Windows ME on Acer Aspire 5502WXMi (ATI Mobility Radeon X700 problem)

Hello everyone,

I have a 14.1 inch WXGA Acer Aspire 5502WXMi laptop with the following main specs:

CPU: Mobile Intel Pentium M 760 2.0 GHz
MB: Intel Alviso 915PM + 82801FBM ICH6-M
GPU: ATI Mobility Radeon X700 (M26) 256 MB PCI-E
RAM: 2x512 MB DDR2
HDD: 80 GB IDE

I built this laptop because I wanted the smallest possible laptop that supports Windows 98/ME natively and has a discrete video card, there are some old games that i really love and i thought it would be neat to play them again.

Initially i wanted to build this laptop with an nVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 from a Toshiba M65, physically the video card is compatible, but since the Acer Insyde BIOS supports only ATI cards, it did not agree with it and did not POST, so I had to go with the ATI Mobility Radeon X700, even though it's performance is lower and it seems to be the party breaker.

I installed Windows ME on it and it went through without any major problems apart from a hardware conflict (Motherboard Resources) probably from ACPI, which doesn't bother me.
I have all the drivers working except the one for the video card, which is making me pull my hair in frustration.

I downloaded the ATI Catalyst 6-2_wme_dd_cp_30314.exe and I edited the inf to support my video card hardware ID, amazingly the card installs just fine, Direct 3D acceleration works flawlessly but right after the driver installs and the laptop reboots, the screen looks unintelligible and displays artifacts as if the resolution is not supported, and so i plugged in an external monitor to change the resolution. The external monitor works just fine but the laptop LCD it's as if the video card does not recognize it, even if i edit the driver inf and input the native 1280x800 resolution before i install it.

At this point i'm out of ideas and i was hoping that somebody here can help me mod this driver in such a way that it supports and detects my laptop LCD properly.

Here is the modification i did to the driver inf, i removed the unnecessary lines that not represent my video card just to keep it simple but there are aspects of it that i do not understand, i highlighted the modifications i did in red:

Code:

;-----------------------------------------------
; ATI Display Information file : atii9xag.inf
; Installation INF for the ATI display driver.
; Copyright© 1985-2004 ATI Technologies Inc.
; Windows 9x
; Base INF Last Updated on 2005/07/29

[version]
Class=DISPLAY
signature="$Windows 95$"
Provider=%Mfg%
DriverVer=01/24/2006, 4.15.1.9165

[SourceDisksNames]
1="ATI Installation CD ROM",,1,.\B_30408

[SourceDisksFiles]
ati2cqag.dll=1
ati2drag.drv=1
ati2edxx.dll=1
ati2evxx.dll=1
ati2evxx.exe=1
ati2i9ag.dll=1
ati2vxag.vxd=1
ati3d1ag.dll=1
ati3d2ag.dll=1
ati3duag.dll=1
atiddc.dll=1
atiicdxx.dll=1
atiicdxx.sys=1
atiicdxx.vxd=1
atiiiexx.dll=1
atiiisxx.exe=1
atio9xxx.dll=1
atipdlxx.dll=1
atitvo32.dll=1
ativ16xx.dll=1
ativifxx.dll=1
ativvaxx.dll=1
ativvxxx.vxd=1
atricdxx.enu=1
oemdspif.dll=1

[Manufacturer]
"%Mfg%"=Mfg
;-----------------
; Driver sections

[Mfg]
[COLOR="#FF0000"]"ATI MOBILITY RADEON X700" = M26_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5653&SUBSYS_00811025[/COLOR]

[M[COLOR="#FF0000"]26[/COLOR]_ENU]
Include=msdv.inf
CopyFiles=R6_Copy, INFFiles, INFOther, SysFiles, IniFiles
DelFiles=MACXW4_DelFiles
DelReg=MACXW4_DelReg
AddReg=R6_Common_AddReg, R6_Desktop_AddReg, DriverInfoAddReg, M[COLOR="#FF0000"]26[/COLOR]_AddReg, R6_MobileSoftwareSettings
UpdateInis=R6_UpdateInis, DVCR.UpdateIni
UninstallFiles=UninstHlp
CleanFiles=R6_Copy, INFFiles, INFOther
UninstallReg=R6_Desktop_AddReg, R6_Common_AddReg
CleanReg=R6_Common_AddReg, DriverInfoAddReg, M[COLOR="#FF0000"]26[/COLOR]_AddReg, R6_MobileSoftwareSettings
UninstallUpdateInis=R6_UpdateInis

