Eck

I just needed to reinstall it again after the 2.0.1 service pack, and since its the same version of 98SE2ME I didn't uninstall anything first. Same problem. I had to cut and paste the batch line in autoexec from the end of the last line to its own line. As before, then it worked. Something weird about my autoexec.bat? SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\PROGRA~1\WIN98RK;C:\PROGRA~1\ATITEC~1\ATICON~1;C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\ULEADS~1\MPEG;C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\ULEADS~1\DVD Set tvdumpflags=10 SET CLASSPATH="C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_02\lib\ext\QTJava.zip" SET QTJAVA="C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_02\lib\ext\QTJava.zip" The tvdumpflags is something ZoneAlarm puts there. And, yeah, I just noticed there's a new java (1.5.0.03). Downloaded. Now I need to freakin uninstall Quicktime and Java, and delete the remaining file containing that QTjava thing (the Java folder, the rest is left empty), and reinstall both otherwise Quicktime wont find Java properly. (Britannica uses it.)

PsycoUnc, I didn't uninstall the fixes, just the program. That just empties the 98SE2ME files in the folder, but the Windows system files aren't touched. This way when I install the new 98SE2ME, there's no chance of older files being used since they're gone. To revert Windows files back you gotta run that batch file from a dos-mode command prompt before uninstalling 98SE2ME. It was weird the way it put the IF EXIST line at the end of the last line in my autoexec.bat instead of on its own line. When I finally got it running by cutting and pasting it to the right place on its own line, the only files system file checker reported as changed (I've got it set to report changed and deleated files in the options) were the latest additions. But all the other changes from before aren't touched. (Well, I supposed the same versions are copied over themselves.)

MDGx, Great stuff and thanks! I just wanted to report a problem I had. I had just finished setting up my new system and had installed 98SE2ME from 5-14, the bugless edition! Coming here to browse around as usual, I noticed today's update. Not knowing exactly what to do, I uninstalled 98SE2ME from your shortcut and reinstalled the new one. It ran fine and rebooted, but nothing appeared at startup and none of the changes were made. I rebooted again and noticed that your line in autoexec.bat "IF EXIST..." was placed at the end of the "Set qtjava..." line instead of on its own line. I cut and pasted it in sysedit to its own line, rebooted, and then I got the "7 hundred some odd files copied with 0 errors" at bootup. Upon checking autoexec.bat, the "IF EXIST..." line had been removed properly as well. Now, when running System File Checker, the changes of files occured as advertised in the readme. So, I had repaired the operation myself but just wanted you to know what had happened. Some folks will think the update installed and might not even notice nothing had installed and might wonder about the "IF EXIST..." line sitting there at bootup at the end of another line's command.

Did you do the Windows Updates? The first thing it installs is a patch that fixes bugs in System Restore. Without that patch it won't work.

azagahl, Does your board let you have full Ms-Dos Mode use? I mean, with good real, extended and expanded memory available (if you set it for it)? I ask, because on my Asus A7V880, Athlon 3200+, first I needed to ditch my Maxtor Sata drive and turn off the Sata Boot Rom in the Bios to get himem.sys to load without "unable to control line A20" showing up. It wouldn't do that normally, just if I put the dos memory optimizations in the config.sys for himem, dos=high,umb and emm386 RAM. And also if I did that on a boot disc. Either way I couldn't get a tiny bit of conv. or expanded memory until I used a regular IDE drive. It also, even with the IDE drive where that problem went away, could not get the SBLive Dos Mode driver to be recognized by sbego or games. They couldn't find the IRQ it was on even when the driver was successfully loaded on 220 7 1 and I could hear the microphone working. I talked with Asus tech's on the phone and they told me the board doesn't let you use the required non-maskable interrupts that the SBLive dos driver needs. So, the board castraits Dos Mode. Yet they still say it's compatible with Windows 98SE! Heh, I don't call it compatible when something built in is not able to function! I ditched 98 on it and installed XP. Dosbox and vdmsound will suffice. I won't bother running a machine that doesn't allow all my dos games to still play. I'm almost ready (parts arriving daily!) to set up my new board! I picked up an Asus A7V333 Revision 2.0 and bought an AthlonXP 3000+ and 512MB Crucial 2700 DDR for it. And, I can reserve an IRQ for non-maskable interrupts with it! Yippie! Speedy for games and video encoding and still runs dos. The dream machine (unless the thing was destroyed by a previous owner.) I'll be finding out soon. Bought an Asus Radeon 9550GE for it. While I wait, I'm using my old Abit KT7A with a Voodoo 5 5500! 98 Rocks! So, what board do you have and do you bother with dos on it?

