Arminius

You can't be serious. You would have as much luck finding a fast food restaurant that serves Brontosaurus burgers. I still use an mp3 player that came with its own driver for 98SE but that is because I bought a few of them when the store had a clearance sale back in 2008. Even if you were to find "old stock" I wonder how long the USB sticks would remain functional given the fact that they would have been manufactured a decade ago. There is a button battery built into them which manufacturers guarantee for 10 years, and with luck lasts several years longer. Once the battery runs out the USB stick will no longer hold data. If the USB ports on your Thinkpad are USB 1.1 then I suggest you download the drivers Flasche provided the link for and use those. USB 3.0 drives are now on the shelves and one can only wonder how long USB 2.0 drives will be available. USB 2.0 drives are backward compatible to USB 1.1 but USB 3.0 drives are only backward compatible to USB 2.0. And what do you mean by "moderately priced"? The price of USB drives has come down so much over the years that where I live a 32GB drive cost less than a bottle of booze and a 16GB drive costs less a pack of cigarettes.

To be honest with you 768 MB of memory ought to be enough for any game designed to run on Windows 98. If you are looking to improve performance upgrade the CPU instead. According to the manual your board can take up to an Athlon 1200MHz if you can find one. If not then go for at least an Athlon 1000MHz.

Yes I do have a value for DigitalProductID in that key. The key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion contains redundant information. There is the ProductId, ProductKey, and ProductType. ProductType alone tells you what kind of install you have. 115 = full OEM 120 = OEM restore CD 101 = full retail 102 = retail upgrade 112 = fe to se update from Microsoft 116 = OEM upgrade and OEM fe to se update 111 = MSDN 110 = "select" - license for multiple installs 100 = doesn't ask for a key at all Anyone want to volunteer to delete MRANENIA to see what happens? I might try it but not right now.

That can't be right. I have the MRANENIA key and I used my own genuine product key when I installed it. In my case the MRANENIA key is not empty, it has a hex string. I have another computer with 98SE and it also has the MRANENIA key but the hex string is different, this time a different genuine product key was used. Mine are both OEM keys. Dude111, was your installation OEM, retail or upgrade?

I have an old PC with two hard disks each containing a full installation of Win98FE. They both include all official Windows Updates for that OS. One of them is the original install from the vendor (I bought that PC in early 1999, just prior to SE's launching) and the other is one that I did a couple of years ago, by sheer chance shortly before Microsoft cut off the server for Win98 updates. But neither of these installations is particularly stable and so I have two main choices next time I need to install Win98 fresh: To somehow extract the Windows Updates from these installations, so that I can then apply them to a new, fresh install. Is that possible? To get the Updates from some other source.The trajectory of my computing learning is very different from that of most people on this forum. Although I had a lot of fun tinkering with computers in 1982-85, ever since Windows overtook DOS I had tended to approach computers as black boxes that performed magic; in 2005-6 I wasn't expert enough to back up Win98 updates. Had you talked to me in those years about backups and installers, I would have given you a blank, mystified look. But TBH I'm not sure how I would go about it today even if the updates were available the old-fashioned way -- I don't remember the Windows 98 update application offering a simple choice to download the updates such that they could be installed manually later. Memories of how it worked are getting fuzzy by now, but IIRC it was a fairly automated function unless you went to the individual information page for each update -- which on dial-up made for quite a tedious process. (Not that back then I would have given much thought anyway to such an "advanced" function as downloading individual update installers.) I do remember, though, that the last time I installed Win98, there were many many more than a dozen updates, maybe even several dozen. Maybe they weren't all security/stability updates, but there were a ton of them all told and it would be preferable to have them too, if possible. --JorgeA Your old PC with 98FE sounds like my old PC bought mid 1999 just before the release of SE. I bought a second hand 98SE OEM CD complete with manual and license key for $25 in 2004 but didn't get around to installing it until 2005. Don't bother trying to extract the updates from your installation. A lot of them are still available from here: http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm and here: http://erpman1.tripod.com/w9xmeupd.html There may be some dead links but grab the ones you can. I may have some of those that are missing. I don't know what happened in those days by clicking the the Windows Update shortcut in the Start Menu. I always went to Windows Update Catalog (now gone). http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/catalog There you could select language, choose your OS, and be presented with a list of standard updates with a short description. You would then add them to a cart and when finished they would download into a folder (the default was Wu at the root directory). The installers themselves would be a few folders deep divided into subfolders by language, OS, app, and name of the update. They didn't have specialized hotfixes in the catalog but everything else was there. You probably don't need every hotfix. Many of them had to be requested from Microsoft to fix specific issues which did not affect a large enough number of computers to be put into general release. I adhere to the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" philosophy. Most of the core updates from the former Windows 98 Corporate site ought to be installed in addition to 98FE SP1. The rest is up to your own judgment. If you do get a copy of a 98SE CD make sure the first thing you do after you install the OS is to install the 98SE shutdown supplements or you will be swearing your head off and saying how much better 98FE was.

