Old Kayak XW running 98

[None]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

Ok, we're doing things that NO ONE thinks of doing, but hey, we're a
charity in France running all donated machines. ;c) At the moment
98SE makes the most sense for what we're doing...

....therefore...

We were given a Kayak XW that has a visualize fx4 graphics card. For
which I can only find NT and UNIX drivers. Is there ANYTHING I can do
to get this card to perform better than a "default VGA card" in
Win98SE?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

Your best bet may be to replace the card with one which has mainstream Windows
95/98/ME drivers. HP and DEC (R.I.P.) were notorious for spending absurd
amounts of money on high-end graphics cards for their workstation computers,
then not providing drivers for the mainstream. Sometimes they both bought OEM
cards from high-end graphics card companies, which, of course, have usually gone
bankrupt as the more popular high volume graphics technology has surpassed their
more proprietary offerings. I have a few remaining DEC-branded beautifully
engineered 16MB PCI graphics cards with no place to install them for lack of
drivers, except for old operating systems... Ben Myers

On 9 Oct 2004 02:39:47 -0700, dead2mail@leighweb.com (none) wrote:

>Ok, we're doing things that NO ONE thinks of doing, but hey, we're a
>charity in France running all donated machines. ;c) At the moment
>98SE makes the most sense for what we're doing...
>
>...therefore...
>
>We were given a Kayak XW that has a visualize fx4 graphics card. For
>which I can only find NT and UNIX drivers. Is there ANYTHING I can do
>to get this card to perform better than a "default VGA card" in
>Win98SE?
>
>Thanks for any help!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

none wrote:

> We were given a Kayak XW that has a visualize fx4 graphics card. For
> which I can only find NT and UNIX drivers. Is there ANYTHING I can do
> to get this card to perform better than a "default VGA card" in
> Win98SE?

Well, no. There are no Win9x drivers because these cards were workstation
gfx cards, and for a lot of reasons workstations were not sold with the
DOS-based Windows9x versions but with WindowsNT.

I'd recommend putting NT4.0 on this machine. It's fast, much more stable,
and for sure the better OS for a Kayak and VisualizeFX card. And NT goes
very cheap today...

Benjamin

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

On the seventh day, none wrote...

> Ok, we're doing things that NO ONE thinks of doing, but hey, we're a
> charity in France running all donated machines. ;c) At the moment
> 98SE makes the most sense for what we're doing...
>
> ...therefore...
>
> We were given a Kayak XW that has a visualize fx4 graphics card. For
> which I can only find NT and UNIX drivers. Is there ANYTHING I can do
> to get this card to perform better than a "default VGA card" in
> Win98SE?

I'd replace the graphics card with something pretty cheap. You'll get the
best bang for your money in my opinion with a Matrox G200 8MB- They go
pretty cheap at ebay, really. Anotzher best buy: Nvidia Geforce 2MX, but a
little bit more expensive but more suitable for graphics acceleration in
3D.

As for the OS: I like NT, but it lacks some essential multimedia and
interface capabilities (USB). So either use 98SE or W2k, NT if it has to be
cheap and the issues don't face a problem.

--
mit freundlichen Grüßen/with kind regards
Christian Dürrhauer, Institute of Geography, FU Berlin

Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson. You find the present tense,
and the past perfect.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

ben_myers_spam_me_not wrote:
> Your best bet may be to replace the card with one which has mainstream Windows
> 95/98/ME drivers. HP and DEC (R.I.P.) were notorious for spending absurd
> amounts of money on high-end graphics cards for their workstation computers,
> then not providing drivers for the mainstream.

Ben, what the heck *is* your beef with HP? If you feel the need to
bash a company, then may I suggest to use arguments which at least make
*some* sense? Calling a company "notorious" for not provindig Windows
95/98/ME drivers when that system is supplied with Windows NT, i.e. a
'better' (more stable, advanced, etc.) OS, and is *not* targeted for the
home-user market is rather silly. That the OP wants to 'downgrade' a
*donated* system does not change that in any way.

> then not providing drivers for the mainstream. Sometimes they both bought OEM
> cards from high-end graphics card companies, which, of course, have usually gone
> bankrupt as the more popular high volume graphics technology has surpassed their
> more proprietary offerings. I have a few remaining DEC-branded beautifully
> engineered 16MB PCI graphics cards with no place to install them for lack of
> drivers, except for old operating systems... Ben Myers
>
> On 9 Oct 2004 02:39:47 -0700, dead2mail@leighweb.com (none) wrote:
>
> >Ok, we're doing things that NO ONE thinks of doing, but hey, we're a
> >charity in France running all donated machines. ;c) At the moment
> >98SE makes the most sense for what we're doing...
> >
> >...therefore...
> >
> >We were given a Kayak XW that has a visualize fx4 graphics card. For
> >which I can only find NT and UNIX drivers. Is there ANYTHING I can do
> >to get this card to perform better than a "default VGA card" in
> >Win98SE?
> >
> >Thanks for any help!

 

[None]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

Thanks to everyone for the advice. It basically confirms my
suspicions that the drivers don't exist for 98SE.

Obviously, when dealing with all donated equipment, a non-existant
budget and then trying to create as standard and stable environment as
possible, MANY compromises must be made in both hardware and software.
In the end, you get what you can from the box without expending
insane amounts of effort in the process.

