Eck

randeroo76073, Yeah. And I wish I was as "spunky" as I used to be. I was referring to Ed Asner as Lou Grant reacting to Mary sticking up for her rights in the 1st episode's job interview. I used to love that show. Darn it, I fubarred my 98 installation last night by mess'n around with the joystick's too much. By the time I was through I couldn't get any to show up in the joystick control panel even with them all appearing to be fine in device manager. I got so annoyed that I F-DIS-K'ed the drive! I just reconnected my A7V880 with XP that I had left fully functioning last time. A few hours of software updates and it's all set. Between the Saitek drivers, trying to get that Boom PSX/N64 USB adapter working, and the Sidewinder 3.02 and 4.0 stuff it all got messed up. I just finished an email coorespondence with Saitek where they couldn't understand why their driver always caused me Windows 98SE conflicts (startup, shutdown, closing programs making Windows crash, the Saitek Control Panel's "About" tab freezing, etc). They couldn't help. The Saitek stuff worked but would interfere with Windows. No problem with it on XP. Even the N64 adapter is working. I've got XP set up with a theme so it looks and sounds like I had 98 set up, but without the bugs. I'm sure I'll be rediscovering XP's bugs now. FDISKing is kinda "spunky" isn't it? Like Kirk in Star Trek III, "I--have had---enough of---YOU!" I felt so empowered.

Oh, so that's what Mapi32.dll is. Perhaps I haven't noticed anything because I use Thunderbird and just have a normal pop email account. (Not that mapi's abnormal!) By the way, that young feller on the main Windows 98 thread doing a Windows Me service pack should hire a ghost writer or something. I kind of get the feeling that what he's doing works but the way he's expressing it makes me afraid, very afraid. He shouldn't be making comments like your computer will think it's running XP or NTFS. It'll look like it if he installs a theme, but comments like that make it sound like vaporware, and inspire replys from experienced programmers like "How?". I wouldn't want to discourage him though. A Me service pack would be cool! Edit - OMG. I just read some more from mitchellvision. Um, could someone a bit older start working on this? He, he. The kid's got spunk though. "I HATE SPUNK!" (Thank you "MaryTylerMoore Show.")

Ahhh. That's better. I even saw it working when the splash screen went away. No Windows freeze on startup. Great stuff! Oh. do you know what the MAPI32.dll file does? Every time I run a software update, like the latest Nero update for example, it installs a really small version of the file. But when I run 98SE2ME it replaces that file with what I guess is the version on the Windows Me cd, which is bigger. I'm talking like the small version being about 7kb and the Windows Me one being something like 700KB. Nothing seems to break no matter which version is on there, but I was wondering what it does and why media type software (I think WMP9 installs the small version as well) seems to like to overwrite the original file with the smaller version.

MDGx, Miscommunication here. I didn't interupt the batch file. When Windows rebooted (automatically by 98SE2ME) it could not initialize the desktop completely, just leaving the hourglass sitting there and no icons displaying. I left it like that for about 20 minutes before hitting ctrl-alt-delete. When I hit that it rebooted right away (didn't bring up the Close Program box). When it rebooted, the WDM files were changed according to System File Checker, but the System Properties change was not made. So I copied over the file myself and all (I think) was well. I'll install the new one and see what happens. Charly had the same problem. Nice to see it's not there for him with the latest update.

Thanks charly. The 6-30 one was the one I skipped. I just replaced setupx.dll myself instead with the one in the backed up 98SE folder. But I got the same thing you did with the hourglass with this one. I'll go ahead and copy the sysdm.cpl over, but I'm wondering if anything else is being skipped since Windows skipped that one. I think I'm okay because I've had the 98SE2ME on it for several versions so the files the new one is copying over are just replacing the same versions. But what about those who are installing 98SE2ME for the first time? I wonder if they are getting all the files or whether something is going wrong? MDGx, something is up with this. Maybe it would help to go back to however it was installing prior to 6-30? That went smooth as silk and I never noticed anything skipped over that you set up to be copied like what's happening now. Edit- There you go. Windows 98SE shows up after I copied the file over myself. Shouldn't have to do that though. Edit2- Hey! Windows starts up faster now! But the desktop appears right after the splash screen, not showing the dos messages of my path statements from autoexec loading. It's like Windows Me, hiding dos from us! I'm not sure I like that. Make it go slower so I can see what's going on. (I'm tired this morning, so forgive me if that sounds demanding. Don't mean it that way. I kind've wanted it to sound stupid and funny.) But I did like watching that to make sure the right stuff was being loaded. Like a quick check. Edit3- Oh. That fast startup only happens sometimes. I guess it's normal for the path loading to be done before the splash screen goes away every so often. I guess that's nothing.

