RTL8136 under Windows 98SE - long journey, still no goal

[Danielx]

i try to keep it short, so its easier to read:

I installed W98SE on a "modern" Notebook, Ideapad Z570, Intel Core i7, 8GB DDR3 RAM, SSD. Works so far, no bigger problems. The Notebook have an RTL8136 NIC with Rev05. First thing i tried is the old driver for w98/me. installed, but doesn't work with yellow exclamation "device is not working correctly". then i tried the driver of windows 2000 or to be more precise, changed the .sys file in c:\windows\system with the one of the windows 2000. no yellow exclamation mark, but protection error when tcp/ip is added as protocol. so no real option here either.

then i tried to use RTL8136 NDIS2 driver from realtek.com.tw. loaded rtlend.dos (weirdly enough, i never found any rtgnd.dos which was mentioned in one thread here) , added to config.sys with device=c:\windows\rtlend.dos - but it gives back the "internal error" message.

i'm at a complete loss now. i can understand that some older driver can't put it up with the rev05, since the inf is only going till rev03. but the ndis2 is more recent, in fact the last one was from 2014 i got. but that still ddin't worked out so.. did i miss something here? maybe some of u guys have an idea ^^ 

i mean it would be so nice to get any logfile information of the ndis-driver or just some possible lead what the problem may be. i mean, could it be RAM? i mean large memory is always a problem for old windows versions, maybe this is the real "internal error" it is proclaiming? i dunno.. only few thoughts..

Edited March 27, 2023 by Danielx

[Omores]

For Windows 98  Realtek made gigabit drivers only for PCI cards. And for some reason... drivers made for PCI gigabit cards do not work with PCI-E cards. On the other hand the NDIS2 universal driver is supposed to work with the entire gigabit line no matter what model.

I have used many times Realtek NDIS2 drivers. RTGBND.DOS works with DOS, Windows 3.11, 95OSR2 and 98.

In Windows 98, you should install this driver from control panel and let Windows make all the configuration changes, like in this video (@ minute 21 is the actual installation of Realtek 8111 PCI-E in Windows 98SE)

Edited March 27, 2023 by Omores

[Danielx]

8 hours ago, Omores said:

For Windows 98  Realtek made gigabit drivers only for PCI cards. And for some reason... drivers made for PCI gigabit cards do not work with PCI-E cards. On the other hand the NDIS2 universal driver is supposed to work with the entire gigabit line no matter what model.

I have used many times Realtek NDIS2 drivers. RTGBND.DOS works with DOS, Windows 3.11, 95OSR2 and 98.

In Windows 98, you should install this driver from control panel and let Windows make all the configuration changes, like in this video (@ minute 21 is the actual installation of Realtek 8111 PCI-E in Windows 98SE)

thank you very much! it worked just fine now. what i did wrong is

1. i used the old realtek pci driver from 2008 which is not compatible with pcie device
2. i i tried to use it with device=c:\windows\rtend.dos, which is the *wrong* way. never use the dos file in config.sys when you're trying to install ndis2 in windows, it will fail at bootup and u will wonder why.
instead - add it in windows with the hardware installation wizard and then you are all set.  the odd thingy is, that my network status tool only showing 10 Mbps which is.. not very much, if you think that this card is able to get 100Mbps. oh or im not sure. probably it means the Mega*bytes* per Second not Mega*Bit*, which would make more sense..

but to summarize it up: lesson learned, now i know how to install ndis2 drivers in windows 98  who knows, maybe someday besides my good ideapad notebook i need this knowledge again ^^

[SweetLow]

On 3/27/2023 at 12:17 PM, Omores said:

For Windows 98  Realtek made gigabit drivers only for PCI cards.

It simply is not true.

google Realtek RTL8168 drivers for Windows 98

[Omores]

7 hours ago, SweetLow said:

It simply is not true.

google Realtek RTL8168 drivers for Windows 98

Indeed, the chip numbering looks identical but it's actually not... For example, Realtek 8169C is the PCI version and 8169E is the PCI-E version...  PCI drivers are looking from some specific hardware id's only found in the PCI variants. No problem, let's copy the hardware id of the current 8169 PCI-E card and let's insert that string into the .inf file of PCI driver - and since it's the same chip... it should work, right? Except it doesn't... In the end, you can install the drivers, but the card can't be initialized.

