Multibooter

Thanks Sfor, but the laptop with this multiple-drive-letter-problem is an old Dell Inspiron 7500, a top model of the year 2000, but its BIOS doesn't support booting from USB, no BIOS USB support. So this can't be the cause.

Thanks herbalist, I remmed out all possible entries, but the multiple-drive-letters still come up. A possibly similar bug with duplicate drive letters is described at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822763/ Regarding autoexec.bat: After each test which produces multiple-drive-letters, I shut down. Maybe 6 or 7 times after these tests, upon cold-booting, System Commander has come up with a message that autoexec.bat (I believe also 1 time config.sys) was modified. I have always selected Skip, meaning wipe out the modified file and replace it with the good file stored by System Commander, but this is suspicious. Maybe the next time I should look at it more closely. Also, at least for the past 2 years, when I wanted to shut down the laptop, an unidentified process was sometimes hanging & prevented the shutdown (thick hourglass). Upon Alt - Ctl -Del a msg comes up "This program is not responding. It may be busy, waiting for a response or it may have stopped running." There is no program name displayed in this window, just the msg. Process Viewer doesn't display any unusual process. After terminating this mysterious process Windows usually shuts down ok. Kaspersky hasn't found anything, and 2-year-old malicius code should be detectable. Trojans want to find a door, and this is a problems at a door (USB port). The last infection I had several years ago was with sp.exe, Trojan.Win32.Spooner.c. The Win98 symptom was that the printer wouldn't work properly, i.e. a problem at a door (parallel port), the trojan trying to get out thru the wrong door. I didn't find anything in google; would you exclude a virus/trojan as a cause of this multiple-drive-letter problem?

Thanks jaclaz, I just tried it, but it didn't fix it. Any other ideas?

First of all, thanks again for your help, dencorso. The mulitple-drive-letter problem occurs only, and only when: 1) the multi-card reader and one or more other Genesys-driven USB mass storage devices (e.g. HDD or DVD-burner) are connected to the computer AND 2) the Genesys-driven USB HDD/CD devices have drive letters assigned BEFORE the multi-card reader. Example: IF: USB HDD/burner (Local Disk/CD) are K,L,M and the multi-card reader is N,O,P,Q (Removable Disk) => multiple drive letter problem IF: multi-card reader is K,L,M,N (Removable Disk) and USB HDD/burner (Local Disk/CD) are O,P,Q => Ok, no problem I have tested 9 possible combinations/base cases, with both multi-card reader and Genesys-driven USB HDD/CD devices, connected already at power-on, to: - the single port of the USB 1.1 controller - ports 1 and 2 of the Belkin USB 2.0 PCCard (i.e. a 2nd USB controller chip) - port 2 of the built-in USB hub (ports2-4) of the card reader (the HDD/CD burner only) In more understandable terms, if the card reader was recognized first, everything was fine, except when both card reader and HDD/burner were connected to the ports of the USB 2.0 PCCard (a 2nd bug?). In all other cases the multiple-drive-letter-problem occurred. I was also able to reproduce the error/ok situations, without the USB 2.0 PCCard inserted in the PCMCIA slot, by: . connecting a Belkin 7-port-hub to the USB 1.1 controller . then manually forcing the drive letter assignment when Win98 was up, by either inserting the multi-card reader or the HDD/burner first This definitely excludes the USB 2.0 controller card as a cause of the problem; and reduces the likelihood that the multiple-drive-letter-problem was caused by the buggy Texas Instruments PCMCIA CardBus controller chip inside the laptop.. Work-arounds I have come up with 3 possible work-arounds. These 3 work-arounds explain ALL possible situations where there was no multiple-drive-letter-problem. Any other connection resulted in a multiple-drive-letter-problem. 1) Piggy-back on built-in USB hub: I connect the Genesys-driven USB HDD/burner to the built-in hub of the multi-card reader. The multiple-drive-letter problem will then never occur, regardless of when the HDD/burner/multi-card reader are connected to the computer (at power-on, or when Win98 is already up). This is apparently because the card slots of the multi-card reader (as port 1??? - but one can copy between cards inserted into the card slots ?!?) are always recognized before the ports of the built-in hub (ports 2-4, as identified with ChipGenius under WinXP). This workaround is preferrable because it doesn't require thinking. 2) Using 2 different USB controllers: The Genesys-driven card reader is connected before power-on to the 1st USB controller recognized (in my case the USB 1.1 controller built into the lap) and the Genesys-driven HDD is connected to the 2nd USB controller (in my case the USB 2.0 Cardbus PCCard). This forces a drive letter assignment first to the card reader (on the first recognized USB controller), then to the HDD. BTW, this work-around shows that it can be useful to have 2 USB controllers (e.g. one on the motherboard, the other as an add-on PCI or Cardbus card) in the computer: you can force a desired drive letter assignment in problem-situations. 3) Manually delayed connection: I connect the USB HDD/burner manually after power-on, when Win98 is up, AFTER the drive letters of the multi-card reader are displayed in My Computer. In other words, I force a desired drive letter assignment by physically connecting the HDD/burner later. In this way it is possible even to connect both multi-card reader and HDD/burner to the USB 2.0 PCCard without the multiple-drive-letter problem. Causes of the problem I have tried out several MS bugfixes, but that didn't help. The cause(s) of the multiple-drive-letter-problem are still unknown, it could still be a bug of the Genesys driver (why does it occur only with Genesys-driven devices, why does nusb work?), a bug of Win98 (Windows has lots of duplicate and multiple drive letter problems), a hardware problem (the laptop has a CardBus controller Texas Instruments PCI-1225 known for its bugs; the problem occured only with a Genesys chip), or an unknown virus. USB multi-card readers are a special type of device with multiple "Removable Disks" in one physical device. Single USB Removable Disks (zip, jaz, LS-120, floppy) may have been well tested under Win98. But the only other multiple Removable Disk device which comes to my mind are SCSI towers with Removable Disks inside. Any ideas about the cause(s) of this problem? Any fixes?

