A laptop was given to me, with a restoration kit including 3 cd's. The laptop had multiple problems, so I ended up formatting the hard drive and reinstalling windows 98. Although, now it's asking for the cd labeled Windows 98 Se and I don't seem to have it and the person who gave it to me does not have it. I thought that the restoration kit was all i needed, i guess not. So... how can I get a copy of windows 98se OEM edition, or how can I finish installing the system without it? The computer starts and windows opens. I can play games and stuff, but when I look at the device manager, all the drivers are there but with a yellow ! next to it. It says that the driver is not installed and then asks for the Windows 98 Second Edition CD-Rom. So what are my options?

What particular item is the yellow ! next to?

I don't understand your question---you say you reinsalled 98, but you don't have the 98 cd. How can that be? Have you looked on the hard drive, or the other cd's you have for a folder (possibly \cabs) that has the .cab files in ?

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Don't let the message asking for 'Windows 98 Second Edition CD-Rom' throw you for a loop. That exact text comes from layout.inf series of files and simply means the disk from where your installation cab files are at, NOT the official Windows 98 Second Edition CD-Rom from MS and only MS. Somewhere on your restoration kit CDs are the Windows installation cab files - that's the disk the message is referring to. BUT to my knowledge, one formats and installs Windows on a laptop using only the Restore CD and it's even hard to keep the CD from doing that and in that order automatically. There should also be some method to re-create the often used hidden partition at the front of the hard drive which holds the custom drivers that you are having trouble with along with some BIOS functions. I would assume, if one had the proper Restore CD, one could wipe the drive with zeros including the partition table and the Restore CD would still boot and create the hidden partition, the standard partition, format and then reinstall the highly customized laptop version of Windows 98 Second Edition that you need. BUT...I wouldn't do a thing until I was double darn sure of all of the above first. Get to the laptop's website, contact customer support and find out what you got, what CDs you need, and how to do it right. Lee

If you have run Fdisk on the drive you have proberbly deleted the hidden partition, and changed the volume name of the drive. Go to the manufactures website and find out how to fix the hidden partition, as it will sometimes hold the cd key info you are being asked for. All the drivers for the devises with yellow "!" marks should also be available for your system on the manufactures website or try www.driversguide.com

Ok. I have run Fdisk and format. It is very possible I didn't create the right partition. I will go to the website and see if they have any information for me. M