Video card questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Head Hunter
  • Start date Start date
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Head Hunter

Here is my situation. I have a PC that dual-boots Win98 and WinXP.
Everything was working fine. However, I bought an ATI 2600HD video card
(AGP, 512MB) on black Friday. Works great. However, the drivers will not
install in Win98 (big surprise). But, any drivers I can download from ATI
that WILL install in Win98 WON'T recognize the card because it is too new.
Now, here is my question.

In almost any BIOS anymore, you have an option to boot from PCI or AGP
first. Could I install a PCI video card in the mobo, set the BIOS to boot
from the PCI, and tell Win98 to use that card (disable the AGP card in
device manager). Then, do the exact opposite in WinXP. Does anyone know if
that would work? I am kind of nervous about trying it on my own.

I don't really use Win98 much, but there are a couple of games I still like
that won't run in WinXP, and my joystick and scanner don't have WinXP
drivers. So, I haven't nuked it yet.

Anyway, thanks for any information.
Carl
 
Head Hunter said:
Here is my situation. I have a PC that dual-boots Win98 and WinXP.
Everything was working fine. However, I bought an ATI 2600HD video card
(AGP, 512MB) on black Friday. Works great. However, the drivers will not
install in Win98 (big surprise). But, any drivers I can download from ATI
that WILL install in Win98 WON'T recognize the card because it is too new.
Now, here is my question.

In almost any BIOS anymore, you have an option to boot from PCI or AGP
first. Could I install a PCI video card in the mobo, set the BIOS to boot
from the PCI, and tell Win98 to use that card (disable the AGP card in
device manager). Then, do the exact opposite in WinXP. Does anyone know if
that would work? I am kind of nervous about trying it on my own.

I don't really use Win98 much, but there are a couple of games I still like
that won't run in WinXP, and my joystick and scanner don't have WinXP
drivers. So, I haven't nuked it yet.

Anyway, thanks for any information.
Carl
Click to expand...

Been there, done that. And yes it should work, although you'll
eventually get tired of changing the bios option and rebooting.
At least I did.

Have you considered a second computer to run Win98? If you
have two monitors (or your monitor has dual inputs) it might be
the way to go.
 
Head said:
Here is my situation. I have a PC that dual-boots Win98 and WinXP.
Everything was working fine. However, I bought an ATI 2600HD video card
(AGP, 512MB) on black Friday. Works great. However, the drivers will not
install in Win98 (big surprise). But, any drivers I can download from ATI
that WILL install in Win98 WON'T recognize the card because it is too new.
Now, here is my question.

In almost any BIOS anymore, you have an option to boot from PCI or AGP
first. Could I install a PCI video card in the mobo, set the BIOS to boot
from the PCI, and tell Win98 to use that card (disable the AGP card in
device manager). Then, do the exact opposite in WinXP. Does anyone know if
that would work? I am kind of nervous about trying it on my own.

I don't really use Win98 much, but there are a couple of games I still like
that won't run in WinXP, and my joystick and scanner don't have WinXP
drivers. So, I haven't nuked it yet.

Anyway, thanks for any information.
Carl
Click to expand...
Windows 98 is obsolete, dump it.
 
Head Hunter said:
I don't really use Win98 much, but there are a couple of games I
still like that won't run in WinXP,
Click to expand...

Have you tried right clicking on the game shortcut and selecting a
compatibility mode in Windows XP?

Good luck.
 
I don't really use Win98 much, but there are a couple of games I still like
that won't run in WinXP, and my joystick and scanner don't have WinXP
drivers. So, I haven't nuked it yet.

Anyway, thanks for any information.
Carl
Click to expand...

It's a PCI Express card and nowhere near a non-existent support level
of 98.

Trick is modify the XP environment for those games. Maybe not for the
nervous type, but it'll work - I've managed some old games under XP.
Google for configurations and specific game ideas. 98 may work with a
PCI board, something along a discounted Matrox or whatever from
Compgeeks.com - which may install into a default with a minimum of
compatability/driver subsequent issues. Invariably the sound wouldn't
work on old games was what I ran into - this helped.* Other than old
DOS command interpreters across boot arbitrators, I occasionally boot
non-graphically into to, I prefer not push a newer machine with
something as old as 98. Can tend to puke up nastily a mess of hard
drive corruption across partitions at worst.

* SoundForge GNU General Public License (GPL) VDMSound is a modular,
extendable soundcard (and other "legacy" hardware) emulator for MS
Windows NT/2000 DOS boxes.
 
The current better video cards on the market are NOT compatible with Win 98.
To make a long explanation shorter, I would highly recommend giving up your
few older Win98 games and avoid the complex boot scenario you envisioned.
 
Except, as I said, I have programs that WILL NOT run in WinXP, even in
"Compatability mode".
 
Yes, but I don't want to have to start from scratch on a new PC and try to
re-install everything. Not to mention not being able to get Win98 updates
anymore.
 
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