"If you don't have availablity to Win98se then try one of the versions of Linux on there." good suggestion, with 512 of ram the poster has a large choice of distros to use. "So what USB device are you attempting to use?" " How are you going to be connecting to the internet? What type of device is it you need to connect in order to connect to the internet?" poster just doesn't seem to want to answer this question? larry

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What mboard model is it? Win 98 has built in USB 1.x support. At least some of your USB devices should work in USB 1.x mode in any case. If there actually is no setting to enable/disable the onboard USB controllers in the bios Setup, which I don't think I've ever seen myself on a mboard that has built in USB, then they should be enabled all the time. Some earlier bioses have a setting assign IRQ for USB - that MUST be enabled if you see that. Does it have USB ports built into the mboard itself, in the I/O area where most of the ports are, or are they only in the case, or in card slots at the back? If only the latter, someone may have wired them up wrong. If you do have USB ports built into the mboard itself, you may have an IRQ sharing problem. See response 3 in this: http://www.computing.net/answers/wi... How to reload the USB stack in that is slightly different than for ME and previous. If a device was sharing an IRQ with USB controller related device, after you have cured that problem you must re-load the Windows USB stack. Open Device Manager. Un-install the USB root hub(s) and host controller(s) *in that order*. Unplug all USB devices. Win 98SE and previous and probably ME Shut down Windows. If your keyboard is USB...... hold the power button in until the computer shuts off. Plug in your USB devices, or at least your usb mouse and usb keyboard if applicable. Boot the computer. Scandisk may want to run while booting - let it. Windows will automatically reload the USB stack. Try your USB devices. .. If your keyboard is PS/2.... Shut down the computer. If you have no mouse with all USB devices disconnected..... Hold down Ctrl and Alt, press Del, let go of the keys. Press S. Plug in your USB devices, or at least your usb mouse if applicable. Boot the computer. Windows will automatically reload the USB stack. Try your USB devices. .... The generic USB drivers at Dumbob's second link support lots of USB devices, that did or do not come with Win 98 drivers, in the original Win 98. I'm using the 98SE version myself. The 2.x series supports most things except USB 2.0 cards and onboard USB 2.O contollers on newer mboards. The 3.x series supports those things too. On some early mboards with onboard USB, the USB didn't actually work. On some, the earlier bios versions did not support USB or did not support it properly, but later versions did. On the other hand, if your mboard supports recognizing 512mb of ram, it's new enough the USB 1.x support on it should work fine. USB mice and keyboards at the very least should be auto detected in Windows - however if they have never been connected before, they may not actually work in Windows until after the desktop has loaded. When USB keyboard is enabled in the bios Setup, and possibly also legacy USB devices, you should be able to get into the bios Setup with a USB keyboard even with no hard drive at all connected.

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Thanks. This is way above my head, so I am going to read and re read your messages and try and digest them. Then I will look at the case and come back with answers if I can.

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Taff, the question on how you intend to connect to the internet should't be that difficult to answer. Do you connect using dialup or some form of broadband like cable or DSL? If broadband what type of connection is used from the internet modem to the computer? USB or Ethernet cable? These are not hard questions. The point is this. You originally implied that you needed USB to connect to the internet. I am trying to determine if that is the case. You shouldn't necessarily need USB at all to go on the internet. Even is your modem is USB it may also be Ethernet. Ethernet is a better connection method anyway. In case you don't know what an Ethernet connection is I will explain briefly. Ethernet cables/ports look like a modular telephone cable/port except they are a little wider due to having 8 wires instead of 6.

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