I hate DELL... pls help me get around this

[HiHoStevo]

Unfortunately the Enum deletion did not solve the problem........

I ghosted my old drive to the new one... booted the new HD in the old machine... that ran fine.... when windows came up I ran regedit and deleted the Enum file as described.

When I placed the drive into the new machine.... right after the post the Windows 98 "splash screen" comes up for about 3 seconds then I receive the message...

Y2000RTC
This version of the software only for use with DELL BIOS

Any more ideas??????????

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

<< The only thing I could find in the registry(Ihave Dell XPS-R) would be to search for oeminfo, although I'd recommend using a program like This(Registry Cleaner) first, before deleting the oeminfo key, to see if it is listed. A lot of things will stay in the registry, even if deleted from Windows.

hth,
eplebnista >>



I tried using Registry Cleaner, but I could not find any listing that looked like it could be for a DELL BIOS check.

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

This is a perfect example of how specific error messages can help troubleshooting. This problem is not in the bios...this is an extra piece of software that Dell added for customers to ensure their clocks would roll over correctly for year 2000 compatibility. Here's how to get rid of the file, and where it appears in your startup:

The following comes from a Dell support page. You're only interested in the part about deleting the file/folder, and the entry in your config.sys file. The rest I simply provided here for your information. Do NOT follow the instructions as to upgrading this driver! Just delete the file/folder it talks about, and delete the entry in your config.sys file:

The primary year 2000 hardware resolution provided by Dell is the Dell-produced code in the system BIOS which properly executes the century rollover on 1 January 2000 as detailed in the Dell Year 2000 Compliance Statement . All Dell systems shipped since 1 January 1997 are Year2000 compliant in accordance with the YMARK2000 test on the NSTL web site. The Y2000RTC driver is a supplemental device that Dell provides for its customers to address concerns by customers who have adopted a non-standard test that goes directly to the Real Time Clock (RTC).


NOTICE: For customers who have purchased a Dell system with an STB/TNT nVidia video card during the time period, 11 December 98 to 12 February 99, you will need to upgrade your Y2000rtc driver. Testing can then be accomplished with the NSTL test.
To preclude the potential of a system 'lock', Dell recommends removal of the old Y2000RTC driver (ver A00) and replace with the current Y2000RTC driver (ver A01). REMOVE THE OLD SOFTWARE by following the procedure below.

To remove the old Y2000RTC driver:
RIGHT CLICK Win95/98 Start button
CHOOSE Explore
GO TO C:\ and CHOOSE Dell, or it could be located under a separate folder named Y2000rtc.
CHOOSE rtc.clk
DELETE rtc.clk
GO to Start
GO to Run
TYPE sysedit
Screens will cascade. One screen is Config.sys
Click on the Config.sys screen. Screen will come to the front
Find line Y2000RTC.EXE +R
DELETE line
GO to file, SAVE then EXIT

By the way, I know what you're thinking..."How can I do this if I can't boot into Windows?"...Just boot into safe mode...tap the F8 key the instant you see the message that it's starting Windows 98. Then choose the Safe Mode option. Then, when it boots, click the Start Button, then Run, then type in "sysedit" (without the quotes) and click OK. When the cascading windows appear, click on Config.sys, and delete the line with the "Y2000RTC.EXE +R" entry in it. Then, exit out of sysedit. It will prompt you to save your changes. Click OK, then reboot normally. Voila!

 

[HiHoStevo]

Fantastic....... I will give it a shot right now.............. I think I can even delete the config.sys entry and the rtc.cl file from DOS.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

Slick...... that did the trick......... eliminating the file and the config.sys entry worked....... however, it would not allow me to boot into DOS, so I had to actually do what you told me to do....... boot into safe mode and delete them there.

As to the other problem I e-mailed to you ....... I may have found the problem there also..... In snooping around I found a pair of wires (blue and black) coming off the power supply and running to a connector on the motherboard under the video card. I had not noticed them in my son's machine... so I went to take a closer look. He had the wires and connector, but they were just rolled up and tucked away unused (and his machine works). When I checked the Motherboard info I found that the connector the wires were plugged into is supposed to be for power "out" to the cpu fan. So the tech's that assembled the computer apparently had run power from the power supply to a power out port on the mother board..... I am not a nuclear brain surgeon, but I don't think that is a good plan!!