Um, I didn't get the System Properties general tab change back to 98 2nd Edition. It still says I'm running Me. Also, when the system rebooted following the 98SE2ME batch run it froze while initializing the desktop and I needed to ctrl-alt-delete. When it booted up again the startup screen appeared saying Windows didn't boot properly and offering to start in Safe Mode. I declined, and it started up fine in normal mode this time. I ran system file checker and the wdm audio files were updated as advertised, so the 98SE2ME did run. I needed to check because for some reason the splash screen had stayed up while the 98SE2ME batch was running so I couldn't view the dos messages (like "so many files copied with 0 errors" etc). All is running fine, but I didn't get the general tab to change back to 98SE like you said. I also don't know the effect of the Me WDM audio files since I'm using vxd audio at the moment. A question. Does 98SE2ME do anything to USB joystick files? I ask because I've never been able to use my Saitek Gamepad P-880 on 98SE. But, since I've had the pad I've always run 98SE2ME so I don't know if the Saitek drivers would mess up Windows if I didn't have 98SE2ME installed. The pad and drivers run fine, but the "About" tab in the Saitek joystick control panel will freeze the control panel and Windows will have restart and shutdown problems with the Saitek driver installed. And they interfere with my USB printer as well. So I don't use the pad on 98SE. I've written Saitek, because I'd like to! We'll see if they reply with anything constructive. The Sidewinder Gamepad Pro USB and the Sidewinder Gamepad 1.0 don't give me any problems. Just the Saitek stuff. I just wondered if the Me joystick drivers are copied over and if perhaps they have something to do with the problem. Funny that the Sidewinder drivers and software (3.02 and 4.0) don't mess up anything.

I don't think he has that. That's why he used his full upgrade cd, as he said. Interesting though. I thought I had read somewhere long ago some instructions that worked around the dos restriction by copying the installation folder to the HD and then changing something. Unfortunately I don't remember what! But there was a guide. I remember seeing it. I didn't think I'd ever make use of it that way so I didn't print it out. I just noticed it with vague, fleeting interest. That cd did have some quirks. It would mess up when copying the Windows\Media folder and some of the Windows sounds would be the incorrect files. Heh, the recycle bin sound in the Utopia theme would by used for several things like menu popups, etc. I always needed to uninstall the sounds and reinstall them from add/remove, Windows components, Multimedia. It also would install Briefcase and wouldn't put it in the list of Windows components so I'd be able to uninstall it. I would just delete the thing from the desktop, then a registry clean would further interfere by deleting the send to shortcut for it. So then I couldn't use it if I wanted to! Not that I would. I've never owned a Laptop. I wonder what else is buggy? Stuff seemed to work like a normal 98SE, but if it messed up that stuff I wonder what I wasn't aware of.

Oops, my internet bugged out somehow and I had the post uploaded twice. Deleted the redundancy! Sorry.

