So I discovered the root of the issue. The Radeon Xpress 200 chipset has no support for 98SE/ME at all, so I ordered a MSI K8T Neo2 motherboard along with an AGP variant of the Radeon X800 XT. I will test this setup when the parts arrive and report back. PCI-E might work on for example a K8T890 chipset (or some Intel chipsets if you were content with a Pentium 4/M or Core 2 setup) however the most compatible 98SE Socket 939 chipsets are AGP for anyone who is looking for a setup similar to mine, which is unfortunate as AGP cards tend to be more expensive. I recently received a StarTech SATA to IDE adapter and will see if SATA on the K8T800 chipset works good on 98SE, and if VIA has an official driver for it or if I'll have to resort to RLoew's driver

Thank you to all who chipped in to help

@Damnation IRQ steering didn't change anything sadly. Not much I can do now as the machine is disassembled.

Edited April 25, 20233 yr by bob_smith

I've noticed the following, in the ATI SMBUS inf file:

Quote

[ATISMBus.Services]
AddService = , 0x00000002

[ATISMBus_Service_Inst]
ServiceType    = 1                  ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType      = 3                  ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START
ErrorControl   = 0                  ; SERVICE_ERROR_IGNORE
LoadOrderGroup = Pointer Port

Does Win98 need this? Or is it irrelevant?

 

If monitor goes black soon after logo and not blue screen error then it usually is your monitor registry settings. This happens after installing a new card when one of the same manufacturer was install just prior to the new install.

Try going into safe mode. If you want to keep your monitor setups for other installed cards right click desktop and select properties - settings - OK. This sets the display to 16 colors as it says. (If there are no need to keep old monitors then they can be removed in safe mode.) Reboot then go to Device Manager and remove the monitor then change display to 256 colors. It should work then after reboot. Do not install monitor unless you have already 256 colors or greater running otherwise you need to cancel install or remove it in device manager before restarting machine.

You need to use Ati2cqag.dll form from the previous driver 5.9 as 6.2 version does not work.

ATI 5.9 driver can be found here. http://www.mediafire.com/download/axme7jgrpaoejyt/5-9_wme_dd_cp_26397.exe

On 4/26/2023 at 12:28 AM, awkduck said:

I've noticed the following, in the ATI SMBUS inf file:

On 4/26/2023 at 12:28 AM, awkduck said:

Does Win98 need this? Or is it irrelevant?

I use version 5.10.1000.7 this can be found at Dell in R134875.exe. Later versions may also be useful but R134875 is self extracting so that makes the INF easy to get. Extract the executable then from device manager install inf found in SMBUS folder. It is signed by Chicago and has an ALL.Mfg section which sets up your registry.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-au/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=pgtdj