When I removed the connector I was able to actually boot the computer and load the OS... something I had not been able to do before....

Thanks again,

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

Excellent. Glad it all worked out.

 

[HiHoStevo]

Well....... it has not all worked yet......... I am not sure what is happening now.... it seemed to be working pretty well when I did a clean install of the OS on one of the new HD's.

So I got brave and imaged over my old HD, deleted the above files and fired it up.... I had occasional blue screen's while I was getting the device drivers loaded for the new hardware setup....... updating an existing HD setup seems to be more problematic. I would have two DMA controllers in the system files, one with a yellow exclamation, but if I delete it, next time windows starts it reloads the drivers for the DMA device and when I go back into check the system it has a yellow exclamation on the second version of the same file..... ditto with the keyboard....... However we seemed to be getting there... things worked much smoother after I pulled one of the ram sticks out. The AK31A has four Dimm slots for DDR and I had them all full with DDR/2100 256Meg Dimm's. Someone else had mentioned that Win98 had problems with lots of ram, so I pulled one and things seemed to be better, but not perfect. A friend suspected I was having problems with my network card (D-Link 10/100 pci), so we pulled that and most of the problems seem to go away.

When I reinstalled the D-link card windows found it and loaded the drivers.... one of the files it found it said was older than the one on the computer and wanted to know which file I wanted to use...... as we had difficulty with the card and the new file I said to load the old one...... Whooops that must have been a mistake....... because then I got the following as the computer tried to continue starting........

Invalid VxD dynamic Link call from VDHCP (03) + 00002728 to device "VIP ", service 12

Your windows configuration is invalid, run the windows setup program again to correct this problem............... so I did then as the "plug and Play devices were being scanned I get.........

Invalid VxD dynamic Link call from VNBT (01) +0000F99C to device "VIP ", service 12.

I attempt to continue and get

Invalid VxD dynamic link call from VNBT (01) + 000F99C to device "VIP ", service 13.

Fatal exception 06 occurred at 0000:000004C7

So I pull the card again, and run windows setup with the card removed.

Once again the system loads files and after it does it's restart to "run windows for the first time" I get the blue screen with

Invalid VxD dynamic link call from VNBT (01) + 0000F99C to device "VIP ", service 12



Any ideas????????????

Steve

 

[MaximK]

I have a hunch it is your network card. I would remove all devices living only video-card. Then I would run Win setup. An after all good I would Install one device at a time.

It looks like you have problem with one of you drivers.
Try this link.Error INFO
Refresh you WB if nothing shows up.

PS: Remember? I told you to reinstall the system and copy data over after only folders under C: drive. The problem would have bean resolved then because you would have created a new system files and all.

 

[HiHoStevo]

Yeah........... I was trying to do it the "easy" way...................

I get the Invalid VxD message every time I try to boot into windows....... I can boot into safe mode with no problems..... but everytime I try to get into windows itself I get the VNBT message from above......... If I tell it to continue sometimes it boots on into windows....... When it did I ran Norton Disk Doctor and found no errors on the disk. So I ran Norton WinDoctor and after a few seconds of checking the registry (earlier in the evening before the fiasco with the network card NWinDoctor has run and found no errors) I get a blue screen that says

"System memory is running very low. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect may not be able to function properly" hit any key to continue.......

when I hit a key the screen goes to white with flashing vertical thin stripes and is locked..........

I booted back into windows (yes got the VNBT error message) when windows started I went to MSCONFIG and turned off everything in the startup menu...... restarted.

Same blue screen with the Invalid VxD........ VNBT error from above.............

I am very confused............. really confused about the low memory warning....... I have 768 megs of ram installed and a 100Gig HD (virtual memory is being handled by windows) with only about 12gigs used..............???

Steve

 

[MaximK]

Did you try to reinstall win with video card only in your system. Try if you did not. What you experiensing is registry problems. you have corupt data in it. By the way in Win95/98 you systems registry is limited to 32 megs (if I remember corectly).

 

[Mday]

here are some blind statements.

when switching to a new motherboard, i always recommend a clean install of windows if you use windows.
dell most likely placed proprietory information on the harddrive's boot sector. if so, "fdisk /mbr" will restore the boot sector to microsoft default.

--

those fatal errors mean one thing: do a fresh installation of windows.

