georg

So many projects, so little time. :-)

Drugwash - the mod is not as difficult as it looks in the photos. I used a fine tooth Xacto saw instead of a Dremel and cut either side of the pins, 3/16 inch or so into the epoxy, then scraped the material away with a small screwdriver. The heat from soldering is confined. You can get lithium AA or AAA cells.

Interesting indeed. AT&T 2500MMGB-87215 Single Line Telephone $44.10 http://www.recycledgoods.com/at-t-single-line-telephone-2500mmgb-87215.html They are in Ventura, CA, about 70 mi north of Los Angeles. I would love to see the monthly report of what sold, and who bought it.

Yes. Good working complete systems from each example, and from other places not mentioned due to the growing length of the post. Seek and ye shall find.

(quoting Hoko) "Also going to check goodwill and craigslist" This is a social engineering task. Tell absolutely everybody about your interesting hobby and get them involved in making you happy. Goodwill is not very good. They often have a contract with the recycling center and just act as a collection point. Church sponsored thrift stores are better. Find out when new donations normally arrive. People donate everything together but much is lost when it is put on the shelf. They tend to put the monitor in one section, the printer in another, etc. Try to be the first to see it. Use craigslist to identify persons who regularly sell computers. Look for people who bid on estates and lots at auction. Try to establish a friendly relationship that results in a call when what you want shows up in a new lot. They need to quickly sort through what they've bought and get rid of most of it right away. They know exactly what they can get on craigslist or eBay. You have to pay their net expected profit while saving them the trouble of photos, listing, shipping, etc. Google retirement community computer club for your area. Visit them and listen to their stories. Describe what you are looking for and what you are willing to pay or trade. Put it in writing and include your contact information so it can be pinned to the bulletin board. The system you really want is in the attic, basement or storage locker of someone's grandparent. They don't want the trouble of selling it, or packing it up to donate, and don't think it is worth anything. If you are introduced by someone they trust, offer a minimal payment and will do all the work of packing it up and hauling it away they will be glad to get rid of it.

Personally, I would find something like this more interesting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1995-486-PC-Clone-Computer-486DX4-100MHz-NO-HD-/311211542386?pt=US_Vintage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item4875a74772 With effort you can find one in the world outside of eBay with a hard drive and manuals.

"Battery module is not installed" is a red flag. I think you may find that the module is a Dallas DS12887 real time clock, a DIP with an IC, crystal and battery inside potted in epoxy. Without it, you will only be able to boot from floppy and some of your BIOS settings, especially those for the hard drive, will be lost every time you shut down. With no part in the board to copy, you can't be certain what to buy. Have been thru this. Was able to find replacement modules but three different tries all had dead batteries in them also. There is a hack to cut into the chip and solder wires from an external battery to the IC inside: http://www.rotteneggs.com/site/stories/7c4efb20-9ca7-11e0-8585-cda61f05aee7/dallas_chip_battery_hack/ Google ds12887 for more information if you can confirm that is the right part.

Internet Options - Connections - select "Never dial a connection"

This page should give you a working list of compatible cards: http://www.win31.de/edrivers.htm Scroll down to the section on Graphics/Video With Nvidia RIVA 128 you can still get driver from Nvidia http://www.nvidia.com/object/riva_drivers Drivers still available from Matrox http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/support/drivers/latest/ Scroll way down to Previously Released Drivers for Older Matrox products

You might try IE 3.01 http://www.oldapps.com/internet_explorer.php?supported_systems=true or try running Arachne under DOS http://www.glennmcc.org/

