Eck

PsychoUnc, Oh! I just went back a page and noticed you commented on my Nero problem. Well, I bought the Nero 6 Ultra Edition for about $100 on the first day it came to CompUSA. I had been using Easy Cd Hard Drive Reformatter through version 5, then started using the Nero 5 that came with my old (and now dead) TDK burner. Then I managed to, um, use a full version for awhile on a new drive. I felt nice getting all legal again when I bought the new one! It's funny but this is the first time I ran into the add files crash. I just thought it was the weak excuse for a motherboard I was playing with! Jeez, I hope it doesn't appear again now that it's been introduced to me. The only problem I had with the Nero 6 suite was the off again on again working status of Nero Showtime. Since I use PowerDVD, it didn't matter much to me that for the longest series of version updates that thing had all sorts of playback problems. It seems to work now, but I only test it once when installing Nero then I install PowerDVD and never see it again. That add files crash is a bad one. My computer monitor blanks and I need to reset. Then, a few times Windows had lost my scanner! That stuff is something we don't need. I'll be hitting the Next button gingerly for now on, worrying whether my computer is gonna be fried by Nero! You'd think that with once a month updates they'd figure that thing out.

PsychoUnc, I restored them by entering Command Prompt Only on the Windows startup menu (hold down Ctrl when booting), and copying the files from the backup folder 98SE2ME creates to the Windows\System folder and answering yes to dos when it asks to overwrite the files. MDGx, I ran into a problem with trying to install WMP10 on that box. The files would download and extract, but the WMP Bonus Pack for XP would go through the install then say on the last screen that the installation failed. Then, instead of bringing up the installer for WMP10, the batch file would do whatever it does then rebooted the computer. It made the backup of WMP9 system files as you said, but the installation was never done. Is this perhaps because I always install WMP7.1, WMP Bonus Pack for WMP7.1, and WMEncoder7.1 before installing WMP9? Maybe the Bonus Pack for XP can't install if the 7.1 Bonus Pack is on the system? I tried a couple of times and made sure to use the updated batch file on that thread (I always seem to lose where that is so that's why I'm posting here). No go. Then I tried to reinstall WMP9 in case something was done to it that would break stuff and the installer would make Windows bring up a Close Program Error saying that the installer caused a Stack Overflow. So I tried uninstalling WMP9 and got the same Stack error. Heh, so I tore apart the old slow machine (well, took it out and wrapped the board nicely) and put my KT7A into that box. I don't think I'll try that WMP10 install yet. I also usually install the WM9 codecs and WM10 codecs for the 6 and 7 players. Maybe all that stuff has something to do with the Microsoft installer's failing? Anyway, thanks for patching 98SE2ME. I came here before installing it and there it was. Good deal! I'm using an ethernet connection now (nice having more than 2 PCI slots), so I don't think I would have run into the problem but it's better to keep the files that work. As far as the HD bios limitations, it did read 64,535 of the 80GB HD. Then Windows would detect the whole size when FDISK'd with the new version. I still didn't like seeing that 64,535 thing in the bios so to be safe I went back and partitioned just 64,400MB as I said before. It's weird that the bios would read that much but not the whole thing, but Windows could detect the whole thing if I had it partioned that way. I have a feeling that the Phoenix bios was one that used that method of detection that Microsoft made that patch for. The system was having copying problems unless that patch was installed. Too limited for my taste anyway. It was fun to see the old programs when I used the recovery cd. Since I uninstall them anyway, I won't miss them. And I'm all legal now since I own a couple of full 98SE retail cd's. I also use Partition Magic, but not when using one big partition of the whole drive. I purchased the newer Norton version so I can play with bigger drives. But do you know that FDISK is actually more compatible with the larger drives if its limited features will suffice for what you're doing? FDISK will work with the whole drive whereas Partition Magic will leave about 30% unused to work with very large drives.