 

[HiHoStevo]

I did a re-install with the sound card, video card, and network card installed... then did a re-install with just the sound and video.

It gets weirder and weirder........ I am wondering if having that ps (blue/black) connector plugged into the mb cpu fan power header has caused some permenant damage to the mb or ps??

If I physically remove the network card and all reverences in the Device Manager to anything in the network card... then restart the computer seems to run fairly normally.... NDD and NWinDoctor run fine with no errors.

So I plug the network card back into a different pci slot and I have the same error messages "invalid VxD dynamic link call from VNBT (01) + 0000F99C to device "VIP ", service 12".... then a little farther into the boot I get "Invalid VxD dynamic link call from VNBT (01) + 0000F99C to device "VIP ", service 13"..... then later yet "invalid VxD dyanamic link call from VNBT (01) + 0000F99C to device "VIP ", service E" What is up with this...

So I delete all of the network drivers again, pull the card restart........ everything hunky dory.........

I install a different 10/100 card from a different manufacturer and as I boot up before I even have a chance to load the drivers I get.........."invalid VxD dynamic link call from VNBT (01) + 0000F99C to device "VIP ", service 12".... then a little farther into the boot I get "Invalid VxD dynamic link call from VNBT (01) + 0000F99C to device "VIP ", service 13"..... then later yet "invalid VxD dyanamic link call from VNBT (01) + 0000F99C to device "VIP ", service E"

So I have two different network cards from different manufacturers that are both producing exactly the same error messages. The reference provided by one of the folks above identifies the VNBT error as relating to "netbeui"... however when I was first getting the error messages, I did not have any protocals installed at all. I did go back and install TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, & netbeui, but the error messages are still there during each startup.

I finally get the drivers loaded for the card, but everytime I open the network neighborhood all that their is the globe with "entire network." If I double click on the globe I get the error message that "the network is not available. "

Well I am seriously confused.............

So I boot from a different HD with a clean install of win98se on it............ install the drivers for the second network card and now I can open the network neighborhood and at least see this computer....... but I cannot see any of the others that are on the network....... if I type the routers address into the browser window it cannot find it either.

Yes, in each instance I have made sure to add the tcp/ip protocol and properly configure the properties with the address for the gateway..., but no luck either way......... obviously the clean install seems to be more stable, but even that is not working as it should............

Could there be a setting in the BIOS that is incorrect???

If any of you folks reading this have the Shuttle AK31A could you post a list of all your bios settings so I can compare mine?????

This is all I can think of at this point........ my brain is becoming oatmeal.......... Either I have something screwed up in the BIOS (entirely possible)....

Or could there be some residual damage to the MB or PS, from having that connector plugged into the cpu fan header???

Thanks,

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

Ps. Thanks to eveyone making suggestions......... I will check back in when I return... I have to be out of town until 31DEC01.

Hopefully by the time I have returned one of you will have a solution for me......................

Thanks again




Steve

 

[Slikkster]

One thing you absolutely need to do until Windows is setup is limit your ram to 512 mb. After it's set up you can make a simple entry in your system.ini file to get around that. The problem is Windows 98's vcache. I'll edit this as I go along and keep reading your stuff.

Ok, I've re-read your stuff. Here's your problems:

First, pull 2 Ram modules so you only have 512 (for now).

Secondly, you have a driver mismatch in your networking section that's causing those VxD's. You were correct in assuming you made a mistake when you chose to use the "older" driver that the network card installed. That is the root of those problems.

Thirdly, the reason your clean install can't see the network is probably because the "Workgroup" name is different on that pc vs. the others on the network. Go to control panel and doubleclick the Network icon. Click the Identification Tab. The "Workgroup" name needs to be EXACTLY the same as the rest of the pc's on your network.

Fourthly (heheh), the reason you're getting double entries for hardware devices is because you have leftover entries in your ENUM section of the registry that had to do with your old motherboard. That's why I suggest deleting that and letting Windows redetect all your current devices.

Fifthly, I'll work on getting you an up-to-date list of all your pertinent networking files so they're all the same version set.

