Jump to content

DirectPlay 9.0c & Intel PRO/1000 GT on 98SE


Feamane

Recommended Posts

Hi,

I've had a group of PCs running DX9.0c on Win98SE for retro LAN games for many years now and just noticed a problem.  All my old LAN games run great but the multiplayer portion of Civilization III doesn't.  Investigating the problem I find that DxDiag shows no info for the Network tab and "DxDiag Previously: Crashed in DirectPlay (stage 1)" in the output.  I've tried reinstalling from dx9cOct06.exe and the install reports no errors but DxDiag still hangs when detecting the network (DirectPlay) components.  I've got the last drivers put out by Intel installed for the PRO/1000 GT NICs.  But I don't see anything in the Intel documentation that mentions DX compatibility,  I get the same exact results with four different machines, three of which are built on different MB.  But they all have the same NIC and the same install of Win98SE.  I also have KernelEx v4.5.120 installed on all of them.

All other networking works great on these Win98SE machines, optimized with TCPOptimizer.  Apparently all the other LAN games I've been playing don't use the DirectPlay functions so I never noticed the problem before.

Anybody heard of this before?  Any ideas why DxDiag just hangs when it gets to the network portion of the discovery?  Is it a DX<->Win98SE problem, or a DX<->Intel problem, or something else?  Anybody have the Win98SE/DX9.0c/Intel PRO/1000 GT combo working OK?

Thanks,

DJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Try to find older drivers ,https://www.driverguide.com might help, it's a good site now, unlike it was years ago. It can show INF files inside the drivers, so you can check if they will work with your device ID.

Also try installing older DirectX, like 8.1 and not 9.0c. (that is if no of your games use 9.0c) (probably needs a reinstall of the system)

If everything fails, best bet is to buy very cheap generic Realtek/3COM PCI NIC's.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting.  I hadn't thought of downgrading the drivers.  The latest driver that I'm using is from 2004, I can look for something older.  The game requires DX9, so downgrading DX won't help.

The MT has the 82540EM chip and GT has the 82541PI chip.   Also, the MT is older and discontinued.  Not sure the technical differences in the chips.

Thanks,

DJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, I notice this card is on the list as working with 9x:

So somebody else must be using these cards.  Can anybody with one of these cards and DX9.0c confirm if they have the same problem or not?  Or can you confirm the card is working with a different version of DX?

Thanks,

DJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a lot of the Pro/1000 MT PCI, and never had any problem, using the latest drivers available, on W98SE, XP and W10.

I'd send you one for free, but i suspect customs would make this more expensive than buying a used one in the US...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, maybe I'll try to get one of those cards and see if it works with the DirectPlay.  But still curious since the GT card is on the list here if anybody is using it and can check if they have the DirectPlay issue,  If they don't, then it may be a problem with something other than the card.

Best regards,

DJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use Realtek NDIS2-driver for my NIC. Lately I had to run some tests with DxDiag. Just for fun I run DirectPlay test - negative! Was not a problem for me, I never use DirectPlay, so I postponed the problem.

Your problem interested me. I renamed my Windows-directory and tested on a fresh one with DirectX 6.1. DxDiag gave no error. I installed DirectX 7.0, 9.0b and 9.0c - check, check, check. The TCP/IP-console opened always. For the moment thats enough for me.:cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, ragnargd said:

Shall i test before you buy? How?

Thanks for the kind offer!  Testing would depend on getting some more info from deomsh's testing.

1 hour ago, deomsh said:

I use Realtek NDIS2-driver for my NIC. Lately I had to run some tests with DxDiag. Just for fun I run DirectPlay test - negative! Was not a problem for me, I never use DirectPlay, so I postponed the problem.

Your problem interested me. I renamed my Windows-directory and tested on a fresh one with DirectX 6.1. DxDiag gave no error. I installed DirectX 7.0, 9.0b and 9.0c - check, check, check. The TCP/IP-console opened always. For the moment thats enough for me.:cool:

Sounds like good testing!  What was the original flavor of Windows and DX that the test was failing on?  What was the fresh install you tested on, pure MS Win98SE or some other flavor? 

Thank you,

DJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The earlier test I mentioned failed on DirectX 9.0c. So far as I can remember I had at that time following specs: Win98SE, SP2.03 (last dutch service pack), IO.SYS update/patch and NUSB 3.3. No IE6, no KernelEx. Plus NDIS2-driver of course.

I have been googling a bit, in connection with DirectPlay-problems registering DPNET.DLL was "somewere" mentioned. I just tried in "Run" with "REGSVR32 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DPNET.DLL (without the "" !). There was the succes-message from DllRegisterServer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suspect that it's bad drivers or a bad direct x install.  Could be a multitude of things but I doubt that your card is bad. I have actually heard of compatibility issues with DX9c on windows 98 despite the fact that it runs.  That could very well be your issue.  If you are not playing DX 9 games or you Graphics card doesn't use Direct x 9 there is absolutely no reason to use dx9.  Higher number version doesn't mean better when its irrelevant.

 

I use DX 7 or 8 general rule of thumb unless ur card is dx9 and your games are dx9.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

I have four PCs all with the same install of Win98SE (LitePC "Sleek") with the same network card but different motherboards and graphic cards.  All other networking functions work fine on the four machines.  I only discovered this problem when trying to play a game that requires DX9c.  All the other LAN games I've played have been happy with my current setup for many years now so none of them must have required the DirectPlay component in DX9c.  I'd like to get this game to run if possible without completely trashing my current setup.

I'm guessing it's some compatibility issue between the network drivers and DX9c, but I just tinker with Win9x, I'm no expert.

I was thinking about following one of the earlier suggestions about going to an earlier version of the network drivers but I have 10.3 and the earliest I can find on the Intel website is 10.0--I'm not sure that's enough of a difference to be worth the bother.

Thanks,

DJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...