Author Topic: Windows 98 help (Read 655 times)

ravells · « **on:** February 15, 2004, 02:43:41 PM »

Help!

My father in law bought a printer (HP 1310) which he asked me to install. He uses win 98 on a laptop. I put in the installation disc for the printer and it said that his version of Internet explorer (IE 5.0)was too old and aborted the setup process.

I found an IE6 on a cover-disc of a magazine and tried to install it. There was an error on installation.

Now when I boot his computer all I get is a blank screen with a cursor. No icons - nothing. Trying to start the computer in 'safe mode' just doesn't work.

Anyone have any suggestions?

All help gratefully appreciated.

Ravs

Kieran · « **Reply #1 on:** February 15, 2004, 02:59:48 PM »

I'd suggest uninstalling IE6 if possible, but you may have to get to the registry and delete the IE keys. If that doesn't help, I dunno.

Chairboy · « **Reply #2 on:** February 15, 2004, 03:12:12 PM »

He can't even get into safe mode, didn't you notice?

Best bet is to re-run the Windows 98 installer, you can safely install it over itself without breaking everything. Boot from a floppy with cd support to do this, then pop in the w98 cd.

ravells · « **Reply #3 on:** February 15, 2004, 04:01:02 PM »

Thanks for your help, Kieran and Chair.

Of course, the windows 98 disc has long since disappeared...

Ravs

Chairboy · « **Reply #4 on:** February 15, 2004, 04:16:46 PM »

You might have the install files somewhere on your system. On some systems, there's a folder called C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS

Boot your system, hit F8 right before it says 'Welcome to Windows 98' and select 'Safe Mode - Command Prompt Only' and hit enter. When you're at the c:\> prompt, type cd\windows\options\cabs and hit enter, then type setup.

Caveats:
1. Your system may not have the cab files onboard, but you can always search by typing "dir *.cab /s" from the root of the drive to find the directory its in.

2. You may have misplaced your windows key. If that's the case, you can probably find another to use by searching groups.google.com for windows 98 product key. I assume it's a legit install, so this should be a reasonable bending of the rules.

Kieran · « **Reply #5 on:** February 15, 2004, 05:15:20 PM »

Nope, didn't notice, but he certainly should have been able to get to DOS mode. Really though, the smartest thing to do here is to start with line-by-line confirmation, then watch to see what causes the hang.

Maverick · « **Reply #6 on:** February 15, 2004, 10:57:41 PM »

My experiance with IE6 and win 98 was all bad. They are not very compatible. I used it on 2 computers and over 5 installs and it always broke down in operation. Stay with IE 5.5 if you are going to keep win 98.

scout · « **Reply #7 on:** February 16, 2004, 12:39:24 AM »

Hey chairboy
He can't even get into safe mode, didn't you notice?

Still on 98 (and yes, I do have a minor problem with IE6).

Another method to 'get in', boot an old DOS 6 floppy.

IIRC just using an old DOS 6 installation floppy can work. Abort it before it installs anything. You'll have system that allows you to dir, delete, edlin etc ...
Very crude and painful, DOS 6 not entirely compatible with 98.

Otherwise this situation is what the '98 boot disc' (what's it called ?) you are asked to create when installing 98 is for.
Almost as crude and painful to work with. You had better stacked this floppy in advance with programs you might need (all that might be needed is not created by default/ won't fit on one floppy).

Chairboy · « **Reply #8 on:** February 16, 2004, 01:02:08 AM »

Of course he can get in via DOS, but the poster was asking him to uninstall programs and modify the registry, tricky at best from a text command-line interface with no win32 support.

rpm · « **Reply #9 on:** February 16, 2004, 03:45:13 AM »

Tell him you were mugged and they took his laptop.

Kieran · « **Reply #10 on:** February 16, 2004, 06:19:09 AM »

Well, lessee... no recovery disks, no Window-startee... sounds like a tricky situation already.

ravells · « **Reply #11 on:** February 16, 2004, 07:27:33 AM »

Thanks for all your help. But I'm shrecked, arn't I?

Sadly I can't tell him I was mugged as he was sitting next to me when his computer went FUBAR. I coughed and told him it was a temporary reverse. He was quite sweet. Said that if he left it off for a day or two and switched it on again that it might work (It's not dead, it's only sleeping).

When I got the blank screen and cursor after boot up, I tried control+alt+delete. There were 4 processes running, one of which was explorer. I had hoped by ending that programme it would stop the hang, but no such luck.

The irony of all of this was that I had an old win 98 cd and boot disc but threw them out in December (I'll never need these again - ha, ha, ha).

Even if I do get into the puter using DOS, I have no idea which files need to be restored to get Win 98 working again. If those files have been overwritten by IE6, then I'm really shafted.

Where do I find a bloody Win 98 cd rom and boot floppy in 2003? The British Museum?

I'm fast begining to think that the only way is a reformat of the hard disc and bringing my dear father in law into the 21st Century with XP.

Perhaps he'll forgive me the loss of the data on the basis that he has a zippy new OS.

Ah well.

Ravs

SLO · « **Reply #12 on:** February 16, 2004, 07:32:28 AM »

NEWS FLASH!!!!

Win98 is NOT supported anymore.....

since you already have an EXCUSE.....try installing a more recent OS

Kieran · « **Reply #13 on:** February 16, 2004, 08:20:00 AM »

Honestly, you may not have to format. You might get away with installing an upgrade version of XP, and selecting the hybrid install (that is, retain support for 16-bit operations). The question is whether the laptop has the RAM and processor to handle it. Since it was running 98, it may not have enough of either. You really want at the bare minimum 128MB and a 400Mhz processor.

kappa · « **Reply #14 on:** February 16, 2004, 08:20:40 AM »

I have no trouble with Win98 and IE6..

If you have a Win98 disc you dont need a bootdisk as you can boot from the cdrom.... Dunno if that helps.. but GL 8)