Ok, here's what I would do about your networking files. Go to your PC Drive with the Clean Install of Windows 98SE. Assuming that's the SAME operating system as your ghosted drive, copy the following files to a floppy:

NDIS.VXD
PPPMAC.VXD
VTDI.386
VIP.386
VTCP.386
VDHCP.386
VNBT.386
VREDIR.VXD
VUDP.386
MSTCP.DLL
WSOCK.VXD
WSOCK2.VXD

All of these are in your Windows\System folder. Now, use a dos boot disk or just hit F8 on the ghosted drive system and choose "Command Prompt Only" and copy all these files to your c:\windows\system folder on your ghosted drive (the one with all the errors). This should update your files that were mismatched when you tried to install the network card the first time and chose to use an older file.

Now, once you've done that, try rebooting again normally on the ghosted drive. Hopefully, you'll be free of the blue screens that point to "Vip".

If, for some reason, you still get those blue screens, other files might need replacing. In that case, you'll have to follow Microsoft's instructions here. A little tedious, but it ensures a clean set of files:

How to remove and reinstall Tcp/Ip and DialUp Networking Files in Win98

Try the easier solution that I outlined above with the floppy first, however.

Normally, ALWAYS keep newer versions of files when prompted during an install.

Additionally, I'd be deleting the Enum section of the ghosted drive's registry to clear it out of extraneous hardware that pops up.

Now, once you've deleted the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum key in the Ghosted drive, you'll see all your hardware redetect upon reboot. You shouldn't see duplicate/extraneous entries.

Now, on to getting ALL your memory installed, as I instructed you to only have 512 mb installed during setup. To use all your memory without getting error messages (ironically) about being "low on memory", you need to edit your "system.ini" file. Look for the section in system.ini titled "[vcache]". It's probably blank underneath that heading. Now, with that in mind, just read this article (one of many on the subject) about how to edit your vcache settings:


How to adjust your Vcache settings to use more than 512 mb of Ram in Windows 98

Once you've edited your system.ini file using the maxfilecache and minfilecache settings (read the page above), save system.ini and shutdown your pc. Now, install the other 2 Ram modules. Reboot...all should be fine now.

 

[HiHoStevo]

<< One thing you absolutely need to do until Windows is setup is limit your ram to 512 mb. After it's set up you can make a simple entry in your system.ini file to get around that. The problem is Windows 98's vcache. I'll edit this as I go along and keep reading your stuff.

Ok, I've re-read your stuff. Here's your problems:

First, pull 2 Ram modules so you only have 512 (for now). >>



Okay, that is easy enough.... it is done.



<< Secondly, you have a driver mismatch in your networking section that's causing those VxD's. You were correct in assuming you made a mistake when you chose to use the "older" driver that the network card installed. That is the root of those problems.

Thirdly, the reason your clean install can't see the network is probably because the "Workgroup" name is different on that pc vs. the others on the network. Go to control panel and doubleclick the Network icon. Click the Identification Tab. The "Workgroup" name needs to be EXACTLY the same as the rest of the pc's on your network. >>



No the workgroup name is exactly the same as the rest of the network............



<< Fourthly (heheh), the reason you're getting double entries for hardware devices is because you have leftover entries in your ENUM section of the registry that had to do with your old motherboard. That's why I suggest deleting that and letting Windows redetect all your current devices. >>



I did delete the entire ENUM section in the registry prior to moving the HD to the new machine...........



<< Fifthly, I'll work on getting you an up-to-date list of all your pertinent networking files so they're all the same version set.

Ok, here's what I would do about your networking files. Go to your PC Drive with the Clean Install of Windows 98SE. Assuming that's the SAME operating system as your ghosted drive, copy the following files to a floppy:

NDIS.VXD
PPPMAC.VXD
VTDI.386
VIP.386
VTCP.386
VDHCP.386
VNBT.386
VREDIR.VXD
VUDP.386
MSTCP.DLL
WSOCK.VXD
WSOCK2.VXD >>



OKay that is my next job........



<< All of these are in your Windows\System folder. Now, use a dos boot disk or just hit F8 on the ghosted drive system and choose "Command Prompt Only" and copy all these files to your c:\windows\system folder on your ghosted drive (the one with all the errors). This should update your files that were mismatched when you tried to install the network card the first time and chose to use an older file.

Now, once you've done that, try rebooting again normally on the ghosted drive. Hopefully, you'll be free of the blue screens that point to "Vip". >>



I will let you know later today how it goes.........