Wow, that is amazing! However... If and when the time comes to do a fresh install of Windows 98 -- where does one go to get all the official updates through July 2006? (I'm thinking of Win98 FE, not SE.) Are there any repositories elsewhere, now that Microsoft has killed/repurposed the one(s) that stored the Windows Updates for 9x that you used to be able to get by clicking on "Windows Update" on the Start Menu? And, is it possible still to get 9x drivers for all the peripherals that one might have today (modern printer, current graphics card, and so on)? Not trying to be argumentative here, just genuinely curious. --JorgeA (still with a soft spot for Win98) You mean in 2005-2006 you didn't download the updates and back them up? I rarely used Windows update prefering to download the installers myself from the old Windows 98 corporate page. But even Windows update gave the option of downloading the installer instead of an automatic install. As far as FE goes once you install SP1 there are only about two dozen or so security and stability updates to install. Of the many hoxfixes that ended up in the unofficial service packs most of them originally were to address issues that cropped up with specific hardware configurations. If you check inside the .exe file you will see that many of the hotfixes were dual installers for both 98FE and 98SE. The installer would automatically detect which version you were using and install the appropriate file. Why today would anyone use 98FE when SE is more stable and a wider range of older hardware had drivers for SE but not FE? I heard some people say FE was faster than SE but on a fast Pentium 4 who would notice the difference? As far as printers go I never connected 98 to a printer. If I need to print something today I connect our XP laptop to the printer.

@ Steven W You are right, iesetup.ini is missing from the server in some languages but you can find it in the Spanish folder. You can use that, it turns out there are no localized strings anyway. [Version] Signature="Active setup" [Options] IELiteMode=0 ConfirmFileList=0 Shell_Integration=1

to throw away PC's along the roads.... jaclaz The computers are put out on the kerb for quarterly "council cleanup" days when household items not suitable for the weekly garbage are disposed of. Much of this stuff gets recycled. You always see guys driving around in trucks picking up scap metal and car batteries. If you expect to find a computer you have to be lucky, they don't last on the kerb long.

Yeah, older drives are noisier than modern drives but "noisy as hell!" ? Sounds to me as though your hard drive is failing. At least you ought to check it for bad sectors. Do you have another hard drive you can try? Then again is the overall age of your hardware. Old motherboards may work OK from a cold start but can become unstable after they have been powered up for a while and get warm.

I may be wrong but I don't think Intel released chipset drivers to run Windows 98SE on 945 chipsets so even if you get 98SE to install you may have other issues. As a 15 year old your resources may be limited but you would save yourself a lot of hassle by buying a used computer with an 865 chipset and IDE support. They are quite inexpensive now. Just make sure you can download 98SE drivers for all the components and inspect the motherboard for bad capacitors before you part with your money. You may even be able to pick one up for free. You would be surprised at what companies throw away and what ordinary people put out on the curb these days.

According to the nvidia website the last version for Windows 95 is version 66.94 but the last version to mention Windows 95 in the readme file is version 56.64 !!! http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_archive.html I am tempted to say "if it ain't broken don't fix it" but if you feel you must upgrade then go for the highest version that works under Windows 95. If you have a problem then downgrade one version at a time until you find one that works trouble-free. The bugs you mention may only be associated with particular hardware combinations. The installers are still there but you have to edit out the javascript code and link directly to the file. Grab them while you can.