Ha! (Thank you Chris Matthews for the Ha!) OMG it F'n works! Okay. The only files that needed to be replaced by the older 98SE backed up files were the set with NETAPI, NETAPI32, NETDI, and NETOS dll's. The sets before that didn't work so I returned the Me files to the System folder. So, whatever those 98SE versions do is not done properly on 98SE by the Me updated versions. I did have to update the driver. For each set I updated the driver and at the end of the update it would say I needed to reboot. Then I would boot up to the same unstarted situation. However, the last time with this set of files, it did not ask to reboot. But I needed to so the driver would work. I was pleased to see the modem lights return. The exact message in the Device Manager properties tab for the unworking DCM-202 USB Modem was: "The NDIS.VXD, NTKERN.VXD device loader(s) for this device could not load the device driver. (Code 2) To fix this, click Update Driver to update the device driver." What does this mean for 98SE2ME? Would not updating these files in 98SE2ME adversly effect anything else? I'm sure if the Me files effected my USB Cable Modem driver this way then other folks would run into the problem as well. Now, if I could figure out why sometimes when clicking "Add" to add files to a multi-session cdr with Nero 6 Express turns the display off and I need to either ctrl-alt-delete 2x to reboot, or if that doesn't work then reset the tower. And although previously this had made Windows turn my scanner into an Unknown Device, the last time it did not lose a thing. And then Nero worked properly. I was adding the folders BKUP (with the 98SE versions of the dll files) and BKUPME (with the 98SE2ME versions). I wanted to make sure I had them on a cd just in case. (Although that wouldn't have helped in Command Prompt Only Mode, I would have been able to use my Ms-Dos Game Mode shortcut with the cd driver on it if Windows had some problem. I don't know, I thought it best to be prepared.) Well, it was fun to discover that my HP Recovery Disc worked on my generic Asus SPAX-M motherboard with an HP bios that reads for a Pavilion 4440. My discs came with my first computer, a Pavilion 4430. Apparently the software for both models is the same. The 4440 simply came with a 333MHz K6-2 and 64MB SDRAM whereas my 4430 came with a 300MHz K6-2 and 32MB SDRAM. I'm using a 366 with 256MB Crucial SDRAM now, and a Jaton Video 118 G-Force2 MX400 32MB PCI. I also have a Lite-on DVD-ROM, CDRW Combo drive. PowerDVD 3.0 is the latest that will play DVD's semi-okay. Heh, it struggles to get the video to match up with the lips synch and never really gets it. This MB just can't cope. Everest puts the memory latency at over 700ms! Far worse than anything else on its chart. I do uninstall nearly everything on the HP disc, but it was fun to see some of the old stuff. And I have a 98SE updates (the $20 thing) cd so that's how I make it 98SE. The HP disc comes with 98Gold. I now have my original computer and 2 Asus SPAX-M boards and also 2 366MHz AMD processors. I mean, the stuff was so cheap (except for the new memory) that I couldn't resist. Now, I do have a question regarding the HD size. I noticed that the Bios reports my Western Digital 80GB HD as 65,535MB. However, using the updated FDISK Windows does detect the entire drive. To try to negate possible file corruption I only partitioned the whole thing the first time just to see what would happen. I now only have 64,400MB partitioned as a single Fat32 formatted partition. I leave the rest unpartitioned. I'm using the last Bios HP provided for these boards, the Puma 2 1.04 Bios of January 1999. I have a feeling, since it is a Pheonix Bios, it is using that Phoenix workaround instead of Int13. So that's why until the 98SE Service Pack was installed I was getting extremly sluggish file copying whether within the folders on the HD or from CD to HD. It would copy some files, then wait for the HD to catch up, then copy some more. I was like when I used to use GoBack. The system would wait until the HD stopped working before continuing. After the Service Pack and probably the HD over 32GB Microsoft Patch for Pheonix Bios's it probably has, this problem went away. The question is, did I need to restrict the partition size? Or since Windows and even format at the end recognized the whole thing, is it safe to use the whole drive? The Bios reports the lower number but Windows will see the whole thing if I partition for it. Or did I do right by just setting the partition to a size within the Bios reported number? And, of course, thanks so much for helping me to get the modem driver working. And I think this helps since you now know that that set of dll files stopped it from working.

