justacruzr2

Hi and thanks for your reply. Don't know where you got the info that the Intel 810 chipset doesn't support USB 2.0 but that's exactly what is running on ME. Me has no problems at all. XP Pro is also on this machine. All 3 OS's are on separate drives. When I installed the USB card (long ago) all I had to do was run the install program that came with the card. ME and XP had no problem at all. When I plugged in the first flash drive, ME simply went into the found new hardware routine and installed it. After the install of 98SE, the USB card was shown as an UNKNOWN in Device Manager along with the flash drives. All I did was run the driver install from the CD that came with the card and it was all good in Device Manager. It was moved from UNKNOWN to USB with no yellow exclamation points. But windows doesn't know how to use it. No unofficial updates have been installed. Don't need any additional problems and I suspect that at this point in time even those updates are outdated. This, I believe, is a deeper problem due to the fact that 98SE didn't come with anything for the AC'97 sound chip or USB 2. Using ME Inf's did help a little bit but there's still something missing. Today I found a thread on another web site by someone who had a similar problem and it led me to a site that had the Trigem Cognac motherboard drivers. A more up to date set from 2004. It is compatible with 95, 98, 98SE, ME and XP. We'll see if that does the trick for 98SE.

Thanks, I'll try that if it's not for ME.

I'm having a little problem with a fresh installation of win 98se on an emachines etower 633ids. Sound doesn't work and usb flash drives don't work. After trying several different ideas that didn't work it occurred to me that maybe this is a problem with the initial install. I checked the introduction date of the emachines etower and found out it was approximately Nov/Dec 2000. About 8 months after 98se was relaeased (4/23/99). If the Machine inf's that came with 98se don't have this computer in them I figured that might be why. So rather than uninstall the whole thing and start from scratch I could go into Device Manager and update the drivers using the inf's from Millennium. Millennium is on this computer and that's what it came with when I bought it. Well that idea wasn't too bad because several things got a lot better overall. I now get the little pop from the speakers on start up but still no sound in Windows. I looked at the Multimedia and Sound properties in Control Panel and neither of them show a "preferred device". However the Multimedia device that used to be in "Other" (yellow triangle with black exclamation point) in Device Manager is gone and the AC'97 sound card is now shown in the Sound and Multimedia section. USB flash drives still are a problem though even though the USB card is properly registered in Device Manager. Don't suggest NUSB33e because I already tried it. This computer has 2 built in USB ports and they aren't working either and they should be. I think this is a "Machine" problem, that 98se didn't fully understand this computer and just did the best it could during install. So what I'm wondering is what if I just remove "System" from Device manager, reboot, and let it reinstall that using the Millenium Inf's? Has anyone ever done a dangerous undertaking like this and was it successful? I really don't want to start from scratch since I just recently finished everything else (updates and apps).

@wunderbar98 @Ucyborg @jumper @ RainyShadow Hey everyone. I was on vacation last week so I missed all your replys. I just reinstalled 98SE on my desktop and noticed the same thing...that mmc is included on the 98SE install disk. Haven't done it yet but it gave me the idea that it should also install on Millenniun too rather than using the mmc from 2K (which supposedly was to work also).

Anybody ever try installing the MMC from Win 2k on ME using the file from MDGx? No problem installing but there are no snap-ins. Are they supposed to be included or are you supposed to find them somewhere or is it just a waste of time?

OK. Problem solved. After getting everything else connected with the task scheduler working correctly it turned out that a Norton Utilities app running in the background was preventing the Data Collection. When I turned it off and waited 10 minutes, the Data Collection took place. Glad that's over with.

Interestingly I did a search in the registry for mstask.exe...there was nothing. I appreciate your response and will use your reg entries. Funny thing I saw last night in the recycle bin were those CollectedDataxxx.xml files. Looking at the details it showed they were created and then deleted 2 seconds later by PCHealthCtr. What's up with that right? Also I have to correct what I said above because I didn't realize I was looking at those original CD files of the system in XP. Here are the pictures so you can see what I saw. Also note that XP uses the same CLSID for tasks as Millenium and that XP and maybe ME when I get it working correctly will also show that "Add Scheduled Task" icon in place of the Desktop file. By the way I looked at that CLSID value that's in Desktop in the registry and one of the subkeys is defaulticon which has a value of mstask.dll, -100. So that would seem to be what Desktop is for...to display that Add Scheduled Task icon. You say "Remove everything in the Tasks folder might help. It should only be populated when a task is implemented." That was another thought I had too. Having tasks in the folder already before activating Scheduled Tasks might be part of the problem. You also say "Why do you need a desktop file?" My only answer is that's the way Microsoft set it up. Take a look at the pictures which clearly show how the original install set it up.

OK. My original copy of the system after the initial install does have the "Add Scheduled Task" icon in the \Windows\Task folder along with the PCHealth task, the Winalign task and SA.DAT but no Desktop file. This Add Scheduled Task icon does not seem to be a file because if I right click on it, the context menu only says "Open". This is probably a shortcut to the Wizard that you mention. But an internal shortcut via the registry rather than an actual file like the ones on the Start Menu. That would suggest that there are 2 places that you can start the wizard from. The Scheduled Task folder off System Tools and the actual \Windows\Task folder. However, I am going to create that Desktop file in the Task folder using the info you supplied ([.ShellClassInfo] CLSID={d6277990-4c6a-11cf-8d87-00aa0060f5bf} and see what happens. Maybe it has something to do with this. I'm at work now so I can't test this till I get home this evening. It also seems that there was more than one way that Windows set up the Task folder if yours does not have that Add Scheduled Task icon in it. Thanks.

