Multibooter

Thanks a million wsxedcrfv. I have changed MaxInstance from 6 to 10, then rebooted, then added the TCP/IP protocol in the Network applet. Upon rebooting all current 7 TCP/IP devices had a corresponding TCP/IP instance, i.e. the Network applet displayed 7 instances of TCP/IP. To conform to the apparent working limit of 6 TCP/IP instances, I removed then one currently not needed instance of TCP/IP in the Network applet. The problem of selectively adding TCP/IP bindings appears to have been solved with the following 3 steps: 1) increase the MaxInstance in the TCP/IP section of Nettrans.inf 2) have the Network applet automatically add TCP/IP Bindings to ALL TCP/IP devices, even if this results in more then 6 instances of TCP/IP 3) manually delete currently unneeded instances of TCP/IP, until there is only a maximum of 6 I will try whether after installing the webcam, which adds "TCP/IP -> Microsoft TV/Video Connection", I can in this way create a set of 6 currently active TCP/IP instances. This seems to be a very elegant workaround, one only has to make sure that there are no more than 6 instances of TCP/IP listed by the Network applet, to avoid unknown problems. Thanks again wsxedcrfv.

This seems to be a good starting point, maybe modifying some .inf may modify how the Network applet assigns TCP/IP bindings.Here the section in Nettrans.inf: ;**************************************************************************** ; TCP/IP ;**************************************************************************** [MSTCP.ndi] DelReg=MSTCP.ndi.delreg AddReg=MSTCP.ndi.reg DeviceID=MSTCP MaxInstance=6 NETBEUI has the setting MaxInstance=8

I have checked various shareware sites, but didn't find a software tool to juggle around TCP/IP bindings The only working solution seems to uninstall TCP/IP devices via Add/Remove until 5 TCP/IP devices are displayed in Control Panel -> Network, then to install a 6th TCP/IP device The problem seems to be that the MS Network applet automatically binds the TCP/IP protocol to all network card drivers, starting with the driver of the first TCP/IP device at the top of the Network window, going towards the bottom, until it reaches 6 instances. The automaticity of the MS Network applet does not let you choose which drivers shall be bound to the TCP/IP protocol. BTW, since the infection with the Tenga virus I have StartUp Organizer continuously monitoring changes in the StartUp settings. When the MS Network applet adds the TCP/IP protocol and wants to reboot, StartUp Organizer reports changes in the registry as follows: Run Registry\All Users\RunOnce grpconv.exe -o

I had looked at the registry, one key with the 6 instances of TCP/IP is HKLM\Enum\Network\MSTCP, but this looks like a tricky procedure. It's probably the last resort if I can't find a special software tool.Maybe there is a software tool which displays the TCP/IP devices installed plus a box for each device, with a checkmark which TCP/IP device should have TCP/IP bindings . Such a tool could also be used for temporarily de-activating TCP/IP devices, e.g. during the installation of software. For temporarily disabling network cards I am using Tihiy's excellent IPTest (Enable/Disable button) , but this program does not remove/add TCP/IP bindings. When I use Device Manager to "Disable in this hardware profile" the network card, the network card gets a red mark, but its TCP/IP instance stays in Control Panel -> Network.

I have currently 8 TCP/IP devices installed, i.e. more than 6. My objective is to find an easy way to set which TCP/IP devices are currently active, i.e. have a TCP/IP Binding.For example, 2 Ethernet cards only need to be active when I want to connect both my HP2605 Color Laserjet (for printing via Ethernet connection instead of via USB connection) via an Ethernet card and the router (for internet access) to a 2nd Ethernet card; this is not a frequently-used combination, and the 2nd Ethernet card could stay de-activated, i.e. without a TCP/IP binding, for most of the time. Another example: When in Europe I use a WLAN USB stick, but when in the US I use a WLAN PCCard. I don't need to have these 2 TCP/IP devices active at the same time, one device can have the TCP/IP binding temporarily removed. This problem of the max.6 TCP/IP instances became acute just again because I wanted to install a webcam for Skype, but it required another TCP/IP instance for "TCP/IP -> Microsoft TV/Video Connection". So instead of permanently uninstalling a TCP/IP device to make space for the webcam, maybe I can just temporarily remove another TCP/IP instance.