There's also security and privacy in Win95. What made you think there wasn't?On second thoughts I retract my statement. eMule is also available for Win95 http://sourceforge.net/projects/emule/ If eMule runs Ok on Win95, Win95 may possibly be the most secure opsys for running eMule. What is your experience with eMule under Win95?

Yes. An operating system will be used as long as there are applications for it, e.g. games, which are in demand and which run only under this operating system. CP/M and CP/M computers would still be in use today if there were needed applications which run only under CP/M; but I know of none, so the only reason to use/have CP/M is because of nostalgia.Win95 is dead, except for the nostalgic, because it has no unique applications, at least not for me. Win98SE on the other hand has something unique to offer, which no other opsys can: security and privacy for Internet applications, esp. Windows applications like eMule. Win98SE can be viewed as a security add-on to eMule and Internet browsers. Part of the instability of eMule under Win98, for example, may be caused by Win98 not understanding the instructions of undesired intruders, causing a hung system. The spyware of the entertainment industry. etc is probably more XP and Vista compatible and unlikely to have been properly tested on old hardware, on an old opsys made fragile by 100+ Win98 apps: buggedy-bug and then the system hangs. I have heard of one instance where Win98 has been protecting eMule on an old dedicated laptop for the past 30.000 hours. In this sense system crashes and the incompatibility of Win98 may be viewed as something positive. The more compatible you make Win98 with WinXP applications and with new hardware, the less secure your system gets. This is one reason why, for example, one could prefer not to install nusb 3.3, which is a great piece of software: it makes Win98 too compatible with new hardware. Incompatibility may be preferrable if the objective is greater security. Some people wanted to know everything going on in the Internet, so the Internet was tapped. Maybe some other people in the future may want to know, for example, what's stored on all the USB sticks of the world ... Users of Win98SE would be more difficult targets.

Hi dencorso,I have done that, the Best Connectivity USB 2.0 PCCard was nicely recognized by nusb as "NEC uPD720101 USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller" (I was always wondering what chip was inside the card, neither Orangeware nor ChipGenius indicated it, nusb did identify it as a ...101 chip, I wasn't sure whether it was a ...101 or a ...102 chip). Unfortunately, the same multiple-drive-letter-problem. So the USB driver can definitely be excluded as the culprit. Then I tried another USB 2.0 PCCard, an old Belkin card, nicely identified by nusb as "NEC uPD720100A USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller", first under the nusb USB driver, then, after a system restore, under the Orangeware 2.4.1 USB driver. Again, the same multiple-drive-letter-problem in both cases. So the USB 2.0 PC Card can also be excluded as the culprit. Your comment does well indicate that things might have become rocky otherwise. I also removed in Device Manager the built-in USB 1.1 controller. As a consequence the WLAN-stick attached to the USB 1.1 port wanted to be re-installed (incl. the complicated security settings), so this computer was without an Internet connection for a few minutes until I restored the system from backup. I had never de-activated the OrangeWare USB driver before, all SDHC card readers & all other USB devices which I have tried out with nusb were properly installed by nusb, without the prior removal of Orangeware. Why did Maximus Decimus recommend to "2.Remove ALL drivers USB 2.0 controllers."? This has major implications for the whole internet/WLAN setup if connecting via USB. Also with external SCSI Zip and Jaz drives under DOS 6/Win95. The zip/jaz drivers "Iomega SCSI Utilities for DOS" had a duplicate drive letter problem which could be fixed via config.ini, Iomega's more automated zip/jaz drivers "guest.exe" didn't have this duplicate drive letter problem.5 years ago, with CardWare v6.014, a DOS/Windows driver package for the CardBus controller [it didn't work for me; the MS counterpiece is at Device Manager -> PCMCIA socket -> Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller], Guest.exe recognized an external SCSI zip/jaz drive as follows: - ok with an Adaptec 16bit 1460 SlimSCSI card - duplicate drive letters were assigned with an Adaptec 1460B SlimSCSI card - no drive letter was assigned with a 1480 SlimSCSI card BTW the maker of this driver, Apsoft, still exists http://www.tssc.de/ the latest version is CardWare 7.0 for DOS thru Vista I could well imagine that Genesys hasn't tested their driver on a Win98 laptop. I am away until Christmas from my desktop computer and only have my laptop currently, maybe I can then try out whether there is also a multiple-drive-letter-problem when the hama card reader is connected to a desktop, without a CardBus controller. On the laptop I still have driver v4.10.2222 by Microsoft [i.e. Win98SE version] of the Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller, does anybody know where to get a newer version?