Regarding Randiroo76073's Soundcard driver install problem, I had the same thing happen to me when I was installing the Creative Audigy 2 ZS drivers on my Sblive5.1. Without 98SE2ME this works fine as long as you use the latest ctcomp.exe patch over at driverheaven. With 98SE2ME, that unsigned driver nag greys out the Advanced box so you can't go in there and tell Windows to ask instead of prevent unsigned drivers from installing. The driver was impossible to install because of this. I tried using SystemPolicyEditor, but that does not effect the Windows Me driver verification from not allowing the install. That only effects 98SE's driver verification manager. It is set by default to allow all drivers. If I set it to ask, it will ask at the very beginning of the driver installation, but the Windows Me one will still pop up when the actual driver installation is ready to activate the driver. And on the soundcard driver the Advanced box it greyed out. I did successfully install an unsigned driver for another device when the Advanced box was selectable! It only greyed it out for the soundcard driver. On the other device (forget what it was) I clicked the Advanced and chose "Ask" and everything proceeded as it would on Windows Me. So the only solution to try is changing the inf to ; out the catalog? Is the catalog unimportant? As you know I using a different card right now so I can't test this. I'm interested to see whether randiroo76073 is successful when he ;'s out the catalog file. Perhaps this is something that can be left out of 98SE2ME? Are there certain files that activate the Windows Me driver verification check? The 98SE driver verification tool is still there as it popped up when I told System Policy Editor to use it. It will perform the function you set in System Policy Editor or the default "install all" if you leave it as default. However, the Windows Me one ignores the System Policy Editor. It seems we have an extra Driver Verifier that we can really do without. Edit - Oh. I just noticed that he installed them fine with the later 98SE2ME. Perhaps this is related to the problem we fixed with my USB Modem drivers. Hmmm, maybe things can be left alone then. It does seem that it might be better to just have the 98SE Driver Verifier there though. This way System Policy Editor can still control it. Unless there is something buggy about it that the Windows Me files do better?

georgethetee, Actually on is the default. Himem.sys needs to access it to read some stuff, but on newer computers many hog the thing and Himem.sys can't access it. MDGx was talking about my findings on my own newest machine, the Asus A7V880, that if the on board SATA boot rom is activated (needed if booting from the SATA HD) then himem.sys will report "Cannot access Line A20." Windows 98SE will still run perfectly fine but Ms-Dos Mode and dos boot discs are crippled. No emm386 can be loaded so no memory management for my dos gaming! And, with this board even with a regular ATA HD the motherboard hogs the IRQ's so using the SBLive's dos mode drivers is impossible. That's alright. I now have a speedy Asus A7V333 Revision 2.0 board with an AthlonXP 3000+(Barton) that has normal dos memory management available. So I just use my XP Home on the A7V880, and 98SE on A7V333. But, dosgames will crash where they wouldn't on slower processors. So even though Dos Mode is available I am finding myself using the latest Dosbox with the latest CVS build to play most of my dos games anyway. I still like 98 better. All of my games were designed before XP was a dream. And, everything just feels zippier and peppier!

MDGx, I just went ahead and used Winzip to extract Themes.cpl from the Plus98! cd and overwrite the Me one. I figured that it was safe enough as that is what runs fine on 98SE anyway. No problems. I think stuff is as it should be now. I'm gonna go play somethin'.

PsychoUnc, I know what you mean. It depends how one uses the thing though. It's great for when I'm experimenting a bit like with Creative software. After uninstalling it and even using DriverCleaner, I can go in the jv16powertools2005 and look at the installed programs list. In the Creative example I would see stuff like ASIO, CDDB Control, etc and from past experience know that If I tell jv16 to remove the related entries like that it will be better to do so before removing the Creative program folder as this will unregister the stuff Creative leaves behind before I delete the files. This actually saves me from breaking an association since jv16 checks for what registry entries are associated with the particular installed program and when I click remove, it gets rid of them automatically. And believe me, Creative stuff isn't all located in one conveniant registry tree! I also do trust the registry cleaner part of it (the original program he started with). But I only run it once in a while when I'm going to do a whole temp folder file deletion, Scandisk, Defrag. It did mess up some stuff on my XP box but that was my fault. I now know to just close the taskbar notification area background tasks but not to clean boot using msconfig when I'm going to run the registry cleaner. See, I clean boot with the ethernet card connection disabled and ZoneAlarm off and everything except the Microsoft services unchecked in msconfig before running Disc Defragmenter. I don't suggest doing this and then running a registry cleaner! When I did that it deleted my startup shortcuts from the StartMenu's Startup folder (like Office and stuff), and the ATI Catalyst Control Panel's systray icon's startup routine. When I went back to normal startup in msconfig these things did not come back! Even checking show icon in systray in the ATI software didn't bring it back to run at startup. I needed to run the Catalyst Control Panel's add/remove programs uninstaller and repair the install, and I needed to run the office repair tool from the Word program's help menu to get back those startup shortcuts. After doing these things everything seemed okay, but as you said I didn't really know! So I now run it as I said, with just clicking exit on the stuff in the systray, deleting the contents of my system temp folder and the Windows/Temp folder, empty my browser cache's then run registry cleaner. I then reboot. After that I disable the net, tell ZoneAlarm to go away at startup, and uncheck all but the main Windows stuff in msconfig's startup, and leave only the Microsoft stuff checked in services, reboot and then do a quick checkdisc from the GUI and run Disc Defragmenter. And I only do all this once in a blue moon or after I've installed a bunch of things to the HD or have been doing some video editing and have put in and removed large DVD size files. So, I do trust the thing but I recognize that it's only a computer program and will botch things up if I hide everything from it! It didn't know, "Oh, he disabled some stuff so I'd better not delete those things." We learn by screwing up. Generally, if ya don't mess aroung with the startup controls it is very aware of what not to delete. And, it was my choice not to let it back up what it was deleting. It does offer to do so before making any changes. I just remembered having a problem with jv16 crashing when it had built up some backups so I usually don't bother and pray it knows what it's doing! The fact that it is the latest and very recent version comforts me about that.

