catalyst 6.2 windows 98 does not detect laptop screen properly

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon Drivers Section' started by pkkilleru, Nov 18, 2015.

  1. pkkilleru

    pkkilleru Guest

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    Hi Everyone,

    I own an Acer Aspire 5502WXMi that I wish to dual boot into Windows ME and Windows XP. (I have also tried Windows 98 with the same results)

    I got everything up and running fine on Windows ME minus the wifi card (2200BG) but I don't really care about it.

    What I do really care about is the ATI Mobility Radeon X700 that I got to run partially with the below driver versions:

    8.03.98.3-041103a-019079E-ATI 4.14.01.9150 (Catalyst 4.10)
    8.03.98.3-041103a-019924E-ATI 4.14.01.9150 (Catalyst 4.11b)
    8.03.98.3-050117a-021000E-ATI 4.14.01.9150 (Catalyst 5.2)
    8.03.98.4-050817a-026397E-ATI 4.15.1.9163 (Catalyst 5.9)
    8.03.98.5-060124a-030314E-ATI 4.15.1.9165 (Catalyst 6.2)

    Anything older than the driver versions above will not work (yellow exclamation in device manager)

    When I say partially I mean that the driver loads fine and has full functionality (both 2D and 3D), but for some weird and VERY ANNOYING reason it will not detect the laptop screen (1280x800) properly (please see attached pictures).

    I have added the proper resolutions in the inf files, they are available and working, but the problem still remains with the laptop screen. I have also tried to load a driver for the screen. Also to interchange the driver files between versions....

    As an example, I have attached a picture from Windows XP where the laptop screen is properly detected and available (please see below).

    I have looked everywhere, spent hundreds of hours for a solution but it became more and more obvious to me that the problem had nothing to do with the inf, but with the drivers themselves (most probably because they were not designed for mobile platforms).

    I need to mention that if I connect the laptop to an external monitor, everything is fine, the image looks perfect on the external monitor, but it does not fix the laptop screen.


    If you have any suggestions, the knowledge to modify the drivers, any friends that know how to modify them, any workarounds that I can use (maybe a hack to make Windows 98/ME and the drivers to think that the laptop screen is an external 1280x800 screen), heck I am ready to try anything to make it work, I would really appreciate it.

    Laptop Screen at 640x480
    Laptop Screen at 800x600
    Laptop Screen at 1024x768
    Laptop Screen at 1280x786
    Laptop Screen not present (not detected in Windows 98/ME, notice how the image gets cropped in the middle. On native resolution 1280x800 the image is cropped in two places and even more shrunk horizontally)
    Laptop Panel in XP (Laptop Screen is detected in Windows XP properly)
     
  2. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    Stick with XP?

    98 in 2015? seriously?
     
  3. PrMinisterGR

    PrMinisterGR Ancient Guru

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    It's a single core Pentium M with an 80GB slow spinner and an X700m. What do you expect him to have exactly? His only other alternative is a lightweight Linux distro.
     
  4. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    The guy has XP running in his screenshot, what's with the attitude?
     

  5. Truder

    Truder Ancient Guru

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    Ahem, your idea of attitude is a bit... misguided.

    There are plentiful reasons why he's wanting to use Windows 98. Obvious reason being the power of his laptop but if that was the case, XP would be fine but other reasons could be he wants to use legacy software in a native environment, maybe he's doing it for nostalgia purposes, maybe he want to do it for the sake of it.

    So yes, 98 in 2015, seriously.
     
  6. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    Ooh look, another one for the iggy list

    Next?
     
  7. V1tol

    V1tol Guest

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    What? I've been experimenting with running Win7 on single core Celeron M with GMA950 video and 1.5Gigs of ram. And it was running suprisingly good for such computer, even Aero was working. Also I've even managed to install OS X 10.6 hackintosh on it.

    Windows XP is his best choice, if he needs Windows at all. And he can have any modern Linux distro with almost any desktop environment (maybe, except for Unity or KDE).
     
  8. pkkilleru

    pkkilleru Guest

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    I did have the chipset drivers installed, they are working fine. As for the wifi and video drivers, they are designed for Windows NT based platforms, not in a million years would anybody hope that they would work on a windows 9x platform.