Windows 98 has a serious limitation: A maximum of 6 instances of TCP/IP is permitted. This is particularly annoying when running Win98 on a laptop, where one can easily use different WLAN and Ethernet Cardbus PCCards, and each PCCard gets assigned an instance of TCP/IP. My old laptop has 2 PCMCIA slots, so inserting the same PCCard into the other slot results in the creation of another instance of TCP/IP in Control Panel -> Network. The maximum of 6 instances is reached quickly. Another device requiring TCP/IP can then only be installed after removing an existing TCP/IP instance, or after uninstalling an existing TCP/IP device. Removing an existing TCP/IP instance is easy: just select in Control Panel -> Network an instance of TCP/IP and click on the Remove button. Alternatively you can select the physical network device in the Network window (i.e. the network component whose name is NOT preceded with "TCP/IP->"), click on the Properties button, then in the Bindings tab de-select the TCP/IP protocol. The problem is how to add back the TCP/IP protocol to the specific device once the TCP/IP binding was removed. By clicking on the Add button in the Network window, then selecting the Microsoft TCP/IP protocol, Windows 98 will add back the binding to the TCP/IP protocol for ALL TCP/IP devices whose TCP/IP binding was removed, starting apparently with the top TCP/IP device listed in the Network window, down to the bottom of the list, until 6 instances of TCP/IP are reached. If, for example, the Network window contains 8 TCP/IP devices with 3 devices for which TCP/IP was removed, Windows restores the TCP/IP binding of the first TCP/IP device without a TCP/IP binding in the Network list, then stops with the message "Your system allows only 6 instances of TCP/IP." In other words, if the TCP/IP device without a TCP/IP binding is at the top of the list of installed network components in the Network window, the TCP/IP binding gets restored. If it is at the bottom of the list, you're out of luck. QUESTION: Is there a Win98 software tool (or an alternative method) which allows to add back the TCP/IP binding of a SPECIFIC device, or which prompts for which devices the TCP/IP binding should be restored? Such a tool would allow to select which installed TCP/IP devices should be active, given the limitation of max. 6 instances of TCP/IP.

I run Win98 on a dual core desktop. It's a pity to leave one core unused under Win98. I would be very interested in a program, like taskassign or S.A.D Dualcore Tuner under WinXP, to manually set under Win98 programs to run on specific cores. Maybe some day it will be possible.

Have you tried MS Photo Editor v3.01, which is part of MS Office 2000?

Using Win98 with good software and good hardware is a luxury. There are Win98 aficionados and other crazy people Migrating non-internet related applications definitely makes sense, although it's nice to have on the Win98 system internet applications plus other good working software, this makes it unnecessary to reboot from Win98 into another operating system. I doubt that the underlying problem can be fixed. It looks like the easiest options are to migrate your printing of photos to Win2k/XP or to use another Win98 application to print your photos.

The expensive part of printing photos is your own time, toner and photo paper. Jasc Paint Shop v9.01, repackaged and apparently without a hard-copy user manual, goes for $20 + $7 S&H at ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Jasc-Paint-Shop-Pro-9-01-Updated-Animation-Shop-3-11-/150332891372?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230089e0ecI use Paint Shop to cut out the best part of a photo, and then print 2 photos per page (or 3 if the resized photos are really tiny) with Paint Shop on my color laser printer, on letter-size 200g HP Color Laser Photo Paper. Paint Shop has a neat "Print multiple images" feature, which makes it very easy to print several photos per page. I then insert the letter-size photo printouts into acid-free/archival/"photo safe" letter-sized sheet protectors in a regular letter-size binder. This method of processing photos seems to be economical. I am still using old v6.02 because I have a hard-copy manual plus third-party books for Jasc Paint Shop v6. This is a very complicated subject area, where I have only rudimentary knowledge. Having good hard-copy documentation is in the case of Paint Shop more important to me than having the last Win98-compatible version.Jasc Paint Shop v9.0, including a hard-copy user manual, is offered for $99 http://cgi.ebay.com/JASC-Paint-Shop-Pro-9-w-Animation-Shop-3-NIB-/180534101373?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a08abc57d BTW, I don't see any special reasons for running photo-printing software under Win98, it could be done just as well under WinXP. The only software which I prefer to run under Win98 is software which is used with the internet, for security/privacy reasons. Do you have the same printing problems when you use IE or Opera under WinXP?

