Win98 Usb Drivers

[Margarita Lovvorn]

Irecently upgraded from my Sound Blaster Live to the Audigy ZS in my Windows 98 Machine. I am currently having alot of issues getting the card to run, so far i have installed the WDM drivers manually from a Driver CD i found on Vogons, but the sound keeps cutting out.

Historically, was the Audigy 2 and it's variants intended for Windows 98? Some searching around, leads me to think it was marketed for Windows XP. Obviously it can be made to work for 98. Is this a mild hack or work around of some kind? Creative's website also did not list any Windows 98 drivers when I select any of the Audigy 2 models.

I use an Audigy in my Windows 98 build. Far as I know, it covers EAX 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Contemplating if I would want to upgrade it to an Audigy 2. However I wasn't able to determine if it was meant for Windows 98. Besides a bare driver, would any applications to configure and play with the card also work?

Yes, the bundled mixer and EAX control apps work on Win98. Games wise I've had Diablo 2 and Tron 2.0 working with EAX enabled. Did get some crashes with Tron with it enabled but that's not necessarily Win98 specific.

I also have this card, and will soon be installing it into my 440BX Win98 machine. Are you saying this card does not work in DOS at all without fiddling around? What if you open your games through a DOS prompt in Windows?

The catch in DOS is that pretty much all games that used sound talked directly to the metal, and the Audigy2 isn't any kind of hardware that they know how to talk to. This is kind of a problem with most PCI (and MCA, for that matter) sound cards and USB sound devices, and the reason why folks recommend ISA cards for DOS. A few PCI cards have DOS drivers that provide SBPro/SB16 emulation - the Ensoniq AudioPCI (SB PCI128) and Aureal Vortex2 both do.

Windows drivers sometimes provide an emulation layer for DOS games (while Windows is running), causing whatever card is installed to act like a Soundblaster 16, SB Pro or some other similar thing. Apparently the Audigy2 drivers don't do that, though I can't confirm - I've used many an Audigy2, but only ever under Windows 2000/XP/7/10 or Linux.

I've tried installing the Audigy 2 ZS on my Asus P2B (440BX), pointing the device manager to the VxD path. End result was it crashed. I didn't bother revisiting the issue, but if other people are getting theirs to work, I'm going to try at it again. Could be because I had a cheap Creative value sound installed previously and didn't scrub the drivers completely.

I tried the first driver to support the cards (61.76), but I get a fatal exception 00 when trying to launch a Direct3D app. I tried the next release (66.42), but lighting doesn't work correctly in some games. 71.84 is not compatible with some older games (Dungeon Keeper II) and neither is 81.98.

Just stick with the latest drivers. Some games won't work, too bad, don't play these games on such fast cards. It's all about matching cards with games. Focus on later games that still need Windows 98 for A3D for example, but are more demanding.

BTW, Phil is right. GF6 series dropped support for some features that older games may need (8-bit paletted textures for example). A GF4 or FX5 series card is a much better choice if you want full compatibility.

I allready know this, and it's not what I asked. Under winXP, both Black and White and Dungeon Keeper 2 work fine with the first xp driver (61.77). Latest XP driver 304.something brakes compatibility with most old games, including the latter. B&W has missing textures and DK2 will not run.

Now the reason I insist on trying a 6800 with these older games is for widescreen 1920x1080. They both run very well at this resolution and look much better then they do at 1280x1024 - witch is the maximum resolution I can run the games with a good framerate with a GF4 Ti. I no longer own an FX series (well I do heave a 5200 and a 5700 but they both suck, especially the 5200 witch runs slower then the GF4TI). Both my FX5900XT and FX5950 died mysteriously. No artefacting, and they were very well stored in anti-static bags.

There is no driver which would let you run everything with GF6 under win9x. Even FX and 4Ti/MX haven't full compatibility with an old games. If you want best compatibility and perfomance for all leave GF6+81.98 for newer games and plug PCI 3D for older games. It may be Riva TNT PCI for example. Or Voodoo2, ATI Rage, Savage4 PCI, Voodoo3/4/5 PCI etc.

All old games I play work perfectly on a GF4 Ti using 41.09 or 44.03. Besides the 6800, I use two Voodoo 2 cards in SLi for stuff like Carmageddon, Descent 2 and alike. I need to get games like Black & White, Dungeon Keeper 2, Sacrifice, Homeworld and alike working. The problem is each driver breaks compatibility with one or two games.