PC Health includes Help files, the troubleshooting tutorials, system file protection, system restore and auto update. statemgr.exe is a component of the system restore feature. It checks on boot-up how much time has elapsed since the last restore point and, if necessary, creates a new restore point. Once the boot process is complete, its sfp alter ego stmgr.exe then checks whether protected Windows system files were overwritten by older files during a recent installation of 3rd party software, and restores them to their previous level. If the system is kept running for a number of days, or if a program being installed requests a restore point to be created prior to the installation, then stmgr.exe is invoked and creates a restore point. stmgr.exe also monitors other aspects of your system as you are running it. This is a memory resident feature which consumes system resources, while statemgr.exe runs only at boot. To disable system restore, double-click the System icon in Control Panel and choose the Performance tab. Click File System. Choose the Troubleshooting tab. Turn on the Disable System Restore option. To see what System File Protection is guarding, navigate to the folder C:\Windows\System\sfp Open the file sfpdb.sfp with Notepad or Wordpad. This is the list of files being protected Open the file sfplog.txt in the same folder to see what actions were taken You can disable System File Protection, but you will have to edit the registry, and the process also disables System Restore and the Help feature in the Start Menu. It is a one way street. To get the PC Health features back, you have to reinstall Windows ME.

There is another way to skin this cat. Google external portable cd-rom drive parallel port or backpack cdrom drive parallel port http://reviews.cnet.com/cd-drives/24x-cdrom-reader-parallel/4505-3207_7-5084670.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/12757/article.html There were a number of vendors with creative ways to add a CD ROM. http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue147/102_CDROM_to_go.php I have a Sun Moon Star 31-144 that uses a Matsus***a CR583J CD ROM drive. (forum software deleted what it sees as a dirty word from middle of brand name.) The date on the DOS install disk files is 17 Sep 1996. Drivers for DOS/ Win 3.1/ Win95. This drive was used to install software on laptops that lacked both CD ROM and USB, when programs got big, and were no longer sold on floppy disks.

There is a reference manual, dated Oct 2001, here: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/lpi05595.pdf It shows the following chipsets: CPU: Intel Mobile Pentium III or Celeron processor. North Bridge: VIA Pro Savage Pn 133T South Bridge: VIA VT8231 Display controller: S3 Savage 4 in North Bridge. Audio controller: VIA/Realtek ALC201 AC97 Codec. CD player controller: O2 OZ-163. LAN: Realtek RTL8100L. CardBus controller: ENE 1410 Keyboard/embedded controller: National NS87591. Super I/O: in South Bridge.

JorgeA - A wise decision. Good luck to you. Have fun. Enjoy life. - georg

JorgeA - Ouch. Your screen name should be tenacity. It will be interesting to see if you still get all those advcheck.dll first exceptions. You might also try Process Explorer ChalotteTheHarlot says version 11.11 is the last version that runs on Win9x You can download it from filehippo (1.57MB) Freeware http://www.filehippo.com/download_process_explorer/3854/ Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded. The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.

JorgeA - How to Remove Norton Antivirus and Security Products http://www.pchell.com/virus/uninstallnorton.shtml Uninstalling the 2003 or earlier version of Norton Internet Security or Personal Firewall 2003 when Add or Remove Programs does not remove it http://service1.symantec.com/support/nip.nsf/docid/2001090510510636 Norton Support for Dell Customers http://www.symantec.com/norton/support/partner_faq.jsp?id=dell Download and run the Norton Removal Tool to uninstall your Norton product http://www.symantec.com/norton/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&docurl=20080710133834EN&selected_nav=partner DOCID: 20080710133834EN Operating System: Windows 2000,Windows 98,Windows Me,Windows Vista,Windows XP Last modified: 7.4.10

