saturndude

I am having bad problems too. I installed XP64 Pro on a 120 Gig EIDE drive, because I cannot make it work (cannot reach the second stage graphical install) on a 160 GB EIDE. I've tried many things, as noted here: windowsbbs forum posting and here: asus motherboard forum (I cannot log in to Asus forums anymore, and I've tried resetting my password. So probably no more useful posts there.) What kind of motherboard are you using? I use an AMD 64-bit dual-core, and was told to expand the ntkrnlmp.ex_ from the amd64 directory of my windows disc and to rename it as a drop-in replacement for ntoskrnl.exe. I am told I must make sure the NTFS cluster size is 4K or less, and it is. I tried "LBA mode" in the BIOS, and telling linux fdisk to create a partition table based on that geometry (if you already have a partition labeled "type: NTFS" then XP's install disk formats it [you choose FAT32 or NTFS], but if you have a blank hard drive, XP64 will use the whole drive [again, FAT32 or NTFS, your choice]). Lastly, years ago, we used software that "tricked" our PCs into seeing drives larger than 8.4 GB. I thought this might be the reason I see a "63-sector offset" mentioned in linux fdisk, and this would fix it. It did not. (And yes, I have tried XP64's recovery console with map, fixboot and fixmbr, they didn't work.) (When setting the BIOS to "auto", my 160 GB drive has more than 65535 cylinders, I thought this was causing booting issues. But I tried installing on a 120 GB Western Dig instead of my 120 GB Seagate [both around 57000 cylinders], and I had the same problems I had trying to install on my 160 GB. So I have to keep running XP Pro 64 on the 120 GB Seagate, without knowing *_why_* it works or whether I could ever reinstall again.) If you find a solution to this, please let us know. You are not alone, trust me on that. Answers are hard to find. Good luck!

Will the XP PowerToys work on XP Pro 64-bit Edition? It could be a little while before I get around to downloading and trying them myself. If it doesn't work, I'd like to know before I start to save time. Anybody have prior experience with this? Thanks in advance.

Fixed (kind of). Tried a different disk. XP Pro 64-Bit had no problem installing on a blank 120 GB Seagate Barracuda (7200 RPM). Don't know why. Both disks appear to have 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, and 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes/cylinder. Not sure why there were 16 heads in a previous post. Strange. Anyway, all partitions on both disks end on cylinder boundaries on the 64-bit "target" machine, so there *_should_* not be a problem with either disk. I ahve no idea why one drive boots and one doesn't. Maybe I'll move the XP 64-bit partition onto the Western Dig later. Maybe I'll reinstall Windows and activate it later, after I get some other stuff finalized. So I guess you could say it works.

Okay, I played with BOOTCFG. I now have two choices: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP 64-bit Professional" multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect A linux file editor let me push the timeout to 15 seconds instead of 1. Now, both choices result in the message to reinstall ntoskrnl.exe. I did. Didn't help. The screen where I choose OS exists on my 32-bit XP, and I never saw it before on my 64-bit. So the 64-bit is now one step closer to working. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, I'm having trouble installing XPPro 64 OEM on a new system (old Athlon 2900 system [32-bit] died). After files are copied, I am instructed to remove floppies from the floppy drive. If I leave the CD in, the first stage will be repeated forever, so I remove the CD too. Now Windows complains about a missing or corrupt ntoskrnl.exe. After the recovery console (expand to replace ntoskrnl.exe, fixboot, fixmbr) the problem remains. Why? Chkdsk complains "there is no disk in drive or the file system is not supported". Tried reformatting from the recovery console and a fresh install from scratch, the problem still remains. (EDIT: To avoid dual-boot issues, the whole drive is one big NTFS partition. For now at least.) The disk is a fresh Western Dig 160 GB EIDE, manufactured 21 Oct. 2004. I left the autodetect in the BIOS set to "auto" where it treats the drive as having 16 heads (not LBA mode). Why can't the Windows install routine format and see a satisfactory first-stage install? This is going to be necessary to "break out" of this loop where I repeat the first stage forever. Since booting is very low-level, motherboard drivers will not have been loaded yet. Windows can see that there are no SATA drives. The disk is set for "cable select" and it is plugged in to the "master" plug on the cable. So it *_should_* work. Why can't the Windows install routine format and see the results of the first stage and proceed? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi all, I'm building a 64-bit system ('cause I can't get 32-bit hardware anymore). 64-bit XP Pro OEM on the way. I surf, run Office 97, do some video work (PS Elements, DVD Lab Studio) and I'd like to convert vinyl to digital. Windows partition is 20 Gigs, 47 percent full. Data (docs, spreadsheets, photos and video) are on other partitions. There could be some extra 64-bit libraries, just like linux. But how much space should I allow? Will the same 20 Gig partition be big enough? Thanks in advance.

