1002", then save the bios file under a new name, like "b850mod.rom".
6. Forcefully flash this modded bios file with: "flashrom -f -p 0 b850mod.rom"
7. Exit to Windows again and install the Catalyst 6.2 driver. It should now install fine and work well.

Thanks for the help with this Vogons. 😎

Thanks all for posting your diagnosis and solutions. Had exactly the same problem with my Xpertvision X850 XT and after following the steps above it's working like a charm!

Hello everybody!

I have a problem on agp X800 video card and 855gm chipset.
I encountered is when I run Blood or Duke3d games in Windows 98, I have image noise.
I found out that if you put 256 colors in the monitor properties in Windows 98,
then there is no problem in games, but if the color depth is 16-32 bits, then this problem appears.

I have attached several photos with a bad image from the links.
https://i.imgur.com/yjslFIf.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/NQ5Aziu.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/TUMOQ8e.jpeg

I tried several ways to solve the problem that did not work for me, I will list them:
1)I've tried various Catalyst drivers from 4.11beta to 6.2 and it doesn't solve the problem.
2)I changed various settings in the BIOS of the motherboard responsible for the AGP.
3)I tried to disable AGP FastWrite in the Catalyst driver settings.
4)I was flashing the BIOS of a video card from another manufacturer.
5)I also connected two different monitors with dvi and vga inputs, it doesn't help.
Perhaps someone knows the solution to the problem?

In this thread, one member with nickname AIM-9X reported a similar issue,
but his post was left uncommented.
I will quote his post here:
"Similar case here, with an 865 chipset. Installed Windows 98SE with a Radeon X850 Pro
in an ASRock 775i65G motherboard with a Pentium 4 520 (2.8 GHz, Prescott core) and 1 GB of RAM.
Works perfectly, although Duke Nukem 3D does not work properly (lots of screen tearing and flickering).
Oddly enough, Need for Speed SE works perfectly out of the box, even with DirectX 9.
I can also confirm that Catalyst 6.2 is the correct driver to use. Most D3D and OpenGL games work great."

I would be grateful to everyone for help and any ideas.
Thank you in advance.

They are 256 color DOS games so it seems like a palette change problem with a Win9x DOS Box. It could be related to the VESA VBE interface the games use for graphics (and ATI's VBE support). This sometimes also happens with old Windows software that expects 8-bit color depth. You really should try to boot to DOS to play DOS games.

Thanks for the answer,

I forgot to write in my message.
If you start the game Blood or Duke 3d from DOS, then there is no problem with the image.

dizzydevil wrote on 2021-07-21, 05:47:

Hello everybody! […]
Show full quote

Hello everybody!

I have a problem on agp X800 video card and 855gm chipset.
I encountered is when I run Blood or Duke3d games in Windows 98, I have image noise.
I found out that if you put 256 colors in the monitor properties in Windows 98,
then there is no problem in games, but if the color depth is 16-32 bits, then this problem appears.

I have attached several photos with a bad image from the links.
https://i.imgur.com/yjslFIf.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/NQ5Aziu.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/TUMOQ8e.jpeg

I tried several ways to solve the problem that did not work for me, I will list them:
1)I've tried various Catalyst drivers from 4.11beta to 6.2 and it doesn't solve the problem.
2)I changed various settings in the BIOS of the motherboard responsible for the AGP.
3)I tried to disable AGP FastWrite in the Catalyst driver settings.
4)I was flashing the BIOS of a video card from another manufacturer.
5)I also connected two different monitors with dvi and vga inputs, it doesn't help.
Perhaps someone knows the solution to the problem?

In this thread, one member with nickname AIM-9X reported a similar issue,
but his post was left uncommented.
I will quote his post here:
"Similar case here, with an 865 chipset. Installed Windows 98SE with a Radeon X850 Pro
in an ASRock 775i65G motherboard with a Pentium 4 520 (2.8 GHz, Prescott core) and 1 GB of RAM.
Works perfectly, although Duke Nukem 3D does not work properly (lots of screen tearing and flickering).
Oddly enough, Need for Speed SE works perfectly out of the box, even with DirectX 9.
I can also confirm that Catalyst 6.2 is the correct driver to use. Most D3D and OpenGL games work great."

I would be grateful to everyone for help and any ideas.
Thank you in advance.

My apologies for being a bit late to this. To get Duke Nukem 3D and Blood to work , I took the cheap route. I dual-boot my machine with Windows XP, and just use DOSBox. The 2.8 GHz Prescott core is fast enough to handle it at 640x480, and both games look great at those resolutions. Also upgraded both of my machines to 2 GB of RAM (the maximum it can support), and used Rudy Loew's PATCHMEM fix to address the Windows 98 RAM limitation. On my other build (exact same board, but with a Radeon 9800 Pro), there are no screen/image issues with these games. I hadn't thought of bumping down the graphics to 256 colors.

This was probably not the news you wanted to hear...sorry 🙁

subnet_zero wrote on 2021-06-28, 22:10:

Following the "guide" above to flash a new bios on this card, will make them work under Windows 98. The problem with this type of card appears to be a missing "SubVendor ID" and "SubSystem ID" in the bios of the card. It seems empty or "0000" instead of "1002" and so Windows 98 accept the driver for this card.

I also got one of these cards recently and combined with my Abit VH6T the original VBIOS caused the machine to just turn off when booting Windows 98. Hard shutdown.

I've never experienced such a drastic failure, and it worked fine on XP.
Now with the ID's added and the VBIOS reflashed, I can boot into Windows 98 just fine. 😀

There's always something new to experience in the retro world, I guess.

schmatzler wrote on 2022-04-06, 19:44:

I also got one of these cards recently and combined with my Abit VH6T the original VBIOS caused the machine to just turn off whe […]
Show full quote

subnet_zero wrote on 2021-06-28, 22:10:

Following the "guide" above to flash a new bios on this card, will make them work under Windows 98. The problem with this type of card appears to be a missing "SubVendor ID" and "SubSystem ID" in the bios of the card. It seems empty or "0000" instead of "1002" and so Windows 98 accept the driver for this card.

I also got one of these cards recently and combined with my Abit VH6T the original VBIOS caused the machine to just turn off when booting Windows 98. Hard shutdown.

I've never experienced such a drastic failure, and it worked fine on XP.
Now with the ID's added and the VBIOS reflashed, I can boot into Windows 98 just fine. 😀

There's always something new to experience in the retro world, I guess.

I agree with you, always strange experience, always new ways to find out a solution.

But reach the solution, this is important.

Nice to see that this solution here helps. 😊
I guess nobody really tested and cared about the Win98 driver with those cards. Especially in 2004/2005 were everyone was already moved to XP and were XP runs fine with it. For the time being "If it works with XP, then install XP" is an answer on many questions I also was guilty. 😅