ATi X1300 driver

[BogdanV]

Being annoyed by the fact that there's no 9x driver for X1300 and the fact that it'll take probably more than a year before I replace my video card with one that does have working 9x drivers, I thought on venturing on my own, trying to adapt a 2k/xp driver to work with 98SE.

I am aware that NT is a completely different story from 9X, but nonetheless, I thought on seeing what can be done as I've heard that 98SE happens to have WDM support as with 2K and XP.

Anyway, I've trimmed the INF containing all the necessary data, leaving just the parts relevant to my video card, changed all the reg keys that pointed to (local machine) "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\..." to the probably equivalent entry, "...Microsoft\Windows\..." and also changed the version signature to "$Windows 95$" (or should I have used $Chicago$ instead ? ).

After doing all of this, I tried updating the display adapter with the INF I modified, but I ended up with a message stating that the file contains no information about my hardware.

Once I've seen this, I made a separate INF, to register all the keys that needed to be added, and manually copied the dll files in their respective folders, according to the INF file.

I rebooted and nothing changed (something I was kind of expecting).

In the end, can someone please tell me what is the system expecting to find in the INF file so that it would "contain data about my hardware" ?

Thanks in advance!

[Kwibus]

Maybee you can find some more information here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa972908.aspx

and perhaps this is could help with your problem.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms790212.aspx

Other than that i can not really help you as i do not know how to create drivers either.

Would be cool to learn though.

Edited April 18, 2009 by Kwibus

[blackwire]

http://www.geocities.com/bearwindows/vbe9x.htm

Have you tried these?

[Drugwash]

You need to add the VENDOR ID string of your card to the list of supported IDs in the INF - that's what's expected. That doesn't guarantee it'll work though; on top of all, there's system dependencies and NT drivers have the "bad habit" of being directly dependant on ntoskrnl.exe, hal.dll and maybe other NT-only system files.

You can find if there's missing files/functions by analyzing the driver file(s) with Dependency Walker.

To get the ID string, open Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information, go to Components > Display and check the Registry Key entry at the top.

Good luck!

[BogdanV]

Thanks for your replies. I'll see what I can do.

As for XP's HAL and ntoskrnl, I was afraid that something like this might get caught in the middle, but I'll see*.

http://www.geocities.com/bearwindows/vbe9x.htm

Have you tried these?

Well, as far as I'm aware, this driver, albeit useful, is just a primitive solution as it doesn't offer any hardware acceleration. Its basically a adaptation of XP's standard video driver, for 9x OSes.

*that is, after I fix drive C (where 98 resides) because XP trashed it.

Edited April 19, 2009 by BogdanV

[BogdanV]

Hate to be unearthing the dead, but I reached a crossroad with two news:

Good news is that the driver's dll dependencies seem to be satisfied.

Bad news is that even with the Vendor ID string inserted, it still doesn't recognise the INF as related to my hardware.

Just thought on asking if there's anything that can be done with this bunch of dlls and exes.

[Drugwash]

Your hardware should be recognized if the inf was properly modified. I suspect something is still missing from that inf (some other sections might have to be modified too). There are quite a bunch of topics around describing how to modify an inf to add hardware IDs; I don't have a link at hand but hopefully you can find something on a search.

As long as the dependencies appear to be satisfied, you might get lucky so don't abandon hope and dig this inf issue further.

[erpdude8]

I am aware that NT is a completely different story from 9X, but nonetheless, I thought on seeing what can be done as I've heard that 98SE happens to have WDM support as with 2K and XP.

WDM support in 98se, yes, BUT for mostly audio and modem devices. video cards/graphics cards are NOT included in WDM support for 98se/ME (shock! horror)! that I know from experience. that's why graphics card vendors still produced VXD drivers for win9x/me.

Edited June 10, 2009 by erpdude8