OT: need help installing Win98SE on new HD

[SpaceBadger]

My hard-drive is dying - it has been making strange noises and my "most-used" program lately is Scandisk - and more bad sectors are found almost every time it runs. I bought a new HD and decided to install Win98SE on it. The old/current/dying HD has WinMe installed as that was on it when I bought the computer and I have been too lazy to change. I chose Win98SE for the new HD because I already have it and it will run most everything I want to run, whereas I would have to buy a copy of XP and it seems that everyday brings new stories of what won't run on it.

When I first installed 98SE on the new HD there were a =lot= of items in device manager that it did not recognize or could not find drivers for. I got Online and found infinst_enu.exe at Intel's website, and after I ran that and also re-ran a driver installer from my WinMe CD it seemed that almost all of the unrecognized items were fixed. However there is still one device that is shown as "PCI Input Controller" with a big yellow question mark and black exclamation point showing that it is not properly installed. I don't believe this is a physical problem as everything works fine and shows up fine in device manager when I switch the cables and jumpers to use the old HD (as I have to do in order to connect to the internet, since the modem still doesn't work on the new setup).

Here is a combined screenshot showing device manager under both new HD and old HD. Two devices that are missing in the new setup are the Game Port for SB Live and the Net Adapter for NDIS 1394. Also, the connection arrangement for the modem is different - on the old setup (the one that works) there is another device between the modem and the PCI controller. It seems to me that any of these three might be the unrecognized "PCI Input Device", because they all are in that heirarchy in the connections. The modem is not working in the new setup, even though device manager says "this device is working properly" the modem cannot be found when I try to setup a DUN connection.

Any ideas on which device is likely to be the unrecognized one? Better yet, any ideas on what I need to do to get these missing devices installed properly before my old HD quits and dies on me, and I lose my ability to get advice or download drivers etc, since my modem is still not working under 98SE on the new HD?

Thanks for any help you can give.

SpaceBadger

[Fyron]

Try running windows update. It should work with 98, and usually finds all the drivers you need.

[openair]

he can't run windows update, because, as he said, he can't connect to the internet under win98


i bet the unknown is the Ethernet card. the game port and such might not even show up, or might be somewhere else...

and i sugest not using the WinME drivers, might be whats causeing ur problems, try finding Win98SE specific drivers..

[SpaceBadger]

Don't I need to be Online for the update to work? The modem isn't working with that setup. Oh well, I'll shut down and switch drives and give it a try - maybe it will be able to find what it needs on one of the CDs (although it didn't find it on repeated tries of removing the unrecognized device, rebooting, and suggesting various locations where I thought the drivers should be found).

SpaceBadger

[SpaceBadger]

My ethernet card is working fine under the new setup. My machine can "see" the others on the LAN, and vice versa, and share printers and files. You are right, however, that I cannot connect to the internet except by switching the old HD back into "master" status (I have the old one set as a slave in the new setup, for ease in transferring files).

I expect that unknown PCI device is one of the three that is missing from the new setup, either the Game Port, the 1394 adapter, or that extra link between the modem and the PCI Bridge.

SpaceBadger

[Fyron]

Go into the Control Panel and then into the properties for the LAN connection and whatever other internet connections are present and make sure that Internet Protocol TCP/IP and File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks are installed. If so, try removing them and then reinstalling them.