To print my photos under Win98SE I have been using Jasc Paint Shop Pro v6.02, with an HP Color LaserJet 2605dn (normal-size paper) and with an Epson Stylus Photos 1280 (occasional poster-size printing), without any problems.The Win98SE USB printer-driver from the Epson CD was older and problematic; the USB printer-driver downloaded from the Epson website was newer and worked fine. Getting the HP2605dn (color laser, printing on 2 sides, USB + Ethernet connectors) to work properly under Win98SE was a nightmare, I had to concoct my own installation procedure. The HP2605dn has been working fine for me for the past 2 years, once it was installed. I have actually bought 2 units of the HP2605dn because it had worked fine, the only gripes: the toner for color-printing is really expensive. The HP2605dn seems to come in 2 versions: one with older Win98-compatible firmware, the other with Vista-compatible firmware. I am using the one with the Win98-compatible firmware.

This looks like one of those hard-to-solve problems. Do the images print Ok under Firefox? Open Office and GIMP work fine for you, the easiest approach would be to accept that some apps don't always print properly.http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/322/322680.html , although specific to Adobe Illustrator, might contain some ideas relevant to those applications which don't print properly. Perhaps there is not enough memory in the printer? Not sure, all your printers are by HP. Did you try a non-HP printer?On my computers I have FinePrint v5.77 as default printer. This allows me to preview/edit the printout/remove pages on the screen before sending the print job to another virtual/physical printer. Maybe IE or Opera can print your images Ok from your problematic applications if you printed the images first to the FinePrint virtual printer, then inside the FinePrint program to your physical printer.

I am not sure, under DOS 6.22. It's a long time ago, but I vaguely remember having run into an approximate 8GB limit under DOS 6.22. The partition layout on my old Inspiron 7500 laptops is as follows:C= Primary FAT16, 2045.0 MB Plus an extended partition containing: D= Logical FAT16, 243.6MB E= Logical FAT16, 2037.6 MB F= Logical FAT16, 2037.6 MB G= Logical FAT16, 1166.5 MB H= Logical FAT32, 29.110.4 MB I= Logical FAT32, 26.799.2 MB no drive letter under Win98= Logical NTFS, 35.201.2 MB Unallocated 15.828.8MB The FAT16 partitions C thru G are together 7.530.3 MB and are visible under DOS 6.22. Logical partition H and I are accessible under DOS 7, but not under DOS 6.22. I had kept partitions D and G <2GB because if I had increased them beyond their current level, DOS 6.22 would not have seen D-G in the extended partition anymore, if I remember right. This may have been related to a 1024 cylinder limit or to a 7.9GB BIOS limit, http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Large-Disk-HOWTO-4.html In any case, the above partition layout has worked fine for me with DOS 6.22/DOS7/Win98SE/2k/XP on a 10-year-old Dell Inspiron 7500 with Phoenix Bios v4.0 Release 6.0. @HenriK: I like PowerQuest PartitionMagic 8, but I don't use PowerQuest's BootMagic. I had tried it years ago, but decided to stay with System Commander.