MDGx, Ah, that explains it. The 98SE2ME installed here is from 6-11-2005. So I now have 2 of the same versions, as I renamed one of them to MECONFIG! No problem. I'll just delete that one. The nag screen at bootup if msconfig is used still shows up though. Was that one of the ones Tihiy removed? If so, then I do have the patched newer version as msconfig and the Tihiy version as meconfig. And that's the way 98SE2ME sets things up now, so I'll leave it alone. I use it infrequently anyway. Whatever's there is working, but it is just strange having the static vxd and environment tabs instead of autoexec and config. I'll just ignore that stuff for now. If I want to clean boot I know what to do! Should I extract the Themes.cpl too? I just extracted the Themes.exe from the 98Plus! cd as I didn't know the control panel applet was different as well. It's too bad everyone can't use the fixed version of Themes.exe. I guess the only Microsoft release of it is on the 98Plus! cd. But the same can be said of 98SE2ME. Folks need to buy WinMe to use it, as well. And Microsoft never seems to give up on stuff. Ms-Dos use still needs a license! They should do what Rockstar Games does with GrandTheftAuto 1 and 2! Use our old stuff free and maybe you'll buy our new stuff. It's pretty weird that Dosbox runs dosgames better than Dos. Just thinking aloud here, don't mind me.

Microsoft RegClean is really, really old. There are plenty of programs now that install stuff that is only registered while the program is in use. Even Microsoft DirectX has registry entries dealing with the gamepad controllers that are only connected while a joystick is in use. And forget about Office programs. RegClean was simply not designed to recognize these kinds of things. A regcleaner that is safe like the old RegClean, but updated for new types of programs is Macecraft Software's Jv16Powertools 2005. It is now a commercial program, where in years past (while "jv" was a "16" year old kid) it was free. But it is the best out there, and quite usefull for more than simple registry cleaning as well.

I had forgotten all about this thread. Awesome old machine you've got there. Remember when I talked about playin' with my SiS5598 Asus Spax-m HP Pavilion 4430/40 board? Well the reason I bought a couple of them (so cheap!) was originally to see if they could be set up as my old dos machine. This plan failed as the ISA slots on these boards will not process any sound! PCI audio works fine, and the ISA slots work fine too, but not for any audio. I thought it might have been a bad board, but I found the same thing with the 2 new ones. I tried an ISA Modem hooked through with the cable to a couple of different PCI sound cards and couldn't get modem audio. I tried my SB16 Advanced Wave Effects ISA card and couldn't get sound out of it either. Both of these things work perfectly on my Abit KT7A board's ISA slot so I know it's not a card or driver problem. The audio is just dead for some reason by default, out of the ISA slots. This, using either an AMD K6-2 300 or 366 processors. The only real expense to my experiment was the Crucial memory. I needed new sticks unless I was going to pull the ram from my original one. It cost as much as it originally did back in 1999! (I had upgraded the original 32MB to 256MB way back then.) The other stuff cost some money but not much. I had enough parts lying around unused that work fine. I've had enough of this for now, but I did take note of the hardware you've got. Perhaps someday, but I doubt it. It's my hobby but I also prioritize. Hunting down and putting together something like this might be kind of fun, but also completely unnecessary. It's interesting to read about though! And thanks for confirming the suspicions I had about the newer boards. And yet they claim compatibility with Windows 98SE! To me, that means Ms-Dos 7.1 too. But I guess it doesn't mean that to the manufacturors. It's nice to see it spelled out in black and white. When I talked to an Asus tech on the phone he just had an annoyed,"No, you can't do that," for me. No specifics. Heh, heh, even the tech at CompUSA was exasperated when I told him I couldn't believe they don't even carry one plain old mouse with a cord and a ball so I would be sure it would work in Ms-Dos Mode. He said,"What in the world do you use Ms-Dos Mode for!." Another company still carried them. (Nice of him. He told me where I could try.) I also think fast processors confuse Ms-Dos as well. I'm noticing games crashing where they didn't before on my slower boxes. One tried to give a message but it was hidden behind the crashed game. It started,"Your Proc..." I'm finding that with that, and with the winoldap crap, it's easier even on 98 to run them on Dosbox. Funny that that thing would just love a zillion gig processor but plain old Dos farts out! Cool games there too! Go Star Wars!

