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Driver Packs for Windows 95,98/98SE,ME


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As i already suggested @ DriverPacks.net forums, why don't you consider to build a "simple" (open sourced) driver update manager ? :sneaky:

it's not a matter of consideration, i know i want to be able to dump drivers onto a UBCD and for setup to be able to find those drivers and use them to install the hardware it sees, and i've actually just cracked how to do this!! The only problem is understanding the INF files (which i would have to do anyway for a 'driver update manager') so setup finds the files listed in the INF without user interaction, so if you can help with this, please post, if not, sorry but that's all i need to know to get the project as i've outlined above going in reality. Cheers!

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Ok, since no one has replied to my question elsewhere in this forum, I'll try my luck here. So here's my wishlist:

Mobile Intel 945GM Express chipset

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

Audio chipset ADI1981HD PremierSound High Definition Audio

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 802.11 a/b/g WLAN

Sorry for not adding links but I guess those drivers don't exist for Win98, at least anything I've downloaded has not worked on my system.

Since I'm new on this forum I don't know if all of you are "Chevy owners" who use Win9X on older systems where there are available drivers. However, I only have a HP NX7400 which is relatively modern with no-existent Win98 support. And I am not that experienced in installing drivers, in my older computer I googled a driver for the chipset and installed it with no problems. However, now that I'm trying to do the same I have no success, the screen resolution (the first thing I'm trying to change) stays at 640x480. If somebody wanted to pass me a link to "driver installation for dummies" or send me a PM, I would appreciate that, too.

Also, if you think I should write my questions/problems somewhere else, feel free to comment.

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As i already suggested @ DriverPacks.net forums, why don't you consider to build a "simple" (open sourced) driver update manager ? :sneaky:

it's not a matter of consideration, i know i want to be able to dump drivers onto a UBCD and for setup to be able to find those drivers and use them to install the hardware it sees, and i've actually just cracked how to do this!! The only problem is understanding the INF files (which i would have to do anyway for a 'driver update manager') so setup finds the files listed in the INF without user interaction, so if you can help with this, please post, if not, sorry but that's all i need to know to get the project as i've outlined above going in reality. Cheers!

Overview of Hardware Inf Installer

Hardware Inf Installer (Infinst) allows you to add new hardware drivers to Windows 98 Setup. When you install Windows 98, Setup automatically detects all hardware and installs the necessary drivers. However, you may purchase new hardware whose drivers are not included in Windows 98.

This program allows you to add new hardware infs and the associated drivers to a Windows 98 Setup share.

Is this helpfull ?

I am not sure, as it not specified that and that I have never used it, that the hardware drivers added to windows setup with this tool are forcibly installed or if they install only if the corresponding hardware is detected.

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I'm building a Win98se video drivers pack !!!

Please post your suggestions about what to include in it, please post direct links if you can. no worries if you can't.

I have a very old video card, an ASUS V3400TNT (1X AGP) which came with driver version 1.02. I later upgraded to 2.17 from the ASUS website. I've seen versions 6.31c and 31.40H elsewhere, but it wasn't clear if those are ASUS upgrades. Would I get better performance with 6.31c or 31.40H?

Are these too old for your driver pack? Does this pack install the video driver automatically with UBCD?

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I'm building a Win98se video drivers pack !!!

Please post your suggestions about what to include in it, please post direct links if you can. no worries if you can't.

I have a very old video card, an ASUS V3400TNT (1X AGP) which came with driver version 1.02. I later upgraded to 2.17 from the ASUS website. I've seen versions 6.31c and 31.40H elsewhere, but it wasn't clear if those are ASUS upgrades. Would I get better performance with 6.31c or 31.40H?

Are these too old for your driver pack? Does this pack install the video driver automatically with UBCD?

1) Nothing is too old. In fact, the older the better as long as it is genuinely used on a current Win98se system (or one that could possibly be resurrected), and it is not natively supported in Win98se. I'm not building this pack to put every driver in the known universe in, but a good selection with a good chance of being needed in the next 5 years or so.

