Drugwash

On my system there's: riched.dll 4.00.834.839 (240,955 bytes, 2000.06.08) riched32.dll 5.0.1461.82 (212,992 bytes, 2000.06.08, apparently from MS Exchange SP4) riched20.dll 5.30.23.1230 (433,664 bytes, 2008.04.14 - last one I know in the 3.0 series, unknown source). usp10.dll 1.0420.2600.5512 (406,016 bytes, 2008.04.14, XP-SP3). Of them all, only riched20.dll appears to be an ActiveX control which needs to be registered. The only variant of 5.30.23.1200 I have is the 421,888 bytes one. The versions that come with Office (2003 and later) are v5.0 (5.50.xxx.xxx) and may not be suitable for system-wide usage.

I just connected to AIM using an older version of Miranda IM (0.10.15.0) on 98SE. Not sure if it still works in Win95 but it's worth a check. Possibly an even older (in the 0.9 or 0.8 version series) might work. I lost contact with the development years ago so can't tell anything for sure. Links for executables and sources: version 0.7.19, versions 0.8.0 to 0.8.27, versions 0.9.0 to 0.9.52, versions 0.10.0 to 0.10.14: http://code.google.com/p/miranda/downloads/list?can=1&q= versions 0.10.15 to 0.10.24: http://files.miranda-im.org/stable/ versions 0.10.24 to 0.10.39: http://sourceforge.net/projects/miranda/files/miranda-im/

Sounds like you wanna do everything by the book. I haven't checked the inf in the package but it's possible it may abort installation either if any of the current files' version is equal or greater than the ones in package or if any of the target files is missing. At least the former seems to be true, according to your report above. So unless you really need that update to be present in the updates list, a manual update may be the easiest route. Riched32.dll can be updated in place by overwriting it manually with the one from the update package (make sure no applications are running that may have it loaded or the overwite will fail). You may manually update all three files if you suspect they may have been tampered with or may otherwise be unsafe. Of course it's best to have all three current files backed up beforehand, just for safety.

This riched20.dll issue is a can of worms. Some years ago I performed a few limited, empirical tests and found out certain versions to behave erroneously in certain situations. Can't remember if I ever found the best of them all, but in the mean time more versions came up. Right now I have about 17 versions all in all, of which two may or may not be identical copies from different sources. Version numbers vary from 5.0.152.0 to 5.50.99.2014. No idea if they're all official, issued by MS or there's any mod of some kind. Also no idea which one is best and safest overall. As a rule of thumb, the second group of digits represents the RichEdit version. The 5.0.xxx.xxx is a RichEdit v2.0. From then on, 5.30.xxx.xxx is RichEdit v3.0, 5.31.xxx.xxx is RichEdit v3.1, 5.40.xxx.xxx is RichEdit v4.0 and so on. Also please note that there is a special version of the control named MSFTEDIT.DLL which is a sort of RichEdit v4.1, found in XP Media Center Edition, XP-SP2 and later. This version may be called by recent applications. So to sum it up, it doesn't matter what updates you install on your system, whether they are official or not, whether they come from an OS-specific update, another OS version or an Office version - all that matters it that it behaves correctly with most/all of your applications. And that's true for any other system files out there. Of course, whatever you do is entirely your choice.

I've been carefully reading everything in this topic so far. Even though I have not and will never be downloading and installing this POS called 'Windows 10', judging by all the comments in this topic and all other places linked to by various users, I can't help but ask myself a single burning question: WHY THE HELL DOES MICROSOFT STILL EXIST??? Sorry for shouting but this has to be yelled from the bottom of every sane people's lungs.

All the 9x-compatible "toys" that I've built are compressed with UPX and the Unicode ones are compressed with MPRESS (see the repository in my signature). My connection is metered and HDD free space is getting scarce. What now? And if I may ask, just out of curiosity: why is this Flash so important to you people that most discussions here revolve around it? I've kept it disabled on all my computers for years because I consider it one of the most dangerous technologies. Never missed it for a second. If I want access to a YouTube video I just download it through Firefox -> FlashGot -> FlashGet as MP4 and watch it offline in GOM Player. And if web designers are so limited that they can't offer regular menus/elements when no Flash is available then those pages will get blacklisted forever. Simple as that!

The more reason to shoot Microsoft in the head without trial.

Why would you be surprised? Do you think hardware manufacturers stopped providind Win9x/2000/XP drivers for newer hardware simply on a whim? They always are in agreement and they never care about the end user as long as they know there will be income. Microsoft has to go, forever. Or there will be no more computing for the average user.