Back in 1999 when I got introduced to computing with Windows 98 first edition, not knowing any better, when I had a problem I would just reinstall 98 on top of 98. As time went on I realized there were easier ways to fix minor issues. I don't know if this would work in your case but you sound desperate. Even though I used a full OEM CD the installation routine worked like an upgrade with the option to back up the previous installation. I believe the htt and desktop.ini files will be replaced with fresh copies with a time/date stamp of the installation time. I don't think these files were the cause of the initial problem however. It was probably some registry issue. I don't suppose it would do any good if you are using a non-English copy of Windows but I could upload copies of desktop.ini and the htt files from my 98SE computer. They have not been modified since the installation date of 8 February 2005.

Here is the Big Kahuna, IE6SP1 English, complete installer for 98, ME, NT4, and W2K. Includes foreign language IME's and support files. http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?l7vj6bj0t9vocx5

That is pretty risky. Installing Windows on a much smaller active partition with the bulk of your data on an extended partition would be safer in the event Windows became corrupted and failed to boot. I hope you have another computer you can connect your drive to in the event you have a problem and need to salvage your data....or at least a rescue/utility CD. For the problem at hand, did you try reducing the percentage of space reserved for the recycle bin?

I think MT stands for Mini Tower as opposed to small form factor. The motherboard specs ought to be the same.

I had a similar situation a couple of years ago and the problem turned out to be the motherboard not the RAM. Vectra Manual 338kb http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/lpv07351/lpv07351.pdf @persson121 I don't know what you paid for the new stick of RAM but you can probably pick up a working Pentium III computer for as little as $1. Windows 95 can live quite happily on it without going overboard on the CPU speed.

You mentioned in another thread that your computer is from 2001 which means your motherboard is 11 years old. Before you spend any money you really ought to open up the case, blow out the dust and have a good look at the caps (capacitors) on the motherboard. If you see any leaking caps your best move would be to get another computer or motherboard. If there are caps that are only slightly swollen then you may get a couple years more life out of it but its days are clearly numbered and performance may suffer. Sometimes you will find only a single blown cap, or more likely on an old board you will find that all the caps of a particular type have come to the end of their life and are swollen. Ironically from what I have seen boards made in 1999 hold up better than boards made in 2001 and later. As for your videos lagging... What is your connection speed? The higher resolution flash videos are quite large and stop and start because they take longer to download than it takes to play them. Try pausing the video for a couple of minutes while it downloads and then resume play as the progress bar moves to the right of the screen. Make sure the download stays ahead of the playback. And if the sound isn't in synch with the visual it may just be a poorly made video. See if you get the same problem on a different computer. Don't automatically assume you have a hardware or software problem.

Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think a Pentium Dual Core E2140 will fit into the socket on zanet's Pentium 4 motherboard no matter how hard he tries to hammer it in. As far as I am concerned a $5 upgrade makes perfect sense. My internet box runs on only a 1GHz Pentium III and I get by OK though I am thinking of retiring it and replacing it with something faster. In my case the slow down is caused by the virus scanner getting bogged down scanning the flash files as they download rather than the actual playing of the flash animations....and that is on an a board with an Intel i810 chipset.

Yup, some Youtube videos are so resource hungry older computers have a hard time keeping up. It also depends on the connection speed. @zanet I don't think there is anything wrong with your graphics card. You may want to upgrade your computer though. I know a vendor who has a box full of assorted P4 processors 2.0 GHz or better he sells for $5 each. 512MB sticks of PC3200 DDR RAM are $7 each. He even gives you one month to return the item in case it proves to be defective. You should look for computer recyclers in your area. The price of new hardware has come down so much in recent years that the price of old components has had to come down accordingly. The sad thing is it is only a matter of time before it will no longer be profitable to be a used parts dealer and most of that stuff will be melted down for gold recovery.

Hmm.... I am using W2k and was able to go to the nVidia website using Browncoat's link and successfully do the search without Java installed on the system, unless you count the old obsolete MS Java that Microsoft used to include with their OS's. I use Opera 11.64 as my browser by the way. Anyway....the search recommended ForceWare Release 90 version 93.71 WHQL for your graphics card. http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/93.71/93.71_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe Sometimes you can pick up an entire Pentium 4 computer of 2005 or later vintage that has up to 64MB of onboard graphics for less than the price some vendor's charge for just a graphics card plus postage. It depends on whether or not you live near a major city I suppose.