Petr, I sure wish I knew what caused the problem. All I do know is I can either use the Service Pack and 98SE2ME and do without updating MDAC, or I can update MDAC and do without the Service Pack and 98SE2ME. I choose to do without MDAC updates! I will however try Maximus's MDAC update whenever he finishes testing and posts it. Perhaps if someone who knows exactly what and in exactly what order the thing should be done I won't get the problem. I'm certain ZoneAlarm has something to do with it as well. I just don't know when exactly to prevent it from running at startup, except for after installing RealPlayer. Now, that's a definate disable the ethernet and uncheck ZoneAlarm's "run at startup" if ever there was! If I don't do that after installing and running RealPlayer for the first time, Windows is destroyed beyond repair upon restart. Only on 9x/Me, not XP. Computer bugs are weird.

On my A7V880, 98SE installed fine. It just needed to have first the Via 4-in1's then the Via Sata drivers to be installed as the first things to do after Windows is installed. Now, keep in mind that 137GB limit. I did have problems on my 250GB Sata drive. I wouldn't use a HD that big with 98. Find a 120GB one. That'll work perfectly. It doesn't matter if you only show Windows just a portion of the drive. It'll still get messed up and start losing data on a larger than 120GB drive. There is a company that has made a patch for this, but you need to buy the commercial version to get more than just a few more GB out of it. (Someone have a link if he wants that thing?) Also, this motherboard has a built in Sata boot rom that must be turned on and also chosen as the boot drive in the boot order. I take it your using an sata adapter instead? If it works like my built in one, you should be fine with a smaller HD. For XP, you DO need to have the driver on a floppy and hold down F6 when prompted to do so when Windows setup is loading. It won't ask for it right away, but as long as you held F6 down when asked, at some point after loading some setup files Windows will prompt you to press S to install the driver. I just need to choose the one for XP and setup copies the viasomething or other among the files it copies. Don't remove the floppy until Windows prompts you to remove all floppies before it is ready to reboot to begin its installation. Then, after you get the desktop, install your chipset drivers (4-in-1's for my board), reboot, then install the full Sata driver from its setup.exe. (You get the full package then.)

Gosh, I hope I'll be able to use it! I posted about what happens when I try to apply the MDAC myself. Windows is fubarred! Whatever the thing does (which I never understood, makes some stuff work better?) I'd of course like to be running the latest updated version. I'm afraid, I'm very afraid! Ha, Ha. Please test this thing in conjunction with the Service Pack and 98SE2ME if you can. It wouldn't hurt if you had either OfficeXP or Word2002 or (what I have) WorksSuite 2005 as well. I think that thing installs some of these files. Oh, and I usually have DotNet 1.1 with the latest dotnet service pack and Windows Update security update for it installed as well (so the DirectX 9.0c Managed directx update installs). The Managed DirectX makes audio/video access hardware better! I don't know if DotNet effects these MDAC things or not. Sometimes not allowing ZoneAlarm to run at startup after installing this stuff makes them register properly without recking Windows. It's just that I never really know when to deactivate it! I've gotta disable my ethernet first, then tell ZoneAlarm not to run at startup. Otherwise, some of the changes these files make confuse ZoneAlarm's processes and then ZoneAlarm destroys the registry! Unrecoverable with scanreg. (Well, it recovers, but still doesn't let Windows run.) Gotta format.