I just wanted to say thanks for this update. I had struggled in the past to get the proper files installed in the right order, or I was doing it in the right order but ZoneAlarm was getting my system confused. Whatever, this pack installed fine and I've had no problems. I just made sure to disable ZoneAlarm running at startup and disabled my ethernet device before doing the 98SE2ME afterwards. Nice not to have to guess!

Others will have to fill you in on specifics. For me, the Explorer, Shell, and System Health stuff was what was bad about Windows Me. The updated system files were what was good, and why I used Me for a 9x system until these folks started coming out with 98SE service packs and stuff. Now, there's no question that 98SE is the most updated 9x system available as Windows Me's System File Protection has made it too much of a hastle for folks to bother putting together updates for. Plus the fact that many folks never bothered buying Windows Me. I'm glad I did since for a long time it was the most advanced 9x system and now I have the cd so I can use 98SE2ME! I hadn't played games for a while (except for Baseball Mogul and Microsoft Baseball 2001) so you lit up a little fire in me! I installed Microsoft Entertainment Pack, Atari 80 Classics, Activision Anthology Remix, Microsoft Return Of Arcade, and Microsoft Revenge Of Arcade after getting done replying to you. I also installed all the Carmen Sandiego games. See what you did? Now I'll be wasting time playin' instead of workin'! Played a little JezzBall, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Pole Position, and the old version of Where In the USA Is Carmen Sandiego already. Geez, I haven't scratched the surface. This stuff could take up day and night. Cool! I remember in the late 70's when I was managing a gas station/candy store type of place and we had a deal with a video game guy. Once every couple of weeks he would swap out a machine and we would share the quarters 50/50. I played a lot of the old arcade games for the first time on those machines, but I was a little peeved that my boss got my quarters! (All's fair. I was playing on his company time!)

PychoUnc, Naah. I have an ATI Radeon 9600XT on the Asus A7V880 you see down in my signiture with Windows XP Home, and an Asus Radeon 9550GE on the Asus A7V333 with Windows 98SE. (I also occasionally play with an old Abit KT7A with a Voodoo 5 5500 AGP.) I install the latest official Catalysts available from ATI for both and generally leave the settings alone, apart from setting DirectX to use 75 MHz refresh rates instead of the random or 60 it'll use by default. I used to be a heavy gamer years ago (I mean the beginnings of video gaming). I still have my Nintendo consoles (NES, both regular and NES2, GameBoy original and color, SuperNES, the original and another later edition for backup, and the N64) along with all the games I bought back then. I'm mostly at my computer now, so if I want to revisit the games I usually just use FCEUltraNES or SNES9x rather than firing up the old boxes, but I sometimes want to use the original controllers so at times I do use the consoles. When I bought my first computer I was still into seeing what it could do in gaming so I also have a lot of PC games circa 97-2001. I got more interested in building my own machines and tinkering with Dos and Windows to get stuff (including games) to work than in playing the games themselves. Now, I mostly listen to mp3's and play DVD's for leisure. My favorites for occasions when I want to game are simple arcade stuff, pinball games, and some old Ms-Dos games. Having to sit and master a game's controls and solve a long adventure doesn''t interest me anymore. I like up, down, left, right, A, B, and maybe left toggle, right toggle. I have no interest in teaching my fingers to use 10 or more gamepad buttons to play a game. I never got excited by 1st person shooters so all the interest in high frame rates and overclocking to get them never came my way. I want the card to be able to process fast, but I'm more concerned with stability and keeping everything working smooth. Personally, I'd rather have stuff look better than go faster. (In games, not computers!) So, okay, I got a little boring with my gaming after playing everything that was out there in the old days! I look at new stuff and say,"I played the same thing with not as good graphics." And I'm certainly not going to spend limited funds to buy them with my shelves filled with a lot of games I never even got to yet. Oh, and I never install Option 3. I use Option 2. If I wanted Windows Me Shell I'd install Windows Me. I just want the good improvements that Me had transferred to 98. 98 always was faster and more reliable than Me and I think one of the reasons was the graphical tricks used by the Me Explorer and Shell that slowed things down. I don't consider that one of the "improvements" I want. If I want to temporarilly make things look different I'll just use a Theme.

