PC techies,HELP please?

[RobD]

I have been having serious probs,installed Win98 on a new hard drive,won't accept the video drivers cd(illegal operation error),now my cd/dvd drive doesn't show up under device manager or my computer.I think the operating system may be too old for the pc(2002)?

Time PC
Processor - AMD Athlon - 1.333 Mhz
motherboard -MSI - MS 6378(VT8361)
Bios - Award(2001)
Hard drive - Maxtor 40Gb
Cdrw/DVD - Toshiba SD - R1002 (Atapi,cd/dvd)-no drivers req,firmware on mobo
Video - Cyberblade/i1
Audio - VT82C686A/B AC'97 Audio codec (sound card)
modem - HSP micromodem 56
Buses - PCI,AGP,ISA,USB,IDE
Ports - serial,parallel

I would like to reformat the hard drive so that I can do a clean install of Windows XP,'ve heard all sorts of horror stories about installing over Win98.Ii will prob need to install software to do this(without a cdrom drive that should be fun!)windows won't allow a format at this time(?)Hope someone can help.Cheers.

[laser_jock99]

Windows 98's software drivers might struggle to recognize newer components. Hardware and software should be contemporary for the installation to go smoothly. XP would probably recognise the newer hardware- your're a bit stuffed if the CD ROM won't work though since you can't upload any drivers!

I think you can format the hard drive from Windows 98 rescue disk (floppy disk). Two DOS programs you need are FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM (?). You need to boot the PC up in command mode and run the programs from the A: drive. It's been a while since I've done this though so I don't remember the exact detail.

Nevillef

[Malenibo]

Get hold of a windows recovery disc put it in the floppy drive and after starting the Pc choose the option start up with CD support. After drivers have installed format the hard drive and then run Fdisk to create a partition. insert windows XP CD and Change to the drive letter given for the CD drive and type setup. The pc should then run throught the install process.

Regards

[Fieldsy]

...thats assuming you have a bootable xp disc, otherwise you will find you get an error code saying the disc will not boot in dos mode when trting to overwrite a 98 o/s. Easiest thing is to go into bios and change first boot device to cdrom, save bios and exit, reboot, and the cdrom (with bootable xp disc) will start running. It will then give you all the necessary options to format, partition, use NTFS file system, etc.... to install windows xp

[ma5k]

Before formatting!...

Either Win 98 or XP should support the hardware you've specified.

If you've installed a new Hard drive & are now having probs with your CD/DVD drives you might need to check hardware installation (eg: you can't have more than one "Master" on any given IDE bus).

Have you tried loading the vid drivers from the Web? (usually worth getting the latest anyway). This will confirm whether it's a problem reading the disk rather than installing the drivers.

I'd make sure you've got CD support before you format the drive as you'll need this to install any recent OS!

Hope this is helpful!

-M

[Pete]

Rob, make sure you have the IDE cables attached propery. I had a similar problem, cable was wrong way up on cd rom.

Pete

[Fieldsy]

If the cd-rom isn't set up correctly, the floppy start up method will not work, it will run through the start up fine, but then it looks for the compatible cd-rom drive and drivers, if it isn't set up, start up won't find it and you won't have cd-rom support.

Run the HD on IDE 1 as the slave, and the cdrom on IDE 1 as the master.

Once you have the o/s installed simply swap the HD to Master and cdrom to Slave............or run the cdrom as Master on IDE 2. Most h/ware like to run as Master.

Even with the 1st set up, if the BIOS is set to boot from cdrom, it will run the cdrom as master, and boot from the xp disc from which you can then install your o/s.

Make sure you reset the bios to boot from H/D once you have the o/s installed and the disc removed.

good luck Rob

[RobD]

Found out what the prob is........the system driver cd is NOT compatible with windows 98(duh),windows 98SE to windows 2000,will I still be able to install XP on this system even though xp drivers are not on the cd?Cant find the correct modem driver anywhere on cd either,will xp auto detect?Cheers.

[Fieldsy]

xp will find most drivers for new h/ware, but there are a few compatibility issues. You can always find the relevant drivers for the h/ware from the manufacturers web site.

Whats the modem? and graphics you are trying to install?

[ma5k]

Cant find the correct modem driver anywhere on cd either

Folowing might help:

http://list.driverguide.com/list/company471/page8/

(you need to sign up to download)

Modem driver should be all you need for now. So long as you can connect to the web you can install the latest drivers for other hardware after a basic install of the OS (it will load an adequate vid driver to allow you to find/download what you're after).

-M

PS - good source of XP info is http://www.theeldergeek.com/

[AndyLala]

Check the hardware first... Master slave setup on harddrives, etc...

Next, build a boot floppy that will see all your devices.
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/network/
This one is awesome

Next stage is to build a set of driver disks that have the latest drivers for all your devices. When XP cannot see them, point the install at your driver disk set.

You could get sexy and build a bootable WinXP CD with all your drivers in an $OEM$ folder on the root of the CD-rom.

Or. (nearly forgot)
The boot floppy disk set for Windows XP, make sure you download the right set... Home or Professional, and which service pack your source XP cd is slipstreamed with... (vanilla, SP2 or SP2)

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;310994


Note:
Limited OEM driver support is available with F6 during Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 setup
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314859

OEM Windows XP Setup program may stop responding during video driver installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;883667

Don't worry about the video driver at install, let it default to VGA, you can sort that once you have an O/S on.

Also remove all unnecessary devices, just to get the O/S on board, once that is up, you can add those.

Trick is to get your motherboard BIOS firmware upto date. If the motherboard won't see the devices, then it can't report them through the HAL to the O/S.

Remember to keep it simple... less confusion that way...

HTH, andyL

[RobD]

[QUOTE=Fieldsy]xp will find most drivers for new h/ware, but there are a few compatibility issues. You can always find the relevant drivers for the h/ware from the manufacturers web site.

Whats the modem?
Pctel HSP micromodem 56
struggling to find drivers for this.

and graphics you are trying to install?
Cyberblade/i1
Monitor is a Samtron 76E there is also a Samtron monitor drivers cd,which is a new one on me,this cd caused probs when I tried to install drivers,then the cd rom disappeared from my computer and device manager.I have since formatted the hard drive,won't be trying to re install windows 98.

[Gizmo]

This may provide some help on the PCTEL modem front

http://www.techspot.com/drivers/index/results/PCTEL/0

There is a taiwanese site that has them..just cant remember..I looked on the version numbers on the modem and just put them in on google and trawled through the links when I needed the softversion of the HSP modem

[RobD]

[QUOTE=RobD]

xp will find most drivers for new h/ware, but there are a few compatibility issues. You can always find the relevant drivers for the h/ware from the manufacturers web site.

Whats the modem?
Pctel HSP micromodem 56
struggling to find drivers for this.

and graphics you are trying to install?
Trident blade/3d[i1]
Monitor is a Samtron 76E there is also a Samtron monitor drivers cd,which is a new one on me,this cd caused probs when I tried to install drivers,then the cd rom disappeared from my computer and device manager.I have since formatted the hard drive,won't be trying to re install windows 98.

Thanks for the replies,the pc probably won't end up as a garden feature after all.

[RobD]

Latest update:

decided to install Win98,everything has gone well apart from the following:

under device manager tab there is an entry for unknown devices with a large yellow question mark next to it,attatched to this entry are 2 devices both of which have the same yellow question mark next to them plus an exclamation mark.These devices are PCI card and PCI ISA bridge,what does this mean?Will it cause probs if not rectified?How do I rectify?Cheers.