I would think that it can be found, but finding it as a commercial product may be quite difficult. I wouldn't touch the Symantec version of PartitionMagic, only the original version by PowerQuest.With jaclaz, rloew and dencorso at your side you have got the best experts in a very complicated subject area. Let them guide you, I only posted here because my old laptops have the same BIOS as yours. Nevertheless, once you got your current problems solved, I would still recommend PowerQuest PartitionMagic 8, it has worked for me on my old laptops under Win98, together with the multi-booting software System Commander. jaclaz, however, has reservations about both PartitionMagic and System Commander. I have had no issues with having several partitioning tools installed under Win98, and even if one doesn't use PartitionMagic for partitioning, its diagnostic messages (or absence thereof) are reassuring. Yes, for double-checking and fixing partition table errors created by various partitioning tools under Win98/XP. Partitioning tools are like any other software: full of bugs, so having several tools at your disposal can be helpful.I would call Partition Table Doctor 3.5 a must-have software under Win98. It has saved my neck many times, e.g. when Norton Disk Doctor made bad partition table repairs and trashed the HDD. In your case here, I would have run Partition Table Doctor first, to see what PTD is saying. But it is also possible that PTD would not have flagged anything wrong, so spending money on PTD would not be a guarantee that it would solve your current problem.

PowerQuest PartitionMagic v8.01 of 23-Aug-2003 works fine on my old Inspiron 7500 laptops, which have the same Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 as your laptop. Maybe this old partitioning software is better adapted to the peculiarities of an old BIOS. After partitioning with PartitionMagic v8.01, I always check the partitioning with Partition Table Doctor v3.5 of 2006.I also have installed under Win98 Acronis Disk Director Suite v10.0 build 2089 (2005) and Paragon Partition Manager 9.0, but I don't use them for the initial partitioning of a HDD.

Since I am using the same BIOS in my old Dell laptops, maybe postings 28-34 about the annoying disk geometry error contain some relevant ideas.

Hi Jorge, My old laptops Dell Inspiron 7500 have the same Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 as your laptop. The BIOS is revision A14 of 28-Nov-2000. It works fine with an internal 120GB HDD, provided the HDD is properly partitioned, but not with an internal 160GB HDD. The BIOS message displays/recognizes only 64GB (!!!), but the 120GB HDD works fine anyway, although Norton Disk Doctor frequently reports an incorrect disk space error on a large FAT32 data-only partition, which NDD fixes Ok. A HDD up to 60GB should work fine without this minor problem. The Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 is very peculiar in its handling of HDDs >64GB. I probably get this incorrect disk space error under Win98 because the FAT32 partition for WinXP (visible under Win98) goes beyond 64GB; I have an NTFS partition, invisible to Win98, after the visible partitions. PartitionMagic v8.01 by PowerQuest has worked fine for me. The Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6 in my Inspiron 7500 laptops cannot boot from USB. The other gripe I have with my old laptops is that the hinges keep breaking, plastic just becomes brittle after 10 years. I am not sure how useful your old (2000) BIOS utility by Jan Steunebrink would be for drives >60GB. BTW, your BIOS must be an older revision since it is dated 15-June-1998

I am using USB 2.0 PCCards by digitus with my old Inspiron 7500 laptops, which has only USB 1.1 built-in. These laptop PCCards by digitus contain the NEC uPD720101 chip. With many USB devices my digitus USB 2.0 cards have worked fine for me, even if the built-in PCMCIA-socket (Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller) is quite buggy, probably the weakest component in this old laptop.Some USB devices, however, I have not been able to get to work when connected to the digitus USB 2.0 card, e.g. the ADSL-USB modem provided by Telefonica in Spain, which is displayed in Control Panel -> Network as "NDISWAN -> Kit ADSL USB". This ADSL-USB modem works fine when connected to the built-in USB 1.1 connector. I also have an old WLAN-stick which works fine when connected to the built-in USB 1.1, but not when connected to the USB 2.0 PCCard. I don't know whether this incompatibility is caused by the specific chip inside the USB card, or by something else. I would view compatibility as the most important criteria of a USB 2.0 card, not performance. I also have several similar USB 2.0 PCCards by Best Connectivity, probably with the same NEC chip. I prefer the PCCards by digitus because they provide sufficient current to an MSI multi-card reader attached at power-on, while the PCCards by Best Connectivity don't. I also suspect that some SATA cards may have problems with specific USB controllers. For example, I have discarded an eSATA PCI card from my dual-core desktop (which has already onboard SATA) because my HP2605 Color LaserJet printer connected via USB 2.0 acted strange after the eSATA card was inserted/installed.