I would love to believe in a perpetual motion machine. But several times in my lifetime (I'm 41 right now), people have claimed that they made one, and later they (and their machines) have turned out to be frauds. Kind of like the furniture store in my town that has had three "going out of business" sales JUST IN MY LIFETIME and never actually closed up shop (they're still open in fact). I get tired of believing after a while. First, there is friction, as people have said. Even motors like the case fans in your computer have friction. And they wear out. As the wheel spins and turns a load and does work, the circular magnets must be spun around to continue to repel the magnets attached to the wheel. As the workload increases, this will take real, substantial force. It doesn't look like it will take much on paper, but I think you will be surprised. The force needed to repel the wheel's magnets will be equal to the work the wheel is doing (more, if you count friction). If you use coils of wire with alternating current to change the magnetic fields instead of the circular magnets pictured, you have an AC motor. Those things aren't exactly perpetual motion machines. The advantage to motors, of course, is that you can get fantastic torque at zero RPM, like a diesel-electric train locomotive. (Generators, turned by diesel engines, supply power to DC motors at the wheels). And yes, magnets can deteriorate over time, but this is rare, and they are not "used up". The magnets in my flywheel work fine to this day (1981 Honda CM400T). And my Dad's two-stroke boat motors work fine (1981 Evinrude, 1955 Gale).

Hi all, I ran across a couple of interesting problems recently while cleaning a spyware-laden box for a friend (450 MHz AMD, XP Home SP2, 20GB Hard drive set up as one big NTFS partition). Virus Encyclopedias tell me that trojan-downloaders may infect the restore points, which are located here: C:\System Volume Information\_restore{alphanumericstring-that-looks-like-CLSIDkey}\rp123\somefile.ext (with copies of registry files in child dirs for each restore point). After I deleted the spyware from Windows and the restore points, I ran Kaspersky online scan (it uses ActiveX). Kaspersky was able to look at a few of these files, but mostly it said the files were locked (in use), so they were skipped. Here's the interesting part: I thought Kaspersky saw the 'registry-like' name of the parent directory and refused to look in there because of that. But when I use linux to copy the DLL files (some .SAM files, other extensions) to another location, say, C:\badstuff\*.* (NOT in WINDOWS or child dirs of WINDOWS), Kaspersky's online scan STILL says the files are locked. Why? The original infector is gone, so the files aren't hidden, and no secret process or cloaking scheme can hide suspicious activity (or the infected file) from Windows or anti-malware tools. Perhaps NTFS attributes told Kaspersky not to look at the files? Why did this happen? FIRST QUESTION: Any ideas why Windows always says the files are locked? (With a linux browser, I can submit them to the testing sites Virus Total or Jotti's virus Meta-submitter, one file at a time, with no problem. That's how I know the restore points were, in fact, completely compromised and infected.) SECOND question: Here is an excerpt from the Kaspersky report (I saved a copy): C:\System Volume Information\_restore{C42B6269-ABC7-4A34-A58A-AEA45D9A53E4}\RP246\A0305307.exe\stream\data0002\data0002 Infected: Trojan-Downloader.Win32.PurityScan.eh skipped C:\System Volume Information\_restore{C42B6269-ABC7-4A34-A58A-AEA45D9A53E4}\RP246\A0305307.exe\stream\data0002 Infected:Trojan-Downloader.Win32.PurityScan.eh skipped C:\System Volume Information\_restore{C42B6269-ABC7-4A34-A58A-AEA45D9A53E4}\RP246\A0305307.exe\stream\data0004 Infected: not-a-virus:Adware.Win32.Mostofate.u skipped C:\System Volume Information\_restore{C42B6269-ABC7-4A34-A58A-AEA45D9A53E4}\RP246\A0305307.exe\stream Infected: not-a-virus:Adware.Win32.Mostofate.u skipped C:\System Volume Information\_restore{C42B6269-ABC7-4A34-A58A-AEA45D9A53E4}\RP246\A0305307.exe NSIS: Infected - 4 skipped I have read that spyware is starting to use alternate data streams to conceal and spread. Is that what is happening here? I thought "simple" trojan downloaders wouldn't use such 'sophisticated' measures. Googling "Alternate Data Streams" tells me to use a colon with certain commands to insert text files, executables, etc. into an ADS. After they're inserted (and if these streams are in use here), could they be thought of as being in the same "directory tree" as the files they're associated with? That seems to be what the Kaspersky report is saying. Any thoughts on these two matters? Thanks in advance,

