Having trouble installing Windows 98SE on new hard drive. When I ran setup, the following messages came up:

"W98SETUP caused a general protection fault in module W98SETUP.BIN at 0002:4EA0" and "W98SETUP caused a general protection fault in module USER.EXE at 0007:08C9".

I've also gotten "...USER.EXE at 0001:40B6"
"...USER.EXE at 0002:0B51" and "Error loading USER.EXE".

Checking around, it appears there might be corrupt files on the CD...but which ones??
And how do I get around this?

Any help would be appreciated ... Thanks.

It almost sounds like you have a bad memory
stick. With 384MB of ram, you should be able
to take one of the sticks out and see if it
boots up OK, if not, then try the other.

bwsdeb,

Are you trying the Win98Setup from a Network?

What are you referring to when you stated " Checking around, it appears there might be corrupt files on the CD..."?

MaadhuriMN,

I assume it a reference to the error messages.

Skip

Skip,
I assumed that bwsdeb suspected the Windows 98SE Installation CD to be the source of the error message but did not want to phrase my question that way:-)

If that indeed was the suspicion, I was wondering why?

As you may be aware from MSKB article Q187511 that the quoted error message W98Setup caused a general protection fault in module w98setup.bin at 0003:00000856. Setup cannot continue. " can be caused by "Setup from a network resource whose Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path contains more than 240 characters".

I am now. Thanks. Now, when burning a data cd that I publish, I noticed one program would change (shorten) file names in order to burn them with no apparent logic to its changes. So I'm thinking that if this is a burned copy of SE that something similar may have occured. That's just one thought.

Memory is another. MnyMkr' idea of playing musical memory chips is not a bad one. All this data is running back and forth thru the memory.

Another ? is whether this is a fdisk/format, format only, or reinstall over an existing OS; bwsdeb doesn't say.

Certainly some files here that setup does not like.

Perhaps bwsdeb can tell us more.

Skip

I could save us some time if I learned to read. It's a new drive.

What is the brand & how did you fdisk/format?

mnymkr ... At work now, but will check RAM tomorrow morning.

maadhuriMN & SkipCox ... Not from a network.
Please disregard "corrupt files" comment. That was in reference to a similar (but different) problem someone had in another forum.

Skip ... WD200BB (20GB ATA100 7200 RPM)
single partition / fat32 / format c: /s

This one sounds familiar! Various MSKB articles give workarounds and reasons, but all assume that you have alternate Web access and can D/L the "fixes". Usual problems are that W98SE is OLDER than (NOT designed for) the larger, faster HDD, CPU & RAM currently in use. 1997 was a LOT slower with regards to HDD, CPU, RAM and sizes were well down as well W98SE SETUP just wasn't written with today's gear in mind.

My usual pre-installation routine for W98SE involves:
1) REMOVE RAM down to no more than 128Mb.
2) In BIOS, DO NOT cache BIOS, nor VIDEO ROMs, slow the CPU if possible, to below 600Mhz.
3) PARTITION the HDD to no more than 4Gb for the system area ("C: Drive")
4) Copy the install CD to a "spare" partition, preferably on a second HDD - even if this is temporary.
5) Run SETUP /? to expose the switches which will allow me to NOT use SMARTDRV, etc.

Now that really puts the brakes on a modern system, but it pulls things back to what W98SE was designed for.

Then SETUP seems to proceed without major hiccoughs. Once installed, everything is restored to "Normal", and of course, Windows "Discovers New Hardware" and updates everything.

Baldy.