Loading Windows 98 Upgrade issues.

[69Z28]

I have an old TH30S Dell Inspiron 3000 M266XT that someone put Windows XP Home on it and it runs like crap. How can I change back to Windows 95 or 98? All I have in the way of OS disks is Windows 95 Upgrade, Windows 98, and Windows 98 Upgrade.

Also, this laptop has a removable floppy drive and cd-rom. One has to be removed from the slot if you want to use the other. My dilemma is not having access to both at the same time. According to some sites I googled, including Microsoft, I need the cd-rom and the floppy the computer can read from each device.

I tried several times to install Windows 98 Upgrade and I always get no system disk error when I flip the floppy drive for the cd-rom. At this point I am unsure of what to do to fix this.


Thanks. 

[patio]

Not sure if it'll work with an external floppy drive but travel to bootdisk.com and DLoad and make a Win 98SE bootable floppy...make sure to choose the one with CD-Rom support...

[Computer_Commando]

The best way I have found to install Win98 is to use an existing machine that is using Win98, then copy the Win98 folder from the Win98 CD to a folder on the hard drive.  Then image the hard drive with DOS Ghost, then restore the image on the target machine.  When it asks for the Win98 CD, point to the directory that you copied from the Win98 CD.  A 1GB hard drive is of sufficient capacity to hold the Win98 CD folder and a lot more.  You can use the notebook's floppy or CD to boot the machine to restore the image.  No need to swap drives for anything.

[69Z28]

I apologize for the delay. As it stands I don't have access to a computer with Windows 98 on it. I do have a laptop noted in my first post that has Windows XP Home SP2 but it runs painfully slow and I was looking to install Windows 98 back on it. All I have at present is Windows 95 UPGRADE, Windows 98, and Windows 98 UPGRADE. I currently have the hard drive partitioned and formatted but I can't seem to go any further since there appears to be no CD-ROM software loaded. Also, I'm not quite sure what steps I need to take when I have to switch between using the Floppy drive and the CD-ROM drive devices. I cannot use them both together based on info for installing Windows 98 UPGRADE.

What is the difference between the Windows 98 disk and the Windows 98 UPGRADE disk?
Do I need to find the disks to load Windows 95 first before I can use Windows 98 UPGRADE? If so all I have is a Windows 95 UPGRADE disk.

I'm sure we can figure this out somehow.

Thanks.

The best way I have found to install Win98 is to use an existing machine that is using Win98, then copy the Win98 folder from the Win98 CD to a folder on the hard drive.  Then image the hard drive with DOS Ghost, then restore the image on the target machine.  When it asks for the Win98 CD, point to the directory that you copied from the Win98 CD.  A 1GB hard drive is of sufficient capacity to hold the Win98 CD folder and a lot more.  You can use the notebook's floppy or CD to boot the machine to restore the image.  No need to swap drives for anything.

[patio]

Short answer an Upgrade CD won't do squat without a qualifying version of Windows already installed...

[Computer_Commando]

1.   All I have at present is Windows 95 UPGRADE, Windows 98, and Windows 98 UPGRADE.
2.  What is the difference between the Windows 98 disk and the Windows 98 UPGRADE disk?
3.  Do I need to find the disks to load Windows 95 first before I can use Windows 98 UPGRADE? If so all I have is a Windows 95 UPGRADE disk....

1.  Use the Win98 CD.  It's your only choice.
2.  What Patio said.
3.  Yes.

[BC_Programmer]

1.  Use the Win98 CD.  It's your only choice.

With the problem that Win98 (not SE) Discs aren't bootable, taking them back to their original problem, where they can't use both floppy and CD simultaneously.

[patio]

travel to bootdisk.com and DLoad and make a Win 98SE bootable floppy...make sure to choose the one with CD-Rom support...

With this method it gets the PC to a command prompt after loading minimal drivers...
CD \D:  Enter.
D:\Setup  Enter and it should start the setup process.

Actually the command may be install...been quite awhile...