[MACXW4_DelReg]
HKR,,DevLoader
HKR,,Ver
HKR,DEFAULT
HKR,MODES
HKR,CURRENT
HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\DISPLAY\ATI\00\TVOut"
HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\DISPLAY\ATI\00\Modes\TVOut"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\Display\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\DriverPages"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\Display\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPages"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\Display\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPagesX"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\Display\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPagesEx"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\Desktop\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPages"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\Desktop\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPagesX"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\Desktop\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPagesEx"
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\ATI Technologies\Driver\OpenGL"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\OpenGLDrivers\ATI ICD Settings"
HKR,"shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPagesX"
HKR,"shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPagesX2"
HKR,"shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPagesEx"
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Driver","TV"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ATI Mach64 Display Driver"
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\ATI Technologies\Driver\ati3drag"
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Driver","LCD",1,0
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Desktop\Icon"
HKR,INFO
HKR,Desktop
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Atitask"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run","ATIGART"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DFPRULE_HotplugSupported
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ATIPoll
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnablePolling
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_BroadcastDispChange
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_UpdateAdapterInfoOnHK
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_DriverMessageSupport
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnableHotPlug
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnableMouseRotation
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnablePowerPlay
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnableChgLCDResOnHotKey
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_LCDSetMaxResOnDockChg
HKR,"Desktop",NoAtipta
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",ActiveBusCaps
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",RequestedBusCaps
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",TestedBusCaps
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALPowerPlayOptions
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOCRTANDDFPONSAMECONTROLLER
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOCRTANDLCDONSAMECONTROLLER
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_DISABLETMDSREDUCEDBLANKING
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_IntTMDSReduceBlankTiming
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",MemInitLatencyTimer
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",DynamicClockBypass
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_R200TVPLLWA
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVR200Flag
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_DisableHotKeyIfOverlayAllocated
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VXD",MemInitLatencyTimer
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_MOBILEFEATURES
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALM[COLOR="#FF0000"]26[/COLOR]TMDSiReducedBlanking
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALM[COLOR="#FF0000"]26[/COLOR]TMDSiCoherentMode
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD", OptimalNB
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD", OptimalPamac0
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD", OptimalPamac1
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DAL2ndDisplayDefaultMode
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VXD",DisableRptrWriteBack
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_MemoryClockGraduallyChange
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VXD",DisableAGPWrite
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",DisableExtendDesktop
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Multimedia\Features\DVD"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",CmdThrottle
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",MobilePlatform
HKR,"Desktop\UIO\Color",DefaultGammaDesktop
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnableFjsuMouseOrientation
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_DisableHotKeyIfOverlayAllocated
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_TMDSiCoherentMode
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCOHOOK_TMDSiCoherentMode
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_USECMOSDISPLAYSETTINGS
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_OTHEREXPANSIONMODEDEFAULT
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",DisableD1D2Support
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_WADSUPPORT
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_WADSUPPORT
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_ALLOWNONDDCCRTALLMODESUPTO1024x768
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORule_ForceSingleController
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_DISABLEDISPLAYSWITCHINGIFOVERLAYALLOCATED
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\WDMCapture",Keep704AspectRatio
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_DONOTTURNONTVBYDEFAULT
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVLumaFlicker
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVDotCrawl
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVCompositeFilter
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_SETNONDDCCRTPREFERREDMODE800x600
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_DISABLEPOWERPLAYMESSAGES
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_PPForceBlankDisplays
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALOverdrive
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_DISABLEOVERDRIVE
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_OverDriveSupport
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_GETDEFAULTTVFORMATATBOOT
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_USEENABLEDATBOOTSCHEME
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_UNRESTRICTSXGAPCRTONOWNCRTC
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DAL_CRTRestrictedModesBCD
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCOOPTION_RemoveOverscanBorder
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_USERESTRICTEDNATIVETIMING
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DFPOption_MaxFreq
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRestrictedModesCRTC2BCD1
HKR,, GCORULE_ModeBWException
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\DirectX VA",DXVA_HWSP_1CRTC
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VXD",DisableAGPFW
HKR,"INFO\INFO\atidxhal",UseBT601CSC
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_SETCRTANDDFPTYPESONPRIMARYCONTROLLER
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DAL2ndDrvMin1stMode
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_CloneModeBWException
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_ExtModeBWException
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOTVANDDVIACTIVESIMULTANEOUSLY
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DFPOption_SingleLink
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DFPXOption_SingleLink
;-----------------------
; Model AddReg sections

