With older systems, it often was necessary to load drivers at startup, even if they weren't needed immediately.

Looking at the CONFIG.SYS and/or AUTOEXEC.bat files from the original machine might give a clue as to what was loaded at boot - and if you're extrememly lucky the required driver might be one of them. That would maybe give you at least a "name" to search for. Both of those should be plain text files that you can open and read in notepad.

Looking in Control Panel where the card is installed, or just running System Information (Start|Programs|Accessories|System Tools|System Information in WinXP) might tell you what the new machine thinks the card is, from the PnP "signature" shown in Device Manager. If the card isn't PnP enabled, you'll likely find something pretty generic, if WinXP has tried to substitute a driver, or nothing if it just punted on the device.

Win98 allowed "direct access to hardware" pretty freely, and it's quite likely that the driver she was using is one that uses this kind of control. WinXP is "resistant" to using drivers and/or programs that want this kind of access, and a requirement for direct hardware access is a common cause of failure even running in "Win98 compatibility mode" on WinXP. It's probably the most common cause of "incompatible" hardware/software that just can't be used with WinXP in any "practical" way.

Especially if the TV card has no maker's name on it, some of the other labels on the card might include a "generic type" number that might yield to a Google for information.

Ultimately, you probably need someone who's used - or maybe is still using - really obsolete stuff. Maybe *Foolestroupe will be able to help if you bribe him with a tyranosaur bone?

* Sorry. Couldn't resist the chance for a tweak.

John