[How To Install Windows Sdk 7.0a
Christel Malden
When I tried to install the 3dfx 4 4500 graphic card into my Windows 98 machine by using a driver from internet, it says that the
"This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed
Hi kixs and akula (I think it means shark:)
Thank you very much for your replies, appreciated. I tried all the different version of the driver for Voodoo 4 /4500 on the falconfly.3df website. Unfortunately no one worked on the freshly installed Windows 98 SE
Then, I installed the unofficial service pack 3, U98SESP3.exe, and finally the win98 found it and it worked.
I am not sure but either there are some missing dependencies in fresh Windows 98 installation (w/o service pack), or there is some HW issues on my voodoo4 card (bought from ebay for a cheaper price), so vodoo4 did not work.
Now, vodoo4 is working, but now I have different issues. Now the HTML pages are not displayed by windows. I mean either help topics, or IE does not show any texts on the windows. I think the unofficial service package has issue or virus etc.
Did you guys have any idea what can be the cause this HTML pages are not shown issues?
Thank you
The FalconFly site sometimes includes text and/or HTML information on the right side of a driver entry on the page. So, for example, for the Voodoo4/5 Driver Version 1.04.00 (Date 09 November 2000), there is an HTML page with System Requirements for the driver:
The key thing to note is that a suitable DirectX version must also be installed in addition to the Windows base install. Odds are this so-called Service Pack you mentioned is providing the DirectX that you need, but it may be causing problems as well. As Shagittarius mentioned, you would probably be better served by doing a clean Windows install (not using the Service Pack) and then installing DirectX 7.0 or higher manually. Fortunately, the FalconFly mirror I mentioned above also has a variety of DirectX packages for various versions of Windows: Since you are using Windows 98, the DirectX 7.0a (08 December 1999) package would be a good candidate, and you can choose the English or German variants. Note that you need Windows 98 SE, since Windows 98 First Edition is not supported by DirectX 7 or later versions of DirectX. There may be other mirrors for the Microsoft DirectX files as well.
I know, that's why I wrote "after that". You install dec 2006 and then can install up to nov 2007 without errors, although I don't think there are even any 98 compatible d3d9 games that would need the newer d3dx9_* files .
It's not specifically DirectX 8. I experimented with WinMe's DirectX 7.1 as well. I found a few games that would cause Windows to die 100% of the time after quitting and trying to play them again without rebooting. Downgrading to DirectX 7.0a or pulling the sound card (Aureal or Creative VXDs) solved the crashes. It was driving me crazy. I built a few different platforms to test...Intel and AMD.
SBLive 5.1 has both VXD and WDM drivers available. The VXDs are best for game compatibility. Circa 1999 WDM drivers are not so great for performance or functionality even if they might be more stable. So yeah you have to choose your compromises here.
I'd turn it the other way around:
There's usually no reason not to use the latest DirectX version, since DirectX is based on COM interfaces. Each version of the API has its own interface, and has no effect on other versions.
If you install the latest DX runtime, it also includes the latest version of all previous versions of DX, so it is a cumulative update.
The only exception is when the latest version of a given DX has some issues with a certain game (extremely rare, I don't think I've ever encountered that myself), so you'd have to use a specific version of that DX.
The only exception is when the latest version of a given DX has some issues with a certain game (extremely rare, I don't think I've ever encountered that myself), so you'd have to use a specific version of that DX.
Well I've encountered problems as described above. VXD drivers don't necessarily like DirectX beyond 7.0a. Whatever the reason may be. It doesn't occur with every game though. Or maybe the effects vary in severity ....
Two games that get crash prone are Wheel of Time and Homeworld. I think they are DirectX 7 games as they are late 99 releases. Unless the patches change that. You don't even necessarily use D3D with them. I wonder if Direct X 7.1+ change something in the OS or if DirectSound is buggy in some way. Win9x is just a headache.
There's usually no reason not to use the latest DirectX version, since DirectX is based on COM interfaces. Each version of the API has its own interface, and has no effect on other versions.