Hello, Recently I removed a bunch of nasty stuff from a friend's computer (Presario 7470, 533 MHz AMD, 192 MB RAM). Adware.Hotbar, and I think she also had a LOP/Virtumundo infection. Her machine came with 98, but she has installed Windows ME on it. I disconnected it from the Net in my basement, and ran anti-spyware tools. I used linux to delete the bad files (I was feeling creative). Then I put the drive back in her Windows box to remove the spyware's registry entries (along with specialty tools like Spybot S&D). After I disinfected, I put in the last free version of Kerio, the HP Hosts file, IE-SPYad, the free version of AVG, and of course I removed Uncle Bill's Java and put in Sun Java. So far, it is a pretty standard cleanup for me. After I delivered it to her house, I updated AVG and initiated another scan. It found a few things (AVG classified them as a rootkit IIRC) that were not found while scanning at my house a few days before. Four items were found in windows\system, I believe, and four were on D:, the un-hidden rescue partition (that had hardware drivers, Win 98 files, MS Works, and other files in ZIP or cabinet form). One of the first things that happened after I restarted in her house was that Kerio gave a warning about what seemed to be a real Windows Update process trying to access a legit MS site, so I let it access the Net. I don't have a lot of experience with ME (well, none basically). Did ME have WU turned on by default, or was this a piece of spyware that tricked me into letting it re-download the pieces that I had deleted? Should I bring the PC back to the test bench and use another combination of tools (hardware firewall with NAT and logging, different brand of software firewall, process tools, etc.) to investigate further? BTW, I ran rootkit revealer during the cleanup, but I was not really sure how to interpret the results. (If it is a rootkit, I will urge her to re-format and switch to a microATX with a close-out Sempron 3000 or something. I installed a new PSU, and her case is still good, so it could be done for little cost.....) Who has experience with ME and WU? Thanks in advance for your help!

Okay, got it fixed. I googled the file name. Over at hardwareanalysis.com, much advice and many hints are given for this problem. Some say the problem was mup.sys, others say the problem is the thing that loads after mup.sys. One person said that resetting the ESCD data (load BIOS defaults) forces Windows and ACPI to reset hardware IRQ allocation. I suspect this was correct, since resetting the BIOS fixed it. If anyone wants the "clicky" keyboard, a company called Unicomp still makes them, on the same equipment IBM used, probably in the same plant, 90 miles down the highway from me in Lexington. It really is a treat. Thanks!!!