SITUATION: An old Inspiron 7500 laptop, with a USB 1.1 port, which is not being used. Inserted into the laptop is a USB 2.0 PCCard with 2 ports. Connected to the USB 2.0 PCCard are: - an external DVD burner which uses the Genesys USB Mass Storage driver v1.63 (drive letter K:) - an SDHC multi-card reader hama 55745 with a built-in 3-port USB hub and 4 slots (drive letters L,M,N,O), using the same Genesys driver. Everything works fine... except: PROBLEM: When I go into Device Manager, and click on Refresh, the external USB burner starts spinning up, then 3 additional drive letters (P,Q,R) appear in My Computer, each one with the same drive name/CD name. Clicking again on Refresh will not increase or decrease the number of drive letters displayed in My Computer. The data of an inserted CD can actually be accessed under K,P,Q and R. After clicking on Refresh: Device Manager -> CD-ROM shows 4x _NEC DVD_RW ND-3570A; Device Manager -> Disk drives shows 4x Generic STORAGE DEVICE; [same as before, 1 for each card reader slot] Device Manager -> Hard disk controllers shows 2x USB Storage Drive; Device Manager -> USB controllers shows 1x Genesys USB Mass Storage Device and 1x USB Optical Device (among other usual entries) When I have connected instead of the external DVD burner an external HDD (which also uses the same Genesys USB Mass Storage driver), together with the hama multi-card reader, the problem occurs again, but worse: The external HDD has 3 partitions; after clicking on Refresh in Device Manager, 9 additional drive letters appear, 3x 3 partitions, altogether 12 drive letters for the HDD. The problem occurs only when the hama multi-card reader is connected with another USB device that uses the same Genesys driver. When I connect the multi-card reader and another external USB HDD, which uses another driver, everything is fine, no multiple-drive-letter-problem. When an external USB burner and an external USB HDD, which both use the same Genesys driver, are connected, no problem either. Only when the hama card reader plus another Genesys-driven USB device are connected. The same problem also occurs with the hama multi-card reader 55350, which is very similar to the 55745, same Genesys driver, same Genesys chip GL819, but no built-in USB hub. So it can't be the built-in hub. The USB 2.0 PCCard uses Orangeware v2.4.1; I tried v2.1, still the same multiple-drive-letter-problem. I noticed the multiple-drive-letter-problem initially when I clicked on the safely-remove-icon of the multi-card reader in the system tray. The 4 drive-letters of the card reader disappeared from My Computer, and in their place 9 new drive letters appeared for the 3 partitions of the connected USB HDD. The search for the possible causes of this problem led me to the Refresh button in Device Manager. I have used Genesys-driven devices for several years without any problems, until I connected this multi-card reader. I have tried different older versions of the driver, but they all have the same multiple-drive-letter-problem (v1.52 of 2002, v1.59, v1.61, and the latest v1.63 of 2005) when the multi-card reader is connected. The multi-card reader displays 4 special icons in My Computer, which in v1.52 of the driver were still single-state, while in v1.59 and higher were 2-state-icons (card inserted/not inserted). The only work-around I currently have is not to use the hama multi-card reader with other Genesys-driven devices. When all USB mass storage devices were driven by nusb 3.3, there was no multiple-drive-letter-problem with the hama multi-card reader. The safely-remove-icon of nusb, however, had 4 menu selection, one for each slot of the card reader, very cumbersome, while the safely-remove-icon of the Gensys driver had a single entry for the 4 slots. I also installed nusb (=updated the system with the newer/other/WinME files contained in nusb), then de-activated nusb (renamed usbstor.inf), then installed the Genesys driver: same multiple-drive-letter-problem. So changing to the system files contained in nusb didn't help either. Is this a bug in the Genesys driver? Is it a bug of Win98? Is it a virus? Is it a hardware problem of the GL819 chip? Can it be fixed? Any ideas? Microsoft has several articles about "multiple drive letters", for Win2k and WinXP, but I didn't find anything for Win98: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/872949 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830752

Hi dencorso,sorry, I don't have a pen drive around, just card readers. Here a couple more instances where the program and the database of ChipGenius might need some fixing: 1) for the emtec SDHC card reader ChipGenius displays Chip Part-Number: AU6335, BUT: - when the enclosure of the emtec SDHC card reader fell off (flimsy construction), I could see printed inside the card reader, on the board, "NT-AU6332" - also: the driver downloaded from emtec is in a directory named AU6332 - BUT on the other hand: the PID detected by Windows/ChipGenius is 6335. 2) The revision number displayed is NOT necessarily that of the attached USB device: for the USB enclosure of an external CD/DVD burner it indicated the revison of the burner inside, not of the enclosure 3) When a USB device is connected to a USB hub, the serial number displayed for the device may sometimes be that of the USB hub. On the positive side, ChipGenius may also be used to correctly label (with a sticker) the port numbers of a USB hub. The port number is indicated by the "&&x" suffix at the end of the displayed serial number when you connect an external USB HDD to that port. Here an example: an Adaptec ACS-100 USB HDD enlosure with a 750GB Seagate HDD inside (ST375064 0A), connected to a hama-Easy Line 55350 card reader+3-port hub combo: Device Name: ++USB Mass Storage Device(ST375064 0A USB Device) PnP Device ID: VID = 05E3 PID = 0702 [is ok, is the info about the Adaptec ACS-100 enclosure) Serial Number: 7&&2A6DA49&&0&&2 Revision: 0811 Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 High-Speed Chip Vendor: Genesys Chip Part-Number: GL811E The suffix "&&2" of the Serial Number means: attached to Port 2 (counting starts from Port 1) of the hub of the card reader combo. BTW, when connected to port 6 of a Belkin 7-port hub instead, the same device displayed a different serial number: 7&&2A9107BD&&0&&6

