Driver Packs for Windows 95,98/98SE,ME, please suggest your drivers for inclusion in the packs Options

[soporific]

Driverpacks for Windows 98

What's this project?
This project was inspired by Bâshrat the Sneaky who started the Driverpacks project which, if you didn't already know, is absolutely fantastic. When you include them in your unattended Boot & OS re-installation DVD they will install the drivers for your standard hardware components that you normally have to do yourself after the OS has installed. This means a computer is completely ready to go after using a DVD with these driverpacks on them to install your OS. Well, since i'm about to release probably the last version of the Unattended Boot CD (UBCD) for Windows 98/98se i thought i'd make it extra special and in order for it to all work (especially for newer computers) the new UBCD needs to be able to function properly after the OS has finished installing, ie chipset drivers that tell the OS what all the new fangled hardware does is essential to be able to continue installing all of the other goodies contained in the new UBCD. Without a comparable project to Bâshrat's driverpacks, the UBCD won't work for everyone and the majority of these people will be the ones with better hardware (which they could still be using in 5 years). So, this only became obvious a few days ago when i was testing out on a K7 AMD AthlonXP 2600+ and it turned out i needed to install the chipset drivers for everything to work.

So, if you intend on making your own UBCD, then you'll want to send me your chipset drivers, especially if they aren't natively supported in Windows 98.

Windows 98 only: I was originally going to make this for Win95 and WinME as well but then i looked at the amount of extra work it would involve and decided it was impossible. Sorry to get your hopes up. I will, however, include drivers on an individual basis, ie, you send me the drivers (or provide a link) and i'll add them to a special pack you'll be able to use.

Latest News

Feb 18, 2008:
I'm releasing a new version of the UBCD and i want to include updated driver packs. Please post your suggestions for inclusion.


Sept 28, 2007: The video driverpacks have been tested with 3 cards (see below) so far and all work fine with an unattended installation of all drivers. Yippee.

cards tested:
SiS530
Radeon 9800 series
GeForce3 Ti 200

Sept 26:
After some help from fellow MSFN members (especially SubMix8c) i have cracked the driver packs for Win98/ME method! It wasn't hard in the end, just a matter of adding a line to msbatch.inf and writing some code to extract the packs, and then delete them after.

The main goal is to have the USERs video card properly installed before desktop loads. No other driver (IMHO) is as important due to the fact these can always be installed after setup finishes, whereas the some post-installation tasks like the post-installation wizard (WPI) needs more than 16 colors at 800 x 600 resolution.

Please post the details of the cards you'd like supported in the driver packs, and provide links where you can.

CODE

Index for the Driver Packs for Windows 98se
v1.20
__________________________________

DP_w98_1.01.exe is 12.4 MB and extracts to 45.9 MB
DP_w98_2.01.exe is 8.88 MB and extracts to 40.5 MB
DP_w98_3.01.exe is 14.5 MB and extracts to 49.5 MB
DP_w98_4.02.exe is 1.08 MB and extracts to 3.62 MB
DP_w98_5.01.exe is 2.34 MB and extracts to 5.32 MB
DP_w98_6.01.exe is 523 KB and extracts to 1.89 MB
DP_w98_7.01.exe is 105 KB and extracts to 36.4 KB

total: 39.8 MB extracting to 147 MB uncompressed
__________________________________

** Driver Packs 1 **

ATI Radeon 9800 series
ATI Radeon 9700 series
ATI Radeon 9600 series
ATI Radeon 9500 series
ATI Radeon 9200 series
ATI Radeon 9100 series
ATI Radeon 9000 series
ATI Radeon 8500 series
ATI Radeon 7500 series
ATI Radeon 7200 series
ATI Radeon 7000 series
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series
** and all "All-In-Wonder" variants of the every ATI Radeon series family above.
SiS 315
SiS 530
SiS 6326
SiS 635
SiS 645
SiS 733
SiS 735
Trident Blade XP-T64
S3 ProSavageDDR
ASUS VANTA2000
ASUS V3800 Series
ASUS V6600 Series
ASUS V6800 Series
ASUS V7100 Series
ASUS V7700 Series
ASUS V8200 Series
ASUS V8170 Series
ASUS V8420 Series
ASUS V8440 Series
ASUS V8460 Series
ASUS V9180 Series
ASUS V9280 Series
ASUS CUA Series
__________________________________

** Driver Packs 2 **

SiS 650
VIA-S3 UniChrome
VIA VT8361
VIA VT8601
VIA VT850
ATi Rage 128
ATi Rage 128 Pro
Voodoo3
Voodoo4
Voodoo5
Voodoo Banshee
__________________________________