Thanks! AFAIK, I still have the booklet that describes the DIP switches. Somewhere. I'll look around for it. EDIT: Found the booklet. Keyboard is, and always has been, set for AT. My KT600 board (Athlon 2900) will howl with beeping complaints if I even TRY an XT keyboard. End of edit. But now, XP won't start. In safe mode, or any mode. Even when I go back to the modern keyboard. After XP tries to load system32\drivers\mup.sys, the BIOS reboot routine is triggered. Can I use linux to edit win.ini in Control Panel without booting XP? If so, what is the name of the layout? Do I need to extract a file? I need XP to search for a job. (OpenOffice docs aren't laid out quite the same as in Word 97, though OO can turn my resume into a PDF, then I know stuff will look right.....) I guess I'll need to do a trial install of XP on another machine (or get a boot floppy) to have access to the right version of scandisk. My Norton Utilities 6.01 CD can normally see my NTFS partitions, but can only see FAT because of the current trouble. Any thoughts?

Today I got my old 1991 Northgate OmniKey 101 back from a refurbishment (it had been in storage since 1999 or so). XP won't start with it. Any tweaks, advice, other resources, anything? I really like this "clicky" keyboard. It is right "up there" with the IBM Model M. Clicky, and VERY durable. I tried to create a boot log, but this has never been very reliable (Win 3.1, 98, and now XP). I can FORCE linux to mount the NTFS partition, but I did not find any "bootlog.txt" (improper Windows shutdown probably creates a flag that linux sees, maybe the same flag that brings Windows up with "safe mode" and the other choices). Bootlog.txt was not in the root directory, not in WINDOWS, and not in WINDOWS\system. All I found with the correct date/time was \WINDOWS\bootstat.dat, which consists of: ^L^@^@^@^A^@^@^@^A^^^@^A^@^@^@^@^ (the rest of the file is "@^@^@^@^" repeated to the end of the file. So it is a compiled file or a binary file or something. I can use a hex editor if you like.) I'll try to see if I can boot in safe mode next. My first linux (Caldera 1.2, July 1998) mentioned that linux sometimes had a problem with this keyboard's timing. Hardware detection has greatly improved in *nix. And now Windows is having a problem with hardware? (not recognizing ISA stuff in XP doesn't count, it is not a bug.) Have we officially come full circle now? The irony is delicious. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Forgive me if this advice doesn't help. I think others here may be much smarter or more experienced. Is the rescue partition marked as hidden? Can you see it (probably as D:) when running the Vista that came on the laptop? Can you see the partition table with Emergency Boot CD or similar? To this day, my Norton Utilities 2001 CD is still useful for tasks like simple undeletes, even on XP's version of NTFS (5.0?). Changing the partition type (or un-hiding it) may pave the way for other software tools to back it up (or otherwise build a disc to reinstall Vista). A couple of notes here. First, some rescue schemes may put some weird numbers in the "partition type" field, don't let this scare you. Second, the limitations I grew up with may no longer apply [only four partitions allowed, only one could be the "extended" type, and the extended can only have 4 partitions inside it]. Finding the partition table for the extended partition may be difficult, but laptops are not known for weird partition schemes so hopefully this will not apply to you. I worked on a friend's laptop some time ago. I spent US $10 to get an adapter that let me take the drive out (4 screws held the cover on) and plug the drive into a standard ribbon cable (80-pin) and examine it with my tower PC. (does anybody buy desktop cases anymore?) This might void your laptop's warranty, but I am not sure whether they can tell anything was done (wipe fingerprints off drive). If you take the drive out, your options may increase quite a lot. If you can't create a suitable reinstall disc, copy the partition table and the rescue partition. You will be able to re-create the rescue partition with exactly the same number of bytes in exactly the same location as it is now, and you will be no worse off than at present (I think).

