Universal VESA/VBE Video Display Driver for Win9x

[Kdoasar]

Just in case anyone has the same type of problem installing Windows 9x on a

new PC that nobody makes Windows98 video adapter/display drivers for, here

is a site that may well have a solution: http://www.bearwindows.boot-land.net/vbe9x.htm.

I have a HP-Compaq DX6100, which is designed for Win XP. Neither HP-Compaq or the

chip set maker, Intel, offer any Win 98 video drivers for it. The other (ethernet, etc.) drivers

are available. But being stuck using 2 and 16 colors makes the screen tough to read.

The free drivers available on the above site solved the problem beautifully.

[RU-B0]

14 years later: THIS WAS SO USEFUL. I am so glad that wayback machine exists!

[jaclaz]

Just in case, the "live" page, possibly updated:

https://bearwindows.zcm.com.au/vbe9x.htm

jaclaz

[pangoomis]

This:

https://www.os2museum.com/wp/windows-9x-video-minidriver-hd/

and this:

https://github.com/JHRobotics/vmdisp9x

can be considered successors to VBEMP. (And don't get me started on the SciTech Display Doctor, ugh)

[jaclaz]

But VBEMP does work on real machines, those are for some VM's only, aren't they?

jaclaz

[pangoomis]

I haven't tested them on real hardware, though switching interest to VM's rather to real hardware makes sense.

[jaclaz]

4 hours ago, MrMateczko said:

I haven't tested them on real hardware, though switching interest to VM's rather to real hardware makes sense.

Sure, but the doubt remains.

Both your links seem to be VM ONLY related (and as such NOT a replacement/successor for VBEMP on real hardware).

Or maybe they could work only on some specific real hardware, in any case they are not intended for use outside (given) VM's, according to their home pages.

jaclaz

Edited May 24, 2023 by jaclaz

[WhiteArmpits]

Unfortunately those drivers linked above seem to only work on VMs, I tested the mesa9x driver weeks ago and it only works there, I assume it's the same for those other drivers, I wish someone would make similar drivers that support real hardware or simply make ports of them, It would be cool seeing modern mesa work properly on actual hardware running Win 9x

[awkduck]

On 5/23/2023 at 7:21 PM, MrMateczko said:

And don't get me started on the SciTech Display Doctor, ugh

I'd be a little less annoyed by it, if I spent enough time to resolve the USB2.0 conflict that it comes with. Works well "enough" with Windows 95. Same issue with the Snap driver (also SciTech).

[FranceBB]

On 5/23/2023 at 8:21 PM, MrMateczko said:

this:

https://github.com/JHRobotics/vmdisp9x

can be considered successors to VBEMP. (And don't get me started on the SciTech Display Doctor, ugh)

 

Thank you so much for this!

It took me a while to make it work 'cause it was crashing at first, but then I realized that it was the VRAM size fault.

If you exceed 64MB, the driver will lead to a blue screen (128MB) or a Guru Meditation crash (256MB), however, as long as you stick to 64MB, it will work like a charm in FULL HD 1920x1080 RGB32:

 

This is the very first time that I see Windows98SE running in FULL HD... There's so much space... I'm not used to it xD

For everyone running on a VM, this driver is definitely a must have, way better than the old SciTech driver and compared to the bear windows ones, it allows you to set 16:9 resolutions instead of being limited to 4:3 ones only.

[FranceBB]

For those who don't get automatic notifications (you should really enable them on GitHub to receive emails): the author published a new version. I've just installed it. Works like a charm.

[pangoomis]

Are you talking about vmdisp9x? 

Yes, the author is updating his SoftGPU suite from time to time, I am keeping an eye on the developments as well.

[FranceBB]

On 7/19/2023 at 4:25 PM, MrMateczko said:

Are you talking about vmdisp9x? 

Yes, the author is updating his SoftGPU suite from time to time, I am keeping an eye on the developments as well.

Yep. Speaking of the latest driver, I also had a quite insightful discussion with the dev about a patch I was totally unaware of: https://github.com/JHRobotics/vmdisp9x/issues/2

 

[jaclaz]

11 hours ago, FranceBB said:

Yep. Speaking of the latest driver, I also had a quite insightful discussion with the dev about a patch I was totally unaware of: https://github.com/JHRobotics/vmdisp9x/issues/2

 

Another good thing that R.Loew left to us .

jaclaz

[pangoomis]

PATCHMEM from R.Loew limits/fixes the VCACHE in the same way that Xeno86's VCACHE fix did years ago here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/105373-vcache-fix-attempt