Installing NT 4.0 Drivers in Windows 2000.

[myelin]

I need help please. I am having with WDM drivers for (PCI Sound card) ALS 4000 in Windows 2000, i am thinking that if i install non-WDM drivers from NT 4.0, that will solve my problem, but i do not know how. Some guidance will be nice.

Windows 2000 autmatically reinstalls WDM driver if i remove it and if i try to upgrade my drivers to "other drivers" it does not show any NT 4.0 drivers. Please anybody here can help me.

Thanks in advance.

I used Windows 9x VXD driver in Windows 98SE and it used way less resourses less then WDM drivers. I am thinking same will happen with Windows 2000 and NT drivers.

Edited November 23, 2006 by myelin

[allen2]

Most likely this would result crashing your windows 2000. If you still want to give it a try, you'll need to modify the .inf to allow it to be used with 2k.

[cluberti]

Agreed. By default, the only NT4 drivers that will install on W2K is printer drivers (a no-no, but we allowed it). You have to perform surgery on the driver's .inf files to make it work, and even then, some drivers will fail to install. Oh, and NT4 drivers will indeed make your 2K box unstable - just warning you.

[myelin]

Thanks for the replies. I read in some MS knowledge bas about NT 4.0 drivers and Windows 2000, but was curious to find out that if something like vxd type of drivers existed for windows 2000.

I did installed the drivers but they did not worked, no resourses were assigned to the device.

Question: Why do WDM drivers suck so much?

[cluberti]

Question: Why do WDM drivers suck so much?

Actually, you'll find that WDM drivers are great if they're WHQL certified. If they aren't, they'll suck due to the fact that the hardware vendor makes crappy drivers - driver quality is vendor-specific, and has nothing to do with being WDM or not. For the record, WDM simply stands for Windows Driver Model, which means basically that the vendor followed the SDK and supplied those to Microsoft to include on the CD. However, when drivers aren't WHQL certified, they can be just as bad as non-WDM drivers. Not saying that all non-WHQL drivers aren't of the highest quality, but most are not.

[myelin]

Not saying that all non-WHQL drivers aren't of the highest quality, but most are not.

Thanks for the reply. My computer is very old and i downgraded to a previous version of WDM sound drivers and they are looking good. Although this driver is also non-WHQL. But the company issued these drivers instead of newer drivers as there Updated drivers.

There was some time when WHQL was stopped??? I am not sure but i heard a rumor that drivers will no longer be WHQL certified. Is that true?

[cluberti]

I've not heard that logo testing of hardware (WHQL certification) will be stopped anytime soon.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/whql/default.mspx

[myelin]

I've not heard that logo testing of hardware (WHQL certification) will be stopped anytime soon.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/whql/default.mspx

Thanks for the link. Bye.

[ender`]

Actually, you'll find that WDM drivers are great if they're WHQL certified.

Don't count on it - I've seen several WHQL-certified drivers that were pure crap and caused crashing (IIRC, one of the Linksys network cards, it's been a while), or that didn't work properly (the whole 9x.xx series of nVidia graphic card drivers - connect to the computer with RDP, then log on back locally and try playing any video or anything that uses DirectX).