[R6_Common_AddReg]
HKR,DEFAULT,drv,,"ATI2DRAG.DRV"
HKR,DEFAULT,drv2,,"ATI2DRAG.DRV"
HKR,DEFAULT,vdd,,"*vdd,*vflatd"
HKR,DEFAULT,minivdd,,"ATI2VXAG.VXD"
HKR,DEFAULT,minivdd2,,"ATI2VXAG.VXD"
HKR,DEFAULT,DDC,,"1"
HKR,"INFO\INFO",INIT,1,1
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DVD",Path,,"DVD"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DVD",5,,"Atimiaag.dll"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",Path,,"%a%sDAL"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\OpenGL",Path,,"%a%sOpenGL"
;HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",IDCRegOptionRestrictDisplayEnable,0x10001,0
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Multimedia\Features\DVD","Adaptive De-interlacing",,"1"
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Multimedia\Features\DVD","VPE Adaptive De-interlacing",,"1"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",Path,,"%a%sVxD"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",Path,,"%a"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",VRAMHeap,0x10001,0
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",LPOSH,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\atidxhal",Path,,"%a%satidxhal"
HKR,"MMLib",,,
HKR,"MMLib",MMLibDuringInstall,1,01,00,00,00
HKCR,"CLSID\{EBB5845F-CA80-11CF-BD3C-008029E89281}\InProcServer32",ThreadingModel,,"Both"
HKLM,"Software\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\vpm",,,"ativpm32.dll"
HKR,,ReleaseVersion,,"8.03.98.5-060124a-030314E-ATI"
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\CBT",ReleaseVersion,,"8.03.98.5-060124a-030314E-ATI"
HKR,, BuildNumber,,"30314"
HKR,,Ver,,"4.00"
HKR,,DevLoader,,"*vdd"
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Driver",BMDefault,,"0"
HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Driver",MPP,,"1"
;HKLM,"Software\ATI Technologies\Driver",PMBIOS,,"0"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCOOPTION_DisableGPIOPowerSaveMode,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALGameGammaScale,1,64,64,64,00
HKR,"ATI WDM Configurations","PnP ID Version",,"32"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\Display\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ATIPagesEx",,,"{700B1221-CAFF-11d1-B9DE-000000001B1B}"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",UseNewOGLRegPath,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",D3D3DNameStr,,"ati3duag.dll"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\OpenGL\Private",TMFOhS7vfIxcTeuRR79,0x10001,0
HKR,DEFAULT,Mode,,"8,640,480"
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OPenGLdrivers","atio9xxx",,"atio9xxx.dll"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_DISABLEHTIME,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_GETVGAEXPANSIONATBOOT,1,00,00,00,00
HKCR,"CLSID\{EBB5845F-CA80-11CF-BD3C-008029E89281}\InProcServer32",,,"ATITVO32.DLL"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnableHotPlug,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",HotPlugDisable,0x10001,0
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnableMouseRotation,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnableAlpsMouseOrientation,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_DriverMessageSupport,1,01,00,00,00
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices","ATIPOLL",,"ati2evxx.exe"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_SafeEscapeSupport,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DFPRULE_HotplugSupported,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVContrastDefaultNTSC,1,58,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",DisableOvlTheaterMode,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\2D",OvlTheaterMode,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\atidxhal",UseVMRPitch,,"1"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD\MMLIB",DisableMMSnifferCode,0x10001,0
HKR,DEFAULT,RefreshRate,,"-1"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOTVANDCRTONSAMECONTROLLER,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,, Catalyst_Version,,"06.2"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_RESTRICTCRTANALOGDETECTIONONEDIDMISMATCH,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_ENABLETILEDMEMORYCALCULATION ,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_MACROVISIONINFOREPORT,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_BANDWIDTHMODEENUM,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOCRTANDLCDONSAMECONTROLLER,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_LCDSetNativeModeOnResume,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_LIMITTMDSMODES,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVForceDetection,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_ADAPTERBANDWIDTHMODEENUM,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCOOPTION_MinMemEff,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_IncreaseMinMemEff,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_DISABLECWDDEDETECTION,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_SELECTION_SCHEME,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOCRTANDDFPACTIVESIMULTANEOUSLY,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVEnableOverscan,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOFORCEBOOT,1,01,00,00,00

[R6_MobileSoftwareSettings]

[R6_DesktopSoftwareSettings]