<< If, for some reason, you still get those blue screens, other files might need replacing. In that case, you'll have to follow Microsoft's instructions here. A little tedious, but it ensures a clean set of files:

How to remove and reinstall Tcp/Ip and DialUp Networking Files in Win98

Try the easier solution that I outlined above with the floppy first, however.

Normally, ALWAYS keep newer versions of files when prompted during an install. >>



I had done that with the previous install......... however as I was having problems with the first install, I thought I would try the other file... I had no idea that it would be such a problem to replace the file........



<< Additionally, I'd be deleting the Enum section of the ghosted drive's registry to clear it out of extraneous hardware that pops up. >>



As stated above I did delete the Enum section prior to starting this.......



<< Now, once you've deleted the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum key in the Ghosted drive, you'll see all your hardware redetect upon reboot. You shouldn't see duplicate/extraneous entries. >>



I was surprised at the extra entries myself...... especially as I had deleted the Enum section......... on the keyboard, everytime I would delete the extra file in the device manager it would reload on the next startup.

Stand by..............

I am now returning control of your TV set to you..................

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

Slick you are as good as your name...............

After copying the files to the windows\system folder and rebooting............ all was almost right with the world.............

NO BLUE SCREENS!!!! YEA...................

However, (there always seems to be a however doesn't there.....) I triple checked the settings in My Network Neighborhood and they are the same as the settings on the drive I ghosted from.... I did change the computer name, but all the rest of the settings are the same as the rest of the network.

I can see the new computer, but only by itself.... I cannot access the internet... and if I type the address of my router in the explorer window it does not see the router.... I hooked the rj45 plug into a friends laptop to check out the connection, and he connected to the network and router immediately. {seems a bit bizarre to me}.

Also, I have one other little "strangity." The screen saver I was using on the old computer is the Fish.scr that comes with WindowsXP. It runs and looks beautiful on my old P3 Dell with an ATI Radeon card, but on my new computer with the GeForce3 card the screensaver only displays white fish swimming in a grey background?? The resolution and color depth are set the same......... ?? Is there something weird about the GeForce with this screensaver? Other screensavers work normal.... just this one is different....... I even reloaded it from the original file with no luck??

Ideas??

Thanks again your help has been terriffic!!!!

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

Slick if you don't mind I would like to ask you another question....................

Now that we have the problem with the Ghost copy of my original drive mostly sorted out....... this was my plan.............

Plug my Promise FastTrack card in and create a raid 0, with two IBM GXP60 40gig drives. After hooking them up you boot up and go into the Promise Controller to set up the raid, then fdisk the raid, and then format the raid. Once that is done I was going to Ghost my now (with your help) functioning drive with the system and files I had previously ghosted (a Western Digital this is the one we have been repairing). Have I lost you yet???? Other than the screensaver and Network the drive appears to be running fine........... I have not taken the time to redo the vCache settings, but after I get the network up that will be my next chore.

checking the Device Manager reveals NO yellow exclamation marks and no duplicate files!

Next I wanted to partition my new raid (probably with Partition Magic 7). I would like 1) a partition for the system files, 2) a partition for the program files, and 3)a partition to dedicate to the SWAP file. Being that I need Win98 for a few more months to access company stuff (they have not ported access over to Win2k or XP yet... but say it should be up in a couple of months)... I was going to create a dual-boot system with Win98SE and either Win2k or XP. So my next question is should a create yet another partition for 2k or XP and if so, do I make it an NTFS partition (I would think so, but...). If I create an NTFS partition for XP or 2k will I be able to see the FAT32 partitions while I am running in XP or 2K? If XP/2K can access the previously mentioned partitions then can I set the same SWAP partition that I am using for SWAP in Win98? Also if I need to use a compliant program in both OS's I would think I would just install the progam in XP as though it were a new program, just have the system write the file to the same location where the original is located for Win98....... ??

What are your views.......

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

Working on the networking problem. Please specify how you're connecting to the Internet, and separately, how are you dealing with a local network?

In other words, are you using Dial-Up Networking to connect to the Internet, and using a local Lan for talking to other computers? What other computers?

I would take a look at your Internet Options tab in Control Panel. Click on "Connections". Make sure there is a default action for connecting to the Internet. (as in Always Dial My Default Connection, etc.)

Make sure you see Tcp/IP bound to both your Network card and your Dial Up Adapter. If all still looks correct (and yes, I know this is tedious), I'd go ahead and clear out your Networking section entirely...remove Client for Microsoft Networks, remove Dial Up Networking, and start over.