I'm looking for a Realtek PCI-E card to use it an PCI-E only setup like this.

[pangoomis]

https://soggi.org/drivers/realtek.htm

There you can find latest Realtek PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet drivers for 98SE/ME, they support 8101E, 8101HP, RTL8131, 8102E/8103E, 8104E, 8168B, 8168C, 8168CASUS, 8168D according to the INF file.

I think not all versions of 8168 are supported by those drivers.

Newer chips like 8169E? Probably no chance, need to use NDIS2 drivers.

 

[Danielx]

20 hours ago, MrMateczko said:

https://soggi.org/drivers/realtek.htm

There you can find latest Realtek PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet drivers for 98SE/ME, they support 8101E, 8101HP, RTL8131, 8102E/8103E, 8104E, 8168B, 8168C, 8168CASUS, 8168D according to the INF file.

I think not all versions of 8168 are supported by those drivers.

Newer chips like 8169E? Probably no chance, need to use NDIS2 drivers.

 

Darn, mine is the 8105E and there the helping rope seem to end. I google'd and tried to exhaust all possibilities of finding an suiteable driver, but no luck. i tried soo many releases. two results: protection error or yellow mark, nothing in between. Only ndis2 does the job. 

I gotta think is it possible to make the rtl8105e driver for w2k compatible with w98? I mean there must be a clear reason why it crashes as soon as a Network protocol is have a binding to the driver. In the bootlog the network driver is said that it would have loaded successfully so what is the reason, why the protection error? I really wanna know.

 

And additionally, would it behave differently on winme? Because it have a newer network Stack. But i use w98 with the inofficial SP3 so.. maybe the stack i already on winme level but i simply dont know. Is there any way besides bootlog how i can check what this driver does or why i Encounter the protection error?

One thing i need to point your Attention to is the strange behaviour of Windows 98 here. First boot protection error. Second boot it works but asd.exe says tcpip has been disabled. So apparently windows is detecting something, so it decides to make use of asd functionality and disable tcpip. now i have no idea what asd really does and how it really works. Maybe there is an possible lead.

Edited April 1, 2023 by Danielx

[schwups]

Did you try driver winXP 5.836 9MB. The inf file still has 98/ME sections and there is 8105E listed. Check, if there is the matching DevID. Also, you could try deleting all the unnecessary sections or devicesfrom the inf file to shorten it. Install manual.

https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/network-interface-controllers-10-100m-fast-ethernet-pci-express-software

I also found on my PC an earlier version 5.806 from 2012.

The inf file should be trimmed below 60KB. Unfortunately we have such a limit. My ME limit is about 53KB.

Edited April 1, 2023 by schwups

[Danielx]

9 hours ago, schwups said:

Did you try driver winXP 5.836 9MB. The inf file still has 98/ME sections and there is 8105E listed. Check, if there is the matching DevID. Also, you could try deleting all the unnecessary sections or devicesfrom the inf file to shorten it. Install manual.

https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/network-interface-controllers-10-100m-fast-ethernet-pci-express-software

I also found on my PC an earlier version 5.806 from 2012.

The inf file should be trimmed below 60KB. Unfortunately we have such a limit. My ME limit is about 53KB.

why, yes - this driver i tested. but u know you dont really need the .inf file. my workaround was like this for the too big inf:
install incompatibe old rtl8136 driver for 8103E. then replace rtenic.sys in c:\windows\system32\drivers. this driver only contains the rtenic.sys to be honest. the only 2 relevant files are the rtenic.sys and the inf file for setting registry settings, and the settings - i compared the two inf files the old and the new one - are basically the same thing.
but we end up the same problem i just pointed out with tcpip producing protection error, unfortunaley.

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by Danielx