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I just recently purchased a Compaq Armada 1505DM Pentium R with MMX 200,Windows 98,32 Meg Ram,CD-ROM ,3 COM Network Card. It is a pretty old unit but I wanted to get it for my 9 year old to use. Heres the problem, I wanted to get it to go online with broadband so I called Best Buy, The guy said I had to have a wireless USB adapter so I got one. Netgear. When I went to install it, it started and then it stopped and now nothing will come up on the screen, no icons no start menu. A screen comes up telling me it cannot find a device file that may be needed to run windows. It says the device file no longer exists. Is there anyone that can help me with this ? I would just like to get it back to where I have icons and the start menu. Thanks
You should probably check the minimum requirements for the Netgear. I don't know what they are but a 200 mhz pentium one with 32 meg of ram doesn't sound like enough.
The messages about missing files are likely networking files that didn't get installed. The registry was updated to expect the files but they're not there. To get it back to where it was you can probably restore an older registry.
Turn off the PC and remove the Netgear stuff. Then turn it back on and, before 98 starts to load, start tapping F8. A boot menu should come up. Choose COMMAND PROMPT ONLY. Then at the c:\> prompt type scanreg/restore and enter. A list of backed up registries should show with the dates they were created. Choose to restore one with a date that precedes your attempted installation of the Netgear software.
When it's done, reboot and it should start up normally.
I don't know if it's possible to ever get that PC set up the way you want. Someone may post in here with more info than I have. But I think it's a good bet the Best Buy people don't know either. They were probably in kindergarten when that PC came out and they just assume everyone is running PCs capable of wireless broadband.
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It is likely that the PCI Card is to new for the Motherboard PCI spec. Even if it worked the speed of internet would not be great, in this situation it is best practice to use an Ethernet Cable from Router to PC
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Thank you for responding. I did the COMMAND PROMPT and restore. It restarted and now the screen just has the COMPAQ sign on it.I also tried the Ethernet Cable from Router to PC and nothing there. It did the same thing. There are still no icons or start menu. I dont know what else to do.Do you have any other suggestions for me ? Im lost.
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How far is it getting in the boot process? Do you get the windows splash screen and maybe a partial desktop or does it not even get that far?
There's not a specific next step if you've disconnected all the hardware you added and restored an older registry. At least nothing I can think of without actually looking at it myself.
You might consider a fresh install of 98 especially since it's a new PC to you and you likely don't have any important files on it yet. If you don't have the 98 cd it's possible the necessary files are on the hard drive. You can use F8 again to get to COMMAND PROMPT ONLY. Then at the c:\> prompt type DIR/P and enter. That will list the files and directories one screen at a time. If you see a directory named WIN98 then likely that is where they are.
I see that's a laptop so your upgrade options are limited. One way or the other we can probably get 98 running again. But I doubt you'll get the wireless broadband running. So you might want to think about how much more time and effort you want to put into it.
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It does not even get to a partial screen. No way to sign in, just a screen that has COMPAQ in BIG letters. Thats it.OK I have gotten to the directory and there is a windows <DIR> dated 11/13/01, no WIN98.
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I would expect some kind of error message either from the bios indicating some problem with the hard drive or from windows because it can't load. You might want to let it set there for a couple minutes and see if an error message pops up.
The windows directory is where 98 is installed but the actual installation files may not be there. Try this from the c:\> prompt. Type
dir precopy2.cab/s and enter. That will search the entire drive for the precopy2.cab file. That's one of the installation files and if it's there then likely all the files you need will be there. If it's there make a note of what directory it's in.If it's not there then the other files probably aren't either and you'd need the cd in order to do the installation.
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DAVEINCAPS
I did the dir precopy2.cab/s, now it says directory of c:/ file not found. Should I just give up on this computer?
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It looks like you'd need a 98 cd in order to reinstall and it's unlikely you'd ever get wireless broadband to run on it. So if that's your ultimate goal with it then you should probably look for something else.
A laptop is always going to be more expensive than a desktop PC of equivalent power. So unless your daughter needs a laptop you might consider a desktop. A pentium 3 or AMD athlon would probably be a good minimum processor. Used computers of that type shouldn't be too expensive, although it's going to depend on where you live. I just picked up a working 1.1 gig athlon with XP on it for $5 at goodwill.
Of course with anything used you're likely going to have to clean the PC of the previous owners software you don't need. And adding new software and hardware can sometimes cause problems for which you won't have a warranty. You may still need some outside help to get things going.
It's probably best to look for something with as much as is possible of the needed hardware already installed. Though even then you may need to add software to establish your own accounts.