It's strange that the file MSCONFIG.EXE in the W98SEOLD folder is a 4.90.3000 then. I installed the 98SE Service Pack 2.01, then did the Maximus Decim MDAC 2.8 install, Office Update and Windows Update, installing all the critical updates for both. Then I installed 98SE2ME. Then I installed the Maximus Decim USB native install. So as far as I know there should still be a 98SE version of MSCONFIG somewhere. It should have been in the System folder, but if it was then 98SE2ME would have backed it up. It seems the only places now would be the Win98 folder (where I copied the 98SE cd to so I wouldn't need to insert the cd when stuff needed to access it), or the 98SE Service Pack 2.01 package. Before I ran 98SE2ME, MSCONFIG showed the normal Autoexec.bat and Config.sys instead of the Environment and Static VXD's tabs. But somehow the WinMe version is in the W98SEOLD folder! So now I have the Microsoft WinMe version as msconfig.exe, and the Tihiy version as meconfig.exe. I think. Since I copied the one in the W98SEOLD file to System and renamed the one 98SE2ME (prior to the current one) installed to meconfig.exe. Another note. The version of Themes.exe installed by the Microsoft 98 Plus! cd is an updated one that fixes the issue of the program not displaying the Title Bar colors correctly. When running 98SE2ME this is replaced by another version (probably from Windows Me) that fixed other problems in the original 98 version of Themes.exe. However this again breaks the title bar color. They appear solid dark blue instead of the correct dark blue on the left fading to light blue. I now must extract the version on the 98 Plus! cd to fix the problem. Perhaps you can use the one from the 98 Plus! cd as one of the forced updates in the 98SE2ME batch file? It works perfectly, fixed the same problems that the one in Windows Me fixed, but it doesn't have the title bar color problem. Just a suggestion. All seems real good as far as the system is running. Much improved from all the Me updates! Heh, heh, my dos games seem to need a reboot to start again after I close them. If I try to run them again, the screen goes to black (trying to open the game full screen-it does this for most games whether or not I check the pif's full screen box), then immediately returns to Windows desktop. Then Explorer crashes (I think it's related to winoldap. I remember having problems with that in the days before XP and Dosbox and vdmsound). So, if I exit a dos game I need to reboot to run it again. Even with clean booting using msconfig (whatever version it is I have) with just the Windows stuff running. Perhaps it's my Radeon 9550 driver getting confused with the resolution changes, who knows.

And that $20 Upgrade cd isn't worthless if you've got 98 Gold installed first. It upgrades you to a normal 98SE. That was its purpose, not to install fresh on a blank HD. That's why it was $20, not $99 like the regular upgrade cd. It is a full 98SE cd disc with just the setup from dos disabled.