I used to use default settings with Win98SE. Worked fine. Way more consistent than that "Trumpet Winsock" for Win 3.1 in my college dialup days. I put in the ADSL disc and several reboots were needed. Inconvenient, but that's how many things were back then. And nobody told me how to set up the connection (Start --> Control Panel --> Whatever). But a self-install saved money, so.... AFAIK, broadband speeds were equal to what I got under Linux (around 2000-2001). At the time, (Norton Antivirus had a "fat pipe") I could grab big files from the fastest servers at about 360K per second (PCI ethernet card, phone company ADSL). My ISP has since raised its speed (no extra cost). One problem was that the installation disc from the ISP (phone company) did not choose "enable WINS resolution" or "disable WINS resolution" in Win 98. So you had to choose one, and play with it for several reboots. If it didn't work, choose the other (and play with it for several more reboots). Check the ethernet card maker's website before buying (wired or wireless). Sometimes drivers for Win98 don't come in the box, and sometimes they are not available at all. Win98 can use older hardware and still be very capable, broadband internet INCLUDED.

Thanks, I'll check into those links. And I am sssooooooooo grateful! A friend has had BOTH [un]Cool Web Search AND the byte-verify trojan because of MS Java! The latest PC I'm working on is a 533 MHz Compaq with Windows ME and, you guessed it, MS Java. I predict MS Java will be around for several more years at least. Because people don't know any better. (After this box, I've got another infested box to do, then a guy in church has what sounds like a video card failure, then a friend of a friend wants me to help him build a system. Once people find out how good you are, they seek you out!) Another request: What program should I use to extract Windows cabinet files (other than extract.exe)? Sometimes people have a Windows CD (or "rescue disks"), but they often lose them. Or their hard drive has a different version (or there is no 'precopy' directory, or they blew away their rescue partition, or whatever. Stuff happens). Are the cabinet files all compressed the same way? I think they differ. So is there a way to do a "quick and dirty" extract from a cabinet file from any version of Windows?

Where do I find a registry editor that will let me edit the registry of another computer? (not over a network, I have no experience with remote access) Many times, I put a compromised hard disk as a slave drive in another box (sometimes Windows, mostly linux) and I can delete [spyware] files easily. No need for safe mode. I can even research the type of spyware the client has while I'm working. But the client's registry still has references to spyware executables. Basically, I make sure the client's computer has no internet access, then put the "somewhat cleaned up" hard drive back into it. Windows starts well enough to run the registry editor that came with that version of windows (and anti-virus programs). So far, I've been lucky. Spyware is always getting worse. In the future, I might not be so lucky. Any suggestions on registry cleaning programs (other than dedicated programs like hijackthis, crapcleaner, combofix, and so forth)? (Registry cleaners also help remove Uncle Bill's "Bilt-Broken" Java and replace it with Sun's Java product.) I'd really like a registry cleaner that I can run from linux (gui), but I haven't found one yet. Working from within another Windows version (on another PC) would be just fine too. Basically, I'd like to edit the registry of another Windows installation (usually Primary Slave IDE drive). Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

I found the answer: Thread on imgburn.com and scroll down to post number 4. The following will scroll down to post number 4 for you: Exact post on imgburn.com Thanks guys!

Hi all, I have two or three programs that require admin account in order to run, likely all for different reasons. Personally, I prefer to use a regular account unless (A) I have to make changes to Windows and (B) I am satisfied that I know what I am doing, and am confident that I am not going to hurt anything (Linux encourages this method of working, and I'm generally security-aware). Recently, I downloaded IMGBURN to let me burn data DVDs, etc. The program uses SPTI, and IMGBURN (or XP) complains I must be admin to use SPTI. Unless I am the administrator, no drives will be seen. I believe the exact same thing is happening with DVD Decrypter (it only sees the burner when I am [EDIT: an administrative user] as well). Windows XP allows and restricts things in different ways (by registry, file settings and directory settings), and I cannot keep up with all the tricks of the trade. How do I make SPTI available to regular users? AFAIK, I do not have an ASPI layer installed. Should I try a Patin-Couffin layer for burning instead? Thanks in advance for all your help.

