Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: ravells on February 15, 2004, 02:43:41 PM
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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
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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.
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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.
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Thanks for your help, Kieran and Chair.
Of course, the windows 98 disc has long since disappeared...
Ravs
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Hey chairboy
He can't even get into safe mode, didn't you notice?
:confused: ;)
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).
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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.
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Tell him you were mugged and they took his laptop.
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Well, lessee... no recovery disks, no Window-startee... sounds like a tricky situation already.
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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
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NEWS FLASH!!!!
Win98 is NOT supported anymore.....
since you already have an EXCUSE.....try installing a more recent OS
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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.
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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)
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Originally posted by ravells
Thanks for all your help. But I'm shrecked, arn't I?
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
Ravs,
DO NOT format the disk,
if you are going to install XP, install over the top of 98.. (i.e. Upgrade) Normaly this is not the way to go but if you need to save his data it will still be there after the upgrade. as this point you can save off his data etc...and format the disk and do a clean install of XP you will be better off in the long run.
Cheers
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Originally posted by SLO
NEWS FLASH!!!!
Win98 is NOT supported anymore.....
since you already have an EXCUSE.....try installing a more recent OS
Its still supported, the support has been extended by MS.
-SW
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That is very helpful thanks.
I have the XP discs for my machine. I can install that at least so that he can recover his data and then do a clean install as you advise.
I only hope that the laptop has the minimum required specs to run XP :(
Thanks!
Ravs
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Im no pro, but notebook manufacturers usually have custom versions of Windows installed on them.
If you just load standard XP onto it, a lot of things may not work.
I would try to get support from the manufacturer if that's possible.
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A regular install of XP will work fine on laptops so long as they have the minimum specs - memory, HDD size and CPU speed.
Its just a matter of getting the proper drivers (XP compatible drivers) for any hardware that doesn't have drivers on the XP disc, however, since that is an older laptop - all of its devices should have drivers on the XP disc. What isn't there can be downloaded.
-SW
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Sorry, just one last question...
Is it possible to get the specs of the laptop (Hard Disc size, RAM and Processory speed) through DOS?
cheers
Ravs
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When you first turn the computer on, you get what is known as a post. This will display the information you want. CPU type with speed followed by a quick mem test where it counts the memory and will leave you with the amount in kilobytes. If its 5 digits long, the first two will be megabytes. If its 6 digits long, the first three are the megabytes. 64xxx, 128xxx, 256xxx, etc.
Hard disc size can be found in DOS by typing simply dir
It will show a list of directories and files, at the end will be a summary of used space and how much the overall drive size is.
-SW
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What exactly was the error? Methinks now's the time for you to learn the intricacies of System.ini.
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I'm getting somewhere.
I can get to the dos command prompt line now and have managed to copy his most important documents onto floppy...so that worked.
Going into safe mode still gives me a blank screen (proper colour background) and a cursor but no toolbars and icons.
Cntrl+Alt+Del works...but as it's 98 the only thing that task manager lets you do is close individual processes or shut down the computer.
I didn't have time to try Chairboy's idea of reinstalling from the /cabs directory. Will give that a go.
I've downloaded a boot disc from the internet - but I get a 'non system disc' error when I reboot with it in the drive.
Do you think it's worth restoring the autoexec.bat and config.sys files to the default ones on the boot disc?
I have a feeling that IE6 overwrote something in the registry which is why windows is only starting up part of the way.
Ravs
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well i used IE6 for about a year and a half with win98se...
trick is se IIRC. not 98 patched.
you can get an exe to create a win98 boot disk from http://www.etplanet.com (WARNING there some non child friendly things burried on that site... but some useful resources like the boot disk things.)
as far as "fixing" win98... its tough. i found it easier to re-install.
just a quick question... when youi are at the "blank desktop" what happens if you hit the windows key? does the start menu appear?
if so goto programs/accessories/system tools/system information
if you get that to run there is a system file checker that can possibly repair some files.
man i JUST upgraded to XP otherwise i could work though some ideas (i work better actually "doing" it).
like i said i just upgraded... might sell yas my win98se for $20 if it comes down to that lol.
you might try and find a copy of norton system works....
if you get to the "blank desktop" and put a CDrom in does it autostart? you could run "win doctor" from the CD that way... i found that program invaluable to keeping win98 running properly.
good luck sir.
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Its guaranteed that without the Windows 98 setup disc, that setup of Windows is hosed. Installing XP is your only bet since W98 uses IE for its interface, which is why even Safe Mode won't work.
-SW
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Thanks JB 73
Nothing happens when I press the windows key
There is no win 98 disc...thanks for your offer, but the sooner I get the danged thing off his system the better.
I'll go to the site you recommended and download the boot disc exe file from there.
Gawd...I remember getting to know win 98 inside out many years ago when I had to fiddle with it to get games to work. It's amazing how quickly you forget.
Ravs