Hi dencorso, Thanks for your effort with Dependency Walker regarding ChipGenius. Your guess that this program requires WBEM to run under Win98 was bulls eye. After downloading WBEM = Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) CORE 1.5 (Windows 95/98) from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en and installing it, ChipGenius displayed data under Win98. Win98 also appeared a little crisper with this irreversible update. Unfortunately, the data that ChipGenius produced under Win98 differed (was wrong) when compared to the data produced under WinXP. ChipGenius possibly looks at specific keys in the registry, and what works for the WinXP registry may not work for the Win98 registry. Example 1: (hama card reader 55350) displayed under WinXP: (is correct except for Chip Part-Number) Device Name: ++++[L:][M:][P:][N:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Hama CF Card Reader USB Device)(Ha... PnP Device ID: VID = 0DDA PID = 2005 Serial Number: 000000000036 Revision: 9602/9602/9602/9602 Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 High-Speed Chip Vendor: (N/A) Chip Part-Number: DLX1611 Example 1: (hama card reader 55350) displayed under Win98 (erroneous) Device Name: ++USB2.0 Card Reader(USB Storage Drive) [only ++ but reader has 4 drive letters; no drive letters;different text] PnP Device ID: VID = 0DDA PID = 2005 Serial Number: 000000000036 Revision: [data missing] Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 Full-Speed (USB1.1) [wrong info, is High-Speed] Chip Vendor: Chip Part-Number: DLX1611(????IC) [even this is different] Example 2: (Adaptec ACS-100 USB HDD enclosure) displayed under WinXP nearly correctly: Device Name: ++USB Mass Storage Device(ST375064 0A USB Device) [wrong, device has 3 FAT32+1 NTSF primary partitions] PnP Device ID: VID = 05E3 PID = 0702 Serial Number: 6&&1CBCC30F&&0&&1 Revision: 0811 Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 High-Speed Chip Vendor: Genesys Chip Part-Number: GL811E Example 2: (Adaptec ACS-100 USB HDD enclosure) displayed under Win98: Device Name: ++USB Mass Storage Device(USB Storage Drive) [HDD drive model missing; wrong number of partitions;different text] PnP Device ID: VID = 05E3 PID = 0702 Serial Number: 0{B8139C20-CF94-11D5-AEF7-0002B30625C5}&&ROOT_HUB20&&PCI&&VEN_1033&&DEV_00E0&&SUBSYS_29280E55&&REV_04&&022100 [wrong] Revision: [missing] Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 Full-Speed (USB1.1) [wrong] Chip Vendor: Genesys(??) [text differs] Chip Part-Number: GL811E ChipGenius should only be used under Win98 after the underlying causes of the errors above are fixed. Under WinXP ChipGenius runs fine, although the data base could need a little improvement, it contains errors: the hama card reader 55350 has definitely a Genesys GL819 chip inside, not a DLX1611 as reported by ChipGenius. Despite these weaknesses, ChipGenius is a very valuable tool in the Toolbox.

After changing then SN to ...37, the card reader worked fine, ChipGenius recognized the new SN. And when I plugged in a 2nd identical card reader, but with the unchanged SN ...36: everything fine, 4 more drive letters in My Computer, data on both multi-card readers could be accessed fine. BUT: when I tried to copy files from one card reader to the other, copying started Ok, but then stopped and then the system froze, under both Win98 (Genesys driver) & WinXP (MS driver). So you cannot connect 2 identical SDHC card readers to a computer by just changing the USB serial number. Uwe Sieber's article http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html (towards the end) needs an addition in this sense.

Genesys MultiTool The hama USB 2.0 Card Reader 55350 http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*127947/action*2598 is an SDHC card reader with a flashable ROM and has been added to the list of card readers with a manufacturer-provided Win98 driver. What makes this card reader interesting is that its firmware update comes with a version of Genesys Logic MultiTool v1.4.4.4 http://www.hama.de/webresources/drivers/00...5350_fw9602.zip The Genesys MultiTool needs no installation and runs under Win98. Its Firmware/EEPROM tool allows you to save the card reader ROM as a file and to re-burn the ROM from a saved file. It works, but be careful, the ReadMe First file of the MultiTool was not included and some buttons on the menu are poorly labeled, so that you may wipe out the ROM of your card reader inadvertently. Unfortunately this version of Genesys MultiTool is crippled, you cannot save an EEP file, which contains the Vendor ID, Product ID and USB serial number, it's greyed out; the button Dump EEP Data works. If one could modify the USB serial number, for example, one could have 2 of these card readers connected to the computer at the same time. The Genesys MultiTool also contains a Format tool, which allows you to format CF, SM, SD & MS formats under Win98 with this card reader (and most likely on all other card readers with the Genesys chip GL819 and GL819-E), probably according to standard specifications since it comes from a chip manufacturer. I have test-formatted on this card reader a 1 GB SD card (class 2) with Genesys MultiTool, Panasonic SDFormatter, HP Format Tool and WinXP Explorer. Copying 197 jpg files, altogether 122MB, onto these SD cards took the following time if formatted by: Panasonic SDFormatter: 49 secs Genesys MultiTool 51 secs HP Formatter: 67 secs WinXP Explorer format: 63 secs I haven't tried out formatting SDHC cards, only an SD card, with the Genesys MultiTool yet. MultiTool.exe has a modification date of 16-Feb-2006, so it should format SDHC according to specifications. The Genesys MultiTool looks like a piece of software written by the chip manufacturer Genesys for internal use; it contains another tool "Read/Write test for Mass Production". Does anybody know more about this MultiTool? Any suggestions for fiddling around with this card reader ROM? Hex Workshop, for example, displays the following string at the end of the ROM file saved to disk: !@.......H.a.m.a...C.a.r.d. .R.e.a.d.e.r. ...0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.3.6.CF SM SD MS .............................. BTW 000000000036 is the USB serial number of this card reader, maybe there is no need for the greyed out function after all