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After reading the problems you've reported about your old laptop, there is possibly something more you can try. It's my understanding that you are able to use the F8 hotkey at boot up to access the "Windows 98 Startup Menu", which you have used to go to the DOS Command Prompt. But, have you tried to select the Windows's "Safe Mode" from that menu? From the description of your problem, I believe that the Netgear wireless USB adapter was not compatible with your laptop. It may be because the USB ports on the computer are too old, or it may be that the software for the adapter is not really compatible with Windows 98. Since Microsoft officially dropped support for Windows 98, I have noticed new software that is "supposedly" compatible with Windows 98 which really isn't. The problem (IMO) is that the developers are no longer actually testing the software on an actual Windows 98 machine, but just assuming it should work based on conforming to certain Application Program Interfaces (APIs). The general attitude is that Windows 98 is obsolete now anyway and anybody using it should just upgrade to newer software. But, your old laptop is not capable of supporting any newer versions of Windows. 32MB of ram is barely enough for Windows 98.
Anyway, if you are able to boot the computer into Safe Mode, then you can go to the Add/Remove Programs dialogue in the Control Panel and see if there is an option to uninstall any software which the Netgear setup installed. That might fix the problem.
Another thing to try is to go into the Laptop's BIOS and see if you are able to disable the USB on that computer. The computer may be hanging because the Netgear installation "upgraded" your USB driver to something incompatible to that laptop. Maybe, Just maybe, by disabling the USB then Windows won't try and load a USB driver and this incompatible driver won't be loaded and hang the system.
Just some ideas to try. Oh, and even if you get Windows working again, you are going to eventually need a Windows 98 setup CD for this laptop. I don't know where you got the laptop, but it should have come with the Win98 setup files. Since you've determined that these files are not on the hard drive, then there should be a CDROM available with the files. Your just not going to be able to maintain the computer over time without those files.
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DAVEINCAPS
Yes we did wait to see if it would do anything from the logo but it did nothing.Its really funny how it was ok as far as having the icons and the start menu until we tried to load that Netgear cd.Now its just blank. Thank you so much for ALL the help you have given me.You got a good deal on that athlon with XP. I paid 41.00 for this Compaq. It did work. The guy that had it said he had it on dial up and it did fine.We did get to where we could sign in and then it goes to a blank desktop. If you have anymore info please let me know.
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There are two optional files that run on startup--config.sys and autoexec.bat. They are mostly for Dos stuff but I guess it's possible the netgear installation may have altered them.
From the F8 COMMAND PROMPT ONLY type ren c:\config.sys c and enter. Then ren c:\autoexec.bat a and enter. That will rename those files (if they exist) so they won't run on startup. Then reboot and see what happens.
As far as pyrolitic's recommendation of safe mode--did you try it from the F8 menu or did you just assume it wouldn't work?
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Message: When I go to safe mode it goes to microsoft scandisk. then it will show the microsoft windows 98 window and goes right to the screen that has COMPAQ. It ask to select a hardware configuration, and that windows was unable to determine your current hardware configuration. Select one from list and the list has Dock 1 and Undocked. I also tried the F8 COMMAND PROMPT ONLY type ren c:\config sys c and ren c:\autoexec.bat a . It just sat there.
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Yes, I understood that you can't get to the Start menu, the "Windows 98 Startup Menu" is the menu which you access by using the F8 hotkey during bootup. It's the menu used to select COMMAND PROMPT ONLY. It seems the Windows OS has been corrupted at a very basic level. But, it also seems that this is just a software problem. If Windows 98 was properly installed with a clean install on that laptop, it would probably work just fine. I have an IBM laptop which is even older (100Mhz pentium, 40MB ram) which I use almost daily for a special use. It runs IE6 and is connected to the Internet by a WiFi PC card. It's slow, IE is configured not to display images, play sounds, or run javascript; which limits what websites work properly. But, it works very reliably for what I do with it. So, don't get too frustrated and just dump the laptop too quickly, it could still turn out to be useful again someday.
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I think the compaq logo it seems to hang on is the desktop wallpaper and not a bios posting logo. I remember some compaqs with 98 came with a 'compaq' wallpaper. If that's the case then it's a 'missing icon' issue. I found this:
http://support.gateway.com/s/issues...
Ignore method 1. (And by the way, don't ever install Goback). You can try 2 and/or 3 but a clean reinstall--if you can get the cd--would probably be better.
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DAVEINCAPS
I wanted to let you know that last night I kept working with what you had sent in the last message and I went to DOCK 1 and put in the info from support.gateway.com/s/issues... and it took me to the files. I worked with it till late and tonight we started working with it and believe it or not we got the windows 98 SE to load. We got it to go online also with a 3 com card. Its slow but it will go on there. I want to thank you SOOOO much for all the help you have given me. Thanks again
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Thanks for the help that everyone has given me to get my laptop up and working. It took a couple of days but its there. Thanks again
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Congratulations. We're glad you got it going. I probably would have given up and done a reinstall. But sticking with it to a successful conclusion gives you a huge dose of personal satisfaction.
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