Offler

a tried that codec... and i can say that its core is compatible with W98, but rest - especially registry entries are screwed up. It cannot decode videos, it cannot encode stream from TV tuner. The same malfunctions are present at Koepi's Xvid 1.1.2 install it on win98, and try to run its configuration utility - wrong path. rundll is in "windows" directory, not in "system" directory... These are common bugs which are left in these codecs.

yesterday i tested encoding ability of FFDshow... not bad indeed, but for example DivX encoded by libavcodec cannot be decoded by divX but only by libavcodec... WMV always was and always will be bad way of encoding. Behaviour like streaming over net even when it is on hdd is not best way... Few months ago i found H264 video... 3Mb of data and one minute of quality fullscreen image, but not intended for realtime encoding with weak prcessor. thats the most impressive video format i found. For now is Xvid most suitable for me (tv capturing, realtime compression, 1,120 Mhz, no hardware compression available)

to Jimmsta: K-lite supports Xvid, DivX, ac3 sound and it contains VobSub 2.37. MP4 or h264 is not supported and VobSub may cause crashes if using subtitled videos with "default video renderer" without some tweaks... I've been testing it too - check it. Now is Cole2k Standard pack almost debugged for windows 98 and it is solution for decoding of wide spectrum of video formats, and from my experience i may say that it is wider spectrum than K-lite provides... We shall see - version 6.0.9 might be suitable for win9x and i hope available soon. to awergh: I prefer classical codecs (because i need not only decode but encode too, and i want to use and test variety of players), but some of them like divix cannot be installed on windows 98, so for decoding i use FFD.

Few weeks ago i was trying to find some videos, but after their download i realized that i cannot play them - since they were using unknown codec - h264. I almost went mad when i tried large number of many codecs and codec packs to find suitable and workable codec for Windows 98. So here is my experience: i was searching for these formats... DivX codec - last version of this codec which can be installed on windows 9x is DivX 5.2.1 Xvid codec - newest versions still available for win9x WMV - even microsoft is offering codec pack to support older players (predcessors of Windows Media Player 7) these are causing serious errors when playing video MP4 - this format was completely unknown to me... Avi with H264 - another unknown and rarely supported format. since divix is no longer supporting our beloved windows 98 there was only chance to install older version, but for newer ones there was needed different support. Then i found information about Libavcodec and FFDshow. Althought i was warned that these "filters" are useless it is only way how to decode some formats - new divixes and h264. I tried Storm Codec - was too buggy, also i tried CCCP pack, also buggy with bad image quality. Then i tried Cole2k pack, yet buggy but it gived support for all needed formats, with very good image quality. Its developer was also grateful when i send him detailed bugreport, so for now i am helping him to tweak up some features directly for Windows 9x based systems. I hope that in few days shall be released new version. For now i am researching only one problem called "Windows Media Player 9". This player can be installed on windows 98 without any restrictions. Codec packs released by microsoft are giving possibility to read WMV files, but image quality of these codecs are poor, so only way how to solve it was WMP 9. After that all tested video players gived better Wmv support. Also is there possible to use classical stand alone codecs and filters - some results Haali media Splitter - works for MP4 and related formats VobSub 2.33 - subtitle filter - this one is not workable in windows 98. VobSub 2.37 - subtitle filter - this works if FFD is correctly tweaked (i hope it shall be used in Cole2k) or with "Media Player Classic" where "VMR 9" setting must be enabled. Cannot work standalone in w98 Ac3 Filter - this is still available for windows 98 h264 codec - i found some standalone codecs - no one of them was free or usable. If using this format it is recommendet to install divix 5.2.1 codec - its filters are helping by decoding of h264 and are correcting some bugs (in fullscreen) DivX 6 and higher - only possibility to decode is throught Xvid or FFDShow. Tested video players: MPLAYER2 - standard player of windows 98. works good with all formats including wmv Windows Media Player 7 - nightmare. Do NOT install. Windows Media Player 9 - gives good WMV support, too many bells and whistles. Useful but nothing special. MicroDVDPlayer 1.1 - rather old player, works good except using Vobsub subtitles (minor bugs in image, may read them without trouble but you shall see) and Wmv. Good ergonomy, has its own playlist (no file), clear and fast seeking in file. ZoomPlayer - not workable. Media Player Classic - supports wide range of formats - media files, dvd and even TV tuner, has its own filters and shaders, good ergonomy, good performance, wide range of options. It looks like upgraded MPlayer2. Players which have integraded decoders have not been tested. sources: www.free-codecs.com www.cole2k.net

if is here somebody i may send him some drivers which are supporting windows 98 and higher to study differences and maybe develop new DevLoaders (ntkern.vxd) for windows 98... i think this possibility exist...