2) i would go with what the manufacturer says -- if they reckon 2.17 is the latest driver, then that's the one you post a link to. I am on a mission but this mission isn't to give everyone the very latest driver, its to simply get the hardware to work. If we give them the latest driver, that's a bonus. So for the purposes of this exercise lets not waste our time trying to determine which is the very latest if its not obvious.

3) Would you get better performance with 6.31c or 31.40H? Isn't it obvious ??? :lol: dude, maybe you think i'm some sort of genius that would be able to tell you just by looking at the version numbers for drivers for an 1 x AGP old video card which one is going to give you better performance -- sorry man, i just aint that good! I am gratified a little though to know you hold my intelligence in such esteem that it was possible :rolleyes:

4) Yes, these driver packs are designed to be used with unattended boot CD or DVDs just like the ones for WinXP etc. It won't have to be my UBCD as i will post the method (as soon as its finalized!) so as long as you know what you're doing, it will be useful on any installation disc.

Edited by soporific
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1) Nothing is too old. In fact, the older the better as long as it is genuinely used on a current Win98se system (or one that could possibly be resurrected), and it is not natively supported in Win98se.

2) i would go with what the manufacturer says -- if they reckon 2.17 is the latest driver, then that's the one you post a link to. I am on a mission but this mission isn't to give everyone the very latest driver, its to simply get the hardware to work.

I don't recall 98SE finding a native driver for this graphics card, but it's been a while since I installed 98SE. I bought the card around 1999-2000, so it may be newer than 98SE, but not by much. <g>

It seems they don't have 2.17 on the ASUS site any more, or if it is there I'm not able to find it. However, I did find 6.31c and 31.40H, so I will test what they have, and post my results with a link (probably tomorrow).

PS You are still the man! <g>

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OK, now we immediately run into the "duplicate files" problem ... we can't just dump every single file into the one directory there are bound to be files with the same name that are completely different and the right version needs to be present for the driver to work (we have to assume this). So, i would still like to be in more control of the INF files, then we can just use C:\D1;C:\D2;C:\D3 and so on, instead of C:\Windows\Setup\D1;C:\Windows\Setup\D2;C:\Windows\Setup\D3; and so on. We will run out of string space very quick.

But we are fine for now. The list so far:

SiS 530

SiS 6326

Trident Blade XP-T64

All ATI cards that are supported in the Catalyst drivers package for Win9x (which is heaps, i will post a list soon)

Edited by soporific
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I would go with what the manufacturer says -- if they reckon 2.17 is the latest driver, then that's the one you post a link to. I am on a mission but this mission isn't to give everyone the very latest driver, its to simply get the hardware to work. If we give them the latest driver, that's a bonus.

I found an ASUS mirror that still has version 2.17 here: http://public.www.planetmirror.com/pub/asu...400/3400drv.exe

I still haven't tested the newer drivers yet. On ASUS website if you choose 'show all drivers' it says 31.40H works with 98/SE/ME, but if you choose 'show only drivers for 9x' it only shows 6.31c. I think this is the reason I originally stayed with 2.17. I know 2.17 works. And their website is as clear as mud.

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This is it so far. They aren't any use until i release the upcoming version of UBCD but i thought you might like to see the progress ...

I've tested the ATI drivers and my 9800 series Radeon was found and installed fine. I also have a NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 i can test on and so i can at least confirm the system works for the majority of major brand cards!

The other issue i've come across is that some modern systems need a hardware update otherwise you can't run the rest of UBCD when the desktop first loads until you install the system drivers in particular the drivers for your system bus. So i'll need to do a pack for these as well.

