No USB Support in Windows 98

[magic_plank]

Hi there,

I have a Dell Optiplex GX150 with no OS or CD/Hard drive. I found a hard drive with an installation of win98 on it that I tried to install on my p4 machine for dual booting. It wouldnt have it and couldnt handle the memory. So, I plugged it in to my Dell. To my suprise, it booted with no errors! What are the odds?

2 things are a bit wierd though;

1) There is no USB support. I plug in the USB whatever it is, and nothing happens. I think this is because the machine that I installed had USB 2, and this has 1.1. I have no idea what i need to remedy this, probably some file on the win98 CD (which i have) but it would need to be small enough to fit on a floppy, as the CD drive doesnt work and nor do USB sticks (duh!)

2) It cant display more than 16 colours and only supports a res of 640x480. I think this has something to do with the monitor I used during installation, and the monitor I used with another win98 machine with no problems was only plugged in today. This is not as urgent as the first problem.

[GX1_Man]

Drivers for every Dell ever made can be found on their site:

http://support.dell.com/


If onboard graphics, this is it:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R18328&SystemID=PLX_PNT_P3C_GX150&os=W98&osl=en&deviceid=671&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=1&formatcnt=1&libid=6&fileid=18034

You can run Add New Hardware in Control Panel and see if that works. Dell MB's frequently have chipset drivers that should be installed for best performance:

http://support.dell.com/

Of course a fresh install is best....  

[magic_plank]

I cant do a fresh install; No CD drive
I cant find a generic USB driver, nothing happens with anything I plug in. I think this is windows itself. I cant us the onboard graphics driver, its too large for a floppy disk

Unless I can find a new laptop/external CD drive (not an option at the moment) I'm stuck.

[GX1_Man]

Oh, it's one of those miniature ones?  

You can't download directly to it? Or across a network? Those have built in NIC's.

With the combination of the right chipset drivers, the USB may start to work.

[magic_plank]

lol, I cant download directly to it, I only noticed when I tried to install my wireless adapter driver from a memory stick that I noticed.

A network sounds promising, except i have no idea what to do. Or what cables. Or how good win98 is for networking

[magic_plank]

Actually I just found a cable wich fits into the NIC's of both my computers.

Now how do I connect them?

[GX1_Man]

To connect directly from computer to computer you cannnot use a standard ethernnet cable, which is probably what you have. You need a crossover cable, available at computer stores, Radio Shack, etc., about $5. Win98 does just fine with networking. You just have to set it up.

[Scourged]

Windoze98fe had a few problems with usb. There may be patches at microsoft. networking shouldnt be a problem.

Check the plugs side by side on the network cable. If theyre exactly the same its a straight thru cable but if a pair of wires goes to diffrent pins its a xover and just what you need.

http://neptune.netcomp.monash.edu.au/cpe5013/Tutorial/Protocols/RJ45wiring.gif