I stay away from general updates. Don't touch a working system. Le mieux c'est l'ennemi du bien. Updates which I can understand, YES, to solve a specific problem. But updates against problems which I don't have? This is just asking for trouble. And regarding trust: I believe this is a forum of decent people - but one cannot look into the heart of somebody else.

What kind of video problems?

It's the 81.89 driver, get rid of it. v77.72 should work fine for you. The last version of many programs is often an unfinished piece of junk, full of bugs which nobody cared to fix anymore. If you combine such a last version with hardware which was not designed for/tested with Win98, you usually get nowhere:

Near-Substitute for a Safely-Remove-Utility under Win98 For WinXP there are several third-party utilities, e.g. USB Safely Remove http://safelyremove.com/fullFeaturesList.htm which in another product description had listed WinME as system requirement (could it run under Win98 with upgraded DLLs?) - but for Win98 I couldn't find anything. Maybe programming this is easier under WinXP, where a 3rd part utility is much less needed: "I don't think the code can work or can be ported on Windows 9x" http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/usbej...Quick&fr=26 (with code and demo for download). There is a near-substitute for a Safely-Remove-Utility under Win98: the disk flusher Sync v2.2 by Mark Russinovich of SysInternals http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897438.aspx With the parameter -r it flushes the disk cache of fixed and removable media. I have been using the shortcut D:\sync.exe -r under Win98 before physically removing the emtec card reader, it works fine with both single and multi-partition SDHC cards. I am not using the -e parameter because this would eject any floppy disks, CDs and virtual CDs/DVDs mounted on a virtual drive with Alcohol, and my drive letters change too much for entering them as parameters. When I had another card reader connected, the MSI, and physically unplugged the card reader without having used the safely-remove-utility of the MSI card reader, but after having double-clicked on the Sync disk flusher, the same old warning message came up: "Unsafe Removal of Device: You have unplugged or ejected a device without stopping it which can cause your computer to crash and loose valuable data. Please use the hotplug icon in the status bar to safely stop devices before unplugging them." Since the disk cache was flushed and the computer didn't hang, I assume that this message can be safely ignored. Sync v2.2 has been added to the Toolbox Win98-compatible Emtec SDHC card readers K100, K101, K200 The emtec driver can be downloaded from http://www.emtec-international.com/en/driv...p;ss_gamme=K101 The emtec card readers have the Vendor ID VID = 058F [=Alcor Micro Corp.] and the Product ID PID = 6335 A card reader with the same VID & PID is also sold as Transcend TS-RDS2. Its manufacturer-provided Win98 driver can be downloaded from http://www.transcendusa.com/Support/DLCent...DLKeyWd=TS-RDS2 As expected, the Win98 driver from Transcend works fine with the emtec card reader, its setup.exe is much larger (14.8 vs 10.0MB) than the driver provided by emtec, and appears superior: - it has 2-state icons in My Computer, which are red when an SDHC card is inserted, and a grey "-" sign when there is no SDHC card - it does not have a safely-remove-utility in the system tray either, but when you physically unplug the card reader a msg pops up for about one second: "Multimedia Card Reader: Driver unloading, please wait" and then disappears. The emtec driver, on the other hand, does not display any message. I assume that emtec/Transcend have not included a safely-remove-utility because their driver does not need one. I have extensively tested the physical unplugging and then re-inserting of the emtec card reader, with single und multi-partition SDHC cards inserted, there was no negative impact on the system. But to be on the safe side I would recommend to double-click on the shortcut to the Sync disk flusher before physically removing the card reader, to be really sure that there is no data loss on the SDHC card.