so i tested driver for Wifi Card once again. I was wrong when i thought that it was w2k driver. Also i was succesful at one experiment when i replaced w98 driver file with file for win2k or higher. Driver was installed correclty, but device was unworkable - it gived error message that ntkern.vxd and ndis.vxd are not able to load driver file... At this point is interesting that whole wifi driver contains one *.sys file, one *.inf file, and one *.cat file, and there are two *.sys files - one for windows 9x, and second for w2k and higher... This is giving possibility to take a closer look at w98 and w2k *.sys file and read the differences between them. Also if there is somebody capable to edit ntkern.vxd we may be able to upgrade it to "understand" higher win2k/xp drivers (it seems that w2k drivers are always smaller to more work is done by the OS). At this point is interesting that more than 80 percent of newer drivers (wdm, or w2k based) are working only with ntkern.vxd. Throught this we may be able to reach full compatibility for most w2k and wxp drivers (simple driver with inf but no driver packages) The next problem is with INF file construction. Newer INFs are not readable by "windows device installation" wizard, some of them do not even contain information for w98 registries. I am just scripter and betatester (my real job), i can edit inf files, but not without help of coder... to Petr: i think that there is chance throught ntkern.vxd upgrade and INF file conversion ...

to Petr: that is question... i try to use some direct w2k specific drivers here instead of w98 drivers - i have some new ones especially for wifi to oscardog: hard to say. Info that i found about WDM standard is real confusing.. Some information were mentioning that wdm drivers are forward compatible but not reverse compatible, but also i was able to use drivers which were developed for different line of windows. Mostly when you search drivers you may be sure that between windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME is full compatibility if all of them are VXD based. If they are WDM based win95 is automatically out of game, but there is really wide range of compatibility between NT based and 9x based systems... Also most of drivers are for both win2k and winXP without limitations. For now i didnt found driver which was for winXp only, so at this point i really dont know if some drivers are really designed for win2k and not reverse compatible - only non compatible drivers that i found were with artifical blocks...

I have Realtek 8029. Rather old card... Realtek is still offering driver download for it. I tried to download w98 version but when i downloaded version for win2k i realized that drivers ale identical - that seems to be a classic WDM driver. Also i am using "Cpu to AGP controller" driver for windows 2000 - i installed it when ViaHyperion4in1 was executed and its files was in Temp folder. It works and it has improved performance little bit. If the driver should not work correctly it shall damage all 3d graphics, but all worked good. Also i have taken a look on files which are used by drivers: win2k and wdm drivers were always using ntkern.vxd and some sort of *.sys. Older drivers (such as mouse) were using *.drv and *.vxd (but not ntkern.vxd) I have analyzed just "scriptable" parts of drivers - such as inf and registry entries... I really dont know anything about writing of drivers (dlls, vxd, sys) but it seems that ntkern.vxd works as w2k driver core on windows 98... WDM and W2k drivers installed on windows 98 have some functions that are available on higher windowses: 1. As was written before you can gain better performance for device 2. After driver installation you dont need to reboot - device shall disable itself and reenable again. That is little bit strange for this version of windows but it works without trouble. Also in my opinion it can upgrade system stability and its performance (when i reinstalled most drivers for w2k version Oblivion gained better stability and less chopping of graphics), but this may vary. also i use "no reboot" for diagnosing of correct and most efficient driver...

