98er

I see your motherboards are all based on Via/Sis chipset: those chipset are known for problems particularly with AGP cards, even if officially supported by drivers; I had a Biostar (oem) based on Via and I couldn't install ANY card, neither Nvidia nor Ati, so I had to buy an Intel based Asus that's the one I'm still using (in my sign). I don't know about Sis, but it's even less common... My only advice is try with an Intel based MoBo, and even with it it could be not easy at all. In my experience older are better: I had no problems with Intel 845 chipset, while some more with 865, maybe only luck. Do you mean the 6xxx series worked on those motherboards with win98? You were lucky, I tried with a 6600 but I told what happened... Last advice: don't waste your time with fresh installs, just tamper...

You are right, infact I had a BIOS reset due to battery fault, and I set again spread spectrum but my VGA didn't work. So I had to tamper (by chance) for half an hour with the BIOS settings to get it work again. I don't remember all the items I changed, but I tried also with "pallette snooping", "assign IRQ to VGA", "PnP OS", "agp aperture size" and others.... I don't know wich one is the key, but I hope it can be useful for someone: try and try again. About the matter of the 512MB Video ram, I can confirm my vga (AGP) worked either with 512MB or 1GB of (System) RAM. I still have the shutdown problem, but now turned strange: my pc always restarts, even if I choose shut down! But in any case at restart it say it hasn't been closed properly and checks HD for errors... but i can survive with this

EUREKA NOPE ! It's a hoax! remember: At last I made it!!! If you remember in my previous post I had problems with an AGP 6800GS 512MB card under W98 with some MoBo. Casually (tampering with Bios) I solved: The config: Asus P4P800-X (i865PE) - Prescott 3.0Ghz - 2x512MB = 1GB DDR400 Gainward Bliss 6800 GS AGP 512MB and here is the magic: in BIOS I set: Spread Spectrum: DISABLED agp aperture: 128 (I didn't change) video ~ priority: switched from PCI/AGP to AGP/PCI But I think the only relevant thing is the spectrum disabled, even if I have no idea about what it is (those 3 are the only option available in my bios: there is no agp speed option 8x-4x-... that I was looking for, but if you have try setting lower speed) I tested quickly with UT2003 and it was fine. P.S.: I use Win98se without any modifications (himem...etc). Probably someone has more problems with more Vram but doesn't mean it's impossible. I still have the usual problem with the shutdown, but I don't mind, as: I hope this is useful for someone.

512 MB VRAM: I think you are wasting time with this issue, trying to downgrade cards/flashing bios, etc.. because, as you can see in my previuos posts in this thread, particularly the n.156, I made my 512MB 6800 vga work with '98, but only on one motherboard out of three I tried. To sum, I tried on : - Asus P4B-533 (Intel ?815? chipset) with AGP 4X ----> OK, also with games (a few) - Asus P4P-800-X (Intel 865) with AGP 8X -----> hangs at boot - Biostar OEM (Via chipset with integrated graphic) and AGP 8x -----> hangs, but this kind of MoBo gave always problems with spare cards, even with an old 6600 128MB, that is officially supported by nvidia drivers. So it IS possible to make 512MB cards work on W'98 without limiting RAM; in my opinion everything is up to the MoBo/chipset. Excluding the Via chipsets that are (in)famous for agp problems, in my experience it worked with an agp 4x while not with the 8x. I don't know if this is the key, but I hope someone of you can find a solution, 'cause I'm stuck like you and I'm looking for another 6800 (non-GS->officially supported) to exchange with mine.

Well, I tried on another system and...it WORKS! I tried another hd on an older system (Asus P4B-533 with AGP4x max supported), and the 6800GS works perfectly; then I moved that hd to my usual system (in sign) and as usual it got stuck at some point during the boot with only the cursor "_" blinking on the screen (this is new ) Then I tried a fresh install and... corrupted screen leading to bsod, as usual! So the problem is not in the drivers (great!) but somewhere else with my chipset, as I suspected. I think there is an incompatibility between the card and the motherboard. How can I set agp to 4x if there is no option in bios? Thanks for the support, now I continue trying on my system, any advice is appreciate, but against bad luck...

Well, Celtish, if I understand your ideal would be to bring your hd AS IS to the new machine. It shouldn't be difficult: I did it many times bringing the same Hd without reinstalling W98se from a Pentium 133 to a PIV 3ghz, through PII, PIII... in practice 10 years of computer history. There is an easy way with the instruments provided in W98: simply creating a new hardware profile every time (at the end I had 5 config to choose at boot!). Just right click on My Computer > choose last option ("System" or "Properties"?)> Hardware > Hardware profiles > copy and then rename the current profile. The next time you have two or three profiles: 1)"new profile" 2) the renamed one 3)"none of the above". In the same window set "wait until a profile is chosen" for Windows startup. When you move your hd to the new system just choose at boot "none of the above" (better) or 'new profile' (actually it's the last loaded profile) and enjoy... (better keep new drivers'CD at hand or download them previously). Well, at the end a regclean is welcome , and a backup first, even if I never needed. Maybe some "options" are inaccurate because I'm now writing from Xp and in a foreign language... sorry for this but more or less the way is that. I hope I was helpful, bye.