Okay, since I'm just playin' with this box I'm going to see if I can find out what causes the problem. First I'll disable the cable modem device in Device Manager and turn off ZoneAlarm from running at startup and reinstall the 98SE Service Pack to be sure most is the same as before. I also now have McAfee VirusScan 7.03 added to the equation. I'll use the control panel to stop it from running at startup and hopefully that's enough. I have no idea how it's going to react to the OS system file changes though. I need to use the 7.03 version on this old box because the new one I subscribe to slows this old box to a crawl so it's useless. The older, better designed way of VirusScan doesn't do that. I do turn off all logging so that alogserv thing doesn't run. Then I'll install 98SE2ME. When the modem can't be reenabled, I'll start replacing files in the order you instructed. I assume that when one set doesn't solve it, you want me to put back the files from 98SE2ME that I had replaced with the backed up older ones and then proceed to replace the next set of files with the older ones. Otherwise I'll be stuck with the older files when the new Me ones are fine! So I'll need to backup the said Me files before I overwrite them with the original 98SE ones. Ya know, every so often I'm getting a system crash and when I reboot the HP 3970 Scanner doesn't reset itself at the Windows splash and Windows then installs an Unknown Driver for it. To fix, I need to remove the Unknown Driver, unplug the scanner's USB from the computer, shut down, unplug the scanner's power, replug it and the USB connector and upon reboot the scanner driver is back but I need to reboot one more time for the scanner to properly reset itself at the Windows splash again. The scanner is brand new. I have installed it on my main box with XP (the A7V880), but hadn't had it installed for long before I unhooked that machine and started playing with this old thing. So I really don't know whether the scanner is a lemon, my 350Watt power supply on this box can't handle the thing, the known problematic SiS 7001 USB Controller on this board is losing things, the new updated files have a problem with this scanner, you name it. Or, my power strip has every outlet being used. Perhaps the thing gets overloaded and turns off the scanner's outlet. To find out I'd need to at least use my super duper computer for a while to see if everything stays normal. I would suspect the power strip but that may be fine, since Windows is detecting a device there, where if there was no power then this scanner is not detected even if pluged in. Okay, so I decided it's not that. I highly suspect the SiS7001 USB Controller as the culprit. Plus, the fact that the board has only USB 1.0 ports, not 1.1. Hmmm, perhaps 1.0 just wasn't completely stable, eh? Okay, I'm a gonna get to work now. If I fubar Windows completely with this I'm just going to give up. I'm already missing my speedy box! Hopefully I'll figure out the needed files for you so you can patch up 98SE2ME so it lets drivers like this modem's run properly. Don't know what's gonna happen though! I'll post back whatever occurs to let you know.

So, I boot into Command Prompt Only or an unfetterred Ms-Dos Mode and copy the files from the system backup made by 98SE2ME to the System folder, right? And when dos asks to overwrite the existing newer files (if Dos even mentions or knows they're newer), I say okay or Y (whatever it asks for)? I'm just so used to the GUI! The thing's running fine with what was left after undoing 98SE2ME. I almost hate to mess with it. Of course I'll let you know as soon as I do so you can not replace whichever files are needed for the use of at least this USB modem's drivers. I noticed first hand that some things are left updated when restoring 98SE's original files. Interesting. I hadn't read the readme for several versions of 98SE2ME but was still surprised to see the new MSCONFIG still here, as I had never ran the restore before. I don't understand why the new version is better for 98SE. If we're still using autoexec.bat and config.sys then why is it better to have an MSCONFIG that will prompt just once that it noticed the Path line there in the autoexec so it will move it to the registry. Then it won't notice any other change after the initial check. And it leaves out access to those files there. The old version lets folks edit them within itself instead of in the original files or Sysedit (though I never did. I never liked looking at stuff like "user edit" and "restore" there). But, really, it seems that the new one is made for WinMe where the config files aren't used and the environmental variables really are in the registry. As far as I can tell, whatever is in my autoexec and config files are the commands that are active, and not what the new MSCONFIG has entered in the registry as environmental variables. I don't know. It's late and tomorrow is another day. Perhaps I'll mess with it then. Geez, that old Riptide soundcard/modem sure plays my mp3's nice with my headphones. I wish the megabucks Audigy 2 ZS and M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sounded this good! I do need to use the EQ in WMP (no bass or treble with the Riptide), but once it's the way I like it it's all so much more of a balanced sound than any of those advanced soundcards. Of course, with this weak 366MHz AMD K6-2 processor that's all I can do at one time. The KT7A with 1.2GHz was, of course, somewhat better but the music still skipped when browsing. No internet browsing while listening to music or this machine slows to a crawl. It didn't do that with a dial-up connection, but broadband doesn't agree with it. The music will skip and browsing is impossible. But, just playing WMP is great (gotta turn off the visualizations, possibly because of the always connected internet. They don't move. They did when I used just the Riptide's modem and dial-up). The speaker out is powered, so it's like a built-in headphone amp too! The card and drivers are definately not up to snuff for the modern age with multi-speakers and the bandwidth demands of broadband internet. But it plays music cleaner than any modern card I've used (and I've used way too many of them -love music and soundcards). And it plays dos games in Windows and Dos-Mode (and doesn't need emm386 loaded like the SBLive does, though most of the time I use an exit to dos pif that uses that but also have one for stuff like Ultima where I can leave it out and it works). The dosgames that will run in Windows run with my autoexec and config files clean of anything except my path statement and that ZoneAlarm thing. Bass, highs, mid, it's all there! How come modern cards don't sound this good?