Ahhh! And the Riptide is able to handle WMP 9 with the EQ and Visualization playing mp3's while browsing around the net without any skipping or hesitating. It must be the AthlonXP3000+. The T-Bird 1.2 couldn't handle it. So, that is a driver problem with the WDM's that never got fixed before HP stopped using the Riptide in their Pavilions. The VXD's work fine as long as the computer has plenty of processor. I even pull a fast one with the drivers. After updating them, I uninstall just the modem driver from add/remove, reboot, and direct Windows to the original modem driver. This gives me a full duplex speakerphone voice modem, who's voice feature was removed by HP in the updated drivers. So I use the updated audio driver with the old modem driver. When I used dialup I never had a problem with either modem driver. I just used the old one to get the voice and speakerphone functions to work. HP claims the Riptide is a half duplex modem without speakerphone. They should read the old Conexant literature which says otherwise. And HP's own original driver on the recovery cd installs the voice modem serial wave device that activates it. The new updates change the name of the modem and do not install the voice feature. The only thing this card lacks is EAX support. But it does have a3d and a sort of virtual ear for 2 speakers or headphones that gives a 3d effect to waves. I think it's just an ACM97 codec, but it sounds great and apparently has extremely high quality D/A convertors. If it had 5.1 support and better WDM drivers it'd be perfect. Sounds better than many expensive cards. Is this the audio forum? Ha! If I posted in those I'd be ignored or flamed out of existence. They think this thing is a piece of junk. I know what my ears are hearing.

Okay, a new post because I tried it. The one installed by the 98SE Service Pack appears to be the same as the one installed by 98SE2ME! I went to Command Prompt Only and renamed msconfig.exe to meconfig.exe, and copyed msconfig.exe from W98SEOLD\system to the system folder. Both versions are the same. So I now have 2 identical msconfigs except one is named meconfig! This can't be right. Both say they are version 2.0 and work the same way, with the Environment tab instead of autoexec.bat and config.sys. But right click properties on all of these files show 4.10.3000! Every msconfig on my system is the Me one, even in the 98SEOLD folder! So unless someone installs 98SE2ME without installing the 98SE Service Pack they are going to get the Me Msconfig. I suppose it doesn't make a big difference. However I don't see the point of the change in the 98SE2ME keeping the one that is there if they are both the same.

So, to get back the msconfig from the backup file before updating to the latest 98SE2ME, do I need to do the same as before with the Network driver issue? Do I go into the Command Prompt Only and copy msconfig.exe from the backup file made by 98SE2ME to the System folder and overwrite the Me one there? Isn't it strange to have 2 versions of Msconfig on the system? Which shows up in the toolbar of System Information? What about the Environmental Variables that the Me Msconfig said it moved from Autoexec to the Registry? Is that just ignored by Windows 98, which just pays attention to what's in autoexec.bat? Ummm, this is too complicated before bedtime. I'll check back tomorrow and see if my worries are answered. EDIT- Oh! I suppose the only change besides msconfig is the way 98SE2ME reboots the computer? So I could just go into Command Prompt Only, rename the existing msconfig to MECONFIG.EXE and copy the 98SE one over to the system folder from the backup done when 98SE2ME was installed. No need to reinstall the thing, right? I do think more clearly in the morning!