** Driver Packs 3 **

NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce3
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5100
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200LE
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600XT
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700VE
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900ZT
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300
NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5750
NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5900
NVIDIA GeForce 6100
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 400
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 405
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 420
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 430
NVIDIA GeForce 6150
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6200
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 A-LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache™
NVIDIA GeForce 6200SE TurboCache™
NVIDIA GeForce 6500
NVIDIA GeForce 6600
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 VE
NVIDIA GeForce 6610 XL
NVIDIA GeForce 6700 XL
NVIDIA GeForce 6800
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS/XT
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Series GPU
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XE
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 7025
NVIDIA GeForce 7050 PV
NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 SE
NVIDIA GeForce 7500 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 LE
NVIDIA GeForce 7650 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX v2
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT/GTO
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT AGP
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 v2
NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR/EX
NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro
NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 550 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 700 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 780 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro DCC
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400/4400
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI
NVIDIA Quadro FX 350
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 X2
NVIDIA Quadro FX 500/FX 600
NVIDIA Quadro FX 540
NVIDIA Quadro FX 550
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
NVIDIA Quadro FX 560
NVIDIA Quadro FX 700
NVIDIA Quadro NVS
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 210S
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 50 PCI
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 55/280 PCI
NVIDIA Quadro NVS with AGP8X
NVIDIA Quadro PCI-E Series
SiS 661FX
__________________________________

** Driver Packs 4 ** (Chipset drivers)

ALi1621
nForce2
nForce3
nForce4
VIA USB 2.0 (usb)
VIA HyperionPro 5.12a
VIA IDE VT82C580

__________________________________

** Driver Packs 5 ** (audio drivers)

VIA AC97
ESS 1869
Sound Blaster Live
SoundMAX AD1885

__________________________________

** Driver Packs 6 ** (network drivers)

AcerLAN ALN 201
AcerLAN ALN 325
Realtek 10/100/1000 NIC Family
ADMtek AN983B
Realtek RTL8139
LanKom LB-1200U
VIA VT8233

__________________________________

** Driver Packs 7 ** (Virtual Machine drivers)

VMWare mouse driver
VMWare Virtual SVGA video driver

Download links:

Pack 1
Pack 2
Pack 3
Pack 4
Pack 5
Pack 6
Pack 7

This post has been edited by soporific: Feb 17 2008, 07:04 AM

[swgreed]

So you're going to plan something like "Bashrath the Sneaky's Driverpack"(http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/) but for Win9x?

[soporific]

So you're going to plan something like "Bashrath the Sneaky's Driverpack"(http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/) but for Win9x?

Basically.

[oscardog]

Using ren, might save you creating, deleting directories until everything is finished. Modifying the registry to point to the necessary source driver files or using subst, adding/altering the path statement might help. I have use most of this to make tiny win9x but never on a full install.Hopefully food for thought.
Keep up the good work
All the best

[soporific]

well, i was right !!! ... it seems ... i shouldn't get too excited as i've only tested on one piece of hardware, but the method seems sound. The INF file for my hardware wasn't very silent and so i had to click thru stuff, but the point was the computer did the following:

1) it found an unknown piece of hardware

2) it found an INF file for it.

3) and i forced the process above and am able to automate it.

it seems the rest of the task is easy ... unfortunately most if not all INFs will have to be modified to be nice and silent but maybe it won't be so bad ... my plan is that the Driver Pack will simply have the drivers i have a need for and the INFs for those will be done by me. If you want to include your drivers, you are going to have a much better chance of getting them *quickly* inserted by doing the modding of the INFs yourself. I only recently learnt myself its not that hard.

SO now i'm working on a method to use the driver packs *whenever* -- ie we don't want to just use it when re-installing the OS ... what about if you come across a piece of hardware and you had *no* idea what it was, theoretically, if the driver packs were big enough, all you would have to do is run them and the hardware would be installed. There's no hope that this project will ever get to that stage but the concept would be interesting to nail down ... i can think of many uses for a universal automated driver installer.

SO if i release something, you should be able to test it by creating your own test driver pack (simply an archive of the needed files) and checking it out ... that's the plan ... back soon ...

[Brink]

Just to let you know,
There are people who are interested in this still.
Have you made any progress or have you found any pre-built driver packs for windows 98?

Thanks

[soporific]

Have you made any progress or have you found any pre-built driver packs for windows 98?

well, i got someway there but the rest would have taken a huge chunk of my time and as there were no offers to help ... so these packs are still a pipe dream it seems.

But who knows what the future will bring?

