Cluttermagnet Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 (edited) I have an older Windows computer- it's an AST Bravo MS 5200M, model 3000C/95. It's ancient. Originally had Win 95 on it, upgraded to 98SE. Known to be in pretty much good running condition and so is its monitor, which I *don't* have here with me. I believe it is about a Pentium 200MHz. 128M RAM. It has the normal 3-row. 15-pin connector that I have come to associate with 'super VGA' monitors. The connector is on the main board, no video card present.Problem is that after all the normal bootup stuff seen in DOS, etc- normal screens- and it successfully boots into Win98, the display becomes 'tripled', i.e. three skinnier images superimposed over each other horizontally. Although it is exceedingly hard to run the mouse, it can be used to click various software around as normal, but of course difficult.This is obviously a driver compatibility issue. I'm looking for suggestions as to what is the easiest, fastest way to get it to talk to my normal super VGA monitors that work with all my other Windows computers, including some old Pentium and AMD K6 units down around 100+MHz speed. I could probably download the appropriate drivers and pull it in off of a floppy and get it to install- difficult but probably possible. But is there any way to fiddle with this relic in DOS and bypass loading Windoze til I get the main board talking to the monitor? Open to suggestions (other than dump the unit- I'm fixing it up for a friend who is going through real hard times, and they want *this* one to 'live again'). If I can get it where I can see what I'm doing, I'm going to throw in a slightly larger hard drive and put 98SE on it for her, fully patched and updated, for some light general use, mainly for emailing and such.BTW I could simply go back and also get the antique color monitor and bring it over. That would solve my immediate problem. It simply would be a lot easier to temporarily change the monitor driver to get the job done a lot sooner. Comments?Thanks, Clutter Edited November 3, 2005 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 All I can do is search.Here are the specs http://www.ari-service.com/blender/cache/503479-301.htmit is VGA on the mobo.VideoChipsetATI Mach64VT3Display Resolution1600 x 1200NI x 65K colors @ 76 Hz or 1280 x 1024 NI x 16.7M colors @ 75 Hz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b2cm Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Windows 98 should have drivers for that video controller. Boot into safe mode and change the video drivers with the Windows-supplied standard/generic PCI SVGA drivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted November 3, 2005 Author Share Posted November 3, 2005 Thanks, guys. Both are very useful comments. So far, I have thrown an old WD Caviar 2.1G HD in and booted to a 98SE startup diskette, then fdisked, formatted, and loaded 98SE. Win98 found the right drivers for my monitor, as I'd guessed it would. I have it running at 800x600 and 24 bit color. So I think I'll go ahead and finish up this copy of 98SE with all the updates and auxiliary software I usually install, doing some backup imaging along the way, and then dig into making the old, still functional HD talk to my monitor. I'll do that simply so I can go in and pull out her old My Documents and save that to CD and the new HD. Clutter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greengeek Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Could you just hook the old drive up as slave to the newer one and drag the files and folders over to the other drive? It's what I do all the time in similar situations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Hey Clutter, nice to see you around these parts again. You've been missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rons Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Hey Clutter, nice to see you around these parts again. You've been missed.Yes....welcome back. Another option - disable onboard video and add a used pci card. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted November 4, 2005 Author Share Posted November 4, 2005 Could you just hook the old drive up as slave to the newer one and drag the files and folders over to the other drive? It's what I do all the time in similar situations.Hi, Joy-There are probably several ways. I think I could use fdisk to set the old drive to not be primary any more, then slave it as you suggest to access the files. Also, I suppose I could use a Knoppix direct CD to tease that stuff out. I haven't gotten very good at using Knoppix to do that yet, and on some of my machines, it boots up with that same triple screen blur. Argh! I'll get it done, one way or another. Meanwhile, this old AST machine has actually been surprisingly easy to set up with a new HD and Win98. 98SE easily recognized an old Lucent 56K ISA winmodem I threw in there and loaded the drivers I downloaded from the net without missing a beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted November 4, 2005 Author Share Posted November 4, 2005 Thanks for the welcoming comments, guys. Well, this is a low budget fix going on here. Despite the skimpy 1M RAM for the onboard video, I'm inclined to just let it go as is. This box will mainly be used for a little light emailing and inet access, that's about it. I'll fully patch 98SE, lock it down, and load up the usual security suite to keep it safe. She just wants to get back on the net and catch up with all her friends after a serious illness kept her away for a number of months. And she's willing to listen to me and to be a safe surfer. It's not much to look at. The tower lacks a front panel and cover- that's how she got it. A real ugly. She got it from where she used to work as a giveaway some years ago. But like a Timex watch, this one seems to "take a licking and keep on ticking". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Sounds like a keeper. Beauty is on the inside anyway. :'( Welcome back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rons Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 You also may wish to consider adding the unofficial Windows 98 SE service pack #2 to the system.Unofficial Windows 98se SP#2 :'( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted November 8, 2005 Author Share Posted November 8, 2005 You also may wish to consider adding the unofficial Windows 98 SE service pack #2 to the system.Unofficial Windows 98se SP#2 Thanks, Rons-I have taken a look at that site. It is an interesting package. I might try it on one of my 98SE machines the next time I load a fresh copy of the OS. I certainly do waste an awful lot of time whenever I set up Win98. I sure would appreciate a big package that slipstreamed everything in all at once. Unfortunately, he is not very detailed in his description of what is in the package. I do spend some time keeping current with Microsoft updates that are still published for Win98 (the 'critical' ones), and also general software utilities for use with the OS, such as security, 'tweaks', etc. I guess I'm a little particular as to what changes get added. I'm the sort of person who always carefully reads the ingredients statement on any food product I consider buying- and a lot of them get put right back on the store shelf because I disagree with the use of various unhealthy ingredients. I'm now getting much more into imaging, to try to preserve a fresh install of the OS on a different partition of a machine or on CD, so I don't have to start all over again if I decide to 'reload'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patio Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 (edited) I think you will find Ron's ServicePak just the ticket...i've put it on all my client's PC's that still run Win98SEpatio. Edited November 8, 2005 by patio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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