I have restructured/updated the first page of this topic and moved less important information onto this page here Other card readers with manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers which are not included in the List of Top Card Readers (on front page) - CnMemory All-in-one Card Reader Pop-Art http://www.cnmemory.de/seite_84ger-0-a0.html Pros: uses up only one drive letter, and has multiple slots; it can be rotated to fit into cramped space at the USB connectors; the RTS5158 chip inside has been identified by HJ Reggel as a current Top Performer (see Reggel's list, in Tool Box). Cons: I didn't like the enclosure of the card reader, it's too big and too heavy for being connected directly to the USB connector of the computer; if it had come in a small box to be connected by cable, I would have put it into the List of Top Card Readers. - emtec SD card reader K100 VID 058F [=Alcor Micro Corp.] PID 6335 SN 058F011111B1 http://www.emtec-international.com/en/driv...p;ss_gamme=K101 (sold together with a slow (class-2) 1 or 2GB SD card). The Wìn98 driver of emtec does not install a safely-remove-utility into the system tray so you should use it with the disk flusher Sync 2.2 (see Toolbox) Reason for removal from top list: very slow chip, has half the write-speed of the top readers; no safely-remove-utility - emtec micro-SD card reader K200 VID 058F [=Alcor Micro Corp.] PID 6335 SN 058F011111B1 Not listed on their website, sold together with a slow (class-2) 1GB micro-SD card plus an SD-Adapter. The Win98 driver on their website is the same as for the model K100 above, listed at their website as K101. Only complaints: the micro-SDHC card sticks out of the card reader, the card reader does not serve as a protective box of the micro-SDHC card. Also: no safely-remove-utility is installed in the system tray, so you should use it with the disk flusher Sync 2.2 (see Toolbox). Reason for removal from top list: very slow chip; no safely-remove-utility; no status light to know whether the system is still writing to card NOTE: you cannot have the emtec SD & micro-SD readers (K100 & K200) plugged in at the same time. Both readers have the same Vendor ID, Product ID and USB serial number, as checked with ListUsbDrives v1.7.8 (see Toolbox for SDHC cards), and therefore look identical to Windows, even if they look physically quite different. - hama 55350 (multi-card reader) VID 0DDA [=hama] PID 2005 SN 000000000036 http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*127947/action*2598 Is similar to the hama Easy Line 55745 in the Top list. If you use are Genesys-driven USB mass storage devices, this card reader is problematic because of the multiple-drive-letter problem: without a built-in USB hub there is only a complicated workaround. One feature makes this multi-card reader interesting: It has a flashable ROM plus software to flash the ROM, which lets the technically inclined experiment with the ROM. Careful when buying, there are 2 models with the same number 55350, but with a different chip inside. The manufacturer-provided Win98 driver only works for the model which has on the reader and on the box the SN 02822630600; the Win98 driver doesNOT work with the other model with the SN 32822630800 on the box (These SNs are NOT the USB SN). SDHC card readers which do NOT have working manufacturer-provided drivers for Win98SE The card readers listed here work with SDHC cards (i.e. >= 4GB). All of them ran fine with the generic nusb33 driver, but nusb is more for advanced users. - hama 55310 V3 http://www.hama.de/portal/searchSelectedPr.../bySearch*55310 (on box: for Win98) - ednet Multi Card Reader USB 2.0, 30 In 1 (on box: for Win98) - Praktica Mini Card Drive II - Kingston microSD card reader, which comes with a 4 GB microSDHC card plus 2 adapters (SD, miniSD), so tiny that it even fits into the USB slot besides big fat sticks, also for your key chain SD card readers which do NOT have working manufacturer-provided drivers for Win98SE and do NOT work with SDHC card The following card reader does NOT have a working Win98 driver and does NOT work with SDHC cards (only with SD cards <2GB). It ran fine with the nusb33 driver: - T-Flash microSD reader in the box of the R4-III DS http://www.r4dsl.net Items removed from the Toolbox

Hi jaclaz, in general I agree with you, but there are some special situations where an SDHC card would be required to appear as a fixed drive. Special situations: Why make an SDHC card appear as fixed media under Win98?: - to run DCF (floppy disk imaging software) from an SDHC card - Norton Disk Doctor only checks the partition table of SDHC cards set to fixed; the partition table of removable media is skipped BUT: How can one make removable media appear as fixed under Win98? Around 1995-1997 the Jaz & Zip removable media drives came out, and they are very much comparable to the SDHC cards of today. They had a Windows driver called "Iomega Guest", used in most situations. But there was also an advanced driver set called "Iomega SCSI Utilities for DOS" v5.0, which would only run under MS-DOS. These SCSI Utilities allowed setting a SCSI Zip/Jaz drive to non-removable ("lock/unlock"), for special situations. Software then was sometimes programmed not to run from removable media/floppy disks, as a means of copy-protection. Software which would not run from or install-to removable media in 1997 included DCF, Alqalam Arabic/Farsi wordprocessor, WinFax Pro 4.1, Corel Draw 3.0 & 5.0E2, Gamma Unitype, OmniPage Pro, Statistica 4.0. When running EZ-Diskcopy Pro v3.30c from a Jaz drive, for example, the Jaz drive had to be set to non-removable, otherwise err msg: cannot run from diskette. At that time I used a Jaz disk in a similar way as people today who boot from a stick. If I remember right, I could install Windows 3.1 only onto a Zip drive if the drive was set to non-removable. Of all that software which would not work on removable media only DCF v5.3 is still in use by me today, it's the best software for creating images of floppy disks, I can run it from a full-sized DOS window in Win98, and even under WinXP! All my floppies are archived as .dcf files (BTW, WinImage v7.0 can also create .DCF image files even if it's not in Save as type -> All files -> enter file name as xxx.dcf, but I trust more the accuracy of .dcf files created by DCF ) I just made a test of DCF running in a Win98 full-size DOS window, with Dcf.exe on the internal (=fixed) HDD: - DCF could create a disk image file of a floppy disk, writing it to the SDHC card - DCF could read a disk image file from an SDHC card (also: from a 239GB partition of an ext.750GB HDD - DOS software!!) and create the corresponding floppy disk (e.g. a bootable Partition Magic floppy from a disk image) When I copied the \DCF\-directory to an SDHC card and repeated the test, but running from the SDHC card shown as removable media, DCF wrote a disk image file of the flpppy ok onto the SDHC card, but after clicking on Exit, the error msg Wifiusb [not responding] came up (I was connected at the same time to the Internet), and Win98 hung. So DCF cannot be run from a removable SDHC card, just as years ago it couldn't be run from a removable Zip drive. Formerly, setting an Iomega Jaz drive to fixed, then installing copy-protected software (which used bad sectors) onto it, then using a sector-by-sector copier like Iomega Copy Machine, was an easy way to make backup copies of some copy-protected software. What about SDHC cards/Nintendo DS-I? Another possible use of fixed-disk-SDHC cards, with current software, may be Norton Disk Doctor standalone: it does not check the partition table of removable media, only of fixed media. Under WinXP Norton Disk Doctor does check the partition table of single and multi-partition cards which are set to fixed with Hitachi Filter Driver.