[M[COLOR="#FF0000"]26[/COLOR]_AddReg]
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOTVANDLCDONCRTC,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALOPTION_MinResBCD,1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,60    
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCOOPTION_DigitalCrtInfo,1, A3,38,61,C1,A3,38,61,B1
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",PMBIOS,,"1"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VXD",MemInitLatencyTimer,0x10001,0xBF, 0x71, 0x57, 0x77
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_FlickerWA,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"MODES\8\640,480",,,"60,72,75,85,90,100,120,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\800,480",,,"60"
HKR,"MODES\8\800,600",,,"60,70,72,75,85,90,100,120,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\848,480",,,"60,88"
HKR,"MODES\8\1024,480",,,"60"
HKR,"MODES\8\1024,600",,,"60"
HKR,"MODES\8\1024,768",,,"60,70,72,75,85,90,100,120,150,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\1152,864",,,"60,70,75,85,100"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,600",,,"60"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,[COLOR="#FF0000"]800[/COLOR]",,,"60"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,1024",,,"60,70,75,85,90,100,120,160"
HKR,"MODES\8\1400,1050",,,"60"
HKR,"MODES\8\1600,1200",,,"60,70,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\2048,1536",,,"60,66,70,75"
HKR,"MODES\16\640,480"
HKR,"MODES\16\800,480"
HKR,"MODES\16\800,600"
HKR,"MODES\16\848,480"
HKR,"MODES\16\1024,480"
HKR,"MODES\16\1024,600"
HKR,"MODES\16\1024,768"
HKR,"MODES\16\1152,864"
HKR,"MODES\16\1280,600"
HKR,"MODES\16\1280,[COLOR="#FF0000"]800[/COLOR]"
HKR,"MODES\16\1280,1024"
HKR,"MODES\16\1400,1050"
HKR,"MODES\16\1600,1200"
HKR,"MODES\16\2048,1536"
HKR,"MODES\32\640,480"
HKR,"MODES\32\800,480"
HKR,"MODES\32\800,600"
HKR,"MODES\32\848,480"
HKR,"MODES\32\1024,480"
HKR,"MODES\32\1024,600"
HKR,"MODES\32\1024,768"
HKR,"MODES\32\1152,864"
HKR,"MODES\32\1280,600"
HKR,"MODES\32\1280,[COLOR="#FF0000"]800[/COLOR]"
HKR,"MODES\32\1280,1024"
HKR,"MODES\32\1400,1050"
HKR,"MODES\32\1600,1200"
HKR,"MODES\32\2048,1536"
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALNonStandardModesBCD1,1,08,00,04,80,00,00,00,60,10,24,04,80,00,00,00,60,10,24,06,00,00,00,00,60,12,80,06,00,00,00,00,60,12,80,0[COLOR="#FF0000"]8[/COLOR],[COLOR="#FF0000"]00[/COLOR],00,00,00,60,14,00,10,50,00,00,00,60,16,00,12,00,00,00,00,70
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",EnableDDC,0x10001,1
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",IDCRegOptionDontUseOSMonitorInfo,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_ENABLEDALRESUMESUPPORT,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnablePolling,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_BroadcastDispChange,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnablePowerPlay,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_POWERPLAYFORCEREFRESHSCREEN,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_UpdateAdapterInfoOnHK,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_DisableHotKeyIfDDExclusiveMode,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_LCDSetMaxResOnDockChg,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_DisableGPIOPowerSaveMode,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_NOCRTANDDFPONSAMECONTROLLER,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_IntTMDSReduceBlankTiming,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVDisableModes,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_LCDSHOWRESOLUTIONCHANGEMESSAGE,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",HDTVRULE_HDTVGDOENABLE,1, 01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",HDTVRULE_HDTVSIGNALFORMAT,1, 01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_GETLCDFAKEEDID,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_ENABLERMXFILTER,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_RESTRICT2ACTIVEDISPLAYS,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_POWERPLAYOPTIONCOLORDEPTHREDUCTION,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",R6LCD_FOLLOWLIDSTATE,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\VxD",DisableBIOSIntEvent,0x10001,1
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_BIOSEventByInterrupt,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_EnableChgLCDResOnHotKey,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",TVM6Flag,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_POWERPLAYOPTIONENABLEDBYDEFAULT,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_SETMODEAFTERPOWERSTATECHANGE,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_USEOLDPOWERPLAYINTERFACE,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_USEOLDPOWERPLAYPROPERTYPAGE,1,00,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_ENABLESHOWACSLIDER,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",DALRULE_ENABLESHOWDCLOWSLIDER,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",GCORULE_MemoryClockGraduallyChange,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",ExtEvent_OverDriveSupport,1,01,00,00,00
HKR,"INFO\INFO\DAL",UseCentredCVTiming,1,01,00,00,00

[R6_Desktop_AddReg]
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ATI Display Driver",UninstallString,,"rundll32 %11%\atiiiexx.dll,_InfEngUnInstallINFFile_RunDLL@16 -force_restart -flags:0x2010001 -inf_class:DISPLAY -clean"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ATI Display Driver", DisplayName,, "ATI Display Driver"
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\ATI Technologies\Installed Drivers\ATI Display Driver"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ATI Display Driver",DisplayVersion,,"8.03.98.5-060124a-030314E-ATI"

[DriverInfoAddReg]
; This section is added to all INFs to add registry entries for Driver Info.
HKLM,Software\InstalledOptions\%DriverOEM%\%DriverFamily%\%DriverMfgr%\%DriverProduct%,Description,,%DriverDescription%
HKLM,Software\InstalledOptions\%DriverOEM%\%DriverFamily%\%DriverMfgr%\%DriverProduct%,CurrentVer,,%DriverOEMVersion%
HKLM,Software\InstalledOptions\%DriverOEM%\%DriverFamily%\%DriverMfgr%\%DriverProduct%,Ver_%DriverOEMVersion%,,%DriverVersionID%
HKLM,Software\InstalledOptions\%DriverOEM%\%DriverFamily%\%DriverMfgr%\%DriverProduct%,BaseDriverFileName,,%BaseDriverFileName%
HKLM,Software\InstalledOptions\%DriverOEM%\%DriverFamily%\%DriverMfgr%\%DriverProduct%,BaseDriverFileVersion,,%BaseDriverFileVersion%