I think the Microsoft Police have kidnapped MDGx. They want to keep him locked away for two reasons. First, to stop him from making 9x so bug free and updated. The WMP10 installation batch file was the last straw. Second, they need him around to tell them how to get one guy to fix bugs in a day, when it's been taking a mult-billion dollar company months or years to patch up some stuff. Free MDGx!

MDGx, Hi. I set up my old SiS5598 board and found that my D-Link DCM202 Cable Modem has a problem with the USB drivers with the 98SE2ME installed. With no driver installed previously, Windows will not find a driver for it when directed to the folder with the USB driver. With the driver previously installed and working, the driver will show that it could not be started after 98SE2ME is installed. When updating the driver, it finds the files (one of which it asks for and I direct it to the folder with the files). When it asks if I should let it keep the newer (Me) versions I tell it to keep the newer versions, it asks to reboot, and it reboots to an unstarted driver same as before. If I tell it to replace the files with the older (98SE) ones, the same startup with an unstarted driver. No difference, except when I did that and it didn't work I removed the device and reinstalled 98SE2ME so I would have all the newer files back (just in case). I'm writing now because I removed the 98SE2ME (not the program, the actual 98SE Windows files restored with the restor.bat), plugged in the USB modem again and it works perfectly. I guess that's because all the files in the Windows directory are now as they were before installing 98SE2ME. Why doesn't the driver work with the Me files? You can see what they are, and take a look at the inf as well, by downloading it from the support area for the DCM-202 Cable Modem on the d-link.com website. It's the USB driver. The one posted is the same one as on the cd, but I used the downloaded one this time. I didn't want to wonder whether it was a problem with getting the driver files to transfer from the cd-rom drive. I extracted them all to a folder and at least that's one potential bug I know is not the problem. If you look at the inf and the files, do you think you can figure out why the newer OS files that Me has somehow don't let the driver work?

I know I have an old board that has problems with on-board video if I go past DirectX 8.0a. Now, when I actually was using the board as my main pc years ago this didn't matter as I usually got frustrated if wanting to play newer 3d games and would install a Voodoo 3 3000 PCI on it. Recently I played with the board in a larger case and found a Voodoo 5 5500 PCI or a Ge-Force 2 32MB MX400 PCI was even better! However, if desiring to perhaps install an ethernet card instead of a video card (only 2 PCI slots-one used by a combo audio/modem card - darned good card, the Riptide. Everyone hates it but me!) I would be hampered by anything over DirectX8.0a. It does have USB but it is version 1.0, not 1.1 so the internet was only slightly faster than dialup speeds with a cable modem! So, the ethernet connection would be more appropriate. This is because the SiS5598 will provide DirectX 3d software acceleration up through 8.0a, but anything over that and this support is removed. DxDiag will then report no Direct 3d acceleration available. Older 3d games are actually quite playable as long as all other programs are closed. But any later DirectX version and these games will not run! I wonder why this is, as Direct X 9.0c should be backwards compatible. But, there it is. The problem does exist. I wish there was a way to fix that, as the built in 4MB SiS video is pretty sufficient for most stuff if the Direct3d acceleration is there.