JorgeA - You wrote: "What does it mean when it says that the entry point was not found, and that the unregister server may not be exported?" It means you can't unregister a loaded DLL that a Windows process is currently using. You wrote: "Find Files didn't come up with anything called PView on my computer." pview.exe is a Microsoft utility, a "Performance View Debugging Applet", that was released with the Win2K Resource Kit for network administrators. Among other things, it enables the user to identify and kill a running process. It runs on Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows Server. It runs for me on XP, but not on Win98. If you merely remove the DLL's you will get an error, as Norton will still try to load them. Symantec had a tendency to hide details from the user in an effort to make products "id*** proof," and versions from the period 2003-2008 were not easy to uninstall. Even if you disable components, all the DLL's are loaded with the main program. A security program that is easy to disable wouldn't have much value. Symantec shares with Sony the dubious distinction of having put a rootkit on the machines of its own customers. Mark Russinovich said at the time (2006) that use of rootkit-type features by commercial vendors was "very worrisome" and "Its a bad, bad, bad idea to start hiding things in places where it presents a danger. When you use rootkit-type techniques, even if your intentions are good, the user no longer has full control of the machine. It's impossible to manage the security and health of that system if the owner is not in control." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Russinovich http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Symantec-Caught-in-Norton-Rootkit-Flap/ Symantec has had a close working relationship with Microsoft, which may explain why the Norton program is so tightly integrated into every function of the Windows operaing system. http://www.microsoft.com/business/enterprise/alliancepartner/symantec.mspx "Symantec and Microsoft have been partners for nearly 20 years, collaborating on every major OS release..."

JorgeA - You wrote: "I've been using Norton Internet Security on that computer since 2003 ...but the problem with Spybot surfaced only years later, in 2008." I suggest you read the wikipedia entry on Spybot Search and Destroy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spybot_-_Search_&_Destroy Also google asoehook.dll +oe +"outlook express" (from your log) 00:41:05.317: Unloaded "c:\program files\common files\symantec shared\antispam\ASOEHOOK.DLL" at address 0x67320000 by thread 1. asoehook.dll is normal if you have Norton installed. "asoehook.dll is a "Norton AntiSpam OE Hook" "from Symantec Corporation" "belonging to Norton AntiSpam" All of our work to isolate the interaction only to SSD and Win98 was for naught. Norton insinuates itself into every process and does not reveal itself when running. You have more going on than just the firewall. I don't think there is anything wrong with your Win98 system files, and advise that you abandon the idea of replacing them one at a time on a trial basis with original files. (from DW help FAQ) "It is fairly normal to see errors or warnings during profiling. One common error seen is when one module tries to dynamically load another module (using one of the LoadLibrary functions), but the module is not found. Dependency Walker makes a note of this failure, but if the application is prepared for the failure, then this is not a problem. Another common error is when a module tries to dynamically locate a function (using GetProcAddress) in a module. Again, this is not a problem if the application is prepared for the failure. You may also see first-chance exceptions occur in the log view. If the application handles the exceptions and they don't turn into second-chance exceptions, then this is not a problem. All these cases are normal, and can usually be ignored." (from DW help How to Interpret Warnings and Errors) "When an exception (like an access violation) occurs in an application, the application is given a chance to handle the exception. These are known as first chance exceptions. If the application handles the exception, then there should be no problem and the exception can probably be ignored." "Many applications routinely generate first chance exceptions and handle them. This is not a sign of a bad application since there are many legitimate reasons to generate first chance exceptions and handle them." At this point I'm going to recuse myself because we are just beating a dead horse. Your original question was: "Does Spybot SD Work on Win98? Do you use it, and how well does it work on your system?" That question has been fully answered.