[MACXW4_DelFiles]
ati64hlp.stb,,,1
ati64hl2.stb,,,1
ativmdxx.sys,,,1

[UninstHlp]
Atfdftxx.hlp
Attdftxx.hlp
atpdftxx.hlp
atvdftxx.hlp
Atfenuxx.hlp
Attenuxx.hlp
atpenuxx.hlp
atvenuxx.hlp
Atfaraxx.hlp
Attaraxx.hlp
atparaxx.hlp
atvaraxx.hlp
Atfchsxx.hlp
Attchsxx.hlp
Atpchsxx.hlp
Atvchsxx.hlp
Atfchtxx.hlp
Attchtxx.hlp
Atpchtxx.hlp
Atvchtxx.hlp
Atfcsyxx.hlp
Attcsyxx.hlp
Atpcsyxx.hlp
Atvcsyxx.hlp
Atfdanxx.hlp
Attdanxx.hlp
Atpdanxx.hlp
Atvdanxx.hlp
Atfdeuxx.hlp
Attdeuxx.hlp
Atpdeuxx.hlp
Atvdeuxx.hlp
Atfellxx.hlp
Attellxx.hlp
Atpellxx.hlp
Atvellxx.hlp
Atfespxx.hlp
Attespxx.hlp
Atpespxx.hlp
Atvespxx.hlp
Atffinxx.hlp
Attfinxx.hlp
Atpfinxx.hlp
Atvfinxx.hlp
Atpfraxx.hlp
Atvfraxx.hlp
Atffraxx.hlp
Attfraxx.hlp
Atfhebxx.hlp
Atthebxx.hlp
Atphebxx.hlp
Atvhebxx.hlp
Atfhunxx.hlp
Atthunxx.hlp
Atphunxx.hlp
Atvhunxx.hlp
Atfitaxx.hlp
Attitaxx.hlp
Atpitaxx.hlp
Atvitaxx.hlp
Atfjpnxx.hlp
Attjpnxx.hlp
Atpjpnxx.hlp
Atvjpnxx.hlp
Atfkorxx.hlp
Attkorxx.hlp
Atpkorxx.hlp
Atvkorxx.hlp
Atfnldxx.hlp
Attnldxx.hlp
Atpnldxx.hlp
Atvnldxx.hlp
Atfnorxx.hlp
Attnorxx.hlp
Atpnorxx.hlp
Atvnorxx.hlp
Atfplkxx.hlp
Attplkxx.hlp
Atpplkxx.hlp
Atvplkxx.hlp
Atfptbxx.hlp
Attptbxx.hlp
Atpptbxx.hlp
Atvptbxx.hlp
Atfrusxx.hlp
Attrusxx.hlp
Atprusxx.hlp
Atvrusxx.hlp
Atfsvexx.hlp
Attsvexx.hlp
Atpsvexx.hlp
Atvsvexx.hlp
Atfthaxx.hlp
Attthaxx.hlp
Atpthaxx.hlp
Atvthaxx.hlp
Atftrkxx.hlp
Atttrkxx.hlp
Atptrkxx.hlp
Atvtrkxx.hlp
ATTJPNxx.hlp
ATFJPNxx.hlp
ATVJPNxx.hlp
ATPJPNxx.hlp
;------------------------
; File Update References

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir=11 ; LDID_SYS
INFFiles=17         ; windows\inf
INFOther=17,OTHER ; windows\inf\other
SysFiles=11
IniFiles=10

[INFFiles]

[INFOther]

[SysFiles]
atiiisxx.exe
atiiiexx.dll
atiicdxx.dll
atiicdxx.vxd
atiicdxx.sys
atricdxx.enu
;--------------------
; CopyFiles sections

[R6_Copy]
ATI2DRAG.DRV
ATI2VXAG.VXD
ati2cqag.DLL
ATI2I9AG.DLL
ATI3DUAG.DLL
ATIV16XX.DLL
ATIVIFXX.DLL
ATIVVXXX.VXD
ATIVVAXX.DLL
ATI3D1AG.DLL
ATI3D2AG.DLL
ATIO9XXX.DLL
ATIDDC.DLL
atitvo32.dll
Ati2evxx.exe
Ati2evxx.dll
atipdlxx.dll
Oemdspif.dll
ati2edxx.dll

[IniFiles]
;--------------------
; System.ini Updates

[R6_UpdateInis]
;----------------------
; User visible strings

[Strings]
ClassName="Display"
Mfg="ATI Tech. - Enhanced"
ATIM6="ATI Mobility Radeon"
; Driver Information Entries
; These items will be set by IHV...
DriverMfgr="ATI Technologies Inc." ; IHV name
DriverVersionid='7.xx' ; The IHV driver version
BaseDriverFileName="Ati2drag.drv" ; Key file for version
BaseDriverFileVersion="4.15.9163"          ; version of key file
; These items will be set by IHV and updated by OEM
DriverOEM="ATI Technologies Inc." ; name of the OEM
DriverFamily="Video" ; device family (NIC, Storage, Video...)
DriverProduct="ATI Radeon" ; Specific Name of device (chipset, for example)
DriverDescription="Graphics Driver" ; Description of device (product name, OS or system supported)
DriverOEMVersion="Centralized Build"             ; OEM-specified version
;;
DPSC="CLSID\{E62DCD80-C262-11d1-A419-006097923041}"
DAOS="CLSID\{2EADFE65-C751-11D1-A636-0000E8DB1EA2}"
ATPS="CLSID\{F2B8E361-D2E2-11D1-A41F-00609729B902}"
TKML="CLSID\{EBB5845F-CA80-11CF-BD3C-008029E89281}\InProcServer32"
TKM2="CLSID\{700B1221-CAFF-11d1-B9DE-000000001B1B}\InProcServer32"

I hope somebody can help me, or else i will be forced to use this laptop with an external monitor, which denies the whole purpose of it being a laptop
If you need further information, please ask and i shall answer you to the best of my knowledge.