Heh, heh. I'm the opposite. I find old stuff I wasn't even a part of when it was out and have fun getting it to work today. I used that Calmira desktop back when I took my HD and partitioned it to 2G for Dos/Win3.1 and the rest for, at the time, the new Windows XP. I thought it was cool to apply what I learned from getting dos games to work on 98 to setting up an MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 partition. I used an SBLive with its dos drivers and found that I couldn't get Windows 3.1 to cooperate (or even install, or even boot after it was running if I did install the SBLive driver). I tried an SB16AWE card but I couldn't get the stupid Creative drivers to install. (Lot's of folks have felt that pain, even today!) I also had a Radeon 7500 at the time and found I couldn't get more than standard VGA out of it (no Win3.1 driver, the ones that came with Win3.1 didn't work with it). But I got Netscape 4.08 and Trumpet Winsock and an ISA modem (Abit KT7A had an ISA slot), and actually browsed around a bit on the net with it. I realized that wasn't the safest without a virusscanner or firewall, plus it looked crappy with the resolution and ancient browser. I also decided that 98 and its Dos, or XP with vdmsound and Dosbox, ran what I had for dos (games) better, so I nixed the partition. But hey, just recently I saw that the later CVS versions of Dosbox could run Windows 3.1. And I was able to download the actual S3 drivers for the videocard that Dosbox emulates, so I installed it and got nice 800x600 SVGA graphics! I tried installing Win3.1 Quicktime to get the old Carmen Sandiego game working, but something kept making it error out so it couldn't run. Both the Dos version and the newer Win3.1 version run in XP natively, so that's okay. The slightly newer 95 version is less annoying as it lets you advance without referring to an encyclopedia that comes with the old game and which I don't have. I had installed the Creative Soundblaster Pro drivers, software, and updates. I got the Microsoft Media stuff installed and was able to play cd's, wave's and midi's! Of course all my dos game stuff worked (that's what Dosbox does best). But I couldn't get Works 2.0 or 3.0 to install. It would error out when trying to copy the first file on the 2nd floppy. I tried copying the floppy's to a folder and installing from there but got the same problem. I just wanted to see what the old program looked like. I didn't bother with the net. Hey, I was doing this all on Windows XP. For the net I could close Dosbox and open my browser! Why bother? Plus, I don't think they have networking worked out for it. I didn't want Calmira that time since it was the first I'd seen of the actual Windows 3.1 desktop in all its SVGA glory and wanted to use that. However, after messing around in there I tried it just to see the new version of it. Pretty cool. I obviously have a blast with this 2nd Edition Service Pack and 98SE2ME stuff! I get amazed that many problems 98 gave me and everybody else for the years of its mass use now are solved with these 3rd party programs. I'm currently doing a project that'll take some time here on my XP box (probably a month), but I can't wait to get back to my 98 box and install Windows Media Player 10 on it! And perhaps I'll even fire up my SiS5598 board to see what WorksSuite 99 is like (I recently bought an OEM sealed and never used package with it). Since I have Suite 2005 and it's installed, I won't be putting that on these newer boxes but this way I can mess around with other old stuff on there and not fubar my current systems. The last time I messed around with my SiS5598 board I worked on getting DVD's to play using both a Voodoo 5 5500 PCI and a G-Force 2 MX400 32MB PCI. Well, they played but I wouldn't want to watch movies like that. I couldn't get them to play all in synch with sound and video. It tried, but it was struggling. The 366 MHz AMD K6-2 processor, 256MB SDRAM, and the 66MHz locked bus speed couldn't keep up. But it was fun trying. The older the player the better the movies looked. I went from PowerDVD6 to 5 to 4 and the best was 3.0! I wonder if I tried the WinDVD1.0 that I got free by mail by buying my Voodoo 3 3000PCI years ago whether that would have actually made the movies watchable. I didn't want to risk WinDVD installing a bunch of old system files that might reck the system. PowerDVD 3.0 was the oldest I wanted to go. It couldn't run them smooth. I didn't try the WinDVD 3.0 or 5.0 which came with the G-Force either. (I just like PowerDVD. I'm used to it, and have heard it uses less resources to run than WinDVD.) I also tried different video driver versions for the G-Force but that made no difference. The Voodoo 5 did it better (it has 64MB which probably helped), but not good enough. Older games played nicely though! See? The latest and newest stuff turns some folks on, and historical research works for others. Too bad work gets in the way! Not enough time to play.