Heh, heh. It's kind of tricky to make operating system's happy , eh? As a matter of fact, when I was playing around with a really old (Sis5598) board I found that I couldn't install the USB D-Link DCM-202 cable modem driver once I had installed the service pack and the 98SE2ME. It wouldn't do it automatically after pointing out where the drivers were, as it kept telling me it couldn't find a driver there for it. When I tried forcing them on, at the point where it told me to choose the device for it it had a blank box instead of a list of devices! I couldn't proceed further, as it would pop up a message telling me that I must choose a device first. But, it wouldn't list any! If I install the driver before the service pack and 98SE2ME modifications, it installs fine. However it loses the driver after applying the service pack! But, in this case, I can update driver and, after pointing it to the right place, it will find all the correct stuff. It looks as though this particular driver at least must be installed early, before the service packs. Then, even though it loses it, it will find it again with a little help! The only reason I waited the first time was I accessed the internet through dialup first. Since I didn't have an available PCI slot on the old board I was trying to see if I could stand the dialup speed. Yuuch! I couldn't take it any longer. (I've got dialup as a backup for when Comcast goes down.) No slot for an ethernet card, but that modem also runs through USB. Driver only installs early, before service pack. What're the modifications doing to Windows driver installation processes? I mean, these updates (Service Pack, 98SE2ME) should only make things better, right? (And, they do actually. Thanks, thanks, thanks!) But, this is a little bug, isn't it? Do you think you'll be able to find out why driver stuff is having problems like this after these updates are used? I know it's too tough for me to figure out!

Yes, but make sure to uninstall Internet Explorer first if you've updated it (which I assume you have) from what came on your 98 cd. Otherwise you'll need to format, as things will be even more messed up. (Like, totally.) After you've reinstalled you can then reinstall Internet Explorer 6 SP1.

Gape, I'll be setting up a new system soon. I noticed your revised order and am confused. Surely I can't wait until the last step for motherboard chipset drivers, Ethernet/modem cards and drivers, etc. I mean, I don't think Windows would make it through step 4 without at least the motherboard drivers on there! Wouldn't you install the videocard drivers after installing DirectX? Previously I was installing Winzip and the motherboard chipset and via usb drivers first, then the Microsoft greater than 32GB HD's and fdisk patch's, then IE6SP1 (from the Microsoft cd by navigating to the setup file as the autorun doesn't work on the low, pre-video driver resolution). Then the Windows 98 Resource Kit and the vbrun pack. Then DirectX 9.0c, DotNet 1.1 and the dotnet service pack, the Managed DirectX update, my videocard drivers. Then the Microsoft JavaVM update. Then install all the Windows components from Add/Remove and the 98 Plus! Pack (just the fun stuff in the Plus! Pack, no utilities). Then Client For Microsoft Networks, but choose Windows Logon. Then the Microsoft WDM Audio and USB patch's. Then I would install a soundcard and drivers. Then I would uninstall cdplayer. Next install WMP 7.1, the encoder and WMP Bonus Pack, a modem and drivers, my ethernet card and drivers (but hold off on pluging in the cable modem). My printer and drivers, and scanner and drivers. Then the fax software. WorksSuite was next. Then WMP 9. Then the 98SE Service Pack. Then ZoneAlarm. Connect the net and register everything and do the Windows Updates. Then do the 98SE2ME pack. Then the native USB thing. Done. (Except for Firefox, Thunderbird, brower plugins, McAfee VirusScan, mp3's, games!) How can one get to the net in step 8 before installing the hardware and drivers? I don't understand that change. Also, I know the Service Pack includes the 32GB HD, WDM and USB patch's but I install the 32GB patch in case ScanDisk decides to run on its own (usually doesn't but you never can be too careful!), and the audio/usb stuff is good to install before your audio drivers even if using the vxd version. Especially for the Creative SbLive software. Their newer cd's install them as part of the setup (but don't tell you) if you install the wdm's, but sometimes I copy the cd to the hard drive and change the Audio.ini to install the vxd's by default (better dos support) and in that case Creative doesn't run the patch's. It needs the usb patch for PlayCenter to work right. And even the Santa Cruz wdm's need the wdm patch on before installing the drivers. How does my order sound? And please explain what is mean't by moving the hardware drivers to last in your list. I don't understand how that is possible.