Thank you in advance

 

It is possible the problem is not the video driver, but the vbios on the video card. I have no real experience modding vbios, but you can try to get Prema's attention on the forums, maybe he can help if you upload your vbios.

 

Well, i can't dump the vbios, GPU-Z tells me it's not supported on my device. As far as i know, the vbios is integrated into the system bios, there is no physical eeprom on the video card itself, even though it's not integrated, and probably that's why nVidia cards are not supported.

I installed Windows XP, and apart from the fact that the card is working flawlessly on it, there are 4 monitors being detected in device manage, one plug and play monitor and 3 default monitors. When i look in ATI Control Panel under Displays, indeed there are 4 monitors listed there (Monitor, TV, FPD and Panel which is the laptop panel). The laptop panel is the only one active and obviously the other three are not connected.

Now, in WIndows ME, after installing the modded driver and ATI Control Panel, only two monitors show in device manager, the one installed with the standard VGA graphics adapter that installed with Windows ME and only one Default Monitor that was installed when the driver was installed. Also in Windows ME, if i open ATI Control Panel and go to Displays, only 3 devices show there (Monitor, TV and FPD), there is no Panel like in XP, my suspicion is that there is a registry problem which can be fixed by modding the INF of the Windows ME driver, but i can never be 100% sure.

 

You may want to use a program like revo uninstaller to remove the old drivers entirely (that way it deletes all registry items connected to the driver, then install your modded driver; if that doesn't work I would give windows 98SE a try, an overall better OS for old games (I use it on an old IBM thinkpad for old games)

 

The old driver is the standard pci graphics adapter that windows loads at a fresh install, i tried catalyst 5.2, 5.9 and 6.2 (4.14.01.9150, 4.15.1.9163, 4.15.1.9165) each with a fresh install both windows 98 and windows ME with the same result, for some reason the laptop display is not being detected properly either by the inf/registry settings or by the driver itself. I will try to compare the inf for XP with the one for 98/ME but at a glance they look very dissimilar.... Strangely enough, there are a few early XP drivers such as 6.14.10.6422 that let me load the inf in the manual driver installation in windows ME (windows 98 gives me the incompatibility message) and actually go through with it, at least the driver says it's installing (the driver files copy) but when the system restarts all i get is 640x480x4bit, which means the driver files could not initialize obviously.......... Heck i even tried to replace a few files in the XP driver with the ones from 98/ME, and the behavior is the same as if i loaded the 98/ME drivers as explained before, which leads me to believe the fault lies in the driver files themselves, not in the inf, since i used the inf for XP. I really want to make this work...

 

Well, frustration and desperation got me into flashing an acer bios from a very similar laptop, the acer travelmate 4150, it has absolutely the same specs except for the video card which is nvidia instead of ati. i guess you see where i'm going with this, i was hoping that by flashing the bios from the travelmate 4150 to the aspire 5500, it would support nvidia cards instead of ati cards, i was wrong, my laptop is now a paperweight, i am waiting on a USB floppy disk drive and some floppies to attempt a bios recovery........ oh well..... acer really makes it hard, don't they.....

The platform of my acer aspire 5500 is called EFL50 and the one for the acer travelmate 4150 is called EDL00, clearly they both use an insyde bios and they have the same specs, i wish i knew how to copy the code of the vbios from the EDL00 to the EFL50 so that it would boot with the nvidia card that i have, then i could install it on windows 98/ME ....

One thing is for sure, once i get the floppy disk drive and the floppies, i shall have a means to recover from a bad BIOS flash, and that's when the real experimenting will start until i shall have a breakthrough, if the ati drivers don't help me, i will get rid if the ati card all together. Shame on them for not supporting their products properly, and i'm not talking about windows 98/ME (may they rest in peace), i'm talking about a whole history of buggy drivers and lack of support. I mean look at nvidia, they always had new versions of drivers available, they would fix bugs instantly.

But enough rambling, shame on you ATI !!!

 

Yeah you shouldn't have messed with the BIOS.

I was going to suggest you could look at Powerstrip. It will let you tweak the monitor INF and configure supported resolutions. It's not unlikely that WinME is confused with the EDID or something like that. Though it may also be possible that the desktop video driver doesn't handle the LVDS LCD correctly.

For that matter, I would look at Win98SE intead of WinME. There isn't much reason to go with WinME. There is a 98SE unofficial service pack that brings it up to and beyond WinME's features anyway.

I would also suggest that you post on the VOGONS forum because retro is what we do there.

 

I had some trouble with Windows 98 compatibility, the installation hangs at the last 10 minutes, but eventually it goes through with a lot of waiting and restarts, maybe going into safe mode a few times, the Windows ME installation doesn't hang at all, then there is the native USB external media compatibility. I know Windows 98 is way better but for this laptop it's just a headache, eventually when all the problems with drivers and all would have been sorted out, i shall definitely consider it.
As for 9x compatibility in NT, i'm sure most of the games/programs would work with a few exceptions (Pro Rally 2001, a game that i really miss), and when i said epicness i meant the whole project, but i admit, it's quite a headache lol.