Here's the list:

Index for the Video Driver Pack for Windows 98se

v1.00

__________________________________

** DP_Graphics1.exe ** 5.35 MB

ATI Radeon 9800 series

ATI Radeon 9700 series

ATI Radeon 9600 series

ATI Radeon 9500 series

ATI Radeon 9200 series

ATI Radeon 9100 series

ATI Radeon 9000 series

ATI Radeon 8500 series

ATI Radeon 7500 series

ATI Radeon 7200 series

ATI Radeon 7000 series

ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series

** and all "All-In-Wonder" variants of the every ATI Radeon series family above.

SiS 530

Trident Blade XP-T64

__________________________________

** DP_Graphics2.exe ** 3.4 MB

SiS 315

SiS 6326

ATi Rage 128

ATi Rage 128 Pro

__________________________________

** DP_Graphics3.exe ** 13.9 MB

NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU

NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200

NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400

NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro

NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti

NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra

NVIDIA GeForce3

NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200

NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 with AGP8X

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU

NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200

NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X

NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400

NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600

NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800

NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5100

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200LE

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600XT

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700VE

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900ZT

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra

NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300

NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5750

NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5900

NVIDIA GeForce 6100

NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 400

NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 405

NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 420

NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 430

NVIDIA GeForce 6150

NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE

NVIDIA GeForce 6200

NVIDIA GeForce 6200 A-LE

NVIDIA GeForce 6200 LE

NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache

NVIDIA GeForce 6200SE TurboCache

NVIDIA GeForce 6500

NVIDIA GeForce 6600

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 VE

NVIDIA GeForce 6610 XL

NVIDIA GeForce 6700 XL

NVIDIA GeForce 6800

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS/XT

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Series GPU

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XE

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT

NVIDIA GeForce 7025

NVIDIA GeForce 7050 PV

NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 SE

NVIDIA GeForce 7500 LE

NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 7600 LE

NVIDIA GeForce 7650 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX v2

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT/GTO

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT AGP

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 v2

NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS

NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR/EX

NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro

NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL

NVIDIA Quadro4 550 XGL

NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL

NVIDIA Quadro4 700 XGL

NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL

NVIDIA Quadro4 780 XGL

NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL

NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL

NVIDIA Quadro DCC

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500

NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400/4400

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI

NVIDIA Quadro FX 350

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 X2

NVIDIA Quadro FX 500/FX 600

NVIDIA Quadro FX 540

NVIDIA Quadro FX 550

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600

NVIDIA Quadro FX 560

NVIDIA Quadro FX 700

NVIDIA Quadro NVS

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 210S

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 50 PCI

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 55/280 PCI

NVIDIA Quadro NVS with AGP8X

NVIDIA Quadro PCI-E Series

Edited by soporific
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What about 3dfx cards

Drivers can be found here:

http://www.falconfly.de/3dfx

good suggestion but it has prompted the plea for more help, see first post for details

The voodoo files are all basically identically named and it is getting increasingly harder to work around the limitations of the method i'm using. Any help is so much appreciated if there was a world record for the amount of appreciation ever given i'm a shoe in for second place on this issue. I reckon i hold first place as well! That's a story for another time, its a good one though. I should write a book ...

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joe tweaker: i've found the exact page where you get confused about which version to go with: my guess is try the v31.40h files and if it all seems to work, then as this is the latest package by far (3 years difference) the only thing is whether they are telling the truth about the drivers also supporting Win98se. The clincher for me is the way the whole web page is laid out, each heading has the name of just one version of Windows. This makes these headings unreliable in terms of meaning and so i would go with what it says it supports, so the v31.40h files are definitely the best bet to thoroughly test and then go with if it tests out.

please let me know which drivers you are going to go with and i will add them to the packs.

here's the latest list:


Index for the Driver Packs for Windows 98se
v1.01
__________________________________

DP_w98_1.01.exe 7.65 MB extracts to 27.0 MB
DP_w98_2.01.exe 10.4 MB extracts to 51.1 MB
DP_w98_3.exe 13.9 MB extracts to 48.4 MB
DP_w98_4.01.exe 1.41 MB extracts to 3.71 MB
DP_w98_5.01.exe 9.23 MB extracts to 41.5 MB

total: 42.2 MB extracting to 171.71 MB uncompressed
__________________________________

