Andromeda43

You really need to upgrade..... 98 is seriously crippled. The logical thing for you to do is upgrade to 98/SE and then install the UnOfficial Service pack 2. There is NO service pact for old original 98. What you should be using though is I.E. 6 SP1. You can get that from MS on a CD. That's the best way to install that.....I do it all the time for my customers. Then stop using I.E. all together and start using Mozilla Firefox 1.5. That's the best browser you're likely to find anywhere. Safer than I.E. and faster too, with a great pop-up blocker and super download manager. Good Luck, Andromeda

Got lots O them thar old thingys lyin' round. Wot ya willing to pay for one? OEM Install or Upgrade?

Some people show their ignorance every time they open their mouths. If MS had just fixed the little problems in 98SE, it could still be a very viable OS today and we sure wouldn't need XP on our home computers. It's a dang'd business system and should never have been installed on home computers in the first place. As it is, 98SE still has some serious glitches that were somewhat addressed in the Unofficial Service pack 2. But, for any of the older pre-XP computers, 98SE is still the best OS that ever came down the pike. I can still take an 8 yr old PC with 98 on it and improve its performance by at least 50% and usually more. Heck, put a SATA controller card in it, max out the ram and put in a 100gig+ SATA drive and I can make that old PC scream like a Banchee. To say that 98 was a DOS extension is, as far as I'm concerned, a Complement. I still use DOS today.....in fact Every DAY. And, I'm running XP-Pro+SP2. And I'm a professional tech. DOS aint dead,,,,,by NO means. If you're good at DOS, you can be good at just about anything. For three years I taught DOS here in the Community Education Dept. I LOVE IT! cheers Andromeda

Someone could probably write a program to do that.....but why? And how often do you think you need to sample that temperature? Many mobo's don't have monitors for the CPU temp anyway. So where ya gonna get the info? If you've got a good cpu fan and you've got the required amount of Heat Sink Grease between the CPU chip and the heat sink, and you can lay your finter up along side the CPU heatsink while it's running without hollering "Ouch", then you've got nothing to worry about. I've found that my right index finger is the best CPU temperature testor I've ever seen. I've been using it for years and it's never let me down yet. Good Luck, Andromeda43

There are many things that will screw up a burn. Having other programs open at the same time seems to be the worst of the bunch. Always shut down ALL running programs before you attempt to burn a CD. I use a program called "End It All 2" to perform that little task. If you want, you can download it yourself.....Here. Have you ever done a "test" burn with that drive and those CD's? Sony is supposed to be a good brand. Don't use it myself. But even the best brands can go bad. Drives as we've known them will soon be a thing of the past. I just bought a new LiteOn DVD burner with LightScribe, today, for just $59 usd. With the new Blue Ray drives going into full production soon, the old CD/DVD drives will soon dissappear from the store shelves. I tried Nero 7 but it refused to validate anything it wrote so I uninstalled it and went back to using ver 6.x. I'm sure it was just some quirk with my drive or my PC. A good friend uses Nero 7 and loves it. Good Luck, Andromeda43

There is NO voice recognition software that comes with the Generic version of Windows anything. Some old mfgrs used to add some to their computers before they shipped. But none of it was worth a crap and never found a real place in the world. You had to "train" it to recognize your own voice (just one person) and then if you went to use it one day that you had a little cold in your nose, it wouldn't recognize you at all. Even then you could dictate to it for ten minutes and then spend a half hour making corrections. The technology just ain't there yet. Maybe someday. :cheers: The Doctor (Andromeda43)

SP2? So we're supposed to know that you are running Windows XP something? Right? Would you please give us all the particulars about your computer, your OS, etc.??? You're just wasting our time here when you don't tell us all about your problem. For instance, did you do what every program tells you to do before installing? They all tell you to shut down every running program on your computer before starting to install new software. Close all browsers, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware programs. Have you cleaned the garbage out of your HD? Have you run chkdsk and Defrag lately? How about "Disk Cleanup" and a good registry cleaner, like MS's little "RegClean". There's just so many things that can muck up an install. Tell us more,,,,,so we can try to help you. That's why we're here,,,after all. :cheers: The Doctor (Andromeda43)

Windows handles all that stuff..... Why do you want to muck around with it? :cheers:

That sounds like an "opinion" from someone who's either never used Ghost or was too inept to use it to its fullest potential. Opinions, like the one quoted above, do nothing here but inflame. If you have any hard facts, please list them. That's what the original poster was asking for....not blind and inflamatory opinions. Cheers, Andromeda

