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Problem installing WIN 98SE on a Dell 2400

H

hmsrolst

Diamond Member
I posted this in OS, but not having gotten any response over night, I thought I'd try here too.

I recently got a very inexpensive Dell 2400 with a 845G chipset board and a P4 2.2 on the FS/FT forum. I installed XP on it and everything checked out fine. My son has some older games that won't work in XP, even in compatibility mode, so I figured I'd set a 98SE system up for him on the 2400. As expected, I could get WIN 98 to boot on it, but I can't get the chipset drivers to install. I assume the 2400 originally came with XP (it's only about a year old), so as expected the drivers aren't on the Dell drivers CD. (Dell downloads also don't show any drivers for WIN 98.) But I also can't get the Intel INF drivers to work. When I use it, it appears as if the drivers are installing, but when the system reboots, the yellow exclamation points are still there for PCI ISA Bridge (not sure why that's there), System Management Bus, or USB. The motherboard is a proprietary Dell board, but I would've thought that standard Intel drivers would've worked on any 845G board.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Also since this only needs to run some pretty simple games, I also wonder if it wouldn't work okay, even with these issues (although having them would annoy me).

Thanks for any help.
 
Well I cannot image that a game wont play on XP at all if it plays on Windows 98.


But anyhow, did you reformat the drive with a Windows 98' boot disc?



 
Maybe you need a full version of 98 SE vice the upgrade version. Which version are you trying to install?
 
Originally posted by: Ike0069
Maybe you need a full version of 98 SE vice the upgrade version. Which version are you trying to install?
Click to expand...


I put in a HDD that already had Windows 98SE installed on it. That might be the problem, except that I think I'd be in the same place anyway--everything seems to install except what I think are the specific 845G chipset drivers. In addition, when I use the INF update, it doesn't tell me that the drivers don't match the chipset but seems to install, tells me to reboot, but nothing ends up installed. Thanks.
 
Originally posted by: hmsrolst

I put in a HDD that already had Windows 98SE installed on it. That might be the problem, except that I think I'd be in the same place anyway--everything seems to install except what I think are the specific 845G chipset drivers. In addition, when I use the INF update, it doesn't tell me that the drivers don't match the chipset but seems to install, tells me to reboot, but nothing ends up installed. Thanks.
Click to expand...

If that HD with 98se had chipset drivers from another board on it that c/b tough.

Just google "845G chipset driver" and you'll find sites with the drivers for d/l. I just did it and saw several.

Good luck with it.

Fern
 
Suggest you delete the enum key in the Registry then reboot. Windows will be forced to redetect all your hardware after which try running the Intel chipset drivers again.
 
Thanks, Fern. The HDD did come from a system with an 845 chipset. I did use the Intel INF update, but now I'm going to check to see if it's as late as some of the one's that come up on Google as you suggest.
 
Hi, I don't remember the model number, but my Son's company had the same problem with a new Dell. After much fiddeling around I finally got the correct drivers and succeded. I got the drivers from Intel, but looks like you have already tried that. Get the intel chip set numbers off the chips and you should be able to get the right drivers. Also try driversguide. Luck, Jim
 
I've made some progress, but I'm not there yet. I did download the latest INF Update (not the latest chipset drivers--the INF update includes drivers for all Intel chipsets, or at least reasonably recent ones) and that did the trick. The problem I now have is that I can't get either the onboard video or an ATI Rage XL PCI card to install without hardware conflicts. If I could get past this, then I'd be there. I wonder if a clean install would do it, but ideas about something short of that would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
do what bacillus suggested "Suggest you delete the enum key in the Registry then reboot. Windows will be forced to redetect all your hardware after which try running the Intel chipset drivers again. "

or try solution #3 here......LINK
 
Thanks, but the problem is no longer with the chipset drivers, it's with the graphics. I've tried various Intel drivers with the onboard (they won't fully install), and with either that or the PCI card, I get a resource conflict. (I did the ENUM delete earlier--twice.)
 
disable USB and any other nonused hardware in your bios. (printer port, serial ports, etc)
Win98 doesnt have enough IRQs to handle it all.

if your bios has the option ~ PNP OS = no
 
Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
disable USB and any other nonused hardware in your bios. (printer port, serial ports, etc)
Win98 doesnt have enough IRQs to handle it all.

if your bios has the option ~ PNP OS = no
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea, Darren. I already disabled the serial and parallel ports and the sound, but I just diabled USB and the NIC, but still have the same problem. The BIOS is very limited and doesn't have options for PnP OS, for example. The problem seems to be that video controllers seem to need the same memory addresses as "System board extension for ACPI BIOS," and neither will accept a manual configuration to move them elsewhere. I'm hoping that there's some PCI video card that can use another set of addresses.
 
can you assign IRQs from bios?
vid card = irq11

maybe that mobaord isnt win98 friendly?
can you disable ACPI? (and reinstall OS)
 
Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
can you assign IRQs from bios?
vid card = irq11

maybe that mobaord isnt win98 friendly?
can you disable ACPI? (and reinstall OS)
Click to expand...

Not Win98 friendly? I'd say it's downright Win98 hostile!

Unfortunately, it has a very emaciated BIOS and none of those options are available.

 
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