Polishing a Turd (Old school)

scaler164

Yeah, I know... its time to upgrade... and I am, I am! But for now, I'm stuck with this old Gateway 550XL (550mhz) piece-o-junk. I am, however, in the process of buying the pieces for my new PC.

The basic specs for this old system are as follows :

MOBO : Intel Spearfish (dual processor (one used))
MEM : 4 chips, each 128mb PC100 UnBuffered SDRAM
OS : Windows 98
MONITOR : Gateway VX900T (tube)

Anyway... my present system came with a (Gateway issue) TNT RIVA II video card. However, due to suspicion that it may be about to give out (it is, after all, over 10 years old) I have recently replaced it with a refurbished (Gateway issue) GeForce 256 DRR 32bit card (world's first GPU). Being limited to what I can play due to the age of this system, I currently play mainly older games such as Battlezone 1 and 2, Descent 1, 2 and 3, Forsaken, Quake 1, and 2, Unreal 1 and UT1, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight 1, Pod Racer, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, Heretic 1 and 2, Hexen 1 and 2... etc, etc, etc... just to mention a few. Out of these, the most "taxing" game for a 3-D card is Descent III (I think).

Now, since I installed the GeForce, Battlezone II crashes every time I turn around... especially if I make the mistake of pressing the ESCape key, and Unreal 1 crashes after the screen goes black during boot-up. This problem did NOT exist until I installed the GeForce. I have gone as far as removing the GeForce and reinstalling the old TNT Riva, but the problem persisted... so i just put the GeForce back in with hopes of ironing out the problem.

CONFESSION : This was my FIRST time installing a new card, so I wasn't as savvy as some of you... and I didn't know I had to uninstall the old card's drivers before I installed the new one. So... I guess this is where my problems lie. The only problem is... try as I might... I cannot get the old drivers to uninstall!!! I have gone as far as using the "FIND" feature to locate and delete all of the TNT's drivers, but that caused the "New Hardware Found" (wizard) to pop up upon reboot for the GeForce, and upon running it, the old (TNT's) drivers re-appeared and the problem persisted.

So... my question is this... "WHAT THE <BLEEP>!?" And am I gonna have to do a total system restore to cure this crap!?

Thanks.

Scaler164 (@comcast.net)

dj_stick

try using DH's drivercleaner to remove all traces of the original drivers, then re-install the drivers for the newer card

scaler164

I have already tried using one such program - "Driver Cleaner Professional 1.5", but that did not work. So I finally gave in (this morning) and did a total system reinstall... ... and that has also failed... the problem still exists!

I'm beginning to think this GeForce card may be bad.

Methious

At the current age of your system you have passed the point of diminishing returns. Investing in a new card for that system may fix the problem in the short term, but in your own words you'll be sinking money into a turd.

Pick up a mother board/cpu/cpu fan combo at the local etailer, with onboard graphics to start with. Some cheap ddr2 and join us in the joy of having some thing relatively modern. The whole package should run under $200 and you'll be much more satisfied even with onboard video than your current rig.

Biostar Motherboard/CPU Bundle AM2VCOMB34S Biostar K8M800MAM2 Socket AM2 Motherboard and AMD Sempron 3400+ CPU with CoolerMaster Fan-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com 72.99 sempron 3400 AM2
Mushkin 2GB DDR2 Dual Channel System Memory 996529 2x1GB DDR2 800 SP6400 Memories 240-Pin Unbuffered-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com 44.00 mushkin 2 gig ram

$117 bucks, it's an AGP rig but it's cheap, unichrome integrated video so you could start with your current video card or onboard video. Probably need a little power supply with 24 pin connector.

You'd be much better off than worrying about a 500mhz system.

scaler164

Yeah... I know. But will I be able to run Windows 98SE on such a system? Are these newer motherboards compatible with 98SE? I got a lot of games I don't wanna part with that I don't think will operate on XP Pro (which is the OS I'm going with on the new system I'm trying to build). (SCREW VISTA!)

Oh, by the way... the word on the street is that the GeForce 6200 was the last chip/card nVidia made that would work with Win98... can anyone verify that? I'm thinking that this GeForce 256 is probably defective in some way, so I may try one last card in this "turd" before I give it up completely... and the 6200 sound like the sweet spot (assuming I can find one).

Thanks all.

Scaler164

BlueMak

From the little time I spent with Vista, Vista is more compatible with games than XP.

If you want to find out if a hardware is compatible with XP or Vista, you can always just visit the official site of the product.

From a quick look at nvidia, they have official drivers for windows 98 up to the 6 series.

scaler164

[quote=BlueMak;1129316]From the little time I spent with Vista, Vista is more compatible with games than XP.


O.k... on that note... has anyone here tried running any of the following games on XP Pro or Vista? If so, did you run into any problems? :

Descent 1, 2, 3, Battlezone 1, 2 and Red Odyssey, Tron 2.0, Quake 1 and 2, Doom 1 and 2, Forsaken, Unreal 1 and 2 + first few "Tournament" versions, Jedi Knight 1 and 2, Heretic 1 and 2, Hexen 1 and 2, Aliens vs. Predator 1... and I think that's it... ...

If you're now thinking I'm stuck in the past, what would you think if I told you I still play games on my old Commodore 64, Atari 2600 and 5200, and all of the NES systems?!? Hey, I was born in 1969... I'm ANCIENT... and nostalgic!

Jumpman, Impossible Mission and Space Taxi RULES! Long Live the C=64!

Scaler164

BlueMak

XpGameList


Jedi Knight works fine at least 2 that I tried under XP. Quake 1 runs fine. For Doom there are mods out there that make it a proper windows game.
I haven't tried the others.

scaler164

I've used the "DOOMsday" machine to play the old, first generation ID games... Makes them much better to play. Wonder if that will help them run on XP Pro?


Scaler164

Methious

I've run the whole DOOM series under XP, Diablo and all the win 98 games I've run and installed on XP run without issue. Most of the Win 95 games run on XP.

If you lose access to any games I'd be surprised.