I don't know what the deal is with the screen saver. I have XP (although I'm on 98 now in a dual-boot) and I don't have any screen saver named "fish.scr". When I try to run them in 98, of course, there's problems because they're linked to certain files, etc. I'll have to try and find that screen saver when I boot into XP. I have a Geforce 2 right now.

Now, as for the Raid, you have the nomenclature incorrect. Here's a little primer on the different Raid levels: (from the Promise site)

RAID 0 (known as "striping") links each drive in the array as one huge drive. Storage capacity is determined by the smallest drive in the array. That capacity is then applied to format all other drives in the array. If using a 40 GB, 60 GB, and 45 GB drive in a RAID 0 array, your system will see one huge drive of 120 GB (40 GB x 3) versus 145 GB. RAID 0 offers double or more performance under sustained data transfers when one drive per ATA port is used. In such a configuration, unlike SCSI, ATA drives are always available to the system. SCSI requires more management of the SCSI bus.

Spanning: If a user wishes to obtain all the capacity of the drives in an array, he may also choose to "span" the drives. Unfortunately, there are no other benefits except capacity with the spanning solution.

RAID 1 (known as "mirroring") makes and maintains an identical image of data from one drive to a second drive or from multiple drives to a second set of multiple drives. Should one drive fail, the working drive or drive set continues operating. To the system, such an array is still seen as a single drive letter. While RAID 1 is the least efficient use of hard drives to provide data protection (since the user does not see any of the additional storage capacity of the mirrored drives), low-cost ATA makes it acceptable. If performing 1-to-1 mirroring with two 40 GB drives, the system only sees one 40 GB drive. ATA RAID 1 represents a significantly lower cost than SCSI RAID 1.

RAID 5 uses a mathematical expression that compares data from two drives and calculates a third piece of data called "parity". Should one of the drives fail, parity data can be used to rebuild the failed data. Under RAID 5, parity data is stored across all drives in the array. This maximizes the amount of storage capacity available from all drives in the array while still providing data redundant. (end of snippet)

So, it depends on what you want. If you want the fastest performance but NO redundancy, you do a Raid 0. If you want some redundancy, you choose the Mirror option. Sounds like you're talking about Raid-1. I don't think you have to Ghost the current drive, however. I believe when you select the Raid option, the Promise card should take care of creating the mirrored drive for you. Don't quote me on that, though.

If this is a Fast Track 66, here's the manaul online:
[F=Fasttrack 66 pdf manual]ftp://ftp.promise.com/Controllers/IDE/FastTrak66/Manual/FT66US.pdf[/F

I don't think it's a good idea to mix Fat32 with NTFS. XP will see your 98 files/partition fine, but 98 will NOT see XP at all if it's NTFS. Yes, there is a utility from a company that lets you read/write to NTFS from Win98, but that defeats the whole purpose of NTFS...security. I'd keep it all Fat32. Once your company switches/upgrades software, you can ditch Win98 and convert easily to NTFS. Additionally, I'd do all my partitioning BEFORE doing the raid setup. You want one hard drive setup exactly like you need it before doing the Raid in terms of partitioning.

Also, since you're using a Raid setup with 2 hard drives, creating a separate partition for a swap file will do you no good, since it will be on the same physical drive. The read/write head of a drive can only be in one place at a time, so a different partition won't help unless that partition is actually on a different drive. With Raid, by the way, you will only see ONE drive letter.

Going out for the new year to some friend's place...so will pick this up tomorrow. Happy!

 

[HiHoStevo]

<< Working on the networking problem. Please specify how you're connecting to the Internet, and separately, how are you dealing with a local network?

In other words, are you using Dial-Up Networking to connect to the Internet, and using a local Lan for talking to other computers? What other computers? >>



I have my home wired with Cat5 cable. Each room has an RJ-45 jack that leads to a central location. At the central location I have a cable modem which is connected to a D-Link 4port Router/switch with built in Firewall. From the Router I feed an HP 500 3port print server a wireless link, one of the rooms in the house and a D-link 8 port intelligent Switch. The switch then connects to the other computers in the family... 5 current PC's, 2 Mac's, and the new PC. The Router has one IP address (not static) assigned from my Cable ISP and then it assigns out random ip addresses to all of the computers connected to it. When I set up a new computer I tell the wizard to connect through a LAN and to auto detect the proxy server. Each of the computers in the house is named and given the same workgroup name. In the TCP/IP properties you disable DNS, use DHCP for Wins resolution, and assign the address of the Router as the gateway. All of the computers in the past have then immediately had access to the web and showed up in the network neighborhood.



