Hi all. I posted a message about having trouble finding my CD-ROM on the win 98 disk. I think I have that resolved but I don’t understand why.. I don’t believe you need to have the MSCDEX lines in the autoexec and config files. But that is the only way I was able to get win 98 to recognize the CD-ROM.. anyway . the next issue is this. The lady whose Pc this is. Well she just has tons of crap on this thing. So it may be all of that. But anyway.. when I finally get into windows 98 . the display is funny. Meaning it is only showing 16 colors. The video card on this Pc is a trident SIS 6326 and I have reload the drivers on the HD . and rebooted yet no matter what. When I go into win 98 . it still only shows 16 colors and it does not show the video card. Under device manager. In the display Adapter Field. The only thing that shows there is the plug and play monitor. And on MY PC with a 98 partition. That shows up under its own “monitor” heading.. there is no display adapter at all showing. So what gives?? I am trying to get this lady to let me just reformat and start all over. But she has lots of tax info on there and other stuff. So she insists it not be done that way. Any ideas on what is going on with this?? I really appreciate the help. Thanks again..

If you need to think reformating is the solution and the customer has data then your job is to backup ALL the data before proceeding any further. Unless you have another drive, I usually remove the drive and burn all the data onto CD's before proceeding any further. Be like a doctor 'first do no harm'.

True, you don't normally need anything in autoexec.bat or config.sys to get Windows to run. There will be no CD in DOS unless you use a boot disk (which will temporarily change the drive letter) but I suspect you know all that. You could try removing the display card, rebooting, shutting down then re-inserting the display card. See if it picks it up on reboot. Otherwise take a trip to BIOS and see if your display card shows there. DerekW

Before going to any extremes, what is a "trident SIS 6326"? Trident is one manufacturer of graphic chipsets, SiS is another. You may installed the wrong driver. Boot into Safe Mode...then go to Control Panel > System > Device Manager & start going down the list looking for duplicate entries. For instance, click the + next to Display Adapter...if SIS 6326 or Trident is listed more than once, or if there is more than one Display Adapter listed, remove ALL of them...do NOT leave the one you think is the correct one...make sure to remove them ALL. Then move to the next item on the list...once again, if you find duplicates, remove ALL entries. Do this for everything on the list except System Devices. Once you're done, reboot...Windows *should* reinstall the necessary devices This space for rent

Do not ignore Jam's advice.

Ok I finally ended up at doing a reinstall over windows. Not a full format. It hung up several times. Saying I stopped the OS from loading at several points but I finally managed to get into win 98. and it appeared to have loaded all the files I have no idea what all it did. But it finally recognized the CD-Rom AND the SIS 6326 display card.. I have no idea how it did it all since it kept rejecting so many files. But the bottom line is. Somehow it is working. In the device manager it STILL does not show the Display adapter. Yet.. it does now allow me 24 bit colors. So I have no idea at this point. I have told the lady her HD really needs to be wiped clean. I simply stopped the bleeding tempy.. .. I was able to get in and reinstall Nero. And copy some of what I felt to be the main files on the drive. And copy and burn them. I am leaving it up to the cust to decide if they need anymore. I had told them they will eventually need a full format as there have been too many people with their hands on the drive adding this and that and only making matters worse. But for now it seems resolved. Thanks guys. I appreciate the advice .. DJ

Makes a good case for carrying a 512 meg (or larger) pen drive with you, if not a portable CD burner.