Thanks for the links! I already had them though. Messing with MDAC made my system go nuts however. I think I'll stick to the Service Pack and 98SE2ME. I like the "duh, press this and your system will be automagically updated!" I used to apply them all manually in when I had dialup to save time. This is so much more complete and easier. It's possible that between whatever WorksSuite2005 installs (it has Word2002, so it contains some parts of Office and perhaps MDAC), and my installing the MDAC's manually, confused the registry. Or perhaps ZoneAlarm is the culprit. I don't know, but if that thing is running at startup after certain installs Windows registry is trashed. I just bought an OEM never opened version of WorksSuite 99 (with the licence). I downloaded the service packs for it from Microsoft. I bought it because I first learned to do stuff on Works 4.5a. I kind of liked that layout, but still wanted access to Word. On my next install I may forgo installing the newer version. I've already installed and activated Suite 2005 on 2 different computers about 6 times. Microsoft may lock me out soon. I'd like to keep that for my XP computer. I'd hate to lose access to something I paid so much for just messing around with my computers! I only use one computer at a time, but that activation system doesn't know that.

He meant the file size limit is 4GB, not the partition size. So, for large DVD's the file must be split or there will be corruption.

Just to report on the MDAC thing and the other problems I brought up. Heh. It seems that ZoneAlarm can fubar things if it doesn't recognize certain things have changed. I just went through fully installing 98 and the service pack on my KT7A. Right now, it's all up and running along with the 98SE2ME as well! But...what it took to get here! First, I suspected the IDE's on the 2 SiS5598 boards were both from some kind of bad batch. Every cd drive I tried would have the poor file transfer and no digital problem. However, I discovered that I got the same problem on the KT7A. What the? Heh. In all these cases I had been trusting Adaptec's official ASPI installer with their latest offering. Big mistake! All the drive's needed to get them working was ForceASPI 1.7. Well, with a little help. I needed to go to command prompt only to copy one of the files (wnaspi32.dll I think). Windows was protecting the thing. Or..I might of just let the service pack do it but at that point I had already installed it. I didn't want to run into the problem of the service pack not being able to find its extracted files if it's being reinstalled. On that same point, I noticed installing Quicktime 2.0.8 (don't ask, I have an old game that needs that), that it replaced Explorer.exe with another version and I lost only the My Computer icon. I just extracted the service pack, then the cab file in there, and went to the command prompt only to copy the service pack's explorer.exe back to Windows/System. This also had the cool effect of restoring the neat "Windows98SecondEdition" to the side of the Start button popup that 98SE2ME always removes. (It returns it to the original light blue "Windows98.") A little playing between 98's Theme manager and Display Panel's Effects panel (Large icons, then back to normal) and I was back in business. (The old Quicktime had messed with the shortcut arrow's on the icon's as well.) Okay, ZoneAlarm. I had gotten all the way through installing WorksSuite2005. My next step would have been installing the service pack. However the reboot from the Works install brought back the destroyed Windows. What? The same darned thing happens after RealPlayer installs. If I don't follow installing RealPlayer with disabling the Ethernet and telling ZoneAlarm not to run at Startup, the reboot will be fatal for Windows. If I don't have ZoneAlarm startup with Windows (I disable the internet only because the firewall won't be there), then the restarts work fine. I can then turn ZoneAlarm on from the Start Menu, reenable the Ethernet card and reboot and everything is fine. Mind you, this is not a problem on Windows XP. It's just the combination of ZoneAlarm and Windows 98. I sure wish I knew all the program's that may just cause ZoneAlarm to fubar Windows98 startup. I now know of RealPlayer and WorksSuite (which contains system updates that apparently confuse ZoneAlarm). And, apparently MDAC stuff in combination with the 98SEServicePack. (There, it's in caps-I forget sometimes.) So, I don't know if there's anything you could change in the Service Pack. There's usually some cryptic message including one of ZoneAlarm's files that says it can't start it while the destroyed Windows is frantically (and, heroic like) trying to recover itself from being raped by ZoneAlarm. Well, I put 2 and 2 together and this time turned the internet off and had ZoneAlarm not load at startup after anything I guessed might hiccup ZoneAlarm. This included WorksSuite, the Service Pack, the 98SE2ME, and of course I turned the thing off after loading Real Player! Breezing, listening to an mp3 of Evelyn King as I type. Cd's play fine. (Stupid Adaptec!) The SBLive gives me DOS. 98 is running smooth as silk. I'm kind of happy about putting the KT7A in. The SiS board is nice, but while it may be good to be slow for DOS, it's really annoying for DVD stuff (and other new type things that use processor cycles). And, those darned ISA ports that won't produce audio mess up my plan to use the SB16 on it anyway. The Riptide doesn't compare to what the SBLive can do, especially with the old vxd drivers. These are from the last cd they made with the SB16 stuff in device manager. (It came with the SB0100.) All the old bugs had been worked out, and the audio quality is like what users of the KxDriver Project drivers get. They max the card's abilities. The only annoyance now is that I know VCD mpeg encoding takes like double the time that my Asus A7V880 does. I know. I did it this way for years on this board. I was astounded at how the AthlonXP3200 zipped through things. I guess I can swap boxes and unplug, plugin all the wires for doing that stuff. The system is intact. Didn't rape it to set these others up. I just gotta plug it in and rip! Thanks so much for these Service Packs, yours and the 98SE2ME project. Microsoft would have users call up and pay for all these hotfixes you've got here, bringing 98 up to date and fully functional. I was really afraid there that I would need to only use the official Microsoft channels and knew I wouldn't get all that the OS needs that way. I'm a happy troubleshooter! (It's a pain in the butt to figure out though!)