Thanks for the link jaclaz. Your English translation at http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2411 is very instructive. Eventually I will check out the sometimes-working WinTricks Generic USB driver, it doesn't look like a big system update with its 3 driver files of the Lexar JumpDrive and comes with an uninstall.bat. Since this driver works with Lexar, it might also work with Corsair (dencorso!) and then with Lexar BootIt v1.07 info under http://www.lancelhoff.com/2008/05/01/multi...ive-in-windows/ download location: http://files.filefront.com/lexar+usb+forma...;/fileinfo.html I have not yet found a way to have an SDHC card reader or its card/partitions appear as a fixed drive under Win98; possibly one could set the removable media bit of the Lexar/Corsair under WinXP to fixed, so that when connected under Win98 the Lexar/Corsair appears as a fixed drive ( http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html in section "On flash drive only the first partition works") I have tried out BootIt under WinXP with SDHC card readers of about 5 different manufacturers, with different SD/SDHC cards, BootIt reported that the removable media bit was flipped, but then the card reader/card/partitions were displayed in My Computer under WinXp as Removable. I couldn't find a store which had Lexar SDHC card readers http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1171400668.html But it should also work with SDHC card readers: "Works fine for me, my 4gb SDHC is now shown as a fixed disc" http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=65675

Incompatibility between manufacturer-provided driver and nusb - nusb currently rejected The MSI StarReader mini II card reader http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=pr...mp;prod_no=1161 is currently my top choice as card reader. It comes with a Win98 driver, which indicates that the manufacturer cares about a small customer group like the Win98 community and that the device has been tested by the manufacturer under Win98. The Win98 driver which comes on the mini-CD can also be downloaded from http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=do...mp;prod_no=1161 (file creation date on CD: 19-Sep-06; of website download: 3-Feb-2007, otherwise identical files). The card reader costs less than $10 and comes with a very handy USB extension cord (not a connection cable), allowing you to connect the card reader even to USB ports which are physically positioned very close to each other, without blocking a 2nd port. The USB connection cable is so useful that I have put it into the Toolbox for SDHC cards. 1) Version conflict of driver files Unfortunately there is an incompatibility between the manufacturer-provided MSI driver and the generic nusb driver: Both drivers use driver files with the same name and location, but with different content. The following installed files are different, depending whether they are from nusb or from MSI: - \Inf\USBSTOR.INF - \Inf\USBNTMAP.INF - \System\Iosubsys\USBMPHLP.PDR - \System32\Drivers\USBSTOR.SYS The 2 .inf files are not problematic, they could be renamed as required, but the other 2 files are problematic: USBMPHLP.PDR: The Hex Viewer of BeyondCompare shows major differences between the 2 versions of USBMPHLP.PDR: the MSI-version shows "Special Build lyh728" and is dated 10-Sep-2003, while the nusb version shows "Microsoft Corporation" and is dated 12-Sep-2003. MSI must have had a reason to use this special build, especially since the MSI installer also installs optionally Adaptec ASPI v4.71.2.0 of 17-Jul-2002, what is unusual for card reader drivers. USBSTOR.SYS: The 2 versions of USBSTOR.SYS (nusb creation date: 17-Feb-2003, MSI creation date: 8-Jun-2000, both identical version info) have minor differences, maybe patches by Maximus Decim (why?) I have used the MSI card reader under either driver, both drivers seemed to work Ok up to now. But deviating from the manufacturer-provided driver may possibly cause problems in the future, problems currently irreversable since there is no nusb-removal tool; nusb currently sticks in your system like InCD or an Internet Explorer update. The version conflict could possibly be solved if the next release of nusb uses different filenames, e.g. nusbstor.sys, etc. 2) Installation problem If you install first nusb and then the MSI-driver, the MSI driver installation will NOT overwrite the existing nusb driver files (e.g. USBSTOR.INF, USBNTMAP.INF, USBSTOR.SYS, USBMPHLP.PDR), maybe because the nusb files have a newer file modification date than the MSI driver files. In effect, if you have already nusb installed, you cannot install the manufacturer-provided MSI-driver. If you reverse the installation sequence, installing first the MSI-driver and then nusb, nusb will overwrite several driver files of MSI (USBSTOR.INF, USBNTMAP.INF, USBMPHLP.PDR, USBSTOR.SYS) This means that it is not possible to use the MSI-driver if nusb is also on the system. Either the MSI-driver or nusb. 3) Conclusion: I will put nusb into the Toolbox after a future release has solved this driver conflict. I have removed nusb 3.3 from my own system since I want to use the manufacturer-provided driver for the MSI card reader. There are still SDHC card readers with manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers in the stores, and all my other USB Mass Storage devices are working fine with their manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers, even the recent Thermaltake eSATA-USB combo enclosure, which I have working fine with 750GB SATA & PATA HDDs on a 9-year-old laptop under Win98. The art of using Win98 today includes finding recent hardware with manufacturer-provided drivers. Nusb could be a tremdous tool for me, if it were changed from a driver for all USB Mass Storage devices to a driver for USB Mass Storage Devices which do not have their own Win98 driver. As further improvement of nusb I would suggest that a special nusb-removal tool should be written.