open system.ini and find [386Enh], and add there following line example: [386Enh] MinPagingFileSize=522240 MaxPagingFileSize=522240 PagingDrive=Y: (type letter of your ramdrive) Also it is possible to edit amount of virtual ram which is available, but if Ramdrive has 128mb specify a little bit smaller swapfile. 128Mb shall be enough for swapfile but as i know i had trouble with new aplications - they required more virtual memory... you may change some temp locations, but i dont know where

to nicke85: i have taken look at ATI video drivers. it seems that their W2K driver shall work on windows 98SE, but it has been blocked - by installer and INF file... Ati drivers for win98 are VXD based - in fact they are designed for windows 95, WDM drivers are designed for windows 2000 and higher, it is possible that only what we need is new INF file which can be read by windows 98 device wizard.

well Driver guide has more than 400 000 drivers for various OS and devices... That list should be too long Maybe i edit first post and recoment to try win2k drivers... Each win2k driver that i tried worked (except graphic drivers)... What about your experience? Give me feedback to this please... edit: Ok, first post sucessfully edited.

to rainyd: Honestly i really dont know if KUP is necessary or not, but if you look closer at Exuberant service pack you may find info about better WDM support - this is most important... Kup is giving compatibility mainly for applications such as new games - doom3 and others... look at www.driverguide.com - register there and try to search drivers. Try to find driver not only for win95/98/me but also try use driver designed for win2k... What is important is that driver must be able to install (throught inf file or installer), if not try another... In best case you may be able to install w2k driver so easy as any other w98 driver. I am using win98se and today i tried a couple of win2k drivers. Each of them worked without any trouble. (SCSI bus, USB bus, Lan card, ) i have Fortemedia FM 801 card, using i512 WDM driver in windows (another w2k) and classical FM801/fm1000 driver in Dos. to all: Is here anybody able to rewrite INF file?

so i read some articles about WDM driver standard. There was mentioned that it was developed as unified standard for Windows 98 and 2000. Most of drivers are 2k/XP compatible and that gives possibility that they can run on windows98. I have installed a lot of w2k drivers right now and all of them works... to nicke85 There are some serious limits: 1. Graphics cards developed by ati have different INF file construction so Win98 cannot read them. I have downloaded w2k driver and i am trying to create new INF which shall give possibility to install w2k driver. Display drivers for win98 are still using VXD standard, but it seems that win98se is able to use WDM drivers for windows 2000 if we find a way how to install them. If you dont want to wait try to find Omega Drivers... maybe they have better compatibility. 2. FAT32 have some limits for harddisk space. If possible try to use smaller (i use 80gb disk), or take a look to the rest of forum... I saw that somebody is trying to break the 137gb limit... for all cases you can try win2k drivers if possible and available, but i dont know if that should work - it depends on the driver...

Here are some tips that may be useful when searching new driver for win98. 1. Turn off the computer, unplug it and take a look on piece of hardware which you want use. This is not a joke. There are various ways how to find suitable driver. a ) searching by product name b ) searching by manufacturer c ) searching by chip d ) searching by FCC ID Example - Adaptec AVA 2904 - adaptec - aic 7850 - 55x77 Most comfortable way is to open manufacturer's web page, click support and find product name, but oops - device is not listed, or driver is not working correctly. In this case try to find your device driver by finding driver for its chip. For example sound card Fortemedia FM801 is also known as Terratec TT801, I512, AU-10, AWC-510, SF256-PCP, MF4CH-256, Quad-Extreme and La-Ma-Zi. all these devices are based on same FM801 chip and drivers are compatible. FCC ID is last way how to identify unknown device. Thru this you may find manufacturer, device type, ever year of production 2. Correct OS for my drivers? Windows 98 can handle drivers designed for Win95,98,98se,Me, 2000. There are two driver standards - Wdm and Vxd - details are below. (mostly XP drivers support windows 2k so there is high possibility that w98 is supported thru them) 3. Test your drivers Take some time to test their functionality and compatibility. Use so much applications as possible - good diagnostic tool is also DXdiag - suitable for graphic cards and sound cards. If an error occurs try to fix it with bios or system settings. if everything fail try to install a different driver. 4. Where to search? Try to use classic search engine web such as google, or you may try www.driverguide.com. VXD Standard These drivers were developed for windows 3,11 and 95. All 9x based systems can handle them. WDM Standard These were developed as standardized driver model for Windows 98 and 2000 - one driver for both systems. These can be used on windows 98, 98se, Me, 2000, XP and other higher systems. Windows 95 (or earlier system) cannot use them. They also have some advantages - Tv tuner using wdm driver can gain higher resolution for displayed TV signal. These drivers do not have legacy support for Dos, but you can use DOS driver in real Dos environment. What is interesting that ATI and NVidia w9x drivers are VXD based, higher standard was used only for 2k drivers, althought there is possibility that they should work on win98 systems. (those drivers seems to have some locks - inf driver is not readable for win98 and their installers are using unknown dlls) I want to discuss some things about Win9x and their driver compatibility. Many users (mostly XP users) says that new hardware is not compatible with older windows... Here is my experience. I use Windows 98SE, with Unofficial Service Pack and Kup. Now i am using WDM drivers with soundcard and tvtuner developed for win2k, and my Lan card is usind driver originally developed for windows 2000. Also i bought some new pieces of hardware - WifiCard and USB key. Wifi has w98 driver which was useless, but i downloaded driver for higher windows and it worked without trouble... Seller also didnt know that USB key shall work, but it works without limits... Many drivers which are not developed for win9x are able to work without any error. Problems are caused by driver packages (for graphic cards) which have OS detection and they refuse to install the driver. In my opinion some drivers work and some doesnt independently on windows version which they officially support, and sometimes it is hard to find useful driver and it is myth that win98 doesnd support new hardware. Many drivers designed for Windows 2000 are fully compatible with Windows 98, but display drivers have some limitations... Also i want ask you for your experience for w2k/wxp drivers on windows 9x...