In past years when Media Player x.x has gotten hosed and defied all attempts at a repair, I've installed WinAmp and solved the problem. WinAmp comes in three strengths. Each one requires more system resources to run than the lesser one. WinAmp Lite should run on just about any 'puter running 98 or better. I know it can be downloaded from sites on the internet. Good Luck, Andromeda

Again, for the umpteen thousandth time, Norton Ghost 2003. It can be run from within windows, or it can be run from a boot floppy or CD. (my personal favorite method) It can read FAT-32 or NTFS hard drives with equal ease and burn a compressed Image file to a second HD partition, a Second HD or directly to a CD or DVD. It will span multiple disks when required. When you boot up with a Ghost boot floppy and select to burn the image file to a DVD (for instance) the program will ask you if you want to copy the boot floppy to the DVD as a boot sector for the DVD. That gives you a bootable restore DVD or CD that rivals anything put out by any of the big named boxes. You can buy it from many sources on the internet for less than $7 usd. Some more info about your system and OS would be helpfull here. Good Luck, Andromeda43

Well, the microphone wasn't meant for that. There have been several Voice Recognition software packages including one from IBM. They were really BAD and I never saw one work as it was supposed to. Sorry I can't remember the names. The mic. is best used for voice chat rooms or recording your own voice. It's not music quality. Cheers, Andromeda43

Only someone having the exact stuff you've mentioned could give you a definitive answer. Basicly win98/SE does have improved USB support over the older Win-98. It still will NOT accomodate many USB 2.0 devices like a Thumb Drive. You still have to download the drivers from the manufacturers web site. Good Luck to you, Andromeda43

SarahC, If an ME machine is working fine, day after day and all of a sudden its screwed, then it's always a good bet that something has gotten sideways in the registry. The quickest and easiest way to approach the problem is to grab your ol' ME boot floppy and boot up to DOS. Then run Scanreg.exe /Restore Always leave a space before any "/". OK? It will present you with a menu of five days of backup registrys that you can elect to go back to. Start off with the day before and let it restore that days registry. When it's all done, remove the boot floppy and restart your PC. 99 times out of a hundred that will work and your PC will once again be running just fine. When that doesn't do the job, a re-install of ME is the next thing to try. You can boot up with the boot floppy, select boot with CD drivers loaded. Then navigate to the folder on the CD that has the Setup.exe file on it ,,,,and run it. It will reinstall ME right over itself, preserving the drivers and data files. I wish you lots'O Luck, Andromeda43

Xionor, It would sound, from your question that you don't have much history with Microsoft operating systems. Every time there's been a major upgrade to the OS, there have been a g'zillion problems, from user ignorance, to software incompatibilities, to hardware driver issues, etc. When I did the major jump from windows 98/SE to Windows XP-pro, I had to replace my Modem, Sound Card and Scanner. This was easy for me, since I had the parts on the shelf, but for many people that would be a total disaster. Whenever a new OS is finally released (not a beta version) it comes with its own built in problems. It's always best to sit back, relax and let the Guru's iron out the problems. I waited several years from the time XP was released till I finally installed it. And, I still had problems. For a non-technical user, I'd advise a lot of waiting, watching and reading. Good Luck, Morbius B)

Where DO some of yous guys get your information? Out of a Cracker Jacks box? Oh the pain, with all the bull crap flying around ...... I have a beautiful Maxtor 160 gig SATA hard drive split into two partitions, 10 gig for C: and the rest for D:. Nothing could ever be more stable or easier to get into if some file needs to be changed, renamed or just plain deleted. And it can all be done from the most simple DOS boot disk. Windows 98 or Win-ME,,,,makes no diff. The whole disk was formatted with my Windows ME boot floppy and it's every bit in FAT-32. I wouldnt' have an NTFS partition in my house or on my computer for love nor money. Never have and never will. Every time I have to replace a HD for one of my Home Computer customers, it gets formatted in exactly the same way as I've outlines above. Yous guys that have some kind of love affair going with NTFS, keep right on using it if that's what yanks yor crank, but don't try to put your own personal preferences off on the general public as something Gospel. People that just don't know the difference. NT,,,,It's a business operating system NOT a home operating system....never was and never will be. But as for the OS we've had shoved up our xxxxx by Microsoft, it (XP) runs like a scalded dog on a FAT-32 formatted hard drive. People all over the world are doing it "MY WAY" and they just love it. It's fast, efficient and so easy to work with when there's a problem on the ol' HD. Y'all have a great weekend now, y'hear? Andromeda43

