Just had a laptop given to me, I have tried to install windows 98 and win98 se on it with no luck. I have run Fdisk, and formated the drive, however when trying to install windows the system goes through the normal steps of checking the system, scan disck ect.. but when it goes to copy the files needed for installation it hangs, screen goes black and there is no response from any buttons. I have seen this laptop work with exactly the same hardware with win 98. Its a compaq armada 3500. Any help would be great

Hi Phil If this was a desktop computer, I would say that Boot Sector Virus Protection had been enabled in the BIOS, as the black screen is typically what happens when it is enabled, thus preventing any writing to the boot sector. By default, it is disabled, so that Windows install can proceed. But, laptops have their own proprietary BIOS as configured by the manufacturer, and mostly the Boot Sector Virus Protection option is not included. Look in the BIOS anyway, and see what you can see. If there is an option to "Load BIOS Defaults" then choose that. Might help ! Good luck Krystyna

I will give it a go.

Phil, I don't know the reason for the problem, but I might be able to offer a possible work-around for it. Try copying the Win98 directory from the CD onto the HD & run setup from the HD, rather than from the CD. This can solve a myriad of problems, such as low-memory errors, read/write errors, etc. Mesich's website has directions to copy it to the HD. HTH Dave