to Francesco: Nvidia cards are not supported, but Ati cards are still supported as long as i know (i have Ati Radeon 9800 and i downloaded universal driver - downloaded files for winxp and 98 was identical - month ago?) If WinPE is an application which has 800 megs (and maybe updates) i can remove all malware with less than 800kb of tools manually in few minutes. No file scans which takes long time, i just reboot to dos mode. That winXP runs better on newer hardware is myth. I have P4 with 2Ghz processor and 512Mb of ram with winXp in my office. Also i tried XP at home on 800Mhz processor with same ram. Overall system performance was better at my home computer. Then i returned to Win98 and performance is much better. (i tried it with 3d game) If Microsoft advertized that XP shall have better performance... it could, but it is not affected by hardware but by new features which are implemented to system (throught DirectX and other similar modules). Today all what is supported by Xp si althought supported by 98's community, or is it not necessary for me as user (some parts of XP - applications which are included in it). What is not well known that many drivers for w2k or xp are suitable for w98se, even when hardware manufacturer does not offer 9x support I use WDM driver designed for winXP on my sound card and on myTV tuner. Test showed me that these are the best. Althougt they do not have legacy support i have dos drivers active and i can use them in dos anytime i need. Also i dont prefer performance. I prefer compatibility. What i found out is that it goes hand in hand with reliability and performance. Most trouble with reliability was always caused by applications, not only in win98 but also in higher versions...

There are several reasons why i use windows 98 instead of newer win... Pros 1. Compatibility With some unofficial patches i am able to run newest games (such as Doom3, or Oblivion), and its real Dos compatibility grants great performance for oldest IBM PC based games. I can run programs from 1980 and newest ones on this machine in their native environment. Also it still supports all file formats (which i have found) if you use suitable application. 2. Virus and system protection Most new viruses and worms are working only in GUI mode, because they use system registry entries. Win98 supports real dos mode in which are these subsystems passive and skilled user is able to remove infection manually (with scanreg-restore, and manual erasement of virus files). System can be cleared in 15 minutes. 3. Dos Support Win98 is the last OS which supports real dos. this grants many possibilities, not only by recovery from virus infection, but even if system is unrecoverably damaged. If you have backup of system you can just erase whole windows directory and replace it with backup (in gui repeat that action to repair "file~1.ext" names). In dos mode is also possible to use internet browsers little bit safer, if you know that browsed web is infected, or if you need driver or file which is corrupted in windows and you need to replace it. 4. System performance Windows 98 doesnt have so much spam in itself as newer systems. Also you can gain better control to tweak up the performance of system than in windows Xp (even throught config sys, and others). Cons 1. System stability Windows 9x based systems are less stabile as newer ones, but this can be fixed. Some of errors can be caused by bios, some by dos entries, some by drivers, and finally most by applications. It is necessary to choose some best programs and use them without replacing them each month. If you can handle these circumstances system can gain very good stability. 2. "This program cannot run on this OS" Some newer programs use OS detection during installation. most of them can be replaced by older version of same program, or by alternative application without any disadvantages. 3. Hardware limits Win98 is not designed for large ram machines, some newer limits shall appear soon. But for now i am still to gain 1,5 gb ram which is more than i need. Win Xp is stable and has potential for future aplications, but when something screws up it is hard to detect the error, and it is much harder to fix it. XP contains too much automatic updates (i like to do them manually, i want to know what is being installed on my system). Win 98 is not so stable, but it also have same potential, when something screws up it is instantly certain (system crashes and locks up), and it can be fixed in few minutes without reinstallation process. Also there is community which works on its upgrade. Many software and hardware limits have already been broken. for now and for next years i do not need to replace my OS.