Well, i followed your advices and tried everything. To summarize: - It is NOT an HW problem because when I swap to the other HD with XP I can do everithing, included heavy games (UT3, Fear, Jericho,...) and it is stable. Back to W98, I tried: - Mgdx's 82.69 installing from setup.exe -> "no NV device found", so I extracted to a Temp dir and made the manual install but except for vga "safe" res I get a black screen at reboot, not even BSOD. - added strings in the .inf of Zack's (both in nvagp.inf and in (?)nvaml.inf) and in the BFG 82.16, but as usual they don't find any nvidia card -> manual install and "general protection error" at reboot or sometimes an automatic reboot/reset during the black screen. - every time I have to reboot into safe mode and set it to 16 colors and 640x480 to make it work in normal Windows booting, but when I tried to launch a couple of games (Quake3 and an older one) they didn't start (~"opengl...not installed" with Q3), so I believe it continues to work in a kind of 'safe' plain vga mode. - every time I change drivers I follow the procedure and I also use DriverCleanerPro to clean up drivers because uninstalling them from the control panel doesn't work. - during one of the last attempts I manually deleted vgartd.vxd (the Intel generic agp gart(?) driver I suppose) and reinstalled the Intel chipset drivers, with the usual black screen at reboot... luckily it was enough uninstalling again the card in safe mode to come out (shiver). I discovered vgartd.vxd is included in every driver pack, so it was useless!? - I checked in the Bios for disabling "Video Bios cacheable","...shadowing"etc... as found in Mgdx instructions they could cause lockups and GPFs, but my Motherboard has none of those options (!?), maybe because is a cheap Asus P4P800-X (Intel 865+ICH5). The only significant option i found is AGP aperture size that was set to 64MB and I didn'touch. - before doing anything I reduced ram to 512MB - I tried so many times maybe I confused the errors, but the result is the same... - I didn't try only the 81.98, but I think there's no difference (and dont know how to unpack) At this point I think it is not a driver issue but an agp/chipset problem, since none of the setup.exe recognises any nvidia card. By now I give up before f***ing up this HD, during the weekend I'll try on another system with another Hd to see if it can work and it's an incompatibility issue with my system or with my old W98 installation, not properly clean & fresh Thanks to all by now

Yes, it was working well with the previous Ati 9800pro (now expired) and a spare Gf4200ti I keep for emergencies. On the same system with XP the 6800GS works well (I change only the boxed HD). I believe this indicates that the motherboard agp driver support is not working (happens on clean installs) ..... The steps required (driver must be last installed) to have a functional agp subsystem : 1. Install agp driver support for win98 (ie. Intel, VIA, SiS, NF2, Ali etc etc) 2. Install DX (6.1 and above, if my mind is not hazy. Some cards requires specific DX) 3. Install driver (you will need to add PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F6&SUBSYS_040110B0&REV_A2 to your INF if required) If all the above is correctly installed but you still have non-functional gf6800gs then you may need to inspect other h/w (card itself, motherboard caps, PSU, etc etc) ..... The full system works under W98 with the Gf4200ti so the agp driver works (it is not a clean install and will never be since I want to keep alive that old disk packed with tons of old games, otherwise if I should reinstall everything I'd restart with XP). I think it works at vga resolution 16 colors like when Windows is in recovery mode. and that's enough?? It seems to easy; I already tried forcing detection but you know the result... However, I'll try and let you know.

Nobody can help me with my unlucky 6800GS ? I hope MDGx can update once more his drivers with this AGP card support. Or someone can give me indications on how to tweak them by myself. This topic isn't dead, is it? Bye

I have Gainward Bliss 6800 GS AGP 512MB that works under XP but has no driver for Win98 (Gainward doesn't support): on the Nvidia site the GeForce 6xxx series seem to be the last supported for W9x, but except the 6800 GS I discovered!!! Infact if you check on the 81.98 driver page US version, GS is not listed ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/81.98_9x_supported.html ) BUT on the 81.98 INTERNATIONAL version page -or UK or IT or any other, are the same- it seems supported ( http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win9x_81.98_uk.html , click at the bottom). One is wrong, the international I suppose! I'm desperate to make it work under '98, I tried every driver in this thread (mdgx's, Zak's, BFG's 82.16) but Zak's and BFG's simply don't install because they don't find any nvidia card, mdgx's installs a 6800GS/XT (forced) but they work only at VGA resolution: as I change to higher res or colors and reboot I get a blue corrupted screen that soon becomes a BSOD. Reading into the .inf file I noticed that my card identification device number is missing: under XP it has hardware ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F6&SUBSYS_040110B0&REV_A2 and in the 169.21 drivers it is seen like this (I suppose from various sources -rivatuner, GPU-Z, everest, nibitor-): NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F6.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS/XT" %NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F6.1% = nv4_NV3x, .... PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F6 I couldn't even be sure which chip is on it: Gpu-Z finds NV42 while every other find Nv41. For sure there is the AGP/pc-express brige chip called BR02. The bios at boot prompts 6800GTS. My Gainward agp works at 425/1000 like a pc-ex but with a double slot cooler and is the same as Palit and many others (Diablotek,etc...,more pictures) with red board based on the 7xxx series layout . I have seen some 6800GS supporting W98 (XFX, Club3D?, EVGA?) but I coudn't find the drivers and maybe it was only for the pc-ex. I bought an used nvidia 6xxx series card just because it should have been the most powerful card officially supported for W98 (for Ati the 9800) according to nvidia website (international since I'm european); it would be a gibe if I can't use it while the 7xxx series work!! I hope in your help. I tried to give any useful info. Thanks