1) Both zip files are password-protected, the pw is pm1513 The password is still listed by Symantec at http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/powerquest.nsf/docid/2004038302586462?OpenDocument No idea why Symantec protects a zip file with a password, and at the same time publishes the password. I test-downloaded ENPM801_H1.ZIP, it's fine. Good work finding a download link of this hard-to-find file. 2) To download http://www.esnips.com/doc/daed094c-10c3-43ad-bc9d-8d05ae460e22/pm801_patch one has to sign in. I would prefer to install v8.01 directly, instead of v8.0 plus then the update to v8.01 3) v8.01 is the last good version by PowerQuest. I would stay away from v8.02, the only addition over v8.01 seems to be the activation stuff by Symantec.

Kaspersky AV v6.0.2.621 updates fine online to the latest current virus signature. See my recent posting #6 The difficulty is to purchase a valid key. With a valid key one can update the ancient signature of the download from filehippo to the current signature. Without a valid key the filehippo download is next to useless. AFAIK there are no valid keys for v6.0.2.621 floating around, their black-listing procedure is hypersensitive, Natalya used to say that they are in the business of selling keys, not software, so they protect their keys accordingly. BTW, the KAV version 6.0.2.621 which I had downloaded directly from kaspersky in December 2008 had a little more recent signature (19-Dec-2007) than the download still availabale at filehippo (21-Mar-2007). But again, the initial signature updates fine online, provided you have a valid key.

Not sure. I just updated Kaspersky Anti-Virus v6.0.2.261 under Win98SE, Signature count: 4.104.574, Last update: 5/13/10, several online updates are provided every day.

Windows 98SE or FE?Since you don't have the laptop anymore, I guess it's a moot issue now. I might have installed WinXP on that laptop. If there is no unknown device under WinXP I then would have installed Driver Magician or Driver Genius, under both Win98SE and under WinXP, and made a complete driver backup incl. MS drivers, under WinXP and Win98. Maybe WinXP has automatically installed a driver for the device marked as Unknown under Win98, and the unknown device could be identified by comparing the 2 lists of backed up drivers, i.e. let WinXP identify the unknown device, for which one might then find a Win98SE driver at www.driverguide.com

Nero should burn Ok, but the Disk Quality test of Nero CD-DVD Speed may not work with the burner. Nero CD-DVD Speed is an excellent piece of software written by Erik Deppe, not by Nero. I have a special purpose Plextor PX-716A in an external USB enclosure, just for "measuring" burn/disk quality, but the PlexTools for the Plextor are too complicated, I prefer the single number produced by Nero CD-DVD Speed.I am not sure whether new burner models work with Nero CD-DVD Speed, this is old software, not available for download anymore. AFAIK, the successor software Opti Drive Control does not work under Win98. But the list of compatible drives at http://www.cdspeed2000.com/faq.html may indicate what makes and models (except for the Plextor models) may work with Nero CD-DVD Speed. Nero CD-DVD Speed does not display disk quality on my Plextor PX-716A, the Start button stays greyed out. I would speculate that the successor software Opti Drive Control was made to work with the old Plextors so that users of the dead PlexTools would buy Opti Drive Control. Amazing that the author decided to make his new software compatible with old Plextor hardware. BTW, my Plextor PX-716A doesn't burn CDs/DVDs in a good burn quality, and it's not a good reader either, it served me mainly as a "measuring" tool.

Then defragging prior to burning may also help. Nero CD-DVD Speed v4.7.7.15 (freeware, but it may not be available for download anymore) can test the burn quality under tab Disk Quality. If you get another burner, try to get one which is on the compatible list of Nero CD-DVD Speed v4.7.7.15, NEC and LiteOn usually are.

Which of the Win98-compatible partition-related software Partition Magic v8.01 Build 1274, Paragon Partition Manager v9.0.4156, Partition Table Doctor v3.5, Acronis Disk Director v10 build 2089 or Ghost v11.0.2 can handle 4kb sector size? System Commander can't according to their docu.