<< I would take a look at your Internet Options tab in Control Panel. Click on "Connections". Make sure there is a default action for connecting to the Internet. (as in Always Dial My Default Connection, etc.)

Make sure you see Tcp/IP bound to both your Network card and your Dial Up Adapter. If all still looks correct (and yes, I know this is tedious), I'd go ahead and clear out your Networking section entirely...remove Client for Microsoft Networks, remove Dial Up Networking, and start over.

I don't know what the deal is with the screen saver. I have XP (although I'm on 98 now in a dual-boot) and I don't have any screen saver named "fish.scr". When I try to run them in 98, of course, there's problems because they're linked to certain files, etc. I'll have to try and find that screen saver when I boot into XP. I have a Geforce 2 right now. >>



The Fish.scr is part of the XP plus package....



<< Now, as for the Raid, you have the nomenclature incorrect. Here's a little primer on the different Raid levels: (from the Promise site)

RAID 0 (known as "striping") links each drive in the array as one huge drive. Storage capacity is determined by the smallest drive in the array. That capacity is then applied to format all other drives in the array. If using a 40 GB, 60 GB, and 45 GB drive in a RAID 0 array, your system will see one huge drive of 120 GB (40 GB x 3) versus 145 GB. RAID 0 offers double or more performance under sustained data transfers when one drive per ATA port is used. In such a configuration, unlike SCSI, ATA drives are always available to the system. SCSI requires more management of the SCSI bus. >>



Precisley..... I have two 40gig ibm gxp60 HD's that will be striped (raid 0). The total capacity of the drive after formatting is 78Gig's (I have done this earlier when I first started setting up this machine.... however, due to the memory and misplaced blue/white power supply wire I was getting tons of problems, so I removed the raid card and formatted one of the drives to do a clean install on. I have a 100Gig WD drive that I used to clone my original HD to before moving it into the new machine.) The WD drive will not be part of the final raid installation, but rather will be used for backup and storage chores.



<< RAID 5 uses a mathematical expression that compares data from two drives and calculates a third piece of data called "parity". Should one of the drives fail, parity data can be used to rebuild the failed data. Under RAID 5, parity data is stored across all drives in the array. This maximizes the amount of storage capacity available from all drives in the array while still providing data redundant. (end of snippet) >>



Yes, however raid 5 is not available with the FastTrack card you have to buy a more advanced card for that (I don't have the exact name in front of me, but it is something like SX-6000)..... something for the future



<< So, it depends on what you want. If you want the fastest performance but NO redundancy, you do a Raid 0. If you want some redundancy, you choose the Mirror option. Sounds like you're talking about Raid-1. I don't think you have to Ghost the current drive, however. I believe when you select the Raid option, the Promise card should take care of creating the mirrored drive for you. Don't quote me on that, though. >>



No I was doing the Raid 0, Striping.

Yes when you first boot the computer after installing the promise card... right after the computer POST's it offers you the option to set up the raid. At that time you may set up the raid manually or do an automatic setup (recommended) where you simply tell it you want a raid for Preformance (Striped), security (Mirrored), or with the TX100/4 card you also have the option of raid 0+1 sometimes mistakenly called Raid 10, which stripes the first two drives and then mirrors drives 3 and 4 to the striped drives 1 and 2. I have the Tx4 card, but for now am only hooking up the two drives in a striped array. If I was setting up a mirrored array I would create everything onto a single drive and then the promise card would automaticaly create the backup mirrored drive. However, with Striping (raid 0) the Raid must be created, fdisked, formatted and then partitioned. The WD drive will be connected to the motherboard IDE0 connector. The CD and CDRW are connected to the IDE1 connector on the MB.




<< If this is a Fast Track 66, here's the manaul online:
[F=Fasttrack 66 pdf manual]ftp://ftp.promise.com/Controllers/IDE/FastTrak66/Manual/FT66US.pdf[/F >>



It is not, it is the FastTrack 100 TX4 card.



