I am working on a friend's computer. Her system originally had Win95 and she upgraded to Win98. She was experiencing many lock ups and blue screens. She just dealt with it. Recently her mouse stopped working and her desktop wallpaper is garbled.

Desktop - Ive tried to change her display setup but it will only allow 16 colors.

Mouse - the device driver gives a Code 8 and says windows cant load vmouse.vxd. When I try to get a new driver, Windows wont let me.

I would like to just reinstall win98 because she is having other probs too (such as an msgsrv error). I inserted the win98 cd and when I go to install it, it tells me it cannot complete the operation because an OS system is already running and you cant have two.

HELP.....Any suggestions?

Desperately,
Traci

Traci-
Did she just upgrade or did she format and load windows 98? If she wants to just wipe everything out and start over:
Go to the how to section of this website. Good step by step on how to format and install an operating system. support.microsoft.com has good articles on this too. After you do it once, it's a fairly easy process. Make sure that she has saved anything she still wants and that you have up to date drivers for everything just in case Win98 doesn't pick hardware up correctly. Good luck!

I agree with Neo.

Merely re-installing Windows 98 over a bad situtation isn't going to help.

A clean install is a must!

Good luck,

Ken

Just make sure that your device drivers on the old system can still be used on W98. If not try to download new ones from manufacturer. Good luck.

Oh now thats scary! LOL.. In answer to Neo's question, she upgraded from win95 to win98, and I noticed that the Win95 Cabs are still in the Options directory too.

So.. ok.. if I reformat and have problems, can you guys help me? lol.. also.. if I reformat do I need to reinstall win95 and then do the upgrade or can I just install the upgrade version of win98?

Traci-
After you format you cannot (that I know of) install just the upgrade version of 98. It is exactly what it says an upgrade. You will have to install win95 then upgrade or (if she has the money) buy the win98 for a computer without an operating system. This version is about $100 more than the upgrade version. If doing all this doesn't help with the problems it could be something else. (kinda doubt it, but could be the hard drive on the way out. Run a scan disk. If there are bad sectors might want to get a new hard drive.) Hope this helps. Have fun!

From stories that's I've heard, Win98 upgrade can install the full version. Try that out first. If that doesn't work, do the other method. I personally think Win upgrades suck. Get the full version if you don't mind spending the cash.

btw - We pimply-faced, four-eyed, cathode-ray eating supergeeks always love help out a lady in distress (especially the cute and cuddly ones). ;) Good luck.

You can install just the upgrade if you want to, as long as you have a copy of DOS, Win3.11, or Win 95 on disk. Just start the install with the 98 upgrade disk and when it says to provide the location of a qualifying product just put the disk in for whatever OS you already have. This saves some time as you dont have to install 1 OS and then another.

And if I remember correctly if you have DOS dikettes it will be Disk2, and Disk5 from Win 3.11. or the CD for Win 95

Ok.. I'll give it a go tonight. *crossing my fingers*.... thanks everyone, Im sure I'll be back.

You're cute Mike. LOL

Here is a good page with information on installing win98.
http://www.winmag.com/windows/guides/win98/default.htm

If you check out the link that says skip the CD,it will give you an explanation of how to do a clean install from within your old windows setup.Briefly,what you do is copy the win98 setup files to your c drive and then execute commands to delete the old windows and install the new.I have used this and it works really well.They give you all of the details on how to do this on the above page.Good Luck.

I take exception to Mike's comments regarding us people in here...

I do not eat cathode rays! LOLOLOLOL

If you are serious about reinstalling windows, then locate the file WIN.COM (it is a hidden file so you will need to view hidden files either through DO or windws explorer. Rename this file - say Win.old. Boot up PC with Start up disk and you will now be able to reinstall windows without having to se an upgrade CD. Problem solved!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have successfully fdisk'd, formatted, and now have win98 running. Thanks everyone for the help!