[MDGx]

If any1 cares, marxo posted a link to the complete 98/98 SE DDK:

98DDK:
http://www.mdgx.com/add.htm#DDK
* Microsoft Windows 98/98 SP1/98 SE Complete DDK 32-bit + Documentation [43.3 MB, right-click to save]:
http://www.mdgx.com/spx/98DDK.RAR
Windows 98/98 SP1/98 SE DDK 32-bit [25.1 MB]:
http://www.arte.unipi.it/Public/Win32/win98ddk.exe
DDK Resources:
http://support.microsoft.com/ph/7229/

HTH

[ShadeTreeLee]

Just an observation you might be able to take advantage of here, but at times I've left an old removed modem's inf file in the Windows\INF\Other folder and had Windows keep reinstalling it silently without prompting anything. I thought I was losing my mind! The fifth reboot and I still had a five time removed from the device mangler modem, convinced me to take another look around, I found the Other folder and nuked the offending inf file in there and then Windows started asking me for a different modem installation location which I happily pointed it to. But, modem files do go to the INF\Other folder normally or so I've thought for a long time now, mine also currently holds a sound card inf file.

I don't understand a great deal of how Windows detects a new piece of hardware or gathers matching inf files for it and then installs the proper one. Each process is a complete mystery to me so I won't be much further help.

[submix8c]

There is a parameter in MSBATCH.INF (can't remember what it is offhand...) that allows for pointing to a secondary folder for INF's, etc. This would have to be placed on the HDD along with the setup files (etc.; ref. soporific's UBCD) for them to be "found". They cannot be ".exe" or ".msi" etc, ONLY INF's and the related files. Also reference ShadeTreeLee's comment about WINDOWS/INF/OTHER (it's relevant). This is how OEM's pull this stunt off.

The main problems as I see them are
- gathering the INF's and the associated files (for each INF) and placing these into the special folder. Windows Setup will then find them and install the necessary files as appropriate.
- having a list of all (potential) candidates for Setup Install (lots of hardware out there that is not in W98SE WHCL). Make a list(?) and search away!

HTH. Cheers...

edit - FOUND IT! This is from WinME. Haven't tried it, but it may work for 98SE (MSBATCH.INF)...

CODE

[OPKExpress]
... (etc.)
[OEMDrivers]
; Add additional driver paths for OEM specific drivers
; Ensure each entry is separated by a semi-colon
; HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion","OtherDevicePath",,"C:\DRV\AUDIO;C:\DRV\VIDEO"

This post has been edited by submix8c: Jul 19 2007, 11:50 AM

[soporific]

I'm building a Win98se video drivers pack !!!

It doesn't have to be strictly Win98se, but that is the system i intend using it on, i should be able to include instructions about how to add drivers to the publicly available pack.

Please post your suggestions about what to include in it, please post direct links if you can. no worries if you can't.

Thanks to all for the info, all the replies since my last one were excellent, i shall reveal which method i went with very soon ...

The pack contains so far:

1. SiS530 VGA display driver.

This post has been edited by soporific: Sep 24 2007, 10:19 AM

[glocK_94]

Cool. I'd say you at least need one Nvidia and one Ati driver. I'd suggest Ati Radeon Catalyst v6.2 since that's the last one avaible for 9x and Nvidia Forceware 82.96 (official or unofficial version).
Some people might want older (but more stable) drivers for nvidia cards too.

You could add lots of old cards (matrox, intel, 3Dfx...) but watch out as it'll quickly grow huge.

Oh, direct links ? Ok:
Here's for Catalyst -> http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/98me/radeonaiw-98me.html
and for unofficial Nvidia -> http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/inde.../t97140-50.html

[soporific]

Cool. I'd say you at least need one Nvidia and one Ati driver. I'd suggest Ati Radeon Catalyst v6.2 since that's the last one avaible for 9x and Nvidia Forceware 82.96 (official or unofficial version).
Some people might want older (but more stable) drivers for nvidia cards too.

You could add lots of old cards (matrox, intel, 3Dfx...) but watch out as it'll quickly grow huge.

Oh, direct links ? Ok:
Here's for Catalyst -> http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/98me/radeonaiw-98me.html
and for unofficial Nvidia -> http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/inde.../t97140-50.html

i definitely want one of each, thanks for the tips.

I was going to write something else but its not yet relevant. Sorry for this post, there no new info!

This post has been edited by soporific: Sep 24 2007, 11:59 AM

[soporific]

OK i need some help with INF files ... how can i make sure that the drivers installation is unattended ... in my test system, i have a video card that is not supported by Win98 and setup finds the INF file OK, but then setup asks for all the files the INF file refers to

i know the location that the files will be in, but how do i include this info in the INF file so it can all be unattended?

Thanks in advance ...

[patchworks]

As i already suggested @ DriverPacks.net forums, why don't you consider to build a "simple" (open sourced) driver update manager ?