You're going to laugh but I actually printed that out. You sure are thorough, no matter the subject! Now I've got a checklist of good stuff to check out. Thanks! I'll see how many Netflix has available. (No, you don't need to make another guide for that. I can handle searching Netflix. I'm trying to save you some work here.)

Yeah, The Matrix was great. And Hayden Christensen's style was perhaps what George Lucas wanted? Whatever. I won't argue. The films work and Lucas has gazillions to prove it. Star Trek TOS and movies and Star Trek TNG and movies are great stuff, and even Deep Space 9 and the last season of Enterprise are quality sci-fi, but not quite Roddenberry's Star Trek. I wonder what the movies and child series would have been like if Gene would have still been young enough to want to force his continued creative control? We saw some of it in Star Trek The Motion Picture and the first season to STTNG. Those were actually more like the original series than anything that followed, but out modern society enjoys more militeristic violence and sex in their entertainment than folks who grew up in Roddenberry's era preferred. Although Gene never discouraged Bill Thiess's costumes (what costumes?) on the guest actresses on TOS! Alright, enough of this before we get put into a home for sci-fi, computer nerds. Besides, have you seen the starwars.com forums? Plenty of stuff there for this kind of thing. Back to gadget, software tinkering!

Staying on topic doesn't apply. Yeah, man I love those flicks. 3, 5, 4, 6, 1, 2 is my order of preference. I went first to a Friday matinee with some friends, then to a Monday matinee myself. I'll try to hold off now for the eventual DVD but that'll be hard since you see it's my favorite. It was nice to have only a few people in the theatre since they were weekday afternoon's. I had a hard enough time getting my friends to shut up! Monday was nice and absorbing by myself and just a few like minded moviegoer's in the audience. I also enjoyed 1 and 2, only something has to finish last! The three best acting roles have got to be Palpitine, R2D2, and Darth Vader (costumed). That little guy in the R2D2 contraption always plays the hero! Best acting jobs were Ian McDiarmid and Harrison Ford. Han Solo was such a cool character. I don't know. Between Lord Of the Rings and Star Wars I hardly feel the urge to watch anything else! (Is there anything else?) Just kidding. But these 2 masterpieces are hard to beat. And as far as the goofy, silly parts in the 1st 2 SW films, life is full of goofy sillyness at times. There's a Jar-Jar in every crowd. Kind of wish he wasn't so gullable as to fall right in to giving Palpitine exactly what he wanted, but even the Jedi were fooled by him. Kind of liked the suspicious look Yoda gave him in the meeting where Obi-Wan was assigned to protect her in 2 though. He noticed that Palpitine knew exactly what Padme was going to say, word for word. Force like premonition, eh?

Just try different stuff. I thought that's what I did. I guess there are some things you can't learn from a Jedi. Thanks, Darth MDGx. Sorcery man, that's Windows Sith stuff. See the movie yet?

Thanks for the heads up. Thankfully I have established good habits when installing programs to make sure stuff like that isn't given carte blanch by me. I then peruse the program's preferences so it is setup for my conveniance and not marketers! Yeah, Quicktime and RealPlayer need a lot of work in that vein to ensure that I'm using them and not the other way around. But, I'm pretty much free of sneaky stuff like that. Keep Spybot updated as well. I've got a cousin who likes as much infestation on her computer as possible. Her desktop doesn't have room for any more icons (which probably concerns her). Her system tray doesn't leave room for open programs on the task bar. Her favorite games are ones that stay on all the time in the background reporting her every move on the computer to all kinds of places. She hates the way she had all sorts of problems when she let darned Microsoft install that pesky Service Pack 2. (She needed to reinstall her favorite spyware!) She pays McAfee for SpamBlocker, yet mainly uses Yahoo and Outlook Express for the thousands of emails she receives daily and loves to save forever. She claims not to be able to afford a VirusScanner. She won't install a free one since she already has McAfee there and might as well wait until she's ready to buy their's. She won't let anyone get rid of her crap. Um, when she calls with a problem I usually say that I have no idea what might have caused it. I tell her to see if someone else can help. (Sorry, everybody else.) I would be concerned with her posting here for help, but I think she would much prefer one of those terrific "Windows Optimizers and Fixers!" that keep popping up on her screen and will never leave unless she downloads them. He, he! But ya know, she never tried AOL. How could she possibly have missed that?