** Driver Packs 1 **

ATI Radeon 9800 series
ATI Radeon 9700 series
ATI Radeon 9600 series
ATI Radeon 9500 series
ATI Radeon 9200 series
ATI Radeon 9100 series
ATI Radeon 9000 series
ATI Radeon 8500 series
ATI Radeon 7500 series
ATI Radeon 7200 series
ATI Radeon 7000 series
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series
** and all "All-In-Wonder" variants of the every ATI Radeon series family above.
SiS 315
SiS 530
SiS 6326
SiS 635
SiS 645
SiS 733
SiS 735
Trident Blade XP-T64
S3 ProSavageDDR
Realtek 10/100/1000/ NIC Family (network)
ADMtek AN983B (network)
Realtek RTL8139 (network)
LanKom LB-1200U (network)
VIA VT8233 (network)
Winbond W89C840 (network)
__________________________________

** Driver Packs 2 **

SiS 650
VIA-S3 UniChrome
VIA VT8361
VIA VT8601
VIA VT850
ATi Rage 128
ATi Rage 128 Pro
Voodoo1
Voodoo2
Voodoo3
Voodoo4
Voodoo5
Voodoo Banshee
__________________________________

** Driver Packs 3 **

NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce3
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5100
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200LE
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600XT
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700VE
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900ZT
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300
NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5750
NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5900
NVIDIA GeForce 6100
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 400
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 405
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 420
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 430
NVIDIA GeForce 6150
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6200
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 A-LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache(tm)
NVIDIA GeForce 6200SE TurboCache(tm)
NVIDIA GeForce 6500
NVIDIA GeForce 6600
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 VE
NVIDIA GeForce 6610 XL
NVIDIA GeForce 6700 XL
NVIDIA GeForce 6800
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS/XT
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Series GPU
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XE
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 7025
NVIDIA GeForce 7050 PV
NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 SE
NVIDIA GeForce 7500 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 7650 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX v2
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT/GTO
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT AGP
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 v2
NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR/EX
NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro
NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 550 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 700 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 780 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro DCC
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400/4400
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI
NVIDIA Quadro FX 350
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 X2
NVIDIA Quadro FX 500/FX 600
NVIDIA Quadro FX 540
NVIDIA Quadro FX 550
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
NVIDIA Quadro FX 560
NVIDIA Quadro FX 700
NVIDIA Quadro NVS
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 210S
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 50 PCI
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 55/280 PCI
NVIDIA Quadro NVS with AGP8X
NVIDIA Quadro PCI-E Series

__________________________________

** Driver Packs 4 **

ALi1621
nForce2 (chipset)
nForce3 (chipset)
nForce4 (chipset)
VIA USB 2.0 (usb)
VIA HyperionPro 5.12 (chipset)

__________________________________

** Driver Packs 5 **

Realtek AC97 WDM Driver (v4.01) - (audio drivers)

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What about 3dfx cards. Probably best to use the final 3dfx Official versions.
It'd be nice. However, Soporific, remember that voodoo 1 and 2 are additional cards that work on top of a 2D graphic card. From what I remember, the voodoo drivers needs to be installed second.

Maybe someone can confirm this.

PS: thanks a lot for the link Galahs!

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joe tweaker: i've found the exact page where you get confused about which version to go with: my guess is try the v31.40h files and if it all seems to work, then as this is the latest package by far (3 years difference) the only thing is whether they are telling the truth about the drivers also supporting Win98se. The clincher for me is the way the whole web page is laid out, each heading has the name of just one version of Windows. This makes these headings unreliable in terms of meaning and so i would go with what it says it supports, so the v31.40h files are definitely the best bet to thoroughly test and then go with if it tests out.

please let me know which drivers you are going to go with and i will add them to the packs.

Sorry I didn't see this reply sooner. I'd moved on to the UBCD thread and forgotten I'd posted here! Is there some way to tell these forums to notify me when I have a reply so this doesn't happen again?