Considering your lack of computer knowledge (no offense intended), I'm afraid you would have to be guided by a knowledgeable person in some sort of live mode - be it over the phone or in an instant messaging connection. For the latter you would need a second working computer while working on the faulty one in real time. I'm not sure who could/would do that for you. Basically, what you need to do is: - install the appropriate chipset driver so the USB hub(s) would be detected correctly - remove any and all USB-related drivers in Safe Mode (the unofficial Service pack help file explains this in detail) - install the NUSB package so that most USB storage devices would be detected without the need of a third-party/proprietary driver The chipset driver may already be installed but better double-check. For the rest please read the uSP3 help file carefully, write down/print the instructions and then follow them exactly. It has to work. Just relax and confide in yourself.

Here's mine. Told him not to chew on the power wires but… Hahaha, don't worry, he's fine - was just sleeping like a lazy bastard that he is!

Since it's an AWARD BIOS you may try the 'advanced options' trick: hit CTRL + F1 once while you're at the main BIOS screen. If you're lucky there will be additional options available in certain sections and even new section(s) may appear (screen will briefly flicker). That may offer the possibility to tweak certain settings that are usually unavailable, such as ACPI. Also, when such problems appear it may help temporarily disable (if possible) any non-critical built-in devices such as LPT, COM, Sound, Modem etc. Once you get the installation to finish succesfully (again: if you're lucky) you may reenable the necessary ones one by one and hope to find drivers for them (and not hang again).

Well, as noted by PROBLEMCHYLD above some newer updates may break certain functions so according to specific user preferences there may be a need to back up a little bit and install an older update in order to preserve desired functions. Therefore having the complete timeline of updates would allow one to set their system up exactly as they wish. And there's also the historical perspective where one just wants to collect each and every piece that was ever released, not necessarily for a subsequent install.

According to some notes from January 2007 pertaining to soporific, KB835732 has been superseded by UCrypt9x. No mention about Q329128 though. If you want to look at the latest version of uSP3 maintained by PROBLEMCHYLD, open the link at the bottom of his signature.

Theoretically, even a beta product should be usable - especially when it's offered publicly - but there's always a chance for it to have bugs. Considering even retail products have bugs this kinda levels the things. Biggest problem you have though is that, on a failed BIOS update, if you're lucky you get a default restore option that only works through a specially prepared floppy disk and since your floppy setup is defective you may just remain with a bricked board (unless you can reflash the chip on a similar board through hot-swap or you find an external Flash Programmer board with the corresponding software). At this point I believe we can eliminate the BIOS software from the list of possible floppy fail causes. Maybe there still is an unusual combination of settings that must be achieved for the floppy to work or maybe you're extremely unlucky and all your related peripherals (cables, floppy drives) are defective. Latest possibility would be for the floppy controller to be fried, from a previous wrong connection or any other reason (broken PCB tracks, cold soldering points, detached components and so on). Dunno about SATA.

You probably need to update a (relative) path to the newer executable in some initialisation file. Never used PortableApps so I don't know the system used - it's just a hunch.

That may be as simple as building an additional module and linking other modules to it or just impossible. The logical path would be to track down the very first version of Firefox that implemented the desired protocol and compare the sources with the previous version, to find out the implications for the whole code. Then port the changes back to your version of Firefox. Then follow the changes through all subsequent versions until the very latest and notice any and all changes pertaining to that protocol and any linked elements. Then port back the cumulative changes up until the latest to your code. Then rebuild your version of Firefox, provided you can set up the proper development environment required by that particular version. Yeah, given enough time, will and ambition one may do that. But is it worth it? Can't answer that.

A better way might be to keep count on the offending applications and then launch them one at a time, either by profiling them in Dependency Walker or by parallel running an API monitoring application (I think there is an old one also built by Sysinternals but forgot its name). It's possible that one or more system files are outdated and/or mismatched. I remember an issue that resurfaced recently with missing rebar elements in taskbar after installing Revolutions Pack without previously updating the required system files. That happens because certain flags are not recognised in some system messages which makes those messages fail. Your case may be very similar to that, meaning you'd have to find out which libraries need updated and do that (after backing up the original(s), of course). However, if the offending applications are those run through KernelEx, chances are some system messages themselves are not the appropriate type (Unicode instead of ANSI) and/or use flags and/or parameters that are not supported even by KernelEx. But you'll have to find out the exact cause(s) yourself. Good luck! (typos again…)

Ah, don't mention it! Fingers crossed for our friend above.

