Major 98se system prob - *nothing* in device manager

[Force Flow]

I have a family member with a PC that when they went to install drivers for their printer off of a 98FE CD, apparently, everything was wiped out of the device manager. The only thing that is listed is "computer".

So, the comp has no devices listed, and one major effect of that is that the display is stuck at 16 colors and the default resolution.

I popped the HDD into my system and copied over the 98SE cabs (the CD drive would not work because there were no drivers installed for it in the device manager).

I can do an "add hardware" search, but it turns up nothing.

Suggestions?

[GaryRouth]

In XP, this happens when the Plug n' Play service is having trouble or turned off [the solution in XP is to turn the service off, reboot, and turn it on again]

I haven't found anything definitive yet for Win98, though I suppose you could try restoring the registry from just before their scanner adventure.

If I find anything, I'll post it here. (probably in a P.S. edit)
. . . Gary

[you could also take a peek in the current Registry to see if anything is listed in the HKEY_Local_Machine/Enum]

[Force Flow]

No idea how I would enable or disble plug&play on 98SE.

Yes, there is a list of folders under enum.

I'm thinking of trying the enum trick.

[ROYP123]

You enable /disable Plug and Play in the BIOS

[Force Flow]

Didn't see it in there. Hmm...

The enum trick didn't do it. I removed the enum key, rebooted, it detected a list of hardware, installed drivers, rebooted and then there was still nothing in the device manager.

What in the world is going on??

[GaryRouth]

Truly interesting - see if you have an entire menu in the bios called Plug n Play. The first item is usually something like "Plug & Play OS?" and you can answer Yes or No. If it's on No, try Yes. ...also, usually the "Resources" item in that same menu is best left to "Auto" on recent machines (not that this would have anything to do with Device Manager disappearing).

When you did the enum trick, did it re-detect and re-install all the motherboard drivers along with the usuall? (Did you see things like the PCI bus, and "motherboard resources" flash by in the detection?) Maybe reinstalling the system-board level drivers might help, if nothing else does.

Curious case you have = so far, I've only seen this mentioned on XP systems. I'll take another look later on, when a few transfers I'm running finish up.
. . . Gary

[you could also try the system file verify tip that Hal and glc sometimes mention. From the command prompt, go to the directory of your installation files (probably either C:\Windows\Options\Cabs or D:\Win98), and type

setup /p f

There are spaces between "setup" "/p" and "f" ]

[Force Flow]

No go for a plug&play menu in the BIOS. I recall seeing it on other machines, now that you mention it.

When I did the enum trick, it appeared to detect everything normally starting with the various motherboard drivers (bus controllers, etc)

I tried the setup /p f, but all it did was corrupt some drivers and made the system unbootable. So rather than waste time trying to fix the prob, I moved all the data off their drive to mine, reformatted and reinstalled 98se.

Unfortunately, I was having trouble installing it, getting bluescreens durning the "enter your info" section of the installation and the first boot.

I'm guessing there's something wrong with the RAM, motherboard or CPU. This was the final straw with this system, so now they're going to get a new one I'm going to build for them.

Thanks for the help Gary!

[GaryRouth]

The good news is that most everything is on sale.

Maybe after the holidays you could go back to the original parts and test them one at a time on a workbench to see who was causing the grief. Hard to start a project like that right now!

[might have to go NewEgg right now, between the traffic and the parking, Whooee. . . ]
. . . Gary

[stylin19]

This might be it:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...66&Product=w98

[GaryRouth]

stylin19 - nice link. I wonder if the file-verify method left the older setupx version. A regular over-the-top, (renaming the win.com file & all) might avoid that (I think it would provide a fresh setupx). Curious case. - forceflow - what do you think about using a DOS disk to rename/replace setupx, then if that works, see how things are. Might be interesting to see what a regular over-the-top would do a that point (might not do much more than take up time)...

Never a dull moment.
. . . Gary

[Force Flow]

Darn. Wish I had that link a few days earlier.

The point's moot now that I reformatted and *attempted* a fresh installation.