no reaction when disabling swapfile... Btw i have diagnosed one thing... i have 1,5 Gb Ram. MaxPhysPage=40000 xmsdsk 524288 This setting is not correct. Few megabytes shall not be used as standard Ram. when i opened system properties Ram size was 1.022 Mb. Then i tryed another setting: MaxPhysPage=45000 (or edit this line completely out from system.ini) xmsdsk 524288 Ram in system properties was set to 1.026 Mb. This small memory area remained unused in windows mode which means some trouble when accessing memory - slowing it down in better case, crashing system in worst case.

so i've been tweaking for some time and here are some results: At my last attempt i was trying to set standard ram to 1gb and XMSDSK ram to 512mb, but the system was unable to boot with this setting. the best setting was 800mb of ram and 720mb of xmsdsk althought my attempts to use UMBPCI failed i recognised one positive thing. when i used UMBFILL.COM during boot sequence i was able to run windows normally with desired memory setting. It has more advantages as i realized. Whats lilltle bit strange is that i am using it with emm386.exe (no replacement worked due to SCI IRQ bus driver which cannot be disabled) Performance test diagnose program recognized 25 percent speed upgrade in "Large RAM" test and overally is for system more comfortable to use two memory sticks as ram, and the third one as ramdisk.

I usually recomend this tweak only for computer with 1,5 GB of ram or more, maintaining that 1gb shall remain as standard memory. in these cases it can boost acess to swapfile 10x and upgrade overall systen performance by 12 percent. Pretty nice trick for people with large ram

Yes it is just FAT16. Thats makes no trouble when i use it as swapdrive, but if i want to use it for newer aplications it may cause trouble. What is also very positive is that if system crashes, Scandisk shall find no (or very few) lost data on Hdd. Btw some friends of mine asked me to do this "tweak" with swapfile on ramdrive on their computer, but most of them use WinXP. I have no experience with XP. Shall XMSDSK start and shall XP put its swapfile on drive with FAT16?

some tweaks for XMSDSK users: Put these lines in your autoexec.bat (this is example) lh c:\xmsdsk\xmsdsk.exe 720896 Y: /c1 /t /y label Y: Scorpion Drive shall no longer be labeled as "MS-Ramdrive" and this allows you to adress ramdrive from Virtual memory manager in "This computer" > "properties" - no need to manual edit system.ini (in some cases manual editation caused "windows protection error - restart") Also it will add some features in "This computer" window if you open properties of your ramdrive - "Compression Menu" and also it appears in FAT32 Converter. None of new procedures is not supported by XMSDSK driver - it will crash computer to blue screen of death. Is there any possibility to format XMSDSK drive to FAT32 (just curious, maybe it shall help with some troubles)

