Windows 98 SE - Installing Hardware Issue \ VOGONS

Windows 98 SE - Installing Hardware Issue

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First post, by Smack2k

Posted on 2017-03-17, 18:38

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Have a strange issue on one of my WIndows 98SE installs where anytime you try to update drivers to a device (in this case, unknown Device), when you tell Windows where to browse for the drivers, if at any time it has to look in the WIndows Driver folder, the system crashes and reboots.

If you install Drivers from a CD installer or an .exe there are no issues. If you try to update drivers through device manager and tell windows where to browse for the files, and it doesnt ever hit the Windows Driver folder in its search, it installs fine.

Its only when it hits the folder WIndows Drivers that it immediately goes black and reboots....

Reply 1 of 7, by dr_st

Posted on 2017-03-17, 18:51

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Something corrupt in the folder? Did you try running Scandisk?

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Reply 2 of 7, by jade_angel

Posted on 2017-03-17, 19:08

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If scandisk crashes when you try it under Windows, also try booting from a floppy or CD and running it from there, or booting from a Linux boot CD and using dosfsck.

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Reply 3 of 7, by Smack2k

Posted on 2017-03-17, 20:25

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Scan Disk runs each time it reboots and comes back clean.

Reply 4 of 7, by jade_angel

Posted on 2017-03-17, 20:34

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Can you open that directory in a file manager and look through it? If so, does anything look obviously out of place?

Another thing you could try, if you have multiple Win98 installs, is to back up then nuke the contents of that directory, then copy them over from one of the working machines. You might have a file in there that's munched, but consistent at the filesystem level.

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Reply 5 of 7, by Jorpho

Posted on 2017-03-17, 20:37

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"sfc /scannow" from the command prompt should tell you if any file has been corrupted.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usingwindo … ysfilecheck.asp

Reply 6 of 7, by Smack2k

Posted on 2017-03-18, 02:05

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Jorpho wrote:
"sfc /scannow" from the command prompt should tell you if any file has been corrupted.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usingwindo … ysfilecheck.asp

This did the trick.....found what was corrupt (files in system32 drivers folder).

I ended up running setup.exe from my Windows 98 CD and let it reinstall the system files....issue was gone after that.

Thanks a ton!

Reply 7 of 7, by dr_st

Posted on 2017-03-18, 08:06

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Wow, I completely forgot about sfc /scannow for Win9x. That is, if I ever knew it existed. I only used it on NT-based OSs. Great tip! 😁

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