JorgeA - You wrote: "Does any of this information yield clues?" Yes, but. You used an analogy to an automobile engine in one of your posts. A mechanic in a garage with a Motor Manual could once fix the whole car. Now technicians go to school for years just to try and understand one subsystem. It would take a garage full of books, and if you read them all you would never have time to repair anything. Bill Gates has bragged that Windows contains more lines of code than the "unfixable" U.S. air traffic control system. Patrick D. Kolla has worked on Spybot S&D for more than a decade. You can't understand code just by watching it run. However, you begin by reading all the help files that the developer makes available, and you google all the terms like md5 that you do not understand. DW has excellent help, and there are full descriptions, in color, of all the "cryptic symbols". Click on the little plus signs and you get 23 chapters of information. Any program like Spybot S&D that runs on a wide variety of operating systems, and tries to check an infinite variety of installed software, is going to throw up some errors. Dencorso used the phrase "false positives" and you can probably add "false negatives". Given that it is a security program, you are unlikely to get an explanation of exactly how the program works, even on the SSD forum. All the modules that are preceded with the path to Spybot Search & Destroy are integral parts of SSD. Only Patrick Kolla can explain why his own program can't find the module, if that is true. He likes tea (e.g. teatimer). Chai, fennel and mate are all types of tea. I get the "Error opening file" in red for most of the modules you list, but the program still operates OK. These are the ones where your system shows an error, and mine does not. apphelp.dll is not on my hard drive, and DW does not list it. ccl30.dll ditto userenv.dll ditto advcheck.dll is in the Spybot directory. It does not show as an error on my system. It does not appear in my log. The fact that CCL30.DLL is a Symantec file again raises for me the question of whether a Norton process is the one that does not play well with SSD. Even though you said you uninstalled part of it, and are now running Avast, you've obviously got traces that are throwing up an error in SSD. We are often admonished not to run multiple security programs, and it may be that you will have to choose one or the other. You can try removing all traces of Norton or Symantec and see if SSD then works. Symantec is notorious for being hard to remove, but you will have to do it anyway if you go to Sygate or some other firewall. Here is the entry for apphelp,dll from the Dependency Walker FAQ (part of help): "APPHELP.DLL is used by Windows XP's application compatibility feature. It is a Windows XP/2003/Vista/+ only DLL. If you see this warning, you most likely installed Internet Explorer 6.0 on your pre- Windows XP computer (Windows 95/98/ME/2000). Internet Explorer 6.0 installs a new SHWAPI.DLL that has a delay-load dependency on APPHELP.DLL. This is normal as SHWAPI.DLL does not expect to find APPHELP.DLL on versions of Windows prior to Windows XP. This warning can be ignored. You do not need (or want) APPHELP.DLL on Windows 95/98/ME/2000. A quick google search brings up a ton of similar errors re DW and those two files with other software.: APPHELP.DLL and USERENV.DLL & Win98SE "problems with these DLLs (are) quite common, but that they are not in fact supposed to be used under Win98SE" "APPHELP.DLL and USERENV.DLL ...are NT only function calls" "If you are using a version of windows other than XP check your version of NTDLL.dll for that export. Chances are, it just isn't there." "Actual Base" (from DW help): "This value will be shown in red if it does not match the preferred base address for the module. Your application will suffer a load-time performance hit for every module that does not load at its preferred base address" Maybe that's one reason why load times are so slow. An issue to take up with the Spybot forum.

JorgeA - PE Timestamps & version numbers from MiTeC for the last shortlist: FILENAME / PE TIMESTAMP / VERSION CRYPT32.DLL / 4/29/98 4:04:01 PM / 5.101.1743.1 WININET.DLL / 4/29/98 4:05:10 PM / 4.72.3110.0 SHLWAPI.DLL / 3/11/98 4:05:38 AM / 4.72.3110.0 SHELL32.DLL / 4/29/98 4:03:50 PM / 4.72.3110.6 COMCTL32.DLL / 5/1/99 1:01:05 AM / Product 5.00.2614.3600 File 5.80 OLEAUT32.DLL / 5/4/01 9:34:09 PM / 2.40.4517 MSVCRT.DLL / 7/13/00 3:10:12 AM / 6.10.8924.0 OLEPRO32.DLL / 3/8/99 7:15:46 PM / Product 2.40 File 5.0.4275 URLMON.DLL / 4/29/98 4:05:01 PM / 4.72.3110.6 HHCTRL.OCX / 5/24/00 5:24:16 PM / 4.74.8875 SHDOCVW.DLL / 4/29/98 4:04:52 PM / 4.72.3110.3

"Wait also to see if some wise head wants to pop in with a better suggestion." Don't like the way that came out. My intent is to invite someone who knows more than I do to get this on an easier or better track if there is one. :-)

