Ovewhelmed Novice !

[Nerd98]

Hi all !

As the title suggests I'm a little overwhelmed at all the info here regarding win98SE SP . If I have all the Microsoft critical updates installed do I not need this pack of goodies ?

Do I install the earliest version first ?

Or start with the Service Pack 2.0.2 ?

This isn't going to be easy(?) / but it's worth the effort(?) / or am I just being paranoid!

i.e. I'm not a wizard with Auto Exec Bat codes and system manipulations, searching for drivers, etc. I just want my good old 350Mhz , 128 ram , 4 Gig IBM 300GL PC ( Iknow, it's a dinosaur ) ... to work optimally.

In other words is this project not for the faint hearted ? I've heard that the pack is a must have , and finding useful enhancements is not easy with win98SE being so out of favor , being " Old Technology" as it is. But it does the job !

I'm studying to be a Electronics/computer technician , in my second year of three. I've picked up lots of throw out pentium 2 & 3's and got them internet ready, and shared them around to people, and have a broad knowledge , but I feel pretty overwhelmed at all the tips, hints, and suggestions on the Forum after a bit of browsing around at the threads. Please don't take me the wrong way, I think it's great to see so much going on here with making Win98 SE more dynamic. I'm a great fan of '98, just need a few pointers I suppose is what I'm saying

Some clues as to how major the installation procedure is.

Any advice greatly appreciated

[miko]

hello

i like, and have always liked, dinosaurs

its best to start with a clean windows install (though not i believe essential)

you just need the latest one 2.0.2 (plus any drivers you require, Direct X etc)

yes it is worth it (it includes many updates not classed as critical and therefore not posted on Windows update for example)

check this thread here for more details on the install procedure

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=38193

welcome to the forums

miko.

Edited August 20, 2005 by miko

[PsycoUnc]

[edit: lol, looks like miko beat me to the punch, and summarized nicely, at that, while I was still typing this (too dam long) reply... ]

-welcome, and don't worry, installation of both major projects (sesp2.02, and 98se2me) is very easy and automatic, and tends to make 98se faster and more stable (especially 98se2me, altho for that ya need to have a copy of windowsME install cd or install cab files (often located in c:\windows\options\cabs on an already-installed ME system).

...

Even if you have all the critical updates done, the sesp2.02 is still a good idea for many reasons, see it's home page for details... and the best performance/stability will be with 98se2me (done after sesp2.02), I've just stumbled across these things in the past few months, and it's made a HUGE difference in speed/stability on my w98se system (I thought I had it all tweaked out already, boy was I mistaken! lol). -It's SO NICE to have that old previously-common "Invalid Page Fault" message a thing of the past!

...

-even tho installation of both pkgs is easy, make sure ya read the recommended material before going ahead w/it... (including the installation guide in the forum)

...

-oh, a note: it's best to do it on a "fresh" clean installation of w98se (not a reinstall over an already-existing w98se; wipe it and start fresh), but it's not necessary, and a fresh install is a bit of work, I know... especially for newbies, no offense... It's absolutely fine to do it on an already-existing old-install, but best performance/stability is achieved w/fresh install...

...

-gl, and enjoy the improvements!

>;]

Edited August 20, 2005 by PsycoUnc

[Nerd98]

Thanyou miko & PsycoUnc .

I'll read up on what you've recommended, and give it a go. I have recently re-installed win98se over the top of my previous system, as I didn't have some features, like the standby option in the display properties >screensaver Tab, which was really annoying me. Something I'd tweaked out of the system unintentionally, plus a few other things I won't go into. (O.k. I installed what I thought was a better "chipset package" from Intel, after much searching. I think the original drivers from this re-instal is working better though )

I've ended up with a w98undo.dat which is 134 Meg, which I really don't know what to do with, after the reinstall over an already-existing w98se. ???

Thanks for your responses , I'll go do some reading about what to do next

[PsycoUnc]

-that w98undo.dat is really not necessary, as long as the reinstall has been running well for a while... -it's just in case you don't like the reinstall, ya can (supposedly) revert back to the OS state before doing the overlay-reinstall... (I've never tried it, never heard about anyone trying it, but it's there if ya need it, I guess... ya can always burn it to CD, save it...)

...

[ps: -overlay reinstalls are strongly discouraged, I've personally tried it several times, and it usually didn't seem to do a dam thing, leaving most (if not all) of the errors/corruptions in place... sometimes, it -looks- like it worked well, but down the line ya notice insideous or delayed corruption that shouldn't be there; only a fresh reinstall guarantees stability/performance, even with the very cool sesp2/98se2me pkgs installed... from reading these forums, I've noticed that sometimes old/previous corruption or over-tweaking (for example, over-zealous registry cleaners/cleaning) can actually trigger problems after installing sp2 or 98se2me, problems u won't get with a fresh install (or an old install that ya didn't "meddle" with too much )

]

Edited August 21, 2005 by PsycoUnc

[Nerd98]

PsycoUnc :

-that w98undo.dat is really not necessary, as long as the reinstall has been running well for a while... -it's just in case you don't like the reinstall, ya can (supposedly) revert back to the OS state before doing the overlay-reinstall...

Yeah I really don't want 140 Meg of backup .dat on my HDD . It's only 4Gig, and I'd have better uses for the space.