Anyway, after building the UBCD project on my hard drive, I noticed the new driver packs were out and downloaded the full update (7 packs) into my project folders. The index informed me that v31.40H had been added to pack #1. So I decided to bite the bullet and test 6.31c and 31.40H on my active partition before burning the project.

I unpacked the files for each driver to separate folders, then looked at the INF and readme files in each folder. Both readme files recommended that I uninstall the current driver (2.17) from Control Panel Add/Remove first, reboot, then run the setup file to install the new driver, then reboot again to finish. While viewing the INF for each of the new drivers, I noticed each have sections titled [Mfg] and [strings] where all the graphics cards supported by each driver appear to be enumerated. The string for my graphics card appears to be "V3400&VEN_10DE&DEV_0020." This string ONLY appears in the INF for the 6.31c driver. The lowest string in the 31.40H driver is "V3800&VEN_10DE&DEV_0028". This was my first clue that 31.40H might not install correctly.

My next step was to remove 2.17, reboot, then run the setup file in the folder where I unpacked 31.40H. When I ran this setup file, the following message appeared on my screen: "No Asus Graphics Card found, or Windows boots in safe mode. Please reboot and try again." Needless to say, my graphics card was properly seated and working before this exercise, and rebooting did not help. I assume it will not install because the vendor string does not appear in the [Mfg] or [strings] sections of this driver. I also assume just adding more strings to these two sections is a bad idea. If this driver worked with my adapter, its vendor string (V3400TNT) should already be there. The fact that it isn't suggests to me that I should not bother trying to edit this driver.

Having gotten nowhere with 31.40H, I moved on to testing 6.31c. This one installed without a hitch, but after rebooting my screen had moved about 1/2 inch off center, up and to the left. It looked like there were a few new tweaks in the ASUS Display Controls, but nothing I know how to use. There was a tab that allowed horizontal and vertical adjustments, but I maxed the controls out before my screen was centered. I noticed another tab said the adapter had automatically chosen to use the "Optimum" refresh rate which sounded good, so I didn't try any others.

Not wanting to live with my screen image still slightly off-center, I decided to unload 6.31c and go back to 2.17. This went fine until I rebooted my system, whereupon my screen image was even more off-center (about 3/4 inch this time)! However, the tab that displayed the refresh rate now said "Adapter Default" rather than "Optimum". Before using the tab with the vertical/horizontal adjustment controls, I tried setting the refresh rate to "Optimum". This too looked pretty off-center. So I tried other values until I came to the refresh rate of 75Mhz. This setting put my image dead center again, extending all the way out to the very edges. Perfecto! No need to make any other horizontal/vertical adjustments! (This might have worked with 6.31c, too, but in my haste I'd already unloaded it without testing other refresh rates.)

So, both 2.17 and 6.31c will install, but 31.40H will not. And neither 2.17 or 6.31c default to a refresh rate which produces a centered image. 6.31c has more tweaks in the ASUS Display Controls, but the screen was off center with the refresh rate set to "Optimum". Assuming "Optimum" was the best choice, I failed to test other refresh rates while 6.31c was loaded. Since I had to set 2.17 to 75Mhz to get a screen image to center, I should retest 6.31c at other refresh rates to see if it too has a "better" setting than "Optimum."

One final note, since returning to v2.17 and 75Mhz, my cursor has been doing things it did not do before. When moved over text, links, input boxes, etc, it now changes from the normal pointer to a large square containing dense hash marks, sort of like what you'd see on the inside of a security envelope. It blocks out any text below it, making it impossible to position the cursor with any precision. I did not notice this behavior while 6.31c was installed, which was not very long, but immediately after 2.17 was reinstalled. To be honest, I've only rebooted once since reverting to 2.17, so maybe it will go away on the next reboot. I'll try that first, then go back to 6.31c to determine whether modifying the refresh rate there has the same effect (on centering the display) that it does in 2.17.

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