Win98SE stuck in VGA resolution

[stancomm]

Hi, Mr. Newbie to this forum, here.

Running a T30 dual boot Win98SE and XP Sp3. HDD was totally wiped when I received the machine, so I loaded the operating systems, 98 first then Xp.
Installed as many of the Lenovo drivers for XP as I could find, but when running Win98 the only screen resolution is 600x480, all other choices are grayed out.
The two operating systems are a necessity as some of the software is run under real DOS which can be accessed if the boot-up is halted before 98 is loaded.
Others are written for 98, the rest for XP. Several of the programs which run under 98 are cumbersome at the minimum screen resolution, their images more than fill the screen.
I read on another forum about reinstalling 98 in order to add resolutions, but if that's going to require that I reinstall XP afterward, well, not good. May as well back up the HDD and start over.

Anybody been down a road like this before? Any less painless ways to make this happen?

Thanks,

Stan

[A31]

Have you got the appropriate video/display drivers for 98? That could be it.

[dr_st]

Second that. Win98 MUST have a specific video driver, as the generic VGA driver will only go up to VGA resolution.

On an unrelated note, if you put BootGUI=0 in Win98's MSDOS.SYS file, it won't load on startup (you can load it by typing WIN). Perhaps you know that already. I guess it depends on how frequently you need to run pure DOS versus Win98 software.

[RealBlackStuff]

All W98 drivers can be found here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 42358.html

[stancomm]

Have you got the appropriate video/display drivers for 98? That could be it.

Well, I thought that I did, but I'll give it another whack... that's why I'm here.

Thanks.

[stancomm]

Second that. Win98 MUST have a specific video driver, as the generic VGA driver will only go up to VGA resolution.

On an unrelated note, if you put BootGUI=0 in Win98's MSDOS.SYS file, it won't load on startup (you can load it by typing WIN). Perhaps you know that already. I guess it depends on how frequently you need to run pure DOS versus Win98 software.

Will download the driver set and install them.

As relating to the boot sequence, I've inserted a call to a DOS menu program which takes care of calling all the DOS stuff. Once the menu is quitted, the boot continues to W98. Although, I'll remember that tip.
Actually I use the DOS software more than the W98 stuff... all of which is used to program the operating specs into 2-way radios. Some old enough that DOS is the only way to do the job.

Thanks, Stan

[A31]

Well, I thought that I did, but I'll give it another whack... that's why I'm here.

Thanks.

Well if you have an ethernet/internet driver can't you just tell it to go and search for the appropriate driver over the web, or does 98 not have this feature? I really can't remember I've not used it in such a long time! Anyway if it does, right click "My Computer" to bring up the system properties, then to "Hardware" and then to "Device Manager" and right click on the video controller and tell it to find a driver online.

[craigmontHunter]

@A31, win98 does not have this feature (actually, device manager is built into system properties, not a sperate window.

After you have downloaded and run the program from IBM, you need to go an install the driver, which should be in the c:\drivers folder - look around, and there should be an installer program, which will enable everything.

[stancomm]

@A31, win98 does not have this feature (actually, device manager is built into system properties, not a sperate window.

After you have downloaded and run the program from IBM, you need to go an install the driver, which should be in the c:\drivers folder - look around, and there should be an installer program, which will enable everything.

Thank you all! It works!

Stan

[ozzymud]

@A31, win98 does not have this feature (actually, device manager is built into system properties, not a sperate window.

98 Actually did have this, it was just on the same screen as searching disks for the driver...

5k IMG:


But it hasn't worked since July 11, 2006... even before MS discontinued support, it was very limited as to which drivers it had in MS's database... it was basically luck

[craigmontHunter]

I guess my issue is that I never had a 98 system connected to the internet long enough to discover that (or it never worked) - I went to windows 2000 shortly after I got wifi, which was worlds better

I don't think you would have had much luck with it anyway - I don't think ATI ever posted their older laptop video drivers on windows update, regardless of the windows version (up to xp), even when they were new.

[ozzymud]

It usuually had things like sound, or, laugh... modem drivers... remember this was mostly dial-up days

[dr_st]

Automatic driver search by Windows only started working well with Vista. And really well only with Win7. Vista had a pretty solid database of drivers already supplied with the distributive, but if you needed something new from the internet, it still not quite as good as Win7 (at least my experience has been such).

[Unknown_K]

Even if MS had the correct driver it would be a very old one anyway, you are better off looking up the latest driver for that chipset (once you know what it is).

[ozzymud]

Even if MS had the correct driver it would be a very old one anyway, you are better off looking up the latest driver for that chipset (once you know what it is).

bigtime agree, laptop oem manufacturer site is always your best bet, chipset if you see it fixes a problem that the oem ain't got around to including in there driver pack.

[Unknown_K]

I keep all the original disks for my old equipment, but if I am reloading a system I go for the last drivers made since many original drivers were VERY buggy (like my first Nvidia card back in the day, a TNT1 AGP card with nasty artifacts from the OEM drivers).

IBM seems like they would fix any major bugs with their own chip designs, but most laptops have off the shelf chipsets and getting newer drivers from the OEM is the best bet.