Definately the realm of the pragmatist and not the purist! ;c)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

Well, since you asked, my beef is that neither HP nor DEC (R.I.P.) or the
original manufacturers of these cards ever carried forward the development of
drivers for these cards beyond either NT 3.51 or NT 4.0 at best. For owners of
these workstations who wanted to move to Windows 2000 (or even XP), these cards
became extremely expensive orphans or boat anchors, depending on the terminology
one wants to use. Lack of drivers for Windows 95/98/ME I can accept, but no Win
2000 drivers? Of course, by the time Windows 2000 hit the streets, cheap
commodity cards often had the same or better performance than the expensive
cards... Ben Myers

On 11 Oct 2004 14:59:08 GMT, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:

>ben_myers_spam_me_not wrote:
>> Your best bet may be to replace the card with one which has mainstream Windows
>> 95/98/ME drivers. HP and DEC (R.I.P.) were notorious for spending absurd
>> amounts of money on high-end graphics cards for their workstation computers,
>> then not providing drivers for the mainstream.
>
> Ben, what the heck *is* your beef with HP? If you feel the need to
>bash a company, then may I suggest to use arguments which at least make
>*some* sense? Calling a company "notorious" for not provindig Windows
>95/98/ME drivers when that system is supplied with Windows NT, i.e. a
>'better' (more stable, advanced, etc.) OS, and is *not* targeted for the
>home-user market is rather silly. That the OP wants to 'downgrade' a
>*donated* system does not change that in any way.
>
>> then not providing drivers for the mainstream. Sometimes they both bought OEM
>> cards from high-end graphics card companies, which, of course, have usually gone
>> bankrupt as the more popular high volume graphics technology has surpassed their
>> more proprietary offerings. I have a few remaining DEC-branded beautifully
>> engineered 16MB PCI graphics cards with no place to install them for lack of
>> drivers, except for old operating systems... Ben Myers
>>
>> On 9 Oct 2004 02:39:47 -0700, dead2mail@leighweb.com (none) wrote:
>>
>> >Ok, we're doing things that NO ONE thinks of doing, but hey, we're a
>> >charity in France running all donated machines. ;c) At the moment
>> >98SE makes the most sense for what we're doing...
>> >
>> >...therefore...
>> >
>> >We were given a Kayak XW that has a visualize fx4 graphics card. For
>> >which I can only find NT and UNIX drivers. Is there ANYTHING I can do
>> >to get this card to perform better than a "default VGA card" in
>> >Win98SE?
>> >
>> >Thanks for any help!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

ben_myers_spam_me_not wrote:
> Well, since you asked, my beef is that neither HP nor DEC (R.I.P.) or
> the original manufacturers of these cards ever carried forward the
> development of drivers for these cards beyond either NT 3.51 or NT 4.0
> at best. For owners of these workstations who wanted to move to
> Windows 2000 (or even XP), these cards became extremely expensive
> orphans or boat anchors, depending on the terminology one wants to
> use. Lack of drivers for Windows 95/98/ME I can accept, but no Win
> 2000 drivers? Of course, by the time Windows 2000 hit the streets,
> cheap commodity cards often had the same or better performance than
> the expensive cards... Ben Myers

Well, that (no Windows 2000 drivers) is a different story (not that I
agree with that story), so the original point is now moot.

> On 11 Oct 2004 14:59:08 GMT, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
>
> >ben_myers_spam_me_not wrote:
> >> Your best bet may be to replace the card with one which has mainstream Windows
> >> 95/98/ME drivers. HP and DEC (R.I.P.) were notorious for spending absurd
> >> amounts of money on high-end graphics cards for their workstation computers,
> >> then not providing drivers for the mainstream.
> >
> > Ben, what the heck *is* your beef with HP? If you feel the need to
> >bash a company, then may I suggest to use arguments which at least make
> >*some* sense? Calling a company "notorious" for not provindig Windows
> >95/98/ME drivers when that system is supplied with Windows NT, i.e. a
> >'better' (more stable, advanced, etc.) OS, and is *not* targeted for the
> >home-user market is rather silly. That the OP wants to 'downgrade' a
> >*donated* system does not change that in any way.
> >
> >> then not providing drivers for the mainstream. Sometimes they both bought OEM
> >> cards from high-end graphics card companies, which, of course, have usually gone
> >> bankrupt as the more popular high volume graphics technology has surpassed their
> >> more proprietary offerings. I have a few remaining DEC-branded beautifully
> >> engineered 16MB PCI graphics cards with no place to install them for lack of
> >> drivers, except for old operating systems... Ben Myers
> >>
> >> On 9 Oct 2004 02:39:47 -0700, dead2mail@leighweb.com (none) wrote:
> >>
> >> >Ok, we're doing things that NO ONE thinks of doing, but hey, we're a
> >> >charity in France running all donated machines. ;c) At the moment
> >> >98SE makes the most sense for what we're doing...
> >> >
> >> >...therefore...
> >> >
> >> >We were given a Kayak XW that has a visualize fx4 graphics card. For
> >> >which I can only find NT and UNIX drivers. Is there ANYTHING I can do
> >> >to get this card to perform better than a "default VGA card" in
> >> >Win98SE?
> >> >
> >> >Thanks for any help!