I bought large ram for two reasons - standard system upgrade, and i was going to use some part of ram as RAMdisk (for TV Capturing and mainly for windows swapfile) I've been using 1gb ram for few weeks without any trouble, no MaxPhys was needed. But i was unable to run more memory - i thought 1gb was limit. Then i tried one thing. I added 128 stick (3 slots - 512/512/128) but it doesnt work until i enabled Memory Hole in Bios. Then i was able to run 1,152 megabytes (1,150 in windows). But recently i bougth three new memory sticks (512mb 133mhz SDRAM - they were too much expensive - i wanted to use them), so i tried to insert third one. Motherboard sucesfully recognized 1,5gb, but the system never booted (although memory hole was enabled - it seems that 1mb which it has consumed helped to avoid crashing the system) then i set MaxPhysPage=40000 and the system booted using 1Gb, the rest was unused. The largest maxphyspage that has been accepted was 45678 (nice number ). At this point i was able to run 1,1gb, but still not enough. Then i found info about XMSDSK and it seemed to be an ideal solution (it enables large ramdrive before swapfile is enabled). This program gives great possibilities but has some limitatios. XMSDSK MUST be installed after Emm386 is installed (UMBPCI didnt work, althougth motherboard is supported). If XMSDSK is enabled earlier system shall not boot. If i use XMSDSK the largest memory available for windows is 786MB (or little bit more), rest must be reserved for RamDisk. Example: When 1gb was inserted in MB XMSDSK must use 262144kb or more, else system shall not boot. When i used 1,5gb XMSDSK must use 786 432kb or more. (i've been testing it recently, there is small reserve, i used 730 000kb and it still worked, but it shall take some time to test it, i suggest that smallest number shall be 720 896, 655350 didnt work) So the result is i can use half of memory as Ramdisk (with swapfile), and second half as standard RAM. Everything worked fine. Also i removed MaxPhysPage from system.ini and system worked (!!!). Benchmarks and Crashtests: (celeron 800mhz, radeon 9800pro) Passmark - Most tests gived better performance except "large ram" test. 3dMark 2001 - 8300 - Swapfile on Ramdisk improved score by 900 points. Oblivion - At first attempt it crashed. I've added MaxPhysPage = 3c000, enlarged swapfile from 128 to 524MB and it works. Previously in moments when game was loading areas the game has been stopped for aproximately 15 seconds. When the swapfile was moved to Ramdrive this time halved. What makes me angry is fact that i cannot run 1gb of conventional Ram and 500mb of Ramdisk. That was my goal, but overally i am glad that i can use all capacity of ram. Any idea how to reach my goal? (or change some settings in system.ini) edit: Oblivion crashed due to small swapfile. 128mb was too small for it. The smallest size of XMSDSK is 720 896, else computer reboot itself or i get "not enough memory" message. Effects of Swapfile size in 3d Mark: - when swapfile was at size of 128mb test gived 15-160 frames and 8333 marks overally - now the swapfile has 700 Mb and test gived 13-167 frames and 8200 marks overally (quite usable for pc tunning) Btw swapfile on Ramdrive has another effect. I need new cooling for RAM sticks Also i try to turn off "conservative" usage of swapfile, maybe it shall have some effects.

I have made another reinstallation of win98se for testing purposes. Bios was set to manual mode - each irq has been set manually and it was forbidden to use PNP in many cases. Then i listed device manager and only one device was using vmm32.vxd. In previous installation it was used by many devices (at least by three). Thats strange. When the PNP and IRQ selection was automatic many of drivers used it, but the system was unstable resulting in "Blue screen of death", and guess in which module happened this Exception Error. (yes, in vmm32.vxd) but it is still hard to say if it causes trouble, maybe the same error could happen in other module (such as ntkern.vxd), but in fact i havent seen "BSOD" after i put these files in system folder. (btw i realized one thing. ntkern.vxd has been installed in vmm32 directory, but it has not been installed in system directory. some other files has been installed in both directories during installation proces. i have no idea why...)

well this line from that link explains all: "Vmm32.vxd is a monolithic driver file made up of a number of various *.vxd files" It is a bright idea to create one universal driver file for multiple devices, but when something goes wrong system shall be damaged... If you reinstall devices in your computer too often the system shall collapse in few weeks. I am not an expert but vmm32 could be problem in these cases... I'd prefer to setup everything manually, instead of keep everything to autodetection (and it seems that vmm32 is product of autodetection of some sort). It is hard to say that vmm32 causes any trouble or no...

thx for explanation. i shall use it.