Windows 98 problem

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Thornwillow
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Windows 98 problem

Post by Thornwillow » Sat Apr 07, 2007 10:45 am

My friend reinstalled Windows 98 and he is having a problem. It gets to the dos screen it says something like this:

Startup files not found on drive C. Type in command interpreter.

Anyone know the command? Im clueless with this problem so please help. He tried using a Windows 98 recovery disc and didnt work.

Thanks

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timmeh87
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Post by timmeh87 » Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:28 am

I believe it is missing the file command.com.

Just reinstall it?
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A_Username
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Post by A_Username » Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:59 pm

timmeh87 wrote:I believe it is missing the file command.com.

Just reinstall it?
Either that or himem.sys or something essential. Just reinstall and you should be fine.

-Derek

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dragon
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Post by dragon » Sat Apr 07, 2007 2:57 pm

i had that problem before i swaped the hard drtive and that worked so try reinstallling it.

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A_Username
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Post by A_Username » Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:17 pm

dragon wrote:i had that problem before i swaped the hard drtive and that worked so try reinstallling it.
If you swap a hardrive into a computer and that hardrive had an existing OS on it, you get all kinds of errors from himem.sys, command.com, and even netbios.vxd That's a big NO NO. Reinstall and you should be fine.

-Derek

Thornwillow
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Post by Thornwillow » Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:43 pm

he kept restarting the PC and it works again. Now he is having a new problem, he said his PC is only going in 16 colors and he said he cant change it/no option to change it to a higher setting. He said it used to be 32 bit a long time ago but now its 16 colors. Whats the problem?

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bicostp
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Post by bicostp » Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:23 pm

He needs to get video drivers.

I can't tell you what to get; he has to look up what the graphics card is online then track down the 98 drivers. (XP has a much better "uiniversal" driver, but it won't work on 98.)

He'll probably need sound drivers too. Any generic SoundBlaster driver should work.

Dark Savant0
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Post by Dark Savant0 » Sun Apr 08, 2007 3:53 pm

A_Username wrote:
dragon wrote:i had that problem before i swaped the hard drtive and that worked so try reinstallling it.
If you swap a hardrive into a computer and that hardrive had an existing OS on it, you get all kinds of errors from himem.sys, command.com, and even netbios.vxd That's a big NO NO. Reinstall and you should be fine.

-Derek
This is only true of pre-XP WINDOWS systems. Linux does an ok job of hardware rediscovery most of the time (lookout for special drivers!), while XP can revert to Universal drivers and then install specialized ones from Disk. I dunno about Vista. Haven't had the opportunity to test my theory.

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ganonbanned
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Post by ganonbanned » Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:42 pm

I dont know about this, but be sure to get tweak UI . it makes it like windows xp.

Dark Savant0
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Post by Dark Savant0 » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:26 pm

ganonbanned wrote:I dont know about this, but be sure to get tweak UI . it makes it like windows xp.
Actually it does not. Tweak UI only allows easy editing of already installed facilities within the OS. A more appropriate way of him getting the system up to date would be to install Windows 98 SE (clean install, unfortunately you need to get it first. Ebay has a nice supply at a decent price). Then install Autopatcher for Windows 98SE. This will pretty much update the system to an even more stable state.

You might think Tweak UI made WIN98SE like WinXP on the laptop I sold you, gannonbanned, but that was just me installing things I thought would be appropriate. A good base install goes miles in ensuring that the system will have a long uptime. A little research helps too. :wink:

As an afterthought, computers that run Windows 98 can usually run Windows 2000, which is MUCH more stable, irregardless of what anyone says, and enables more functionality (think WinXP without the theming and some of the user-friendliness). The larger array of drivers will also future-proof the system.

Just some thoughts.

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