Travelmate 4150 has the same chipset 915PM if it has a discrete video card, which it does, if you look at the bios, and use buidrom.bat in a 32 bit environment, several 512 kb roms will be created among which there is one called 43M.ROM, which stands for the nvidia geforce go 6600 chipset (NV43M). By the same analogy, if you look at the aspire 5500 2.10 (the last msdos version i could find) bios and use the same buidrom.bat, several roms will be created among which there will be one called M26P.ROM, which stands for the ati mobility radeon X700 chipset (M26).

The only difference of EDL00 compared to the EFL50 is the video platform and of course the checksum. I have looked into tools to help me unpack the roms but it seems they are old and proprietary, like some dell ones, so i hit another brick wall... i shall resort to hex editing and a lot more soft bricks ahead. I might have gotten myself into more than i bargained for, but it's the challenge (question) that drives us

Oh by the way, when i flashed the EDL00 2.5 bios from the Travelmate 4150 to the Aspire 5500, the flashing process went through without problems, the flash utility detected everything as if the platform was EDL00.... But then, the black screen of death ..... Bummer

 

Well, today the USB floppy disk finally came and i was able to use crisdisk (FN+Esc) to revive my acer aspire 5500. Since i had the mans to recover from a bad flash, i started experimenting again with the EDL00 (Acer TravelMate 4150) bios and still had no success. Finally after many tries and failures, video card swapping (ATI and Nvidia) frustration and some more time lost, i was just looking at the files that came with the TravelMate 4150 bios v2.50 and like i mentioned in a previous post, there is a file called buidrom.bat that uses the file flas***.exe to extract the bios rom and repack it in a few different files to match different platform configurations. As it turns out, for this particular bios version, the bat file created four rom files NV43.ROM, NV43DOCK.ROM, NV44MV.ROM and NV44MVDOCK.ROM, obviously each one matching the kind of laptop and vga card you have, geforce go 6600 no docking station or with docking station and geforce go 6200 no docking station or with docking station.

Anyway, i said to myself, hey if the flash doesn't work with NV43.ROM, let me try the NV43DOCK.ROM, so that's what i did, loaded and renamed the NV43DOCK.ROM to BIOS.ROM to the floppy disk along with bflas***.bin as required by crisdisk, and initiated the rescue flashing process, waited for it to finish and shut down the platform, then to my surprise and disbelief, the platform booted, i looked next to it and there was the ATI x700 card sitting there disconnected, i cried out loud in joy YEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH, i did it! it works!, in your face Acer!

Then went into the bios and there it is, the proof is attached to this post

Now i can finally have my windows 98/ME platform fully compatible with Nvidia drivers!!!!!!!!! Yupee, i'm a happy camper

 

UGH! I thought i was out of the woods but it seems like bad luck follows me....

Both Windows 98 and WIndows ME can't manage the new nVidia card well enough, either if i install them with ACPI on or off, there is a conflict (Code 12) where the video card cannot find enough free resources to run properly "This device cannot find any free Input/Output Range (I/O) resources to use (Code 12)".

I tried to install Windows XP to see if the new EDL00 BIOS is the problem, but Windows XP runs just fine..........

I tried to disable the COM and Infrared ports along with the LPT port in bios, i also disconnected the wlan and bluetooth modules, there is nothing else i can disable in the bios or remove from the system.......

What is the solution???

 

Interestingly enough, and i don't know what it means, in either windows 98 or windows ME, in device manager if i go to the video card resources it says "no conflicts", then if i go to computer in device manager and right click properties and then look for the listed resources that the video card is supposed to be taking, they are not listed there, all other devices that are taking up any resources are listed there except for the video card.

If this is a bios issue, then why is it not happening in windows xp, why does the video card work just fine in windows xp? Could it be that the video bios cannot work correctly with windows 9x?

I am so disappointed, i really wanted this system to work with windows 9x...

 

i will study this code 12 issue as best i can and will try to find a solution to it, but if nothing works, i will attempt a hardware solution which has a pretty good chance of not working, i will buy a PLCC 32 pin socket for the SST 29VF040 eeprom chip and a SST 29VF080 eeprom to replace the old one, flash it with the current working bios and the attempt to flash it with the Toshiba M60/65 Phoenix bios, the hardware platform is the same, but he Toshiba bios is 1MB versus the Acer one which is 512KB, the Toshiba bios accommodates both ati and nvidia video bioses, hence the increased size.

If i am successful (i strongly doubt it) then maybe the Phoenix bios has a better compatibility with windows 9x and managing memory ranges and other resources....

Wish me luck lol

 

I replaced the soldered to the motherboard PLCC32 eeprom with a socket so i can hot swap the chip and program a blank one using the motherboard itself, but the system just shuts down instantly once i mess with the good chip in the socket.....

back in the day i used to do this all the time with DIP32 eeproms and it worked just fine, it seems that modern computers have a fail safe that prevent such procedures......

here is to another failure and back to no options left.... i wish i had a parallel flash programmer

 

This is quite interesting...