JorgeA - OK. Now let's talk about Dependency Walker. Open DW Go to File > Open > use the drop down to browse to C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\SpybotSD.exe Select (highlight) SpybotSD.exe and left click Open Go to Profile and left click on "Start Profiling" On the Profile Module, leave Program arguments blank Leave "Clear the log window" blank, but tick all the other choices Click OK to begin profiling; Spybot message boxes will start appearing. Wait until the main Spybot screen comes up showing loading is complete (abt. 5 minutes) On the Spybot screen click "Search for problems" (profiling will continue) The rapidly changing bottom window on the DW screen, called the "Log View," is the one I use. The last few entries should show exit from all threads and a final "Exited...from SPYBOTSD.EXE..." If not, the last entries may reveal where the process bombed. Right click on the log view entries and then left click on SelectAll Copy and paste the log into Wordpad Save the file under a name of your choice and then exit DW and open the log file. You should have a log about 58 pages in length. It is from that log that I drew the list of DLL's. My suggestion is that you create logs for several other programs that you know work perfectly, and look at the kind of messages that come up in the logs in Red print, just for perspective. OK. Now back to the list of DLL's. I edited the list to remove all the entries where we both have original file dates of 5/11/98, and all the entries that are Spybot S&D files that come with the program. I also looked at your original list of "a bunch of files ...listed in DW that are not on your list". There were 3 files that do appear in the log, missed by me, but we both have the 5/11/98 date for them so they are ignored. The others do not appear in the log as being actually used by the SSD process. I also deleted files where you have a 1998 or 1999 date, feeling they are probably Windows updates or service packs. Based on the exchange with dencorso, I've also deleted user32.dll. This is what remains. FILENAME (georg DATE) (JorgeA DATE) CRYPT32.DLL (5/11/98) (9/12/02) WININET.DLL (5/11/98) (4/28/06) SHLWAPI.DLL (5/11/98) (8/31/05) There's also a SHLWAPI_BK (3/18/99) SHELL32.DLL (5/11/98) (12/06/01) COMCTL32.DLL (4/30/99) (8/29/02) OLEAUT32.DLL (5/4/01) (3/16/01) There's also a OLEAUT32.001 (3/08/99) MSVCRT.DLL (11/14/03) (4/06/00) OLEPRO32.DLL (3/8/99) (3/16/01) URLMON.DLL (5/11/98) (5/08/06) HHCTRL.OCX (4/24/00) (4/14/05) SHDOCVW.DLL (5/11/98) (5/26/06) It would be safest to make a fresh backup, including the registry, before substituting any files. Since your problem occurs at the end of the SSD process, one approach would be to work the list backward, from bottom to top. For each file, use the Edit > Find function in Wordpad to look at all instances of that file in the log. If you come up with a likely suspect, or you can't see a suspect, then for each file extract an original 5/11/98 from your cabs, move the newer file from C:Windows\System to a backup location, and put the 5/11/98 file into the system directory. Then reboot. If Windows still works, see if Spybot works (using the stub filesets short scan). See if anything else breaks. Try the apparent backups for SHLWAPI and OLEAUT32. Wait a bit here before you begin. You still have the option to just stop scanning with SSD using Windows 98. Wait also to see if some wise head wants to pop in with a better suggestion.

JorgeA - fciv runs OK on Win98fe from C:\Windows\Command by opening an MS-DOS prompt C:\WINDOWS> fciv c:\windows\system\user32.dll While you have the prompt open, type ver to see product version When you doubleclick the installer it will ask where to put the files. You get fciv.exe and a ReadMe.txt, so I suggest choosing an empty directory and then manually copy fciv.exe into C:\Windows\Command so you don't overwrite some other ReadMe.txt

JorgeA - Respond to dencorso re USER32.DLL We can continue later if need be. - georg

dencorso - nice little program. Thank you for the MiTeC link. - georg