Win 98 problem

[Arcadiac]

Hi y'all...I bought a fujitsu life book really cheap.  b2545 series with touchscreen hoping to load a few games on it, bejeweled etc.  Win 98 is recognising some of the devices I'm trying to use to load programs, but Win98 doesn't have the drivers for the devices.  I'm tryin to use an old HP cdwriter+ external model no. 8220e but no luck.  I've tried several brands of usb stick to load the HP drivers, no luck it wants drivers for them too!  Also tried external floppy, same result.
I've gone in and checked all the BIOS settings to be sure USB and floppy are supported and on and they are.
I'm pretty tenacious when trying to solve these problems but I'm stumped!
Any ideas?  Thanks in advance.

ARCADIAC!

[protokatie]

Go to device manager and click on the devices that have no proper driver. In the properties tab there should be a list of ID numbers. Copy/paste the numbers into google.

Been a LONG time since I dealt with Win98, so I do not know exacly how to get to that data, but I imagine going to control panel + system and then devices will get you there. I have had to deal with a similar issue with TinyXP to get GFX drivers.

Hope this helps you find what you need.

EDIT: I reread what you said, and do not know if you can get internet access to your compy. If that is the case, I would recommend trying to boot off of a Knoppix or Ubuntu live disk and see if you can tranfeer files that way (assuming the external CD drive is allowed for BIOS booting)

[Nipedley]

As above its been years since I seriously used windows 98, but if it has windows sharing capability... why not stick a network cable in between it and your main pc and transfer some stuff that way.

If it's got no internal floppy, cd, usb or ethernet then I have to say that sounds like a pretty isolated laptop..

XP a nogo?

[ChadTower]

Which version of 98?  Did you get sp2?  sp2 is unofficial but includes all of the updates that used to be on Windows Update for 98.  That makes a huuuuuuuuuge difference.  You should also make sure to get the 98se USB drivers.  That might take care of almost all of your issues.

[Ken Layton]

I did some googling for win 98 sp2 last year for my old laptop. Boy did that make a big difference for me. Yes, sp2 is "unofficial" and from unofficial sources, but try to get any win 98 support from old billy boy today.

[Arcadiac]

Bios supports boot from floppy or HD only but will not boot from the particular floppy I have.  It's a good floppy, I checked it on my other PC.
The only thing I could get to operate without additional drivers was a trackball mouse.
So the usb ports work but if Win98 does not alrady have the drivers for the device I have no way of loading them, mem sticks, drive etc. no love.
Looking at "help/about windows" in the menu it just says win98, not sp2.
Tried networking thru 10/100 port, no luck there either, win 98 didn't acknowledge it at all.
It even has infrared but I have nothing else to send the files thru to it!
All I really want to do is load WinXP on it and put a few game on it as well.
Here is a link to the manuals, maybe that will help.

http://www.retrevo.com/support/Fujitsu-B2545-Laptops-manual/id/606bh547/t/2/

Keep in mind that I have none of the accessories or port replicators and am trying to work with what I have, usb floppy, usb hp cdwriter or mem sticks.
I called the person I bought it from to see if any other accessories are available just in case she forgot to send them along with it.

I wonder if I could connect pc to pc and transfer driver files through the modem ports?  How?  Is there a simple way one of you could share here with me,
idiot-proof? 
There has to be a solution, it's probably a lot simpler than I'm making it I just don't see it yet!

Thanks again for your ideas, keep em coming!

ARCADIAC!

[ChadTower]

Take the hard drive out and slave it on another machine.  Or put it in a USB enclosure and plug that into another machine.

[david656]

Take the hard drive out and slave it on another machine.  Or put it in a USB enclosure and plug that into another machine.

thats what i've tried doing recently.. shuved a 2.5 to 3.5 converter on an old ibm laptop hard drive and shuved it in my pc.. the drive physically started squealing... and would not get recognised.. i put it in the laptop.. fine.. very odd

i got 1 out of say 4 drives to recognise... but i think the other 3 were dead anyway as they wouldn't even power.

In theory good idea though :-) and the one i plan to do. some how

If you plan to put the hard drive in a different PC you may want to format it, install dos and then simply copy a windows 98/ME disc into a folder on the hard drive. then pop it in the laptop and run the folder from the DOS prompt. i've tried this theory in virtual machine and it works ok :-) but only up to windows ME as 2000 XP etc cannot be installed from the dos prompt.

[Nipedley]

I second the 2.5" hard drive to 3.5" converter above. It should have no compatability issues, because all your doing is putting the same signals through a different cable. I had to use one for an old laptop I got years ago.

Put the drive on as slave on the computer your using now, and copy over all the drivers you need (that windows 98 sp2 is a good one as well, forgot about that!)

Also it depends how old the laptop is, but many bios have the ability to boot from usb before windows loads, so you could potentially use that to install XP.

[Arcadiac]

External enclosure and simply copy the drivers over........I'll try it!
Thanks all, will report back later.

ARCADIAC!

[Ken Layton]

Check this out:

http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html

It's the unofficial service pack.

[Arcadiac]

Thanks Ken, turns out I had the service pack on my HD as well as WinXPsp3.

Sooooo, I removed the HD, put it in an external enclosure and copied the drivers for the cdwriter, win98, the win98sp2, winxpsp3 onto the drive and then put it back in the laptop.

Installed the Win 98 cd writer driver, no luck.
I installed the Win98 sp2, no love with it.
Tried to install WinXP from the HD, got error messages.
Finally figured out to try to reinstall the cdrom driver and it finally worked.

On to WinXP, installed from cdrom, no problem.

Final issue, touchscreen wouldn't work.
after trying the WinXP version that didn't work, I downloaded and installed the Win98 version and viola, I'm done!

So now it's just a matter of seeing which games will run and which will make the best of the 600mhz/128mb power.

BUT the big part is over, thanks to all who helped, it's good to know that there is a place that I can come and actually get the help I need without feeling like too much of a dumbass! 

  Thank You All!     

ARCADIAC!

[Ken Layton]

Glad that it worked out!