OK, why don't you want to use Voodoo2 SLI in D3D mode with "GF6-trouble-games"? And: sorry, but are you sure that all trouble-free games work with GF? Maybe with some detonators they simply don't use GF6 but use Voodoo2 in D3D. Not?

The whole point of this machine is to run 1998-2002 games with as much eye candy as possible - that is why I swapped the GF4 Ti for the 6800. That means silly resolutions and maybe some AA. Games that do not run well on modern hardware (2007-present) or require windows 9x to run stable (like Dungeon Keeper 2).

In XP everything from Carmageddon 3dfx to Doom 3 works perfectly. This includes DK2 (witch runs quite fast, looks great, but randomly crashes to desktop), B&W and sacrifice. It's not like I will be playing Carma 3DFX on it or Doom 3 - the later works fine on modern machines so I'd rather play it full HD and with silly amounts of AA on my 980m. Carma and alike are reserved for my K6-3 / Banshee rig.

Leadtek Winfast Nvidia GeForce A6600; mines the 256mb model

Running thru DVI TO HDMI converter works nice.

detonator v66.94 last to have no hanging on win9x shutdown. Later versions hang on shutdown, manual replacement of 4 files transplanted from v66.94. (Commented by Rudolph Loew who said his own fix creation wasn't applicable)

EDIT: I have installed latest driver beta and Loew's patch and it works wondeful for windows Me. shutdown, reboot no issues. I don't need warm reboot for graphics changes.

Now widescreen modes are more interesting thru DVI the HDMI adapter is more useful.

My monitor doesn't like many early display modes so i have to use dos box for those.

Hello everyone!

This project is fairly straightforward. I have integrated the Device Data from the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility versions 6.3.0.1007 and 8.3.1.1009 (up to ICH9; all after ICH6 is UNOFFICIAL) (excluding server motherboard/Xeon CPU chipsets due to 64KB INF size limit) into the original MACHINE.INF, MACHINE2.INF, and MSHDC.INF files. At the moment, only files for 98SE English have been created. I may consider creating equivalent versions of these INF's for ME/98FE (MAYBE 95, it is more complicated) if there is sufficient interest.

Updated info for USB Devices is not included in this initial version. The reason being that there would need to be multiple versions of USB.INF and USB2.INF, depending on if the original USB files are to be maintained; if manufacturer-issued USB2 drivers will be in use; or if NUSB 3.3, NUSB 3.6, or any other unofficial package is used in a target system.

Hopefully some of you with Intel or Intel-based systems can test these in a new installation.

Answers to a few initial questions:

Do I NEED these INF's?

No, but they can take a step out of setting up a new system. They are also only useful for new Windows 98SE installations on Intel or Intel-based motherboards.

How do I use these INF's?

Unzip them and place them in the same directory as your Windows 98SE CAB files prior to installation, and they will be used instead of the older versions inside the CABs.

In order to use these, you will need to copy the \WIN98 folder of your 98SE CDROM to your Hard Drive and install from there, or be able to create a new Windows 98SE CD with these files added to the \WIN98 folder.

What do these INF's do?

These INF's provide all of the Device Information contained in the above listed versions of the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility. If you use these updated INFs during 98SE installation, you will no longer need to install the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility to provide drivers/identify devices on your Intel or Intel-based motherboard.

EDIT 7/20/13 :

I have split the project into two INF sets, one to be used with Intel Chipsets up to ICH6 (mostly 8xx chipsets) and one to be used with ICH7/ICH8/ICH9/ICH10. (ICH10 not included yet!) Please use the proper version for your system.

I have tested the ICH6 and below INFs on some ICH6 and ICH5 systems, and I know these work.

Based on the issues schwups reported below, I have reduced the size of MACHINE2.INF for the ICH7 and up INF set. This set is still experimental, and this reduced version is for testing ONLY!

If anyone can test, especially on ICH7/ICH8/ICH9 systems please report your results.

INTEL_INF_98SE.ZIP - 44.9 Kb

I have updated the project to include all devices up to the Intel Chipset Identification Utility version 9.4.0.1017. The newer version requires slightly different handling, so the older version and links are left intact. See Post #31 for link and more info.

the first attempt failed . "The file C:\WININSTO.400\machine2.inf couldn't be opened. The file is missing or corrupted....SU0410". Generally inf files with more than 53 KB don't work on Win ME. But I'm not so familar with Win98SE. My test system: Win98SE, chipset i945 / ICH7.

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