[Colin Benson]

Hello everybody. A week ago, my old computer stopped working. I took it into a computer repair store and had them take a look at it. After a few days, they called me and said that the motherboard is fried and needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, they no longer make the old (I think he said 20 pin motherboards) anymore. He suggested that we just buy a new computer and then copy all my old files from my old computer into a new one.

(Although I'm sure you could find replacement old motherboards on the 'net someplace...)

I drove into the city and got a cheap computer with the Windows Vista operating system. After a while, I wanted to play Duke nukem 3D. But Vista doesn't seem to like DOS programs anymore. When I boot up Duke 3D, I get the error message: "This system does not support full screen mode." I talked with the guys at the computer repair store again and they said it's a common problem. Vista just doesn't work with DOS. One of his suggestions was to download and use DOS-BOX and another was to download and use a program called virtual box.
http://www.virtualbox.org/
(This program allows you to separately install and run old operating systems on your vista computer.)

Using virtual box, I installed windows 98 from my old disk. Everything in this new separate Windows 98 os basically works fine. But here's my problem:


I can't seem to change the display settings. They are stuck at 16 colors and 800x600 display. My only other option is to use 2 colors. I think I might need to install new graphics drivers.

I obviously still have my old windows 98 CD and I have an "Ati graphics drivers" CD from my old system. I tried to use that, but windows said the best driver is already installed on my computer.

What should I do?


I think these are the right system specs:


I have Windows Vista Home Basic

Service Pack 1

Manufacturer: Acer
Model: Aspire M1640
Processor: Intel® Pentium® Dual CPU E2200 @ 2.20GHz 2.20 GHz
Memory (RAM): 2.00 GB
System type: 32-bit operating system




When I am using virtual box's windows 98 program the specs are:

Microsoft Windows 98
Computer: GenuineIntel
Pentium® II processor
Intel MMX Technology
1022.0 MB of RAM

File system 32-bit
Virtual memory 32-bit

(No PC card sockets installed)

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The reason Vista doesn't like DOS games is simple. There's no "real DOS" on a Vista PC, same goes for XP.
They only have a DOS emulation mode or "virtual DOS" not designed for running third-party DOS applications.
The last version of Windows which included real DOS was Windows 98SE. DOS is history.

You haven't said what make/model the graphics chip is in the new Vista PC is.
Whatever that is, you need a Windows 98-compatible driver for it as currently
only the Vista-compatible driver is installed.

In essence, when you boot into Windows 98 the graphics chip must be using
a Windows default 'standard VGA driver' and this is limiting your choice of display settings.

You said you tried installing an ATI driver but you can't just try installing any old driver that comes to hand.
You should only install the driver that matches the hardware and it must be 98-compatible of course.
Until you do that the display settings under Windows 98 will remain limited to 16-color at 800x600.

Edited by Grandad Phillip, 08 December 2008 - 05:12 AM.

[Grandad Phillip]

The reason Vista doesn't like DOS games is simple. There's no "real DOS" on a Vista PC, same goes for XP.
They only have a DOS emulation mode or "virtual DOS" not designed for running third-party DOS applications.
The last version of Windows which included real DOS was Windows 98SE. DOS is history.

You haven't said what make/model the graphics chip is in the new Vista PC is.
Whatever that is, you need a Windows 98-compatible driver for it as currently
only the Vista-compatible driver is installed.

In essence, when you boot into Windows 98 the graphics chip must be using
a Windows default 'standard VGA driver' and this is limiting your choice of display settings.

You said you tried installing an ATI driver but you can't just try installing any old driver that comes to hand.
You should only install the driver that matches the hardware and it must be 98-compatible of course.
Until you do that the display settings under Windows 98 will remain limited to 16-color at 800x600.

Edited by Grandad Phillip, 08 December 2008 - 05:12 AM.

[Colin Benson]

The reason Vista doesn't like DOS games is simple. There's no "real DOS" on a Vista PC, same goes for XP.
They only have a DOS emulation mode or "virtual DOS" not designed for running third-party DOS applications.
The last version of Windows which included real DOS was Windows 98SE. DOS is history.

You haven't said what make/model the graphics chip is in the new Vista PC is.
Whatever that is, you need a Windows 98-compatible driver for it as currently
only the Vista-compatible driver is installed.

In essence, when you boot into Windows 98 the graphics chip must be using
a Windows default 'standard VGA driver' and this is limiting your choice of display settings.

You said you tried installing an ATI driver but you can't just try installing any old driver that comes to hand.
You should only install the driver that matches the hardware and it must be 98-compatible of course.
Until you do that the display settings under Windows 98 will remain limited to 16-color at 800x600.

Thanks for your input Grandad Phillip. Sorry, I'm not too familiar with Vista OS or hardware problems... Could you please tell me where to look for these specs.

[Simon Birch]

The reason Vista doesn't like DOS games is simple. There's no "real DOS" on a Vista PC, same goes for XP.
They only have a DOS emulation mode or "virtual DOS" not designed for running third-party DOS applications.
The last version of Windows which included real DOS was Windows 98SE. DOS is history.

You haven't said what make/model the graphics chip is in the new Vista PC is.
Whatever that is, you need a Windows 98-compatible driver for it as currently
only the Vista-compatible driver is installed.

In essence, when you boot into Windows 98 the graphics chip must be using
a Windows default 'standard VGA driver' and this is limiting your choice of display settings.

You said you tried installing an ATI driver but you can't just try installing any old driver that comes to hand.
You should only install the driver that matches the hardware and it must be 98-compatible of course.
Until you do that the display settings under Windows 98 will remain limited to 16-color at 800x600.

Thanks for your input Grandad Phillip. Sorry, I'm not too familiar with Vista OS or hardware problems... Could you please tell me where to look for these specs.

If you are still looking for a solution for the win98 VM graphics issue, try downloading "Display Doctor", the latest version. This works well.
There are no win98 emmulation drivers for a win98 VM produced by Sun.

[Pogsquog]

You need to install a driver. See this page:

http://www.virtualbo...g/wiki/User_FAQ

Edited by Pogsquog, 22 February 2010 - 10:57 AM.