The string can contain one or more detection switches separated by a semicolon ( . For example, if you want to use /p fand /p i you type setup /p f;i.
Some switches are simply on/off switches. The absence of the switch implies off; the presence of the switch turns it on. A minus sign (-) appended immediately after a switch turns it off.
Some switches take parameters in the form of c=params. If there is more than one parameter to a switch, the parameters are separated by a comma (,).
There must not be any spaces in the detection option string.

b - This switch enables Prompt Before mode. It prompts you before a detection module is called so that you can step through each detection module manually and decide if you want to skip it.

The default is disabled.

Example: setup /p b

x=res list - This switch excludes the listed resources from detection, where res list is one of four possibilities:
io(xxx-yyy,xxx-yyy,...)
mem(xxxxx-yyyyy,xxxxx-yyyyy,...)
irq(x,y,z,...)
dma(x,y,z,...)
This switch protects resources so that no detection modules can access them.

Example: setup /p x=io(300-30f,240-24f)

 

At this point i am out of ideas and pretty much heart broken, obviously the geforce go 6600 has trouble with the intel pci express root 2951 or wherever it's installed. The video card does not appear on any of the resources in device manager, but in I/O range there are a bunch of things "used by unknown device" which could be the video card.

The last thing i will try is to find a plcc32 eeprom programmer to flash a larger eeprom so it can accommodate a larger (maybe toshiba) bios, but i highly doubt the motherboard would even want to boot.....

Clearly there is an issue between this nvidia pci express card and windows 98/ME, the bios or video bios are not the issue because the configuration works great on windows 2K/XP.

Still i don't know why the ATI card worked just fine with the original bios and windows 98/ME except for the stupid driver which would not detect my laptop panel properly...

Ah well... this was an epic project, too bad it failed miserably...

 

DAMMIT I DID IT!

All i had to do is to go into safe mode and set the device resources (the ones that could be changed) to manually, low and behold, windows booted and there was no more conflict message, as a bonus the "default monitor" installed.
By the way, i installed the ATI card and wrote down all the resources it was allocated then compared them with the ones for the NVIDIA card, and there was a difference the ATI card had a third I/O resource allocated to it, while the NVIDIA card had a memory range instead of that I/O, but easily enough, the memory range i chose manually looked pretty much the same with the I/O from the ATI card.

For some reason i tried to do the same exact changes in windows 98 safe mode but it would hang after restart, but windows ME worked

Man i'm so freaking happy! That's a big load off my mind!

I hope this will come in handy to somebody crazy and perseverent like i was

 

LOL!

Bad luck is after me, now that i sorted out the incompatible BIOS and the mystery hardware conflict, i have another problem and that is the driver. i tried the following drivers:

http://windows98.xf.cz/vga/fw9x8269.rar by ZakMcKracken84 ( also you can find other interesting windows 98 stuff on that Czech website Unofficial Windows 98 support site )

and

http://www.mdgx.com/files/NV8269.EXE by Maximus-Decim

Neither one of them worked, windows would load until right before showing the mouse cursor, then there would be a black screen (with the laptop panel backlight lit) and i would guess a system hang
after forcing shut down, windows refuses to load the video driver anymore giving me error code 11 and something about ASD

then again the standard PCI graphics adapter default driver works just fine, so i am sure there are no conflicts anymore, if there are i have seen that windows lets me know

If anybody knows of a windows 98 driver that is compatible with nvidia geforce go cards or even quadro fx go (1000, 1400) i would try anything at this point

PS i ordered a nano flash programmer to try other bioses from other manufacturers in a last act of desperation ( here it is Nano USB Programmer for PC M B BIOS Repairing with Economic Shipping | eBay )

and here goes me drowning right before i reach the shore

damn shame, i tell you!

 

I haven't forgotten about this project and i just got word that my PLCC32 eeprom USB programmer got in, i highly doubt that changing bioses from another manufacturer but keeping the specs of the platform will work, but it's my last resort, stay tuned.

 

I finally give up, Acer keeps everything to themselves, even to the point where the motherboard does not accept any other flash rom than the one in the specs (even if it's the same size, package, pinout, memory rows, etc).

The idea that an Acer motherboard would work with a bios rom from another manufacturer was folly, still i wanted to get it out of the way.

So long story short, the closest i got to a working windows 9x environment with a PCI express video card, in a most modern mobile system, was with ATI mobility radeon x700, even though the driver could not recognize the laptop display properly (i think if the drivers would have been specifically written for mobile, it would have worked) still it works great on an external monitor

a major breakthrough was to discover that the acer aspire 5500 (EFL50) can be flashed with the acer travelmate 4150 (EDL00) bios to support the NVIDIA geforce go 6600 (please do this at your own risk and the best way through crisis recovery with a usb floppy disk drive)

running windows 9x with the nvidia card was a major disappointment for this platform because windows does not allocate the proper resources for it and therefore it returns code 12 conflict in device manager, still there is a workaround this problem by configuring the card's resources manually in safe mode, although the default VGA windows driver functions properly and installs the monitor, the available modified NVIDIA driver does not work properly, it tries to load when windows boots and then the computer restart and the video card gives error code 11 in device manager

and here is where i sign off, it was a nice try, great challenge to overcome a mount only to find a higher impassable one in the distance....

thank you every one for your attention, suggestions and support

admins please close this thread