Project Shiva

[allen2]

For movies playing upside down, i remember a setting on some graphics card divers to flip video and also on divxG400 (directshow filter) also ffdshow (not sure if it works for W98) and vlc have this option built-in.

Edited May 17, 2010 by allen2

[dencorso]

Well... considering your present solution for video display I guess you might as well fasten an old armchair to the ceiling... and use salvaged 1945 fighter-plane seat-belts to keep you sitting upside-down on it!

Now, seriously, forget about any manufacturer's drivers and go straight to PassingBy's NUSB for Win 98FE. You'll find it here. Also consider giving Shiva a four-port USB 2.0 PCI add-on card, preferably powered by a Via chipset. e-Bay is your friend!

[Tripredacus]

Well I'm going to try out this USB thing tonight. I do not need additional USB ports, My board has 4 on the back already and I am not using any of them. If I manage to get the wireless installed, I'll see how the transparency works out!

Oh, I forgot to add, I'll look into any flip video settings too.

Update

I followed the link you sent me Dencorso, and got USB installed. There was about 5 reboots involved. I then plugged in my Wireless and the drivers appeared to be installed, as well as the software. But the software would not open. It was then I found the NIC flagged in Device Manager with a Code 2:

However, that did not stop me from playing around. Oh and you can tell by the following screenshots that USB drives do work for me! It shows up in My Computer, but besides that, it was how I got the screenshots to my W7 PC to upload them! So you can see, almost 10 years later I can still have transparency in Windows 98 FE. As noted above, my resolution is REALLY low so I can read the text on my TV, which is a 20" CRT...

Some people might notice I'm "cheating" with the transparency... yes it is with some old version of Windowblinds. Do not ask me where I got it, it is from 2001 and got it in 2001.... Here is another:

Edited May 24, 2010 by Tripredacus

[Tripredacus]

I confirmed that USB Drives are running at 2.0 speeds. Also installed a Logitech USB gamepad with no problems and even worked without rebooting or having to configure it first!

[dencorso]

Let me guess: your only problem now is the D-Link dongle?

Well, trying various different drivers usually solves it.

Serach the net for them. D-Link Australia, New Zeland and UK all offer diferent drivers.

And their sites are a PITA to find things in, sorry, but they usually actually do offer the right drivers somewhere.

Here's a start: v2.04 (AUS) and V. 2.00 & v2.04 (USA). V2.00 may be what you're looking for.

[Tripredacus]

Nope those didn't work either. Do you think it would be wise to try replacing those two VXD files with the Win98SE copies? It may be that this NIC needs Win98SE instead of FE. Oh I didn't try the 2.0 driver yet, I got sidetracked playing Dr Mario...

[dencorso]

I doubt Win 98SE ntkern will even work with Win 98FE. I'd go for 2.0 first, and if it doesn't work either, fish for an even older driver. I have really limited experience with 98FE, but I'm sure WDM drivers is the one place it differs most from 98SE. It's too bad PassingBy isn't around lately, because he's the real expert in those matters. If perchance you're reading this, PassingBy, please do chime in. But I'd bet one of the older drivers will eventually solve your problem. Also adding the update pack for 98FE might be of warranted here.

[rloew]

I doubt Win 98SE ntkern will even work with Win 98FE. I'd go for 2.0 first, and if it doesn't work either, fish for an even older driver. I have really limited experience with 98FE, but I'm sure WDM drivers is the one place it differs most from 98SE. It's too bad PassingBy isn't around lately, because he's the real expert in those matters. If perchance you're reading this, PassingBy, please do chime in. But I'd bet one of the older drivers will eventually solve your problem. Also adding the update pack for 98FE might be of warranted here.

I haven't done any extensive testing, but I found that the Windows 98SE NTKERN.VXD did work with 98FE, and in fact, was necessary to porting Windows ME USB Drivers to 98FE.

[Tripredacus]

Also adding the update pack for 98FE might be of warranted here.

Is this the same thing that the USB drivers required to be installed first? Here is the instructions:

http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/win98fe-usb-mass-storage-drivers.php

[dencorso]

Yes, but the one you can get at MDGx's is a newer version, although the one you've already instaled might be good enough. And, since RLoew says it at least seems to work, if v. 2.0 of the d-link driver doesn't solve it for you, you might as well try using the NTKERN.VxD from 98SE with either d-link drivers you've already got, before going fishing for older ones. You should use NTKERN.VxD v. 4.10.2224, which is part of KB288430... extract it from the hotfix and just drop it into C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32 (if you have a NTKERN.VxD in that directory do backup it first), and then reboot. Do *NOT* try this with the 98SE VMM.VxD that also comes in KB288430 or it'll cause your system to become unbootable (the VMM.VxD versions are really version specific!).

[Tripredacus]

Still nothing on the wireless. Here is what I did:

- uninstalled the Air Plus from Add/Remove Programs

- installed the 2.00 drivers (no change)

- backed up the ntkern.vxd from vmm32

- put the new ntkern.vxd into C:\Windows\System\Vmm32 reboot = no change

- put it in c:\windows\options\cabs (found online it needed to be in there too) = no change

So still got nothing going on with that. I was hopeful when installing the 2.00 drivers because it actually installed different files than the other versions, notably the HLPs from PCHEALTH folder, but to no avail. I did try to boot into Safe Mode and delete the drivers and see if there were any ghosts in there, but the video flips. For some reason the default video output (used during POST and in the BIOS and Boot Menu) as well as in the Windows F8 menu and Safe Mode is grayscale and the video constantly flips. This is because my video out is S-Video to a television. I keep forgetting to get that extra CRT to hook up to it.

[Tripredacus]

I did a little more research on the NIC driver issue, but still have no resolution. What exactly does this error mean? Could it be that some driver files it needs are in the wrong locations?

I had this idea yesterday, so I checked the INF file. It goes to put the driver files into c:\windows\system32 on Win98 (its near the bottom) but the file was not actually there. The SYS file was put into C:\Windows\System! I tried copying the file to system32 and system32\drivers but still flagged. I'm going to download that driver package from work and look at it and try to figure out why the driver did not install as the INF file's instructions.

Also, since this is just a Realtek USB NIC, I may get lucky and find the Realtek W98 drivers to use instead, which I have done for other NICs before.

Update: No such luck yet. I am doing a bunch of research and it really looks like these are all Win98SE drivers. Is there anything different when using 98SE drivers on 98FE? Could I need to update some other files to make it work on FE?

[dencorso]

Sure. They're like water and wine. Search for all posts by PassingBy and read those regarding NUSB, and you'll get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

[Tripredacus]

I'm going to bring the system into work tomorrow and try out a PCI Wireless NIC to see if that works any better. I am wondering if all this can be directly related to the USB drivers I am using, and not necessarily the Wireless part of it.

[nimd4]

You won't believe this, I can't prove it, and I don't care.

Early 56K US Robotics used to dial-in w/insane speeds also; just took some tries. This worked during the 90's, using the SpiderNET ISP and CytaNET phone lines.. pretty awesome, too.

It is difficult, however, to find WLAN cards which have drivers for Win9x/XP/Vista AND Linux, anybody has some suggestions?

Yeah, hook up like a Sweex (or whatever ) 2 your modem (or whatever ) and use USB wireless?!??