Hi again. My brain is somewhat fried from just finishing installing my system on the A7V333 for the last couple of days. I came to check on my post here and saw the reply. Okay, let me sort for a minute. (Finishing was hard to spell! I must need coffee.) Bottom to top (since this one's easier), Partition Magic will lock out about 30% of a big, big drive. I'm talking over 160GB (or whatever the limitation was on the last PowerQuest version). I think Symantec found it still worked perfectly well on larger drives so they enabled the feature in 8.0 but only with locking up the 30%. So, on my 250GB Sata Maxtor Fdisk will be able to use the whole thing but Partition Magic 8.0 will not. There's no error or anything like that, but it will not let me size anything that doesn't leave about 30% of the drive unpartitioned. That works out to about 200GB usable to partition. This is not a bug. It's the way it's designed. I won't call it a feature like Microsoft would! I've used PM since PM7. Love it when I need it. But if I just make one big partition of the whole drive I just use Fdisk. WMP is a little more tricky. Brain must think. Okay. (I am getting close to bedtime here!) Before installing WorksSuite, I install WMP7, the Bonus Pack, the wmencoder7, and WMP9. Then I go through the rest of the system setup with 98SE Service Pack, 98SE2ME, etc. Then, after all was set up that time, I ran the batch to install WMP10. It extracts everything it needs from what it downloads and proceeds to start the Microsoft Bonus Pack installer. I click through the installer and it runs but on the last screen it says the installation has failed. The batch file then runs whatever it runs and reboots the computer. I don't know what the batch has removed or installed but WMP9 is still there and so is the WMP7 Bonus stuff. No WMP10 except in your folder that it extracts all its files to. By the way, it runs the Bonus Pack installer as soon as the files are extracted, not the WMP10 installer. Bonus Pack first. I had run plenty of installations of software on that system as I was setting it up to get to the point of trying out the WMP10 batch, and never got any installer errors. The first sign of trouble was when I was attempting to run the WMP9 installer so it would repair whatever might have been done by the WMP10 batch that I wasn't aware of. The installer went partially through the process but Windows stopped it with that Stacks error. Trying to uninstall it also gave me that error. At that point I just got peeved off and put the machine away and started on this one. I have no idea if that Windows is damaged or not. I had never received an error like that before the WMP10 try. My memory management and the MinSP's is as it usually is. I believe that the 98SE Service Pack puts the MinSP thing into System.ini so that's probably not the problem. I've read the Microsoft KB about that before. The 98SE Service Pack tweak is basically the solution they suggest. That was present. I'm having fun now running the Riptide card on the A7V333. I just wanted to see what would happen on a really fast system with plenty of processor power and memory. I do know that I played some mp3's with the old Willowpond WillowMedia and got no skipping whatsoever while my ethernet was online. It also showed in the About box 100% free Windows memory. Hmmm, I'm sure WMP (that I'll need to use-that or Winamp-so I'll have an EQ) won't provide that! DVD's played fine with both Nero Showtime and PowerDVD 6. Other program's videos played fine with both audio and video going on. (All while cable internet connected.) Dos games work both in Windows and Dos Mode. They sound great within Windows (better than the SBLive), but the Live does a better job in Dos Mode. Music sounds quite a bit better than the SBLive. It's funny. I got the Live way back when because all I read was folks saying the HP Riptide sucked and get a real soundcard. Well, I've found that this cheap little card provides better sound. Not better, of course, than the cards today but better than the Live. I've even got Wavetable Midi! Sometimes I feel like it's my personal Soundcard since everyone else in their right mind throws it in the garbage real quick. Worthless card on XP because of the skipping and removal of features from the WDM drivers but it's great on 98. But I won't really know until I try actually using WMP, the G-Force Visualization, and Firefox at the same time. If it can't do that without the skipping then the experiment is over. Ahh, I'll just uninstall the card and put a different one and a modem in if that's the case. Easy when they're sitting in boxes over there. I sure keep from getting bored with this stuff. I think I'll wait on the WMP 10 stuff until I see what other's might post about trying it. I don't want to risk going through that again. But I would like it if I knew it would work and if I could figure out what went wrong. I tried running it several times and got the same (negative) results.

Alright, I've gotta get back to creating my roster set for Microsoft Baseball 2001. The files are on my super duper computer (the A7V880). I decided to stop fooling around after I was just checking out Device Manager for something and Windows froze. It was for no apparent reason, as after booting up everything was fine but I said to myself, "This is why folks like XP better," and unhooked the Abit KT7A and rehooked my Asus A7V880. (It is the only one with XP. I only have one cd of that and I like to do things proper.) Ahhh. I even plugged the USB stuff into different slots, as I had forgotten which ones I had used, and XP simply detected a new HP 3970 scanner and I now have it listed as HP 3970 #2! I don't know whether this matters, since it works and I'm not gonna try to figure out how I had it before. But, you see how easy? 98 would have given me fits. XP (Palpitine) is more forgiving than 98 (Darth Vader) is. And, the M-Audio Revo 7.1 sounds almost as good as the Riptide! (Ha, ha.) Riptide gave more bass. The Revo is more accurate though. I just got used to how the Riptide sounded from years of using it. Not really usable with broadband internet though. That's why I put an SBLive into the KT7A as well. I can't deal with the skipping. And forget about it on XP. It can't even handle dial-up on that. Howdy, Dosbox! (Works great with a 2.2GHz processor.) Edit - Fixed the scanner #2 problem. The original didn't show in Device Manager but it did show up in HP's Diagnostic program that comes with the scanner. It works just like Device Manager. I right clicked both and uninstalled the devices, rebooted, and XP installed just the one where it is now connected. Still easier than it would have been in 98, which would have gotten thoroughly confused I suspect.