You're welcome - just trying to help when possible. The download link for uSP3 is in PROBLEMCHYLD's signature, the last one, which leads to a page with another link to a different board with more information and the actual download links. For your convenience here it is the starting link: u98SESP3.x After download, when you launch the executable you'll be presented with a help file and after closing that you'll get the main dialog with all the available options. First thing is to install the core components. Reboot when prompted. Then you may relaunch the uSP3 executable and - if so desired - mark other optional components and install them. Otherwise stick with the core components and hopefully that will be enough. Before that, please double-check if the chipset driver is installed, as advised by submix8c above. Install manually if needed. Good luck!

I may be wrong but AFAIK the floppy LED only lights up when there's a seek operation, so it does require an operational data cable. If the floppy is selected as one of the boot devices in the BIOS boot sequence, it should briefly light up at boot looking for the boot sector. Maybe the BIOS has floppy A and B swapped (some have such option) - have you tried enabling both as 3.5" 1.44MB?

That may happen with applications built for newer versions of Windows that are being run through KernelEx and/or with the help of other system files updated to their Win2000/XP+ versions. But not only. I see the same behavior with a few recent versions of FastStone Image Viewer on my heavily updated 98SE, while on the same system certain 2000/XP+ applications such as Firefox 9 fail to show a taskbar button at all or until certain operations are performed (start/close other applications, minimize/maxime the offending application etc). I haven't pursued the issue so can't tell the exact reason or offer a fix, if possible. I can only suspect wrong/missing system messages or wrong windows classes that messages are being sent to.

Usually I let POP Peeper to deal with e-mails from most accounts but ever since I caught AOL doing this unwanted filtering I'm mostly using their web interface (old/lite one, to protect my metered connection and weak machine) because the free part of POP Peeper doesn't check/report the contents of the Spam folder. So I actually click their own 'not spam' button on their own interface, which should have absolute priority over any kind of AI they may have in place. Unfortunately I've migrated all my subscriptions to AOL after going through Yahoo and GMail and I don't feel like going back to any of them. I wouldn't even consider using Hotmail/MSN Live or whatever they may be calling it now. Usable alternatives (that allow POP3/IMAP) aren't available on my side of the world. I have to apologyze for the off-topic - I only mentioned it here because it all started to happen after I began following this particular topic and frankly I don't believe in coincidence.

- Double-check the BIOS to make sure the floppy controller is enabled and floppy type is set to 3 1/2" 1.44MB. - The FDD power can sometimes be misfit, leaving the impression it's connected correctly but it's not. Double-check that. - Also do find another (preferrably new) floppy data cable and pay great attention to the keys at both ends. If keys are missing, make sure pin 1 (usually marked in red) matches the board socket on one end and goes head-to-head with the red wire on the power socket (it's called 'red-to-red') - unless the power socket is fitted above the data connector, in which case you'll have to check the markings on the floppy drive's PCB. Don't rely only on the key slot, it may be placed on the wrong side. Remember: there are OEM floppies with non-standard data pins and (obviously) there are OEM data cables that match them, so if you have the wrong combination you may fry the floppy or even the motherboard.

Actually it sounds more like: […] I am a vegetarian and to me it is as if someone opened my front door, and threw in a dead cat saying "at some point you'll have to eat it!" […] I have an idea of what causes this, as it happens to me as well with my non-aol email. I think it is because many times I use email to notify me of certain things but do not necessarily read the email. For example, when I get an email from a forum, I then make a note to visit that forum. What I physically do is just delete the email. Delete emails from the same sender without reading them enough times, appears to trigger something that indicates those emails are unwanted and then end up in the spam folder. Be that as it may (although I rarely mass-delete them because they seldom come in bulk and I don't always log in to read the rest of them), there is a button up there that says "Not spam" and after selecting all MSFN messages in Spam I click that button. I did that too many times without any change in their behavior. Maybe it's me the stupid guy but when a person says "put this on the table, don't throw it away" then you put in on the table from then on. Why do they systematically throw it away? Not all of them, but some - mostly from this very topic. And why doesn't the same thing happen with the dozens of comments from the blogs I follow, when I sometimes mass-delete those after opening the first one? Maybe WordPress is more trustworthy than MSFN because someone told them so?

Why not? Ever since I first mentioned it somewhere back in this topic, many times each day I have to recover MSFN e-mail notifications from my AOL account's spam folder, despite my marking all of them as 'not spam' each and every time. They are all in this. The way I see things, a (personal) computer should be totally unbiased in regard to which operating systems would run on it. The moment they cripple compatibility at someone else's whim, that hardware should not be bought by anyone at all. Let the hardware rot on the shelves in stores and warehouses, let the manufacturers go bankrupt and maybe they'll learn it the hard way. Same goes for software: either they offer what we want/need for the hardware we want/have or we won't buy their garbage and we won't even use cracked or free versions of that software if available. We've been messed with for way too long.