Hi dencorso, I had no success in getting ChipGenius v2.64 to run properly under Win98 on my old laptop: I started with OrangeWare v2.4.1, then I updated Win98SE in the following sequence: MSVBVM60.DLL 6.0.98.2, updated from 6.00.9782 with Unofficial Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 GDI32.DLL 4.10.0.2227, updated from 4.10.1998 with Unofficial Windows 98 SE GDI32.DLL + GDI.EXE 4.10.2227 Fix KERNEL32.DLL 4.10.0.2226. updated from 4.10.2222 with Copy2gb.exe from Unofficial Windows 98-98 SP1-98 SE 2-4 GB Files Errors OLEAUT32.DLL 2.40.4520.0, updated from 2.40.4518 with Unofficial OLE Update 2.40.4530 + OLEAUT32.DLL 2.40.4520 USER32.DLL 4.10.0.2233, updated from 4.10.2231 with Unofficial Windows 98 SE Animated Cursor (.ANI) + Icon Handling ADVAPI32.DLL 4.90.0.3000 , updated from 4.80.1675 with extracted file from WIN_10.CAB of WinME CD OLE32.DLL 4.71.3328.0, no update, DLLs were same version but still the same problem. Then I installed older OrangeWare v2.1 and v2.3, still the same problem. Finally I changed the screen fonts from Large fonts (125%) to Small fonts, this was a work-around for the display bug in ChipGenius, but still the same problem. This is what was displayed during and after all the changes: Device Name: PnP Device ID: VID = PID = (Invalid) Serial Number: (Invalid) Revision: (Information not returned) Device Type: Generic USB Host Controller - USB2.0 High-Speed Chip Vendor: (No match record) Chip Part-Number: (No match record) Product Vendor: (No match record) Product Model: Tools on Web: (N/A) The window "USB controller & device list" [Pick an item for details]: is BLANK. This is probably the cause of the problem, somehow ChipGenius under Win98 cannot see neither the USB 2.0 PCCard controller nor the built-in USB 1.1 controller of the laptop. Under WinXP however, on the same laptop, the window "USB controller & device list" displays the following 4 choices when the USB 2.0 PCCard is plugged in: Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller Intel® 82371 AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller So ChipGenius somehow doesn't work under Win98 with this old laptop, while it does work with your desktop.

I am looking for CardWizard for Windows 3.1 release 5.30.10 and for CardSoft for DOS release 5.30.10, both by SystemSoft. These are DOS 6 drivers for 32-bit CardBus card controllers in a laptop. They were the successors to CardWizard95, which was a DOS 6 driver for 16-bit PCMCIA card controllers used in laptops until 1997. With any of these drivers I would be able, under DOS 6, to use old SCSI devices with my CardBus laptop, via a 16-bit SCSI PCMCIA card.

Hi dencorso,I have a nearly-unmodified Win98SE. When I double-click on ChipGenius.exe under Win98, the window with all the text comes up ok, but no device & no information is displayed: PnP Device ID: VID = PID = (Invalid) (the same for Serial Number) Revision: (Information not returned) Chip Vendor: (No match record) (the same for Chip Part-Number & Product Vendor) The program should run under Win98, but it might need a dll or a newer version of a dll since it works with you. I installed VB6 SP6, same problem. Then .NET 1.1, same problem. Then .NET 2.0, same problem. The chip info is in chips.wdb, probably a MS Works Data Base. The program calls MSVBVM60.DLL, which I put into the same directory as ChipGenius.exe, same problem. On his website http://www.mydigits.cn/chipgenius.htm the author states Win98 compatibility, so it's probably just a tiny little thing. Would be nice to have another Win98-compatible tool in the toolbox.

Nintendo will release on Nov.1 its Nintendo DS-I, available in the rest of the world early 2009: - no GBA slot - SD slot (=built-in SD card reader) http://www.t3.com/news/nintendo-ds-i-confi...-in-2009?=36840 "They have ditched the GBA slot for an SD card one so people will download GBA titles from their online store which would be saved on the removable device. A smart move." http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?p=1038499 P.S.: Without a GBA slot, the add-on cards like R4-III DS, SuperCard & Co, will not fit into the new DS-I anymore. Nearly all Nintendo-DS games, about 2700 .nds files (=game images which run on these add-on cards) are currently available in the internet. So no more GBA slot, as an anti-piracy-measure? And new games released on SD cards, making use of the copy-protection capability of SD cards?

I guess this topic belongs more into the WinXP subforum, but it may possibly show an advantage of Win98 over WinXP. Just after startup WinXP tries to call out twice and is blocked by my Tiny Personal Firewall, with the msg: "tcpip kernel driver wants to contact IGMP.MCAST.NET (224.0.0.22)" There is no such call-out attempt under Win9x. Does somebody know more about this call-out attempt? I assume that one purpose of this calling-out is to synchronize the internal computer clock. But could it be that this calling-out also sets a flag that there is a functioning internet connection, so that some stuff in WinXP may later on call out/communicate? If so, this could be another reason for using Win98 for the Internet.