Mathwiz

Thanks for the suggestions, but no joy. I installed IOSYS98 but it didn't make any difference. Then I installed USB20DRV, but after that it wouldn't recognize my BB at all! I opened up the control panel device manager and it reported a problem with the USB mass storage device driver. Looking at the driver files, I realized one (USBSTOR.SYS) was replaced by the USB20DRV update. So I rebooted into MS-DOS mode, restored the original USBSTOR.SYS, and rebooted. (I still have the new version in case I want to try it again sometime.) That fixed the driver and Windows recognized my BB again, but it's back to the same problem: BSOD if I try to write to the BB. So neither update helped, but (except for USBSTOR.SYS) they didn't seem to hurt anything, so I'll leave them installed for now. FYI: the version of USBSTOR.SYS that (sort of) works is 4.90.3000.1. (I assume NUSB 3.3 installed this version.) The version that USB20DRV installed (that didn't work with the BB) is 5.00.2195.6773.

Sorry for the confusion. I meant I hadn't installed Tihiy's USB 2.0 stack (mentioned in Bristol's post). Without wanting to sidetrack you from your investigations (and provide irrelevant information): is the file usbccgp.sys present in your system (in %windir%\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS)? RetroOS found that he required that file from XP Service Pack 3 in order for composite devices to work: Windows 98SE (with 98SE2ME) and a recent USB composite device The file can be found in the USB 2.0 Stack installer at MDGx's site: http://www.mdgx.com/files/USB20DRV.EXE Thank you both. I've downloaded both files and will try installing them tonight. I'll let you know the results.

Copied from the USBView screen on my Win98SE machine with the BB attached: idVendor: 0x0FCA (Research In Motion, Ltd.) idProduct: 0x0004 This matches the registry key from the XP machine. I have NUSB 3.3 installed, but not the USB 2.0 stack.

Yes, it's version 3.3 (the latest). Sorry, but I'm a bit ignorant about USB. How do I determine these? Wait: I found the following registry key on my XP machine: My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\Vid_0fca&Pid_0004&MI_01\6&1b9c87ee&0&0001 The description in the registry is USB Mass Storage Device. So if I'm reading that right, the VID is 0FCA and the PID is 0004. One problem might be that the BB is a composite device. Is that what the &MI_01 is for? There's another key with &MI_00 which I assume is the other device (that I don't expect to work on Win98SE).

I installed it on my WinXP machine and like it. Unfortunately it doesn't run on Win98SE even with KernelEx 4.5 RC1 (missing shell32.dll export).

And when I press Enter, here's a (blurry but legible) pic of the BSOD. When I "press any key," the desktop reappears but Windows is locked up.

OK. First, here's a screenshot of a 4DOS session showing me about to copy a file to the BlackBerry. (Same problem happens with, say, Windows drag & drop, but it's easier to show what I'm doing this way.)

I have a question about using NUSB with a BlackBerry. I tried this and it does let me access the micro SD card in my BB as a disk drive. (It doesn't support the BB completely, but I didn't expect that. I just want easy access to the micro SD card.) Trouble is, I can only read from the BB - I can't write to it. If I try I get a blue screen saying "Cannot write to E:". This doesn't happen with other USB drives (memory sticks, etc.). Does anyone know of a way to fix this so I can write to the BB?

Probably the simplest way is to have them try to install and run Firefox 3.5.11. (Ignore Flash 10 for the time being.) If that works then KernelEx must be installed and functioning. If Firefox 3.5 doesn't work, then have them download at least version 4.0 Final 2 of KernelEx uninstall whatever version they have on their PC reboot (very important!) install the downloaded version reboot again. Once Firefox 3.5 is working they can move on to Flash 10. Installing that requires some temporary registry hacks, unless you are using the latest KernelEx version (4.5 RC 1). Check the first page of the KernelEx thread for the info you'll need to fool the Flash 10 installer.

Well, after all that sturm und drang Alt+PrtSc worked! And this site let me upload a .jpg of the freecell game showing the corrupted display. The top left cell should be blank, but instead shows weird partial card images. I found a pattern in the lockups: they occur when freecell tries to display a dialog box (select game, move column vs. move single card, etc.) Dr. Watson log is at http://www.speedyshare.com/files/23706735/freecell.wlg

Have any of the crack programmers on this board taken a close look at the conflict between the new IO.SYS and SCANREG.EXE (the DOS version)? In brief, if you replace IO.SYS with Microsoft's fixed version (included in all these 98 SE Service Packs since at least v1.6.2, I believe), then SCANREG.EXE will think your registry is screwed up, replace it with a backup, and reboot. To prevent this from happening every time you boot (which would result in a loop), the service packs just turn off running SCANREG.EXE at boot. (SCANREGW.EXE, the Windows version, still runs and backs up your registry once a day.) Does anyone know why this happens? The fix to IO.SYS supposedly had nothing to do with accessing large files like the registry. I thought it was just supposed to handle disk errors better. That's the only concern I have with the service pack so far. It'd be nice if both disk error handling and SCANREG.EXE worked correctly!