[69Z28]

Well I figured it out. I found a Microsoft article I printed out back in 1995 about doing a fresh install of Windows 98 on a HD. I followed the instructions, and with Windows 98 I was able to install the OS. I also remembered I bought a Multi-Task Utilities Suite CD 2 years ago from 'eddiemaintentance.com to help me install OS's. I used the Multi-Task disk from the CD-ROM, followed the directions from the help file and I was able to install Windows 98 Upgrade. During the installation, a window pops up asking to place the previous OS system disk in the CD-ROM, which I have a copy of Windows 95 Upgrade. It needed proof there was a valid copy of Windows installed beforehand. After that I had to install CD-ROM drivers from the Multi-Disk and then the Windows 98 Upgrade disk. Just more steps to do to accomplish the same result.

Anyway I have Winows 98 installed, But I'm having another issue.

If I'm not in the correct forum for this question let me know.

I cannot connect to the internet using the same ethernet PCMCIA card, Dell Fast Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX 3CCFE575BT-D with Windows 98, as I was  able to with XP installed.

Is Windows 98 capable of using an ethernet card? I does work in the computer. Maybe there are drivers and instructions somewhere online. Time to search.

Any tips here?

Thanks   

[Computer_Commando]

...
I cannot connect to the internet using the same ethernet PCMCIA card, Dell Fast Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX 3CCFE575BT-D with Windows 98, as I was  able to with XP installed.

Is Windows 98 capable of using an ethernet card? I does work in the computer. Maybe there are drivers and instructions somewhere online. Time to search.

Any tips here?...

That part number looks like a 3Com device.
HP acquired 3Com in 2010.  HP & Dell have no drivers of any kind for this device.

[69Z28]

Yes it is a 3Com device. Is it possible to find drivers for it to work with 98?

That part number looks like a 3Com device.
HP acquired 3Com in 2010.  HP & Dell have no drivers of any kind for this device.

[69Z28]

Thanks guys. All is well.

I decided to install XP Home w/SP2 instead of 98. Everything works well with that OS, but if I install SP3 the Inspiron 3000 is a dog and takes forever for anything to come up when I click on something. XP Home w/SP2 seems to run just as fast as 98 did except, for whatever reason, which I quite don't understand because I was able to connect to the internet before with 98 using the 3COM PCMCIA card. I can actually connect to the net using a Netgear wireless USB adapter as well with XP Home SP2.

Anyway, I am satisfied with the progress I made with the old Dell Inspiron 3000 and I learned a few things along the way.

Thanks again.

[patio]

You need to visit the Dell site...enter your Service Tag #...and DLoad and re-install ALL neccessary drivers for XP...
This step is the one most missed when users do an OS re-install...

[Computer_Commando]

...I decided to install XP Home w/SP2 instead of 98. Everything works well with that OS, but if I install SP3 the Inspiron 3000 is a dog and takes forever for anything to come up when I click on something. XP Home w/SP2 seems to run just as fast as 98 did ..

Yes, we have found the same thing.  Something in WinXP SP3 requires a lot more powerful CPU & more RAM.  Because of this, I've decided to use Win2k on a Pentium II-333 laptop (Inspiron 7000 clone) with 544MB RAM.  Stopped using IE, now use Firefox.

There are no WinXP drivers for the Inspiron 3000 from Dell.  Win2k are the latest.

[69Z28]

Yes...way ahead of ya. Dell DOES NOT have drivers for the what I call the top of the line Model TS30H Inspiron 3000 M266XT Notebook. I searched forever and a day to see if I could find anything on-line. No such luck. I did add a 20GB HD and bumped up the RAM some years ago but not sure if I can go any higher. How would I find out if I can add more RAM? or is it even possible?

What is the difference between WinXP and Win2K?

For what it's worth I can't seem to bring myself to let go of IE. Been using IE8 for a long while. I tried Firefox at least 10 different times in as many years on several of my computers, but I can't or just plain don't know how to set it up once installed. I seem to get frustrated with it trying to set it up and not having anyone else around but me, myself and I, it gets uninstalled and back to IE8 I go. I tried the Mozilla website forums and always seem to get broken, very short answers that don't really give any guidance. Oh well!!! I do understand though that Firefox is a great browser, but unless I can chat with someone with experience on setting it up I'm dead in the water.

 I did have one guy from the forum a few months ago tell me to download this and download that and download this and that and by the time it was all said and done I could have jumped off the Empire State building without flinching. Anyone care to give me a hand?

Thanks guys for letting me bend your ears. I really am alone here, literally, and I chug along the best I can to figure things out for myself and I can definitely use recommendations setting up Firefox maybe on a basic/intermediate level until I can figure out what is best for me.