Interesting that the ActiveX version of Flash Player 11.x will work with IE6. The release notes for Flash Player 11.x state that it requires IE7.0 and above. That's why Adobe had parallel releases of 10.3x and 11.x until very recently, 10.3x supposedly being for those who still used IE6 in XP. It draws a clear distinction between new versions of software that are no longer "supported" under an old OS and new versions that no longer work.

You have a 1.7 GB HDD installed? Are you sure your Windows 98 PC's motherboard will recognize a 200 GB HDD? If it doesn't you can probably get a used 20 GB or 40 GB drive for nothing. At least you would have more elbow room.

The time stamp aside is there any evidence that the IE401SP2 version of EXPLORER.EXE v. 4.72.3612.1700 is better than the slightly older one that later shipped with IE55SP1/2 ? The thing is I think EXPLORER.EXE that came with IE401SP2 and the copy of SHELL32.DLL that accompanied it were meant for use with Win95. I no longer remember whether EXPLORER.EXE got upgraded on Win98FE by SP1, and IE401SP2 wasn't meant for 98SE in any case. It has to be said that EXPLORER.EXE and SHELL32.DLL for NT 4.0 in IE4SHLNT.CAB underwent a similar "downgrade" to an older January release in IE55SP1/2. It makes me wonder whether the inclusion of the older versions was an oversight or by design.

A friend of mine also had trouble with Gmail. Give Yahoo a try. I can tell from your reply that you are either a novice at making mp3s or you never read the help files that came with either CDex or Audiograbber. CDex 1.40 isn't limited to Lame 3.92 Alpha. You can give it a newer version of Lame by copying the newer lame_enc.dll into the CDex installation directory. When CDex was still under development the developer would include whatever the latest version of Lame happened to be. You can screw upgrading your OS if you want but it doesn't mean you have to screw upgrading your CDex installation. There you go. Don't bother using MP3val. It sounds like a buggy piece of junk. This is what I mean about you never having read the help files for Audiograbber. Audiograbber will give you a full range of bitrates but you have to supply the codecs. If you only get the option for 56kbps mp3s this is because the only codec Audiograbber has available is the "advanced" version of Fraunhofer, L3codeca.acm. This shipped with WMP 7 and 9. What you need is the professional version L3codecp.acm that shipped with WMP 10. You can find a standalone installer for this codec on MDGx's site. Audiograbber supports a whole host of codecs. If you want to use Lame with Audiograbber then copy lame_enc.dll into the Audiograbber installation directory where the program can find it. The only thing you have to look out for is that some of the latest official versions of Lame no longer worked under 9x. It had something to do with the compiler that was used. Fortunately there are alternate compilations that DO work under 9x.

VBR files are always a pain in the backside. OK for four minute songs perhaps but VBR files tend to be more temperamental than CBR. How much bigger are your CBR files over VBR files? Like maybe 10%? I use the 1by1 window to rename files. MP3val may just be a buggy app that is more trouble than it is worth. I have never used it. By re-encoding mp3's you are negating your attempt to producing high quality sound files. The only time I have come across mp3s that didn't play it always was due to bad ID3v2 tags. Removing the tag fixed the problem. Which version of Lame? Some people swear that Lame 3.93 was the best version ever produced. Or maybe you need to try different compilations of the newer versions of Lame, some don't work on 9x, others do. Some might just be buggy on 9x. I mainly rip audiobook CDs therefore find 80kbps mono CBR optimal. Fraunhofer has proved itself to be the better codec at that bitrate. Depending on the source CD I have found that recent versions of Lame try to "encode too much data" resulting in sound artifacts in the mp3 which were not present in the original wave file and have a gravelly sound when played back. I have CDex 1.40, 1.70b2, as well as Audiograbber 1.83 installed on my system and I don't use ANY of them to rip CDs. I prefer CDFS.VXD instead, the one that displays audiotracks as wav files in Windows Explorer. Then there is the question of what kind of ROM drive do you use to rip your CDs? Most people have DVD or DVD combo drives as their primary drive. In my experience some DVD or DVD combo drives don't read CDs very well at all and can cause a BSOD. They can't get the job done and choke. On the other hand CD-RW drives do the best job reading CDs IMO.