Thanks guys. I couldn't get Alt-PrtScrn to work last night, so tonight I'll just try a regular Print Screen. If that works then I'll clip down the image. Hopefully MSFN.com will let me upload that, at least.

I have just checked FreeCell and Reversi on two systems. I can't replicate those problems on any of them. Can you check if the problem is there with last stable release - KernelEx 4.0 Final 2 ? Both work fine under 4.0 final 2. But just to be thorough, I tried 4.5 beta 1. Freecell and Reversi experience the same problems (except F2 for new game works in Freecell). Here's what I did: Started DrWatson Started FreeCell Selected Game / Select Game... from the menu (this always locks FreeCell up under KernelEx 4.5) Clicked the DrWatson icon and saved a snapshot (attached) Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and ended FreeCell then shut DrWatson down Started Firefox to post this Ugh. Site is telling me "Error You aren't permitted to upload this kind of file". What's the best way to send it to you? Not sure the best way to do that in Win98. In WinXP which I use at work, I'd just hit Alt-PrtSc and it copies the active window to the clipboard. Can someone recommend a free screenshot grabber for Win98? I'd hate to try a digital camera!

Just checked. Both games run perfectly under KEX 4.0 Final 2. (Of course they run perfectly under KEX 4.5 for everyone but me) Of course, now I have to uninstall 4.0, reinstall 4.5, start Dr. Watson, etc. Maybe tomorrow night.

I'll try to get some debugging info tonight when I'm home, but I was up way too late last night so I may not get everything you need until tomorrow night.

I'm not surprised. When Freecell worked for you, I figured the bug must be specific to my system. Possibly the display card/driver, but it's odd it only affects these older programs. Reversi is definitely 16 bit, so no surprise there's no compatibility tab there.

Do you have a link for your Reversi, it's not a default game in Windows. Yeah, it's from Win 3.0! Micro$oft used to have it posted, but no longer, apparently. However I did find it online here: http://www.4shared.com/file/TPOz45vC/REVERSI.html That link doesn't include the help file, but that's not required. I downloaded it and it's indeed the correct file. With KernelEx installed, the cursor problem is the only issue. Other than that it runs fine.

I think this is because it is 16bit exe, and Compatibility tab should appear for 32bit apps only. I thought KernelEx affects only 32bit apps... Freecell is 16 bit? Well, it did run on Win3.1, but you needed the Win32S package. In fact that's how you confirmed Win32S installed correctly. Aren't there two different 32 bit .exe formats? Maybe Freecell is the older one.... Anyway, since it works on others' PCs, and it doesn't have a compatibility tab, I'm thinking the problem must be a conflict with something else, such as the display driver perhaps. (I did try a couple different display resolutions, and both 24-bit and 32-bit color, but it didn't help.) I have a Matrox Millennium G200 display card. Anyone else have that card or something similar?

I have the same version. That's frustrating. I even tried uninstalling and reinstalling with the 'disabled by default' option - still doesn't work. I also have a minor bug in Reversi (old 16-bit game): the cursor is supposed to change to a cross on squares that are legal moves. It does, but it gets "stuck" - it stays a cross everywhere on the board. Both work properly if KernelEx is uninstalled. Everything else I've tried seems fine with KernelEx, including other solitaire games and Firefox 3.5.8.

Well, this kinda sucks: The Win98 FreeCell solitaire game doesn't work with KernelEx 4.5 beta 2 or 4.5 RC 1. Function keys do nothing Display is corrupted when moving multiple cards "Select game" menu option locks it up Random lockups while playing No crashes, therefore no drwatson log; sorry And there's no compatibility tab on the Freecell.exe properties, so I can't just turn KernelEx off! FreeCell runs fine if I uninstall KernelEx. I realize a solitaire game isn't the biggest issue, but still

Thanks for the OLE automation update, MGDx. It fixed an intermittent crash starting ZoneAlarm 5.5 in Win98

There seems to be a small problem with the unofficial 978207 update. It puts an uninstall option on Add/Remove Programs, but it doesn't work: it references %windir%/inf/Q978207.inf, which doesn't get created. I don't think it's a big deal since I don't see a reason to uninstall 978207, but wanted to let you know.

I have an odd problem and was wondering if someone could help. I'm using Win98SE with KernelEx 4.5 beta 2, Firefox 3.5.8, Flash 10.0.45, and the Firefox add-on DownThemAll 1.1.8. It mostly works, but there are a couple of annoying problems: 1. DownThemAll won't save my download directory. Thus I can't use its DTAOneClick feature. 2. If I right-click a link to a file and select "Save link as..." the dialog box asks me whether to save using DownThemAll or Firefox's built-in downloader, as it should. But if I choose DownThemAll it opens the file with the built-in downloader anyway. Changing the compatibility settings didn't seem to make any difference, but these problems don't happen on my WinXP machine at work. Same version of Firefox and DownThemAll. Anyone have a clue what's wrong? Other than that nuisance, I'm really impressed with KernelEx. Great job!

In my case I had to set my display adapter to 32-bit color before Flash 10 would run. At 16 bits it would crash every time. (I didn't try the 24-bit setting.) HTH. Side effect is that RP9 looks much nicer too.