It seems a huge hassle to Format the whole drive and start over again, i'm on dial up . The overlay reinstall has fixed some probs, like I have " standby option " in the >display properties >screensaver >settings back again. Happy 'bout that . The system doesn't ' Hang ' for a minute waiting to shutdown. Less stress on me.

I note all the critical updates have 'gone' for win98SE . Have to download them again, I use Firefox, as default browser, and every time I have to Use IE 6 , I pick up some sort of tracking cooky, or malware . If I go to Microsoft with Firefox, i get prompted to install IE 4 .

Anyhow over-installing win98SE has preserved my settings: Avast! Antvirus is set as it should be.

ZoneAlarm firewall is fine , my sound/video settings haven't been altered, although maybe some drivers, so before I instal the service pack i'm going to wait, see what condition the system is in.

Thanks for the info and support, nice to know where to look when i need advice !

[Fredledingue]

Nerd98,

The most important update is IMO uSP2.02 (other are crazy about 98toMe but I don't know about this one because I don't have ME installation cd). Among the many Option and Revolution packs poping up over here, uSP2 is the one to go first. This alone will change your life.

Just for safety, I recommand, keeping a copy on CD of the updates and drivers you downloaded, and make a backup of all important files from your computer before starting and also to prepare a boot floppy disc. This just in case.

I the very worse scenario, you will want to re-install windows to the original version with the cd but not reformat your HD (I think). In some extremely bad case you will have to do it from the boot floppy disc, but let's not faint, surrender or panic: Normaly there is no problem with uSP2.02 comparing the number of downloads and the number of complains, it's maybe 1/10000 of the case!

I ran uSP2 on a very old and possibly damaged install (I do lot of experimenting on my machine) and it worked fine (I had issues with previous version but these issues has been fixed)

Today, I wouldn't imagine working on w98 without uSP2!

After that you can look for the other cool stuffs around here...

[wizardofwindows]

here here im another tech savy install this uninstall that and sp2.02 kicks azz .a must have for the 98se minded. 98setome to is problem free. in fact most of the program in this forum are well tested and 99% bug free ived tryed them all . Edited August 21, 2005 by timeless

[Nerd98]

Fredledingue

I the very worse scenario, you will want to re-install windows to the original version with the cd but not reformat your HD (I think). In some extremely bad case you will have to do it from the boot floppy disc, but let's not faint, surrender or panic: Normaly there is no problem with uSP2.02 comparing the number of downloads and the number of complains, it's maybe 1/10000 of the case!

O.K. my curiosity got the best of me ! As I said early on, I did a re-instal over '98SE with my disk. Had never tried it before... made a bad error in deleting the w98undo.dat manually . I noted later that I could've deleted it from ADD/REMOVE programs...if need be !

The Computer ran really well with the over-install , but I realised this was a backup ( w98undo.dat ) and manually deleting it = DUMB .... all was well,... but if I needed to FIX anything , this was my lifeline.

Then I saw the 98lite 4.7 program and thought I'd install it, and have a practice run,... My sytem is so confused now I'll probably have to Format C:

Did I mention I've got the flue and should not have let my curiosity get the better of me in my sick state !! ?

Plus my first move was to try downloading the uSP2.02 ; after the 'over-install ' from my win98SE disk , but could not get a link to download from anywhere . I tried all the locations. I mean like 10 different sites

I don't want to format, it'd probably be a great solution in that a clean instal sounds the best way to go, but I loose a lot of Music, and Tech. txt .notes and stuff. Plus downloading all my programs on dial up connection .

Maybe I can FIX the system . ???????

Moral of this story: Don't get bored when you've got the Flue, and try tweaking your computer.

I'm on a friends computer posting this. I'll see what happens re-installing Win98SE from my disk again I suppose. No I don't have a CD burner to back up on. There's hope , but I can't believe how stupid I've been

[RedSevenTen]

After reading this topic, I've finally decided to try out the other packs. I've had the unofficial SP installed for a while now but had to reformat and reinstall 98SE last week after my dad downloaded a Quicken 2005 update and initiated a series of Invalid Page Faults. Since I'm as close to a fresh reinstall as I'll ever be at the moment, might as well download and install everything else, get used to looking at XP icons and all that...

[Nerd98]

Well don't ask me how, but the uSP2.02 is Downloaded, installed, and I'm happy ! (you can ask how if you want ! )

Of course only time will tell how solid a platform I rebuilt after the mess up's , but I've managed to save all my bits and pieces, everything's up to date, and I like the 'new' look of the interface. Plus the dinosaurs flying !

No more tweaks for awhile,... just enjoying my PC .

Plus I learnt a lot !!!

Phew...

[miko]

Jobs a Good'un

If you ever want to do a format and reinstall on that machine, post,

i have a few nice tips in that respect.

Edited August 22, 2005 by miko

[Nerd98]

miko:

If you ever want to do a format and reinstall on that machine, post,

i have a few nice tips in that respect.

Hey Thanks miko!

What I did was the easy fix; which wasn't easy at all, , but definately in the future I'll have to Format/Re-install the OS.

But , when I decide to , rather than as a result of a crash. You really have to keep your head when things start going wrong !

In the meantime I'll 'Back Up' what I need at my leisure.

Thanks all people for your help who posted here !

[Gape]

I only want to note that:

The Service Pack is NOT a fix-it tool. If you have a broken install, reformat your disk and install it correctly, make sure you have MODERN drives for your hardware, THEN apply the Service Pack.