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Windows 98 drivers for G40

R30/R40, A30/A31, G40/G50 and Z60/Z61 Series. NOT for AMD-Ryzen.
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yha
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat May 02, 2020 7:57 pm
Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait

Windows 98 drivers for G40

#1 Post by yha » Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:51 pm

Hello,

I have a triple-boot ThinkPad G40 set up for "retro computing" (Linux, WIndows XP, and Windows 98 SE). Everything is running great on Linux and XP, but I have quite a few issues with my Windows 98 setup. I have downloaded most of the drivers from here, and upgraded to the latest BIOS. However, I still have no sound, no wifi (is that even possible?), unstable modem, and some overall slowness/flakiness after maxing out the RAM to 2GB.

I had initially installed Windows 98 SE from the installation media with 512MB of RAM (full install with all optional features like online services and WaveTop TV, etc). Everything went smoothly and I had no issues at all (aside from the many yellow question marks in Device Manager due to missing drivers). I then upgraded the RAM to 2GB, which caused the OS to stop booting. I would get an "Insufficient memory to initialize Windows" error, which I solved by following the instructions here (basically, adding one line of text to system.ini).

The change, which allows Windows 98 to see a maximum of 944MB of memory, came with a few side effects. The first of those is an error I get almost every time I boot into my desktop that says "The IPHLPAPI.DLL file cannot start. Check the file to determine the problem". After a little bit of research, it seems to be related to AOL, but I'm not sure how to resolve the issue. See image here: https://app.photobucket.com/u/yha84/a/a ... 14c9b2f8d8

Secondly, Windows 98 now takes much longer to start and respond to certain activities. For example, before the RAM upgrade, control panel would open immediately after I launch it. Now it takes maybe 25-30 seconds to launch. The laptop seems to hang on a few other actions as well, like when shutting down, and I would have to press and hold the power button to turn it off. The culprit seems to be "Power Meter". Clicking "End Task" does nothing and I would still have to hard reset the machine. See image here: https://app.photobucket.com/u/yha84/a/a ... 7375e3d641

As for sound, I have successfully installed the sound driver (Device Manager shows "SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio" as installed with the correct driver), but I do not get any sounds, nor am I able to play the different theme sounds from control panel (the play button is greyed out). I do get an abrupt sound when certain events occur (like errors) but that's about it. There is definitely something wrong with the driver (Linux and XP play sounds just fine).

I installed the modem driver, but on the next reboot it would continue the driver installation and ask for a missing 'AGRSM.vxd' file, and wants the "Agere Systems AC'97 Modem Installation Disk", which I don't have. I found that file here, and it seems to have partially installed the modem, but it occasionally gives me a blue screen error, plus there are now many "Agere Systems AC'97 Modem" entries with yellow question marks in Device Manager. See photos below. Perhaps the files I downloaded are not appropriate for the modem I have? See images here: https://app.photobucket.com/u/yha84/a/a ... 330702e778, https://app.photobucket.com/u/yha84/a/a ... 210220e697, https://app.photobucket.com/u/yha84/a/a ... 85cca23d0b, and https://app.photobucket.com/u/yha84/a/a ... f3c7a3aed6.

The are still a few other entries in Device Manager with missing drivers, as you can see from the pic above. Not sure what those are either ("PCI Ethernet Controller" (I do have the Ethernet driver as a separate entry, and that has no issues), "PCI Universal Serial Bus", and "Unknown Device", plus "Internet Connection Sharing" with the yellow exclamation mark).

On the subject of USB, when I insert my USB 2.0 flash drive, Windows tries to install the USB 2.0 driver but it doesn't find it. Where can I download that?

Overall, I believe many of the issues I'm having are due to the amount of RAM I installed, but I'm not sure. Any pointers to any of the issues above are highly appreciated.

Thanks.

kfzhu1229
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Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Windows 98 drivers for G40

#2 Post by kfzhu1229 » Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:56 pm

My recommendation is to only use Windows 98 with a maximum of 512MB allowed in system.ini. Going beyond that will just bring you instability and over 1GB you won't get a boot.
Not like anything beyond that will be taken use by what Windows 98 can do anyway.
You need Windows 98 SE USB2.0 stack for USB2 to fully work. Google that for downloads. Make sure your operating system language matches with the patch you are installing, or it will ruin your OS as I discovered the hard way.
Also install the chipset driver if you can for more efficient operation. I believe all the intel chipsets (Up to the T43 generation) have a driver for Windows 98 archived by Philscomputerlab
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

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