I just got back from experimenting with an older board. Nice kb article, but usually one would rather install from scratch again than deal with restoring a registry built before thousands of system files and program installations were done. Besides, Windows kept restoring a the registry backup I had made before doing the service pack and it didn't help as the same loop of errors occured. I follow the order in your guide, so yes IE6SP1 was there. Interesting that it installs an MDAC. However, as I said, when I used to let the old Windows Security Cd install MDAC 2.8 the service pack would hiccup my system the same way. Personnally, I'd rather keep the service pack and forget about MDAC. I could never figure out what that thing does anyway. Just a bunch of cryptic items in the Control Panel. I figured they did something good so I might as well have the latest version. I'll leave that alone from now on. I did like to install the older versions first because then you'd get Jet (whatever that is). Just trying to use the most up to date files of stuff on the system since I figure they must fix bugs and support more features. I hate when they break Windows though. The older board experiment I just did went okay, but 2 things made me come running back to my spanking new box tonight. First, the 2 ISA ports had never been able to send audio from an ISA soundcard to my speakers. I bought a new board of the exact same and it also wouldn't let me use the SB16WaveEffects I have. (The card works fine on the single ISA slot of my Abit KT7A. I guess it's a SiS 5598 design flaw. The board is an ASUS SPAX-M from the HP Pavilion 4430, 4440 boxes. The second problem was that my relatively new Liteon combo drive that works fine on my original Pavilion 4430 (same model board), as well as my KT7A, had serious problems on this SPAX-M board. The HP BIOS was the same last 1.04 version as my other one. I reinstalled Windows twice, tried using a both a 40 pin and 80 pin cable, tried setting it to Master instead of Cable Select, tried uninstalling it from Device Manager. It was real sluggish in moving data files to the hard drive, at times freezing but would recover if I waited (like 10 minutes). Then, once I got to the point of testing music WMP couldn't play cd's whether digital or analog extraction was used. The files would show in Explorer. I could move them to the hard drive. But no playing them from the cd. Although the properties page would open in Device Manager, clicking properties in WMP in options\devices resulted in the window just blinking at me as if it tried to open it but there wasn't anything there. Besides those things the board is pretty peppy with 256MB memory and a 366MHz K6-2. I just stuck the old Riptide Audio/Modem thing in there as that gives good Dos gaming and is fine on all 9x OS's. The only ways to test would be to replace the cd-rw/dvd-rom with an old cd-rw I have to see if the board behave nice with that one, then put the combo drive into a different computer again to see if it really is a dying (really quite new) drive. I was just really tired of all this and wanted to get back here and other places to see what was doing, and just relax a bit. I'll save system building for another day. I hope I don't have a dead cd/dvd drive though. I've got to replace a HD and install Windows for a friend this week. Jeez I'm sick of that at the moment!

