Question Where is the Windows 98 display driver?

[Dr Quest]

Hi ~ I'm reviving my old Windows 98 machine with a specialty Win98-compatible digital audio workstation card in it, called the Audio Prisma. After some 11 years of dormancy, I have booted into Windows SAFE mode. All good so far. It asks me to install the graphics card driver, which I know is there in the hard drive. But where is it and what is it called? I don't know where to look. How can i locate and navigate to the existing proprietary display driver that I know is already there on the boot drive?

Incidentally, the original hard drive had failed years ago, so I'm booting from a master clone. Thanks

Dr. Quest

 

[TerryLaze]

Go to hardware properties to see what display adapter you even have in the system, then look up that adapter on the internet to see how the driver was named...then just download it and run it on the 98 machine.
If the root of the hard drive has a windows 98 folder then the drivers might be in a folder in there.

You could connect the drive or mount the clone image to a modern system and use a search tool like everything to search for code words like, driver, gpu, nvidia amd, ati, and so on.

 

[Dr Quest]

You see, on boot up, Win 98 asks me to "browse for folder", and there is of course the system folder, and within that \system\drivers and also \system 32\drivers. However, the computer won't allow me to select any other folder other than WINDOWS. So I clicked next and it came up with "WINDOWS\INF\MSDISP.INF called a "standard PCI graphics adapter". Then on boot up again it located my syncmaster monitor and it loaded up a driver called "monitor.inf" However, when I try to change display properties, I am still limited to 16 colors and 640x480. I will try booting again.

Quest

Go to hardware properties to see what display adapter you even have in the system, then look up that adapter on the internet to see how the driver was named...then just download it and run it on the 98 machine.
If the root of the hard drive has a windows 98 folder then the drivers might be in a folder in there.

You could connect the drive or mount the clone image to a modern system and use a search tool like everything to search for code words like, driver, gpu, nvidia amd, ati, and so on.

 

[Dr Quest]

I did a "find" in the windows folder and found some .inf files. Then I did another find and came up with some .drv files, including something called "supervga.drv" which looks like a great candidate. But how do I specify supervga as my driver, and not the other drivers?

When I go into Device Manager, display adapter properties, and try to change the driver, it only wants to see INF files, and won't display DRV files. Therefore, I can't seem to get at "supervga.drv"

I will keep poking around.

 

[TerryLaze]

Windows installed default drivers and supervga will be a default driver as well.

Press windows+r and run dxdiag and look for the GPU/display and its hardware ID with that you can search the internet for proper drivers.
Or open up the case and physically look at the GPU to find the model number.

 

[Dr Quest]

Yes, thank you Terry! After some fishing and a call to Matrox tech support, I found the graphics card model number is the G450. (even tho it says on the card G45+MDHA23DB). I have downloaded 2 possible drivers from Matrox that would work. Let me add that I found Matrox's phone support EXCELLENT even though I had no warranty credentials. Thanks, Matrox!

https://www.matrox.com/en/video/apps/drivers/graphics/previous/display#WinME9x

Now, without an internet connection, my problem is exporting the drivers packs from my Win10 machine over to my W98 machine. Wow. I see no alternative but to order a USB external floppy drive on amazon, then copy the drivers to a floppy and export them to the W98 machine via floppy.

excessively warm regards

Quest

Windows installed default drivers and supervga will be a default driver as well.

Press windows+r and run dxdiag and look for the GPU/display and its hardware ID with that you can search the internet for proper drivers.
Or open up the case and physically look at the GPU to find the model number.

 

[TerryLaze]

Now, without an internet connection, my problem is exporting the drivers packs from my Win10 machine over to my W98 machine. Wow. I see no alternative but to order a USB external floppy drive on amazon, then copy the drivers to a floppy and export them to the W98 machine via floppy.

excessively warm regards

Quest

You don't have a cd recorder?
If you think you will transfer files more often buy an ide to sd card, even if not this will be more useful than a floppy drive.
Your old system will see it like a normal ide drive and you will be able to easily transfer bigger files.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ide+to+sd+card&_sacat=0&_sop=15
Or get an ide to sata adapter so you can connect the whole drive to your modern system.

 

[Dr Quest]

Terry -- good idea. I do have one of those octopus things that can read different harddrives. i have never used it. But if I could read the W98 boot drive on windows 10 machine, and xfer the drivers over, that could save me an expense!

Quest

 

[TerryLaze]

Terry -- good idea. I do have one of those octopus things that can read different harddrives. i have never used it. But if I could read the W98 boot drive on windows 10 machine, and xfer the drivers over, that could save me an expense!

Quest

If the win98 system has an usb port, there are usb drivers for win98 so if you get that going you would only need a usb flash drive for the future instead of having to take out the hdd every time.
https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1035&menustate=0

 

[neojack]

if you can get the network card to work, you can also configure a shared folder and move files through the network.