[soporific]

As i already suggested @ DriverPacks.net forums, why don't you consider to build a "simple" (open sourced) driver update manager ?

it's not a matter of consideration, i know i want to be able to dump drivers onto a UBCD and for setup to be able to find those drivers and use them to install the hardware it sees, and i've actually just cracked how to do this!! The only problem is understanding the INF files (which i would have to do anyway for a 'driver update manager') so setup finds the files listed in the INF without user interaction, so if you can help with this, please post, if not, sorry but that's all i need to know to get the project as i've outlined above going in reality. Cheers!

[piete]

Ok, since no one has replied to my question elsewhere in this forum, I'll try my luck here. So here's my wishlist:

Mobile Intel 945GM Express chipset
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Audio chipset ADI1981HD PremierSound High Definition Audio
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 802.11 a/b/g WLAN

Sorry for not adding links but I guess those drivers don't exist for Win98, at least anything I've downloaded has not worked on my system.

Since I'm new on this forum I don't know if all of you are "Chevy owners" who use Win9X on older systems where there are available drivers. However, I only have a HP NX7400 which is relatively modern with no-existent Win98 support. And I am not that experienced in installing drivers, in my older computer I googled a driver for the chipset and installed it with no problems. However, now that I'm trying to do the same I have no success, the screen resolution (the first thing I'm trying to change) stays at 640x480. If somebody wanted to pass me a link to "driver installation for dummies" or send me a PM, I would appreciate that, too.

Also, if you think I should write my questions/problems somewhere else, feel free to comment.

[eidenk]

As i already suggested @ DriverPacks.net forums, why don't you consider to build a "simple" (open sourced) driver update manager ?

it's not a matter of consideration, i know i want to be able to dump drivers onto a UBCD and for setup to be able to find those drivers and use them to install the hardware it sees, and i've actually just cracked how to do this!! The only problem is understanding the INF files (which i would have to do anyway for a 'driver update manager') so setup finds the files listed in the INF without user interaction, so if you can help with this, please post, if not, sorry but that's all i need to know to get the project as i've outlined above going in reality. Cheers!

Overview of Hardware Inf Installer

Hardware Inf Installer (Infinst) allows you to add new hardware drivers to Windows 98 Setup. When you install Windows 98, Setup automatically detects all hardware and installs the necessary drivers. However, you may purchase new hardware whose drivers are not included in Windows 98.
This program allows you to add new hardware infs and the associated drivers to a Windows 98 Setup share.

Is this helpfull ?

I am not sure, as it not specified that and that I have never used it, that the hardware drivers added to windows setup with this tool are forcibly installed or if they install only if the corresponding hardware is detected.

[joe tweaker]

I'm building a Win98se video drivers pack !!!

Please post your suggestions about what to include in it, please post direct links if you can. no worries if you can't.

I have a very old video card, an ASUS V3400TNT (1X AGP) which came with driver version 1.02. I later upgraded to 2.17 from the ASUS website. I've seen versions 6.31c and 31.40H elsewhere, but it wasn't clear if those are ASUS upgrades. Would I get better performance with 6.31c or 31.40H?

Are these too old for your driver pack? Does this pack install the video driver automatically with UBCD?

[soporific]

I'm building a Win98se video drivers pack !!!

Please post your suggestions about what to include in it, please post direct links if you can. no worries if you can't.

I have a very old video card, an ASUS V3400TNT (1X AGP) which came with driver version 1.02. I later upgraded to 2.17 from the ASUS website. I've seen versions 6.31c and 31.40H elsewhere, but it wasn't clear if those are ASUS upgrades. Would I get better performance with 6.31c or 31.40H?

Are these too old for your driver pack? Does this pack install the video driver automatically with UBCD?

1) Nothing is too old. In fact, the older the better as long as it is genuinely used on a current Win98se system (or one that could possibly be resurrected), and it is not natively supported in Win98se. I'm not building this pack to put every driver in the known universe in, but a good selection with a good chance of being needed in the next 5 years or so.

2) i would go with what the manufacturer says -- if they reckon 2.17 is the latest driver, then that's the one you post a link to. I am on a mission but this mission isn't to give everyone the very latest driver, its to simply get the hardware to work. If we give them the latest driver, that's a bonus. So for the purposes of this exercise lets not waste our time trying to determine which is the very latest if its not obvious.

3) Would you get better performance with 6.31c or 31.40H? Isn't it obvious ??? dude, maybe you think i'm some sort of genius that would be able to tell you just by looking at the version numbers for drivers for an 1 x AGP old video card which one is going to give you better performance -- sorry man, i just aint that good! I am gratified a little though to know you hold my intelligence in such esteem that it was possible

4) Yes, these driver packs are designed to be used with unattended boot CD or DVDs just like the ones for WinXP etc. It won't have to be my UBCD as i will post the method (as soon as its finalized!) so as long as you know what you're doing, it will be useful on any installation disc.

This post has been edited by soporific: Sep 26 2007, 04:36 AM