Hey, On either of the computers that I have used whatever service pack was the latest at the time (recently SP2 RC3), I have had Windows die after MDAC 2.8 and the service pack were on the system together. It didn't matter which one was installed first. As soon as both happened to be installed, then I rebooted, I would get this: WINDOWS Invalid VxD dynamic link call from VWIN32(01) + 00000714 to device "0009" , service 1 Your Windows configuration is invalid. Run the Windows Setup program again to correct this problem. To continue running Windows press Y or ENTER To quit the current program press N. If you continue running Windows, your system may become unstable. Do you want to continue? Press Y for Yes or N for No: Y If I press Y, it loads a buch of IRQ holder for PCI IRQ steering's then it stops, needing a CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot. It reboots to Scandisk, then it runs Registry Checker and replaces the registry, then, at reboot, I get: WINDOWS NETWORKING The following error occured while loading the device VNETSUP Error 6101: The string specified by the COMPUTER NAME Keyword was not found. Then it repeats it all again. If I press N for No instead, it just shuts down the computer. When I boot up, it goes through the whole process again. Now, if I don't install MDAC 2.8, everything runs great! I used to think it was installing the old Microsoft Security Updates cd that screwed up the service pack. I haven't touched that in the longest time (unneeded with the service pack, 982ME, and Windows Update!). But I now see that the thing it has in common with this latest crash is MDAC 2.8. I should tell you what I did. Following mostly the guide to the order of installation in the stickied link, just before running the service pack I thought I might as well update MDAC. I installed MDAC 2.5, rebooted, installed the Jet Service Pack, rebooted, installed MDAC 2.6, rebooted, installed MDAC 2.8 and rebooted. So far, everything is going fine. I then rebooted again before installing the Service Pack 2.0 RC3. It installed completely without any errors and I rebooted. To the errors listed above! Goodbye Windows! Has anyone else experience this? Without my messing with MDAC I can run the Service Pack and 982ME and life is great. Any installing of MDAC 2.8 and Windows dies.

You know, that's the same problem that happened to me on the last Windows install (the new drop down missing). I couldn't fix it, even with help from folks here. When I reinstalled again and applied the service pack and 98SE2ME, the problem did not return. I don't know why it happened the first time.

Hey, I just fired up my old KT7A with the T-Bird 1.2 266 just to enjoy the pleasure of some nostalgic Ms-Dos Mode gaming (and the 98SESP2RC2 with 98SE2ME!). Sure, I can use Dosbox and vdmsound on my Asus A7V880, but it's kind of cool to use my ol' Voodoo 5 5500 and 98. Has anyone tried Ms-Dos Mode on modern boards? I mean, even 98's boot up screen warns that himem.sys cannot access A20. If I go to dos mode I get a tiny memory area for conventional memory and the SBLive dos driver loads, but doesn't fully. The Sbego test figures out what interrupts are being used as some weird numbers (even though the initial dos screen showed it loaded to 220-7-1-5). And the tests won't play sound. It's like what happens on boards without non-maskable interrupts. I have one game that'll play anyway so apparently the settings are correct but most games won't find enough memory space or where the audio card is. I tried a boot disk but that memory space problem and sound problem is exactly the same. I mean, 98'll run fine on the board and so will the Dosbox program, but where's the fun? I want to use dos mode. I've read somewhere that newer boards use dos memory space for all the extra on-board goodies (LAN, Audio, etc). What I'm asking is whether there are any BIOS settings to turn off that stuff so dos memory will work normally? I know I can turn off the on-board audio and LAN and just use PCI cards, but this doesn't change what goes on when booting to dos. What can change that? I'd like to use my new expensive board, but still want some old legacy fun. Not possible?