    Why did you even waste your time to post this? How about doing it just for kicks? Were you ever intrigued by anything?




    Anyway, thanks everyone for your thoughts and for being interested/curious.

    Unless there is somebody interested in modifying the current available video drivers, I don't think I will ever get it running.

    Unless (and I think about this more and more) I trick windows 98/ME into thinking that the laptop screen is actually an external screen with a maximum resolution of 1280x800, this is the only area which I have not thoroughly investigated. This could be done via hacking the registry and changing the hardware ID of the monitor or by some other method...

    Any suggestions are welcome. If I do find a solution I will definitely post it here.
     
  9. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    I managed to put Windows 98SE online recently using an ALFA 036H, kerio Personal firewall last free version, and Opera 10.10 from 2009.

    So it still can be done...

    No KernelEx hacks, although you had to disable the inbuilt network card or it wouldn't
    authenticate fully.

    Unlike NT based OS's it doesn't have loadsa open ports hanging off the connection.

    I'm not sure how secure it would be fully patched up in 2015 online, but I don't care either because it's some old ****ty machines, and I don't stay around to play around too long.

    Can't help with the gfx issue tho...sorry.

    My Win9x archaic stuff has Radeon 9550 and 9250's installed.
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2015
  10. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    Another iggy, sweet, keep them coming

    I wish there was a whitelist on G3D instead of a blacklist, would make things a lot tidier
     

  11. Truder

    Truder Ancient Guru

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    Have you tried the driver only/control panel options rather than catalyst? I know that catalyst was very troublesome on non-nt systems.

    It could also be a chipset issue, as windows 98 didn't natively support pci-e.

    It's been a long time since I've used Win98 though. The only other option I can think of is if you manually install the EDID information for the monitor into the registry.
     
  12. vase

    vase Guest

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    wow...unreal...

    :puke2:

    stop derailing threads plskthxbai
     
  13. WhiteLightning

    WhiteLightning Don Illuminati Staff Member

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    Please behave, or infractions will be handed out
     
  14. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    Infractions for asking a genuine question? Asking why someone is using 98 in 2015 is an offence now?

    Geez..

    If you read the thread, you'd see I made one comment, and a bunch of hyenas decided to try and wind me up by grouping together and trolling, didn't work, but if you feel that is justification for handing out infractions, infract away
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2015
  15. Truder

    Truder Ancient Guru

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    People gave you genuine answers (such as myself) and you just ignored them making a silly comment in response providing no discussion as a result.

    The OP even answered you, that he's doing it out of an interest and you then go and say "another iggy".

    Anyway, this is enough offtopic, have you had any luck getting Win98 working properly?

    Another thing that could be an issue is that Win98 might have needed a patch (a google result revealed that certain resolutions weren't supported in Win98 till a patch from M$ was released).
     

  16. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    Unfortunately some people around here never heard of such terms as retro computing or nostalgia...

    Besides it's a challenge fully updating a Windows 9x or NT4 box in 2015 and sometimes people need some help, and computers never usually really get thrown away while they still work...

    They just all seem to congregate in the attic instead, or get used as a file server or hardware firewall.

    The only real barrier to putting an old system online in 2015 is a lack of a decent antivirus and lack of web browser support. Well that and wifi aswell.

    Win9x doesn't have all the "services" hanging off the TCP/IP ports that plagues NT.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2015
  17. pkkilleru

    pkkilleru Guest

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    Check this out, I might be on the right track here....

    Overriding Monitor EDIDs with an INF

    I strongly believe I can trick Windows 9x to think the laptop screen is actually external.

    Meditate on this I will
     
  18. Dr451

    Dr451 Active Member

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    Go to job and buy new computer!! This is mega old Laptop. 2015 year!!!!!!!!
     
  19. pkkilleru

    pkkilleru Guest

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    OK Arnold..... Maybe I'm doing it for the challenge itself and maybe you can help instead of throwing useless suggestions.
     
  20. Rambo

    Rambo Master Guru

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    So? I don't know if existing any law which is forbidding owning old stuff. If you want, u probabbly can buy new PC for @pkkilleru ;) but u shouldn't try to force owner to buy new stuff.
     

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