And, you're planning on doing that upgrade, HOW? Do you have a legitimate Upgrade CD? Or do you intend to use an OEM CD? I hope you have the 25 digit key. It's a worthwhile upgrade and I do it all the time, but without the UpGrade Cd, it's a bit tricky. Cheers, Andromeda43

Yeah,,,,,the best defrag for 98 or 98/SE is the one from Windows ME. It's like ten times faster than the old 98 Defrag. I've eMail'd it to friends all over the world. I've used it myself when I still ran 98/SE here and I share it with all my customers who still use 98. One trick you're probably not using is.... Turn OFF all running programs before you ever try to use Scandisk or Defrag. Or just run it from Safe Mode. There's a nice little program called "End It All" that will do that for you....shuts down all running programs. You can select exactly which ones to shut down. You can download these Utilities and many more from This Webpage Good Luck, The Doctor (Andromeda43)

The name on this Thread was "Best Spyware Blocker" but the poll was a real test in ones ability to read and understand English. Most of the programs in that list are NOT blockers at all. Spybot S&D and Spyware Blaster are TWO very good blockers that I use myself and share with all my customers. Recently I've begun using a Custom HOSTS File from Mike Burgess. I get the following by eMail about every two weeks. ***************************************** The MVPS HOSTS file was updated [02-16-06] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm Download: hosts.zip (103 kb) http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip How To: Download and Extract the HOSTS file http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts2.htm HOSTS File - Frequently Asked Questions http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfaq.htm Note: the "text" version also makes a great resource for determining culprit URLs ... (413 kb) http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt Sign up for HOSTS file update notices http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm#contribute Mike Burgess Microsoft MVP "There's no place like 127.0.0.1" ************************************** There is even a nice little program called "Hosts Secure" that I found and installed that checks for the latest Hosts file and installs it automaticly. (.net Framework required). The custom hosts file is currently blocking over 10,600 bad web sites. It should be a "Must Have" for people who let their minor children use the internet, unattended. I found this an interesting thread, since I do this stuff for a living. Cheers, Andromeda43

I've heard that itunes is loaded with Malware. You may want to try a different program.

The first thing any person should do who has a question or a problem, is to "Google" for a solution. The response is immediate and usually solves the problem. Obviously, You've not done that basic step, or there would be no need for this thread. Well, I did it for you and got 82 hits. Try THIS ONE first and if that doesn't help, do your own "Google" for "Motive Support Tuner" (include the quotes) and try another response. It doesn't sound like a very serious problem. I think you'll get it. Good Luck, Andromeda43

What drivers are we talking about and why do you need them constantly available. A driver for a device should be loaded just once and that's it.

What have you done about scanning for Viruses, Adware or Spyware? That would be my first try....... Andromeda43

Hearyee, Hearyee! I just hate it when someone doesn't know enough about solving the problem to be of any help so they tell the person to install some other OS, which that person obviously Doesn't have laying around. If you're not part of the solution, then you become part of the problem. Put up, or shut up! Jaclaz, that was a very good post. As an old tech who's dealt with these problems more times than I'd like to remember, I would add just one little point. If you've already booted your Windows ME computer to a DOS prompt with a boot floppy, you can then access the hard drive and copy those files that you mentioned right back to the floppy disk. Or, even run them directly from the hard drive itself. I have a customized ME boot floppy that I use often and it already includes all those files, plus Deltree.exe, FDISK and Format. And, a cleanup batch file that will totally remove C:\_Restore. That folder can grow to the point of crashing the hard drive and windows and should be deleted whenever possible, during a repair to an ME machine. This command does the job very nicely. deltree /y "C:\_Restore\*.*" Carry on, Jaclaz, you're doing an admirable job, Andromeda43 Just for grins, here's my ME boot menu. Main Menu, Windows ME Utilities 1. Fdisk (setup new hard drive) 2. Fdisk Make New Boot Record 3. Format drive C: 3A. Format drive D: 4. Scandisk C: ( /autofix ) 5. Scandisk All Drives ( /all /autofix ) 6. Run "Scanreg /restore" (restores an older version of the Registry) 7. Rename WMIEXE.exe to WMIEXE.old (this file, not needed by Windows) 8. Run HOOVER.bat (deletes 98, ME junk files) 9. Remove "C:\_Restore\*.*" in Windows ME. Type your choice at the DOS prompt and press ENTER.

What version of Nero? I still use ver 6.x. I've used it for years and love it. Worlds best CD burning software, but InCD has caused many a problem. I won't use it or allow it to install. Good Luck, Andromeda43