I run XP with SP2. I can delete files in Windows Explorer by selecting them and deleting them one at a time. If I hold down <CTRL> and select multiple files, Explorer creates copies of the selected files in the current directory almost immediately. It is sometimes possible to select multiple files and delete them, but you must be VERY VERY QUICK ABOUT IT, or copies (and copies of copies) will be created. You will have more files than when you started deleting. Has anyone else found a way to deal with this problem? If I change views (list, details, icons, etc.) inside explorer, will this fix it? Is there a registry setting that will fix it? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Here's what I've got: 80 GB Samsung: 1. Win98, first primary partition, 8 GB 2. Linux ext3, second primary partition (all except /home), 8 GB 3. Extended partition takes the rest of the drive, thusly: First, Linux ext3 (/home), 8 GB Second, FAT32 (all the rest of the extended partition / drive) THANK YOU for the link! At one point, Windows complained about "XMS Cache problem", but the message flew past quickly*. Memtest (on the link you provided) revealed bad memory in my 256 MB module (it was only PC-2100 / 266 MHz, not 400 MHz like I said earlier. But the mobo was set correctly, 133 MHz * 11.5 = 1530 MHz, which is correct for Athlon 1800). I'll get an RMA from Kingston next week. * Perhaps Windows 98FE setup cannot handle 768 MB at the initial install in addition to the faulty RAM problem? Anyway, I put 98SE on (with the 512 RAM module that's proven good), and I'm reinstalling Linux right now. Putting the Linux boot loader in the ext3 partition (second primary) instead of the MBR should keep me out of trouble. I'll keep you posted. Thanks!

Hello, Forgive me if this should be in "hardware hangout". I've got an 80 GB Samsung SP0842N, 3.5-inch desktop IDE drive. It isn't detected when it is a slave to another drive*, so I thought I would put it in a machine (in the basement) by itself. I put it in a DFI AD-77 Infinity, KT400 North bridge, VT8235 south bridge. One Kingston 512 MB 400MHz, and one 256 MB Kingston 400 MHz. Stock speeds and timings, stock CPU fan, it should work, except that the floppy controller has failed. * (Some IDE drives used to be incompatible with other IDEs, forcing you to buy from one company only, but I thought drive makers stopped doing that around 1995. Maybe I was wrong.) When I install 98, and/or 98SE Updates, I can no longer boot Mandriva 2006. Then after I boot from the Mandriva CD, I can "restore" the dual-boot loader to the MBR. Linux works, but if I choose to boot Win98, I get the following: "This is not a bootable disk. Please insert a bootable floppy and press any key to try again ..." But of course I can't, the floppy controller has died. I can see the drive if I plug it in to the main / upstairs computer (ABIT KV7 or KV7-V, KT600 North bridge, Athlon 2900 from TigerDirect, two 512-MB Kingston 400 MHz, stock timings). It must be on the secondary channel with a CD-RW, becuase it behaves like a spoiled child if it has to "share" the channel with another IDE HD. Here's what I've tried so far that did not work: 1. Make it the primary master (only drive present) on the main (upstairs) computer, and use fdisk /MBR from a 98 boot floppy (floppy controller works on this one). 2. Make it the primary master upstairs, and use sys.com from Windows 98. 3. Make it the primary master upstairs, and use the "Ultimate Boot CD" (ubcd.com) or other "rescue" CD or freeware "boot-chooser in MBR" utility. But since Mandriva starts outside the 1024 cylinder boundary, these may fail. EDIT: at one point, the first primary partition (Win98) became hidden. After un-hiding, I still got the error message when choosing Win98 at the dual-boot screen. Go figure. <END of edit> Possible future approaches: A. I could put it on the secondary channel upstairs, so that XP (including Partition Magic 8.01) and Mandriva 2006 can see it, and use some tool or other to fix things, somehow. B. Put it back in the downstairs PC and reinstall 98 YET AGAIN. This time, install Windows-based boot utility. (If I tried Partition Magic boot-chooser, I would need another license. Also, from experience, it only recognizes linux if linux dual-boot utility is installed in the linux partition, not MBR. But it is a possibility). C. Put 98 on a spare hard drive (primary master, upstairs computer) and install Norton Utilities 2001. Put the problem Samsung sa the secondary master, see what Norton can do. (Booting from NU 2001 CD and using "emergency programs" only gives me a basic undelete program and a hex editor, not useful to me.) I can understand the Samsung behaving like a spoiled brat, like a 340 MB incompatible drive from 1993, but why does Win98 fail to start, even when it is the only HD in the machine**? Is this a hardware problem or a software problem? I'll check, but I believe there are no BIOS updates that will fix this. Should I give up on 98 and make this a pure linux box? ** This is the reason I put this post here instead of the "hardware hangout". I have a copy of Windows 2000 Professional, but no license / COA, so that clearly cannot be a solution (dual-boot or single-boot). Any ideas? All help greatly appreciated.