Thanks Tihiy, but that didn't do it. I have Create Shortcut, Delete, Rename, and Properties on the top section of the File dropdown, then My Documents is checked (I'm using that folder as an example) then Work Offline and Close. There's no "New" section anymore. This is a computer I'm just playin' around in. It's my old HP Pavilion 4430. Maybe Windows is fubar'd by my changing of video drivers 3 times on a G-Force 2 MX 400 32MB PCI, then switching to a Voodoo 3 3000 PCI. I'm trying to get the thing to perform at least as well as it used to when it was my main system. Plus, I added a Lite-on Cdrw/DVD-ROM Combo drive, a WD SE 80GB HD and up'd the power supply to 200 from the original 90. It's a SiS 5598 board notorius for slow performance on its locked 66MHz Bus, but I up'd the processor from the original K6-2/300 to the 366MHz one (the max it can take). I just needed to change the multiplier jumper and the new processor works fine. Oh, and I up'd the memory to 256MB long ago. The system doesn't seem to like WMP's visualizations. The DVD's were horrible with PowerDVD 5, so I went back to PowerDVD 3.0 and it's better. However I couldn't stand the motion blur and the struggle it seemed to have keeping up with the lip synch. So I've switched to the 3dfx as I figure that uses less system resources to run than the G-Force. I had thought the faster card (the G-Force) would be better, but we'll see. I'm about to test the Voodoo with DVD. I wanted to fix this first, but if the system is fubar'd I'll just see about the DVD and reinstall a retail 98SE rather than updating the HP recovery 98 Gold version as I had done this time. I've got all the drivers and software for this thing, so no worries. Darn it though. I've run Everest and the performance of this box is pitiful. I don't remember it being this bad. But then, it was my first computer and I've now built my own 2 others. I've gotten used to much better hardware. Edit: Well, the DVD's are different. They have that "Voodoo" image quality. However the lip synch is worse although the motion blur is gone. Still not really watchable. Maybe the worst I can take as a 98/DOS system is my KT7A. The A7V880 is useless for MS-DOS Mode as the onboard stuff usurps HiMem's memory allocation. That'll be just for XP. This ASUS SPAX-M board is too slow to not annoy me. But hey, I'll be able to use my Voodoo 5 5500 AGP again with the KT7A! Whopee! Weird Explorer bug, eh?

How can I fix the Explorer Toolbar's File dropdown menu to get back the "New" menu? You know. The one that lets you create a new folder, shortcut, file, etc. It's not there anymore. I tried looking in TweakUI for a repair. I also reinstalled 98SESP2.0RC2 and the latest 98SE2ME. No change. The choice exists while in Word but not in any Windows Explorer window.

I think the problem was interference from my Saitek GamePad P-880 drivers. I've noticed they're problematic in 98. Xp runs them fine, but the 98 Saitek driver will freeze the system when attempting to access the About tab in the Saitek game controller properties. They apparently hog the USB bus somehow as well. Using my old Sidewinder GamePad with the controller software version 3.02 causes no havoc. I only got the Saitek to play MVP Baseball 2004. I like the old Microsoft Baseball 2001 better anyway, so the controller is no loss. I hate complicated games which use too many buttons! Give me the old NES up, down, left, right, A, B, Start, Select and I'm happy. More just complicates things. My fingers are too spastic. I've got the service pack and the 982ME running great. I'm a little surprised no one at least gave the problem a shot. Perhaps no one felt it was related to anything the updates do, but I didn't know that.

Nope, I still can't print even without the Quicklink fax printer in there. (So I reinstalled the thing.) This is a fresh 98 install following Gape's suggested order. I don't get it. Everything shows proper until I try to print.

I'm not sure whether to put the blame on the 98SESP2.0RC1 or Windows Update. After downloading and installing all the language updates from WU as the last of the updates after installing Gape's SP, I noticed that a little icon would appear in the systray when opening an explorer window or IE. It gives access to the different regional languages installed by WU. I don't even know why I downloaded them as I usually don't, but I figured it would be nice to see actual languages rather than question marks when browsing. Even though the keyboard setting screen the icon brings up has a box to use the tray service icon or not, this box is greyed out so I can't change it. Well, I thought "that's nice." thinking it wouldn't cause any problems. I proceeded to install the 982ME.EXE. When I tried to print the readme, the printer icon appeared in the systray but nothing printed. Eventually an error message reported that my printer was unable to access the port because it was in use. Going to the printer's folder, my printer no longer appeared. I rebooted to get it back in there, but any try at printing gave the same results. I reinstalled the printer driver and software, and the initial test page printed. However, subsequent tries to print anything bring the same port in use error. Device Manager shows nothing wrong. I figured I'd deal with this later and installed the 982ME batch to see what might happen. Nice Notepad! The Me Msconfig, Pinball, it's all good. Now, I no longer get the icon for the language. Perhaps some change brought about by the Me system files. But I still can't print. Maybe I'll try uninstalling the QuickLink III Fax software. I never had a problem with it being there before, as long as my printer was set to default.