Why does everything have to gt more complicated when I touch it? HELP!

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by Closet Philosopher, Sep 25, 2004.

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  1. Closet Philosopher Off to Laurentian University Registered Senior Member

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    As some of you may know, I fix computer glitches for a living at the moment. I learned that a probem can never be solved easily. Anyway... I have another problem to present to the Sciforums Tech Crew

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    I have to re-install Windows 98 on computer. Sounds simple, right?

    Well, of course something goes wrong when I touch it.

    I have to access Drive D: to use the Windows 98 CD. When I prompt D: then it won't work. I also tried every other letter possible (the last tech guy did strange things like that). I KNOW it's Drive D though. Does anyone have any ideas in how I can access Drive D to install WIndows? Every time I try, it says "Invalid drive specification"
     
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  3. Dreamwalker Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    Mmh, it might be that your computer does not autimatically initiates the CD drives. In that case you would need a start disk (I mean a diskette, not a CD). If there is still a working Win 98 PC around...well how do you make a start disk again? Long time since I did that.
    I think it goes like this: Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs -> Start Up disk -> Create Disk...

    Then you set your BIOS to boot from your disk drive, persumably drive A:
    Your CD drives should then be initiated and you can use the Win98 setup by prompting the CD drive and typing "setup" or "Install" I do not know which.
     
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  5. Repo Man Valued Senior Member

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  7. Closet Philosopher Off to Laurentian University Registered Senior Member

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    Here is what I did:

    1. I made all the boot disks that I would need.
    2. I tested the CD for Windows which should work fine.
    3. I backed up all the important files (pictures, music, emails etc...) through my network.
    4. I formatted the disk (it was full of ad-ware crap, I am going to set the computer up with FireFox and K-Lite instead of the old junk)
    5. I go to install Windows and now I run into my d: drive problem. Everything worked fine. I don't have a Win 98 computer around to make another Boot Dosk but the one that I made works fine. Since the computer is formatted, I can't log into Windows and see if there are any glitches with the drive. I am thinking of temporarily replacing the drive in the computer right now with the drive in my other computer. It would be a huge hassle (the old computer aren't easy to take apart) and there is no guarantee that it will even work.

    Old computers are strange... they work fine one day and crash the next. I'm probably going to giver it a rest for this evening and then se what works tomorrow. ANY other advice is welcome. I've tried the stuff you guys suggested with no luck.
     
  8. ifi Registered Member

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  9. Repo Man Valued Senior Member

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    The virtual drive created by the 98 boot disk bumps all of the drive letters by one. If you did choose "with CDROM support", then once you get to the A:, try typing D:\ DIR, and go through the letters until you find the CDROM.

    These instructions on how to copy the Win98 CD to your harddrive and install from there are probably more clear than the others were.

    http://home.pacbell.net/dbk4297/preinstall.html
     
  10. Closet Philosopher Off to Laurentian University Registered Senior Member

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    1,785
    Well, everything you guys told me to do didn't work but thnks for attempting to help me. I decided that I had to get a bit creative to fix the computer. We are selling old Windows 98 computers a the Library where I work as a fundraiser. I knew that those computers worked fine and had Windows 98 pre-installed on them. I made boot disks for those computers in case something went wrong. The boot disks had the auto-load driver on them for the CD Roms. The CdRoms for the computers that we were selling looked almost identical. The biggest problem is that the library was closed yesterday evening and today. I do have the key but we are discouraged from opening the door during off-hours. Late last night, I decided to go into the library anyway, plug in one of the computers we were selling, make boot disks, switch the cd-roms, put everything away and leave. As I was walking out the door of the library (by the time I did everything, it was past midnight) and a police car happened to be driving by. Of course, I am an unlucky person so the only police car in town happens to be driving by. He asked me a whole bunch of questions about why I was in the library so late, how I obtained the key and so on.... At firse, he wouldn't believe that I worked there (or at least preended no to) but I eventually convinced him that I was there for a good reason. Anyway, I have to continue setting up options for Windows on the computer I am fixing. Thanks for he help.

    Reb
     
  11. Closet Philosopher Off to Laurentian University Registered Senior Member

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    1,785
    Ugh, I just ran into another hitch. I'm missing the following files:

    msnp32.dll
    dfs.vxd
    vnetsup.vxd

    I know how to fix the dll file but not the other two. Suggestions?
     
  12. Repo Man Valued Senior Member

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    Are you sure the CDROM is good? Is the 98 disk clean and scratch free? Is it possible that there is another problem with the machine?

    You might consider running Memtest86 http://www.memtest86.com/ to be sure your memory and motherboard are ok before proceding. Copying the Cd to the drive as outlined above may help prevent drive errors
     
  13. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    Just a point for you, If you are continuously having problems that means re-installing the OS on the computer it might not have anything to do with scratches on the CD but more likely to be "Bad RAM".

    Bad RAM can cause memory addresses to malform enough to cause filenames to be stored in RAM incorrectly, for instance I had a PIII-500Mhz machine that was running with 3 sticks of 64mb P-100 RAM. The RAMBus could run at 133Mhz, however the RAM couldn't run faster than 100Mhz, this is what caused the RAM to suffer from failure, because the "Overclocking" of the RAM was too much for it to cope.

    Originally I thought at the time that it was the CD or the programs on the OS, I couldn't understand why the Updates to the OS kept failing, but as soon as I replaced the RAM with 3x 256Mb 133Mhz chunks, it fixed the problem.

    admittedly I had to reinstall my "Corrupted" OS that had been a failed attempt from the Bad RAM however ever since that point, the computer has worked 100% with no CRC failures.

    RAM plays the part of "CACHEING" during installation, since the system has to work out what needs to be done before it installs on the harddrive.
     
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