awkduck

Good luck. Hope everything works out.

I believe that is correct. It is my understanding that this patch could potentially make things worse, or "at best" not really make a difference. But I can't claim, with 100% certainty, that it won't help; instead with just an awful lot of certainty.

From private messages, I was able to tell Joaquim is referring to rloew's "Win9x 512Mb Nvidia patch". I believe there may be another patch, someone could be referring to. One specific to updating video device bios/firmware so that cards not compatible with the Win9x drivers (at all/hardware too new) could possibly work. This patch (rloew's) is extremely unlikely to help with the "black out" issues. It is a 2 path option patch. (1) driver patch - patches the driver limiting it to the use of 256Mb of video ram; thus preventing issues when the driver attempts to use beyond the 265Mb reported by the hardware. (2) hardware patch - updates the video device bios/firmware to report to the driver the full 512Mb of video ram, to the driver; thus preventing the driver's attempt at writing to the later 256Mb of ram, that isn't correctly allocated. !!!!Note: I may be getting the technical explanations of this patch incorrect, but I only gave the patch manual a brief skim. I think my description is near enough to express why this patch shouldn't change the "black out" issue. By all means, improve my description; I welcome the corrections. I would highly discourage updating the bios, unless you were sure it solved whatever issue was believed to be solved by doing so. As for patching the driver, sure. I doubt it will help. But in the spirit of desperation, I understand. These are the directions, as provided in the patch manual.

Joaquim, I don't think "anyone" has gotten regular drivers for HDA to work on Win9x(95,98,ME). The only driver with support, that I know of, is Walters Driver. You could use a USB audio adapter. Windows has built in drivers for that.

Which devices have the conflicts? Did disabling acceleration stop the black outs? There is a possibility an updated DirectX could help. I've had no experience with the specific drivers you are using. So, I can't speak to the probability of this being the issue. Unless you prefer not updating it, you could try and let us know the results. You audio device seems to be a Realtek HD Audio. It can be a bit of a struggle getting those to work. Deomsh does some work with Walter's HDA audio driver. There are several threads here, where you can examine the process of getting it to work. It may work right away. Did you search for more information on the video patching? There are some discussions here, about it.

Okay, so this is completely different. I've had some "edge of support" drivers do what you have described, due to poor DirectX backwards compatibility. You could disable video acceleration, and test if the black outs still happen. If they stop happening, then it could be a DirectX issue. It should be noted, that a video driver can work perfect on one machine and then malfunction on another (same/similar video hardware). Especially, if it is an integrated video device (laptop). Are there any conflicts listed in device manager? Is there anything not installed in device manager? This may be a less likely issue, but I've had a few Nvidia chips behave this way, before they kicked the bucket. Probably nothing, but be weary if the machine is running hot. If it is hot, maybe examine your configuration and see if you are in need of a CPU idler (Rain/Waterfall/CPUidle). In laptops the heatsink for the GPU is often on the same heat rail as the CPU. Might be good to make sure the fan area is free of dust. Also, if it is hot/warm, avoid using the device in warmer rooms. Like I said before, this may have nothing to do with your issue. Just mentioning it as a precaution. But if the thermal grease hasn't been replaced, keep temperature in mind. Most of my older ATI/Nvidia featured laptops, eventually die related to the GPU. Could be due to poor upkeep, on my part, or poor cooling designs.

It is kinda neat. I just wish someone like DM&P would put out a legacy device. Their CPU packages/SOCs still include ISA etc. They could make a laptop, with the potential to include or add old SBlaster/Adlib support of some kind (includes AC97 or HDA, i think?). If I had the time, I would try to order one of their chips and build one myself. They are plenty fast enough for even some modern tasks. I think they do have a bottle neck in the bus, but it wouldn't bother Dos or Win3/9x much. Their MiniPCs, on ICOP eshop, are fanless. You would just have to slow it down, to run the older Dos games. I guess I don't know how well their included video supports all dos modes. I doubt it has much in the way of video acceleration. But with PCI and ISA support, you could build a laptop with one PCI and one ISA slot. The laptop chassis would just need to have connecters for the audio and video, included in the isa/pci card bays. It's a pipe dream, but lets see what the universe does.

Hi @Joaquim, I was curious about when, or what happens, that causes your black screen. I remember some time ago, you had tried using the s-video out of your laptop. The issue back then was that the s-video out did not support the graphics mode attempted (a Dos or a DirectX game [can't remember which it was]). It was a documented limit, even with the right drivers (a win9x limit, if I remember correct). It has been a while, but I think it was that s-video did not support DirectX. Maybe also that some Dos games were picky about fullscreen output, over s-video. Is this something similar; does it involve a fullscreen command prompt or the s-video out?

@jumper Yeah, that is pretty low.

Which resources? I know you don't mean ram. There are greater limitations, if you are not in 386 enhanced mode. I also remember that having virtual memory enabled, limited you to 512mb of memory. When that is disable, I could see the machine's 1.5Gb (alternative Dos Memory managers). Not that Windows could actually use it. I've read that 256mb was the maximum managed (actively used) before the memory manager would become unstable. But applications like Adobe Premiere (v1.1) required 8mb of ram. And I certainly have ran more then one application, of such demands, simultaneously (cooperative multitasking). But, I do recall the Graphical Display resources being an issue. Also, I think there was an issue with allocating over 64mb of ram (similar issue [but not the same] with DrDos7 multitasking). It would be neat to have a 32bit Dos multi-tasker (like WfW[32bit]). Something like Dosemu, but instead on Dos, using Dos Drivers. Japheth (HxDos) has done excellent work for Dos. It would be interesting to have preemptively managed Dos VMs, supporting environments like Japheth's extender. It could be a hobbyist nerd's playground. Sbemu and VSBHDA are slowly approaching the potential, for forking into an "A.L.S.A. for Dos". It might prove nice targeting a modern(ish) browser, towards an open sourced environment like this. Especially, since HxDos has implemented some of the Win32 environment. If one designed the UI correctly, HxHos is not a Window Manager (no floating Windows), you could implement or port a browser to HxDos' Win32 environment. With VSBHDA, you might even have audio. There is even, now, Javascript for Dos; not that it could be used "well" in a Dos WebBrowser.

I've heard rumor of FreePascal/Lazarus having a Win16 target. This doesn't mean it would be easy, but it is one option.

@SweetLow Excellent work! I've been intending to write something like this, myself. I may still take a whack at it, for the educational result of the challenge. But, who knows how long it would have taken me to start? I'm spread too thin, lately. Looking forward to taking your work for a test drive. You've done some neat things. But this one is an attention grabber. Would have tried it sooner, but my main browser is terrible, on github. Seems that a lot of the things you work on, have been things I've see people discus a desire for (at the usual Win9x places).

There are some I have been meaning to test (with KernelEx). SSuite Office Personal Kingsoft Office Suite Free Softmaker Office The newest versions will most likely not work. I wish I could give you some version numbers and links (probably archine.org links or something). I'm pretty sure I've had the best luck with Softmaker Office.

Flesh this out a little bit more. Is this a old Windows install (harddrive transfer, from different computer), or a new fresh install? Does fully updated mean unofficial service packs, or a personal collection of updates? Have you installed USB Drivers, prior to the chipset? LoneCrusader has a unofficial Intel chipset, for newer machines.

I've never tried it, but the "PC-Dos Viewer" looks like Pc-Dos' version of a help/information tool. Maybe try it out.