You'll have to think back to what you did between the last time it worked OK and the first time it didn't. What did you disconnect or fiddle with? Make sure all the cards are fully inserted and all connections are tight. If that doesn't do it then pull all the add-on cards and disconnect all the drives and see if it comes up. SBW9XUP may have helped, depending on the problem you were having. I had to use it on most of the CT2xxx series cards. 98 would apparently set up the card just fine. But there would be an 'unknown device' left in device manager. It was listed separately and not under any device type so you had no idea what it was associated with. But running sbw9xup would fix it so obviously it was related to the sound blaster card.

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Ok, last thing I can remember was that we formatted the entire drive (It was a work PC, we had to do it) and removed the networking card...all else was untouched. I will ask my friend who did this junk with me if he can get it working...or if there's another solution. and that SB fix would have worked. Just a bit too reto

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Something must have happened while you were inside the case. Hopefully it didn't get zapped with static.

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he wasn't there tonite...>< Oh, I HOPE it didn't get zapped with static. Wait...just had an idea...I cant install 98 on my other pc, then go through and install chipset and soundcard drivers, then place the harddrive into the eMachine? ...basically like training the brain in another body then doing a brain transplant... Just a thought, tell me if i'm wrong... Just a bit too reto

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You can install 98 on one PC and then transfer the drive to another. Check my #2 here: http://www.computing.net/answers/ha... but you'd want to wait to install the chipset drivers until it was in the second PC unless the chipset is exactly the same in both. However, if nothing's showing on the screen, the fault is not with the hard drive (unless its data cable is on backwards). So installing 98 on another PC and then swapping would be pointless.

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well, then I ask ya this...What could be causing nothing to be showing? Is the board shot, is the plug faulty, is the BIOS not initializing...what? Just a bit too reto

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Could be anything. That's why mentally backtracking on everything you did with it is sometimes helpful. You can pull all the cards and disconnect all the drives and then see if it posts. If so then likely the fault is with one of the disconnected items. Remove and reseat the cpu and heatsink. (Be careful that you don't scratch the motherboard when working with the heatsink.) Sometimes it's something unexpected like a wayward screw causing a short or the 110/220 voltage switch on the PSU being in the wrong position. There's a thousand ways a motherboard can fail to respond and only one way that it works right.

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I should add, most of those emachines use Bestec power supplies and they are really no good. If you can swap in a known--good power supply you can find out if that's the problem.

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I tried disconnecting all drives (including HDD) and got nothing... also, I noticed the jumpers are set to "Cable select" instead of "master or single drive"...not that this matters ATM, but for future use. So the power supply, eh? Well, I do have this 95 pc here...IDK if the supply is the same, but I can try it...SOMETHING is getting power to the HDD (is spinning, no heads reading tho), floppy (spinning, no reading), and CD (spinning, lighting, then silence). The CPU fan is spinning, but the computer is REALLY silent...it seems the drives just spin then do nothing. I also didn't see a teltale bios chip on the board...hmm... i'll try this power supply thing, and check the processor. I'm really not feeling well (i got a cold...><), so I might try this later...more in the weekend, most likely on Sunday (when I can talk to Jeff again) Just a bit too reto

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The psu has to supply several different voltages. So the fact the fans and drives are spinning doesn't necessarily mean it's OK. You only need a 12 volt source for them to spin up. The bestec is probably 250 watt so temporarily swapping in even a low power psu should tell you if that's the problem.

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its a Powernet PWP 165H (in the emachine) Just a bit too reto

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That's only 150 watts. Just about anything should be better than that.

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I dont know if bumping is discouraged, but its within a month... Tip from Jeff was that the BIOS might have disabled video, so a quick reset of the bios (EG, removing the battery for 10 minutes) proved the salvation. I got the video chipset installed, and the soundcard installed, but I need a few more things to make it work... I need the USB drivers. I'm not sure if its 2.0 or 1.1 ports, but it won't detect my PNY Attache 1gig. It detects my Cruzer micro 2gig, but has no drivers. Any ideas? also, I dont have a 'MIDI device', and it doesn't play things like canyon.mid. I should be able to find my old Yamaha XG SoftSynth, but will that work in DOS games? or is there some missing setting I'm not seeing? Just a bit too reto

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It's going to be USB 1.1. 98 probably set up the USB ports, although it would be a good idea to install the chipset drivers (available on intel's site). You can check in device manage to make sure USB is showing there with no problems. The specific drivers you need for whatever you attach to the USB will be supplied by the manufacturer of the device. And often they didn't bother with 98 drivers. I'm not sure about the midi stuff. I would assume whatever drivers the audio needed would be in the download that SkipCox directed you to.

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98 did NOT setup the USB ports. Also, I did install the chipset drivers. If I didn't, it wouldn't load the video right (640x480 limit 16 colors). USB is in the manager, but wont load the drivers off the drives. I might be able to download/find a 1.1 driver disk...i remember getting alot of them when I got older USB devices...then when XP became standard, they went away... The audio goes great, didn't work before I installed them. The MIDI is a 401 MPU or something. IDK. Just a bit too reto

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If the USB ports show in device manager and no yellow ! or ? is associated with them then they are set up. I think 98 should set them up OK. I know I've installed 98 on the 810 chipset without having to hunt down USB drivers. Your problem must be with the drivers of the device you're plugging into the port and not the drivers for the port itself. The video drivers are separate from the chipset drivers even though your video may be on-board. This is the Intel download page for the 810 chipset for 98: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/fil... Video drivers are #2 or #3 and chipset update is #6 or #7.

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