Umm, Gag, Cough. All that and never formatted? I am not worthy!!! I am not worthy!!! Yeah but, what about after you updated to Windows Me? Um (still gaging in respectful shock), didn't you need to format when you went back to 98SE? Are you saying you also successfully uninstalled Windows Me? And you now have installed all these updates to 98SE and everything still runs great? If so, you are a Windows G_D!

Wow, that was fast! It must have been easier to change the inf than I thought. Well, I downloaded and will store it on a cdr but will await the next update before running it again. I already have installed the update that has all the other additions mentioned. No need to double fix pinball!

Thanks. Yes, I do that. I just mentioned that not only will I turn them off, I'll also not let them run at startup. That's what I've been doing lately and it's been going smooth! I just replied to someone asking whether they should use msconfig for this and I replied that I'd rather leave that alone and just disable them running at startup by the individual program's properties. I'd rather not mess with msconfig as I think that's one of the programs updated. I then just close out the other stuff from the Close Program box. Did I advise well? I've found most folks advise just using msconfig for troubleshooting, and not for preventing installed programs from starting up permanently. In fact, some programs will add themselves back in and mess up things with double entries. I'd rather find the options within the program's. Of course, if someone had stuff in autoexec.bat and config.sys, that I can see REMing out temporarily.

Jeez, isn't that kind've mean? I mean, that's cold man! The guy isn't asking whether he should upgrade his operating system. He's just trying to get the stuff he has to work right. And, he mentions his disability and then you diss him like that's why he won't upgrade? This whole forum helps folks who actually prefer 9x to be able to use it with modern hardware. And, guess what? With the patch's it's quite secure and runs quicker and less buggy than NT. And, there's nothing wrong with running legacy software on OS's they're designed for either. Most new stuff runs just fine too. I've got XP. Guess what I'm using? Windows 98SE. Regardless, the reference made to the fella's disability was sick and rude.

MDGx, I just saw your reply in the Service Pack forum to my problems with the USB Cable Modem drivers. The only way for me to test that again would be to either muck around with my current, working great on ethernet, system, or to switch motherboards in my older (currently KT7A) box back to the Asus SPAX-M SiS5598 board (made for HP Pavilion 4430 and 4440) and reinstall all the stuff to duplicate what happened to it that time. Uhh, nobody else has had any problems with USB Modem drivers? It's really not that I don't want to help! But I'm just starting to install some games and have some fun with my new A7V333. Just don't want to tinker right now. I'm sorry that I posted in the other area, too. I just didn't know which program might have caused the problem. I do know that Windows wouldn't let me install the driver, and that it did install properly previously when I hadn't run these updates. And that Windows Me driver signing check bit me when I tried installing the unsigned Creative 383 Audigy 2 drivers on my SB0224 SBLive 5.1. It greyed out the Advanced button where you'd check "Warn" instead of "Prevent" unsigned drivers. The official cd with unsigned 252's installed fine and let me click the Advanced button and select "Warn." However, unlike on Windows Me, it doesn't seem to remember it for future installs. (I had to click "Advanced" and do that for another driver later.) It's all okay though. I'm satisfied with the official drivers and software. Whenever I try and see what the hoopla over alternate drivers for the Creative stuff is (like at Driver Heaven) I usually find that what the manufacturer offers winds up to be the least buggy way to go. Sounds fine, too. I've been reading your website for years and find it amazing! Nearly everything anyone would ever want to know about running and optimizing any kind of Windows is on that website! (Johnny Carson couldn't argue that.)

Lilla, I don't know if the programmers are gonna get back to you but I'll give you my 2 cents. I'd rather not mess with msconfig, as that's one of the things updated. I've taken to disabling the Ethernet card in Device Manager, telling ZoneAlarm not to load on startup, and unchecking all the options in McAfee VirusScan. Then I reboot and use the Close Program box (ctrl-alt-delete) to close out the rest except for Explorer and Systray. Works for me!