Hi all, Recently I rehabbed an 800 MHz Gateway Pent-3 for a friend. Intel made the motherboard, but Gateway may have specified certain changes from the Intel board (no onboard lan chip, more usb ports, whatever). In any event, there was a custom Gateway BIOS. It seemed to me this board had no problem recognizing the ElTorito boot instructions on a Windows 98 First Ed. CD that I put in, as a test (98 Second Ed. CDs had no ElTorito, IIRC). But the machine did not recognize a Mandrake boot CD that I put in. I believe the machine also did not boot when I put a 98 First Ed. CD into a SCSI CD-RW (I hung it off a PCI Adaptec 2940UW, which DOES HAVE a booting BIOS, so it should have worked). Even when the ATAPI CD-ROM was set as the first boot device, and the hard disk was not selected as a boot device at all, there are times when it would not work. The machine originally came with ME (no SCSI support whatsoever). Is it possible to write a motherboard BIOS that doesn't allow SCSI bios to boot the machine? Can a mobo BIOS tell whether the ElTorito is on a Windows CD or Linux CD? Maybe the Linux install kernel went over 640K, and the machine couldn't flip between real mode and protected mode correctly? I don't think my linux install CD was scratched, but it could have been. How much control can BIOS writers exert here? Any ideas? All knowledge, wild theories, speculation, etc. is welcome. Thanks in advance.

Hello, I'm refurbishing an old Gateway for a friend, which came with ME. Recovery CDs are not available. A boot disk from bootdisk.com lets me run Win ME chkdsk, and the results are pretty terrible. Assuming the license travels with the motherboard and not the hard drive, I can legally put ME back on a fresh drive, right? (I don't know why Gateway chose "partition type 44" for this 20 GB drive, instead of "FAT32 LBA" [0b or 0c IIRC]. Probably something to do with their rescue software.) Strangely, Linux has no problem copying virtually every single file (except \options\cabs\driver6.cab and gobackio.bin). I backed up the drive to two DVD-Rs. Can I build a reasonable ME CD for this client? I do have access to another ME machine (IBM Aptiva), which probably has driver6.cab. This could also let me run a "file compare" utility to test the integrity of other critical files and cabinet files, especially inside a batch file. I want to make ONE CD for the original machine only, I think this is within the license rules. Or should I copy the files to a new drive, type "fdisk/MBR" from an ME boot floppy and see what happens? Any help is greatly appreciated. (The machine originally came with Office 2000 as well, but considering all the registry entries and DLLs needed, that is probably beyond my ability.)