Yes, other than what the MS updates changed. Actually there is a file in PCHealth\Support that I think is named PCHealth setup. The thought you gave me though is to check what is running by going to System Information off the System Tools menu. That would be a good place to check that MSTask is loaded or as you say MSInfo (AKA System Configuration). I'm thinking the problem is not really PCHealth not doing it's job but MSTask not loaded and running. Without that PChealth might be attempting to run (using it's registry entry) but without support from MSTask it may not understand how to run the task. As I mentioned before, the actual task file (PCHealth Scheduler for Data Collection) Is getting refreshed every time I start or restart the computer so that suggests that PCHealth is attempting to run it.

That's OK. That was one of the things I put in the registry while I was searching the internet for advice. Found that little nugget embedded in an article. And that does work and puts the task icon in the systray. But what I meant was go to your \Windows\Task folder and click on it. It should have the Add Scheduled Task icon in there along with any tasks you may have set up. Right now mine doesn't. It shows it in the CD copy of the original setup but it isn't a file. If you right click on it the context menu only says "Open". That's why I think it's one of those namespace type entries in the registry. Could be wrong though and it could be some other way the system displays that icon in the Task folder. And that might be part (or all) of the problem.

No. That entry already exists but for some reason it doesn't run it. But it does refresh the actual task file. It gets a new date and time on the file. So it's actually doing something but never completes the task by making the CollectedDataxxx.xml files. Something is missing. One thing I was thinking of trying would be to restore that actual first registry from that CD of the original install and start looking at entries related to the Pchschd.exe file and the mstask.exe file. Or maybe even easier and quicker would be to take the current registry and the original registry and throw them both into a file compare utility and look at the highlighted differences related to task scheduling.

Working on one of the last little problems that needs fixing in Millennium. I disabled PCHealth Scheduler years ago but would now like to re-activate it. So I copied over the original files in the Tasks folder from a CD I burned of the original system after the install for a baseline reference point. They were the files: PCHealthSchedulerforDataCollection, TuneUpApplicationStart (Winalign) and SA. Also had to click on Start Using Task Scheduler on the Advanced tab of the Scheduled Tasks folder. Right after I clicked on that the Scheduled Tasks folder froze. The rest of the system was fine and seemed unaffected by that. Just couldn't access or close the Scheduled Tasks folder. So I restarted the computer and after going thru the initial Windows ME welcome screen the computer hung up on a black screen but the mouse pointer was able to move but nothing else. Allowed it to be this way for several minutes believing it might be doing something in the background and when finished would then continue on to the Desktop...it never did. I rebooted again and restored the registry to clear the problem. Windows once again started up normally. I have left Start Using Task Scheduler unchecked until I can figure out what is really going on. So from my observations it seems that when I click on Start Using Task Scheduler there must be something missing in the registry. I already compared all the files and folders in PCHealth to the original setup to be sure I wasn't missing something. Also checked all the MS updates to see if any of them affected the Task Scheduler or PCHealth for security reasons but found nothing except for the fact that the file HelpCtr.exe was changed by one of the updates but I don't think that would have affected the Task Scheduler. Also noticed that everytime I start the computer, the PCHealth task is being refreshed but never runs. Also noticed that the Add Scheduled Task icon that should appear in the Tasks folder is not appearing. I think this might be part of the problem. Since it is not an actual file I think it must be one of those namespace entries in the registry. Anyone have any other ideas or the solution? Thanks.

Yes and thanks...just got it.

Forgot to add that the web pages for the app are what don't exist anymore.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, the web pages don't exist anymore probably due to age. But it did show the registry key for file rename operations and how to do that so I will try that.

Is there a wininit for XP that you can use to perform a task on startup like the 9x series OS's could. I need to rename a couple folders that Windows won't allow while it's running. If there is...how do I use it? Is it just a text file? Thanks.

That didn't do it. I'm tghinking this may have something to do with the timestamp thing.

Thought the same thing too so I checked my other XP on my other computer and its running there too. I'm going to change it to manual anyway and see what happens. Could be 2 different behaviors because the computers are different.

OK here they are. Couldn't get the whole thing in one shot due to number of processes.

Thanks but what I meant was that I didn't know that the max file size you can put in a post is 512K here. These were a little over 1 meg so I have to resize them so the file size is smaller. And I just finished doing that online. Pictures are below this reply.

Didn't know the max file size for files was 512k. I'm going to have to downsize them at home tonight. I'll try again tomorrow.

Read the article your link points too. Very interesting and either the same or very similar to what I'm experiencing. One article I found (think it was the MS website) talked about the timestamp and how to turn it off. Haven't tried it yet but it brought up another interesting thing I never new....GPEDIT.MSC. Not put in Administrative tools by default. I was looking for a way to turn off Autoplay (like everyone else) and that is done in gpedit.msc. It has a lot of other settings that can be manipulated so I put a shortcut to it on my Administrative Tools menu. Haven't completely looked at all of it yet but there might be something in there too. Also did a search for all files with the .msc extension and found about 20. Some of them are already in Administrative tools and some of those that are, actually have a few more things in them that you don't see when called from the AT menu. And my apologies....I forgot to do the PrtScrn last night. I'll get it on here this Monday. Thanks.

Exactly. Like I said in an earlier post the XP on my other computer doesn't do this. I installed XP on both computers from the same disc (XP SP2). And both were upgrade to SP3 from the same file. Yet they both exhibit different behaviors in some things. Part of this is possibly explained by the fact the hardware is different on both computers but as for the rest of it....hmm....

System Restore is disabled. I need to get a Backup program one of these days. I really don't care for the XP/NT Backup app. I prefer the way backup used to work on the 9x OS's. XP doesn't back up the registry with everything else. It does it seperately so now the backup consists of 2 pieces. That's one of the reasons I keep Millenium on the system. But I would also like to be able to do that kind of backup in XP. Just a precaution in case Millenium goes down