All Right! New version installed, no problems. I do want to mention something. Each time I reinstall, I've got to go to the Space Cadet Pinball's right click Properties menu and put "C:\WINDOWS\PINBALL" in the "Start in" box. This is to fix the bug in the Windows Me version of Pinball that it won't play the music background when clicking "Music" in the drop down options menu. I don't think it's necessary to take the trouble to figure out how to fix this when it installs as part of 98SE2ME since it's so easy to fix by the user. However, perhaps the readme can make mention of the fix. Some folks new to Windows Pinball might be wondering why they can't get the music to play. (The sound effects always work fine, but the backgroung music is cool!) I think you mention this somewhere in your website, and Microsoft has a KB article explaining the fix, but perhaps a short comment on how to fix it would be helpful to folks just reading the 98SE2ME readme. Ya know, the improved version of the game in Maxi's Full Tilt! Pinball (also on the Pinball Madness cd) includes a seperate track that plays whenever you reach a goal. No reason to bring it up other than it sounds cool to be rewarded with more music when reaching a goal. If anyone reading this has that stand alone version, the other tables game music is fixed by lowering the audio hardware acceleration to basic in your Sound and Audio or Multimedia Properties applet in Windows Control Panel. It is midi music, so it also helps to have something other than Microsoft midi installed. A lot of modern cards leave this out. Anything Creative and you're all set. Otherwise, Yamaha SYXG-50 or WinGroove will do it. WinGroove is easier to get these days. Just pay the guy, will ya? I can't stand people using cracks when that guy worked out a complete midi driver that even runs on XP (with the beta version). And, even on 9x, use the Beta. It's really the final, with a bunch of fixes.

wizy, All uninstalling the 98SE2ME does is empty the program's directory. This does not undo any of the enhancments made to Windows. So, in my view, this is a good thing to do before installing a newer version (of almost anything, not just this). Note that between the time you have uninstalled 98SE2ME and reinstalled the newer version, you will not be able to restore the backup Windows folder of original Windows files. So, for that brief time (what, a minute?) you will not be able to restore your system to the way it was before you ran 98SE2ME.pif the first time. Ehh? I'll live dangerously for a minute. Once the new one is installed fresh like this, you can be sure that none of the older version's files will be used since you uninstalled them. Now, an install over the top will usually be fine as well, but this just ensures that no older things can conflict with the latest release. MDGx, Already, new changes? Okay, it only takes a few minutes. Heh, heh. One of the advantages of using my Voodoo 5 5500 was not having to install a new Catalyst driver every month. But, then again, new drivers that fix stuff and make things go better is a good thing. Just, a tiny bit annoying. But, don't take that seriously. I love it. Thanks.

MDGx, Thanks for the fast fix. I'll download it just in case, but they'll probably be even newer versions of 98SE2ME before I destroy Windows again somehow. Heh, heh. If that's the only change for now, I'll await the newer releases before installing it over itself again. (Hopefully on THIS system.) It's all running great at the moment.

Heh. On my really old first computer, an HP Pavilion 4430, the HP restore disk image has Windows 98 (Gold) installed in ACPI mode, but if Windows is installed fresh with a real cd I needed to use the setup /p j. Otherwise Windows installs as standard computer with APM. I wouldn't have minded, but without ACPI that machine wouldn't detect any USB devices if I installed a PCI videocard. ACPI is good.

Wow, I lost track of this thread in my travels. erpdude8, I actually make it through the MDAC installs fine, then if I update with the 98SE Service pack and 982ME I can no longer boot into Windows as ZoneAlarm fubarred the registry. If per chance we get a pack from Maximus-decim, I'll try it and disable the Ethernet and ZoneAlarm while doing the other updates. In fact, I no longer just turn ZoneAlarm off for the Service Pack and 98SE2ME. I now disable the Ethernet and ZoneAlarm at startup before running those updates. Perhaps I'll be alright by doing that for the MDAC stuff. I was essentially doing it by your order, as well. Don't like that Windows being destroyed stuff!