Okay, I found ftp.dlink.com. The version 3.18 files (for revision B3, which I have) do not include the A3AB9x.sys file. So I went with the version 3.17, for generic "revision B" DWL-G520 cards. It won't connect, but at least I've got the right files. I'm using: SSID broadcast: enabled, "Mikes-Network" 128-bit WEP key (26 hex characters, I wrote them down) Key: shared (not open) This is how things are set up on the XP box (and the DI-524) and things work perfectly. (The XP machine and the 98SE box are never on at the same time.) If I click on the icon ('AirPlus Extreme G') in Control Panel, it still says "no card installed" and does nothing. This might be because the "Extreme G" feature is only available in XP (at least I think it is). If I click on the desktop icon in 98SE, I can set up the card (still won't work, though). Any idea why 98SE isn't working? All suggestions are encouraged and welcome. P.S. When I tried wireless a year ago, I was using a PCI card with a Realtek 8180 chip (EDIT: RTL8185 chip). Except for randomly locking up all the time, it *_almost_* worked in Linux (after 10-20 hours of work) (ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net ran the chip as if the card were actually in Windows). The D-link PCI uses the Atheros AR5212 chip. We'll see how well this works (ndiswrapper, madwifi).

Terribly sorry to trouble you all, but I am having a very hard time setting up wireless networking (D-link DWL-G520 PCI wireless, rev. B3, and a D-link DI-524 wired [and wireless] router, Rev. E). The manual says to run an .EXE file (CD-ROM supplied with wireless card) then shut the computer down. Only then do you install the card and then you turn the PC back on. Then you follow more instructions on the booklet that was in the box. Well, as you can guess, things are not well. Win98 (and I) have some complaints (and some ranting): 1. In Control Panel --> System --> Device Manager --> Wireless card, Windows indicates a problem with NDIS.VXD and NTKERN.VXD (or a service they provide). Basically, "Code 2 -- reinstall drivers". But when I try to do this, I can't. Because two files can't be found on the disc. When I download the driver off the company website, I unzip and find a couple of .CAB files (among other files), but Win98's EXTRACT command says these are not cabinet files at all. The files are A3AB9x.sys and DWLNdi.dll. Presumably these files are referenced by the .INF file, but I simply don't have the files, and I can't just produce them out of thin air! Where am I supposed to get them, D-Link? 2. The manufacturer disc DID install the software that lets me change the wireless channel, turn on WEP / WPA, type the key, etc. But when I click on it, it says that no wireless cards are installed. Well, yes, one is installed. Why isn't it detected? Probably because Device Manager says it has a problem. It is a problem I cannot fix. Does anyone have a solution? 3. Any idea what's wrong here and how to fix it? 4. Why do I need to do this (installing software BEFORE hardware) to "trick" Windows 98 into installing something that couldn't be done the "normal" way? IIRC, the ATI All-In-Wonder TV card tells me to install SW before HW also (the secret there is to get the files off the net, there will be 3 or 4 .EXE files and they won't be dependent on the AUTORUN of the CD in the box, so you can gain control of the install routine. Install the .EXE with "wdm" in the name first, then when you put the card in, 98 will recognize it and install the rest of the stuff smoothly. It is off topic, but it took about 5 tries and MANY hours before I learned this, I hope it will save someone from having problems in the future). 5. Could manufacturers PLEASE list all the files and their locations, along with .INI settings and registry entries needed for a complete installation? IIRC, the old 4-meg PCI Matrox Millenium video card did this, so any install routine that got corrupted (if there was a power outage or something) could be quickly fixed by anyone with relatively simple commands (UNZIP and COPY commands, and basic INI editing and REGEDIT use). Is it really that difficult? Today's complex install routines (designed to be id***-proof) aren't worth a dime in my opinion -- they fail often. MILLIONS of people who CAN unzip and copy and use regedit are inconvenienced, losing COUNTLESS hours in trouble and frustration, just to protect a few people who might mess up their machines because they aren't familiar with files and directories or are bad at typing things EXACTLY. A year ago I tried to install my wireless stuff, and it was terrible, simply dreadful. The wireless connection would die randomly after 30 seconds to 60 minutes of uptime and both the PC and the router had to be rebooted. Last night, I discovered there was a firmware upgrade for my router, so I got the stuff out of the boxes again. I got an XP machine 10 months ago, I figured MS probably designed XP for easy hardware setup, so I tried it first. XP was working in minutes. And after a couple of hours, no lockups / reboots. It continues to be stable. Sweet indeed! But the 98 box is being difficult. Thanks in advance for all your help.