If you install the latest DX runtime, it also includes the latest version of all previous versions of DX, so it is a cumulative update.
The only exception is when the latest version of a given DX has some issues with a certain game (extremely rare, I don't think I've ever encountered that myself), so you'd have to use a specific version of that DX.
If you're talking about the runtime installer, no, that does not include any hardware drivers whatsoever. The runtime is just an abstraction layer on top of the driver model.
However, new versions of DirectX sometimes require an updated driver model, and therefore updated drivers, if that's what you mean.
So eg, I have a Windows 98SE machine with DirectX 9 installed on it. But I have a PowerVR PCX2 card in it, which has an outdated driver. It only works with DX7 and lower.
Actually, that doesn't really make sense.
For games that use DX7 or lower, you're still not touching any DX8 code. They're even using the same old device driver interface (DDI) to the video driver (you can see which DDI is used in DXDiag).
So if installing DX8 fixed something for DX7-based games, it is probably because it also updated the DX7 components, and fixed some bugs.
Yup, that makes sense, because DirectX is unusual in the sense that each major version has its own interfaces. So having DX9 installed shouldn't affect anything that doesn't specifically use the DX9 interfaces.
It seems that a lot of people can't get their heads around this.
Most software is different. Eg with OpenGL, you only have one API. You have to query that API to see what version it is, and you have to query which extensions it supports.
So it's one monolith. And yes, in that case it could be that some older drivers implemented version 3.0, and they worked fine with a certain game... Update to new drivers, and they give you OpenGL 4.0, but in updating/extending the API, they broke something so the application using 3.0 doesn't work anymore.
In DirectX that doesn't happen.
d3dim.dll implements D3D for DX2 through DX6
d3dim700.dll implements D3D for DX7
d3d8.dll implements D3D for DX8
d3d9.dll implements D3D for DX9 etc.
I've seen games still work without the DirectX version they require. I figure there is some leftover code for previous APIs that's running. I think AVP2 requires 8 but will still load and work to a degree with 7.
I hope it turns out OK. This is the gamble I have tired of taking with Windows 9X for many years now. There was fun in trying to get things working without starting from scratch, but life is too short.
Yes in the end it turned out okay.
After 2 ctrl+alt+dels, the 'update' went through, i put in dxdiag (it wouldn't load properly; so bugged)
so i went to install it all over again and it went through that time no problem, dxdiag ran.
Then i noticed there was a roll back dxdiag shortcut placed on the desktop and it took me back to 7.0a
then i reinstalled dx8.2 once again, went through np, dxdiag is good.
I've seen BSODs with some VXD sound drivers if I go beyond DirectX 7.0a so sometimes that's what I run. For WinMe this is a problem because it shipped with DX7.1 and that is trouble with the sound VXDs. Technically you are not supposed to use VXDs with WinME so maybe this is why.
For what it's worth, I use DirectX 9.0a on my higher tier Windows 9x rig because it's the version that my sound card driver (Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS) requires. I haven't had any issues related to it so far. I've used both Windows 98SE and ME on this computer.
I was experiencing issues with the system rebooting or games freezing, but it turned out to be an overheating graphics card. After replacing the graphics card with a known good one, the issues went away. Both cards were Geforce4 cards (the problematic one was a Ti4200 and the working one is an MX440) using the 45.23 drivers.
My issue with sticking with DX7.1 is that you have games in 2001 that already force you to install DX8 (Red Faction for example), and I see no reason why would one use WME if one wanted to stick to DX7-era and older games. I see it as a beefed-up (or bloated-up, however one sees it) release of 9x that is more suited to running programs that already targeted NT5 (think 2000-2004, maybe 2005 if you stretch it), with the advantage of also running older Win32 and DOS programs rather well.
It's DirectX 7.0a you'd want to stay with. I tried WinME's DirectX 7.1 with the specific troublesome Vortex 2 drivers and they were killing the kernel there too. I don't know if it's possible to rig up WinME with an older DirectX than it came with. If there are solid WDM drivers available for the hardware, get on Win2k/XP instead, otherwise might as well keep it simpler with 98SE.
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