<< I don't think it's a good idea to mix Fat32 with NTFS. XP will see your 98 files/partition fine, but 98 will NOT see XP at all if it's NTFS. Yes, there is a utility from a company that lets you read/write to NTFS from Win98, but that defeats the whole purpose of NTFS...security. I'd keep it all Fat32. Once your company switches/upgrades software, you can ditch Win98 and convert easily to NTFS. Additionally, I'd do all my partitioning BEFORE doing the raid setup. You want one hard drive setup exactly like you need it before doing the Raid in terms of partitioning. >>



That would work for Mirroring (raid 1), but not for raid 0 (striping). When you create a striped array you destroy all of the data on both drives during the initial setup phase. In the case of raid 0 you have to setup the raid before you partition. The main idea behind setting up a single partition for the computer to use as a SWAP file was I had heard (Tech TV I think) that this would 1) help protect data in the case of a Virus, 2) Increase the speed of the SWAP activity as it is confined to a small (1.5Gig) section of the HD, and finally 3) reduce the need to optimize your drive as windows will not be throwing trash all over the drive being used for your applications and system files.



<< Also, since you're using a Raid setup with 2 hard drives, creating a separate partition for a swap file will do you no good, since it will be on the same physical drive. The read/write head of a drive can only be in one place at a time, so a different partition won't help unless that partition is actually on a different drive. With Raid, by the way, you will only see ONE drive letter. >>



With raid 0 (striping) I think the SWAP partition would be distributed accross both drives, just like any other partition. Yes the raid would have a single drive letter until after the partitioning.

As far as Win98 seeing the XP partition, I do not know if it would need to........ The files I would be using under XP or 2K would not be needed under Win98. I would continue to store the My Documents folder on the Fat32 partition where they would be accessable to both OS's



<< Going out for the new year to some friend's place...so will pick this up tomorrow. Happy! >>



Enjoy yourself and watch out for the crazies! It has been very helpful having this dialogue.

Happy New Year............ may it bring Peace and Prosperity to all the people of the world and may all be granted the righteous desires of their hearts!

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

Mornin...Ok, now I've learned stuff I didn't know, and I also have a better understanding of what you want to do. I was under the impression that you wanted to mirror your drives; thinking you wanted to Ghost a copy of this current drive to place on a mirrored drive, and you know the rest. Anyway, not having used Raid before, I only know of it conceptually. I haven't had to go through the setup process, so thanks for filling me in on all of that. Raid 0 sounds fine for what you want...makes sense.


Now, to the swap file. You have the Western Digital drive to work with. I think whatever gains you would get from a swap partition on the Raid array you lose in that it is still on (for all intents and purposes) the same drive as your system/boot partitions. The laws of physics are coming into play. Putting the swap file on a small partition on the WD drive makes more sense (in my opinion, I should say), because it's got an entirely different controller that can transfer information concurrently with whatever's going on with the Raid array. No sequential read/writes like you would have with the array, meaning if you're moving around files during an operation, the drive can't access the swap file concurrently. Swap actions have to wait. Does that make sense?

Of course, it has to be a Fat32 file for Win98 to see it as well as XP. Yes, you can use the same file for both Win98 and XP. The trick to doing it is change a setting in your system.ini file for Win98 to point it to the path of the Swapfile, and the reference the swapfile has to be "pagefile.sys" in system.ini. You'd set both swap file configurations (xp and 98) for the same sized swapfile and point the respective os's to it.

Here's Tweak3D.net's info on how to set both OS's to use the same swapfile (this article uses win2k, but it should be exactly the same for XP):

To force Win2k to use the Win9x swapfile you will need to modify the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]. We will be modifying the PagingFiles value.Now, you can either choose to edit the value manually or use one of my pre-defined defaults. To edit the value manually, right click on the value and select Modify. You will want to modify the letters/numbers on the far right ? they will automatically change the hex values to the left for you. Just be careful to leave those dots in between each character (be careful not to delete them ? I haven?t yet figured out how to type them using the keyboard ? they are different than regular periods). If you are going to be less brave, here are the default registry files for 128, 192, and 256 MB of virtual memory for both the C and D drives.

C Drive: 128 MB; 192 MB; 256 MB
D Drive: 128 MB; 192 MB; 256 MB

After changing the registry setting reboot into Win2k and log on to an administrator account. Then go ahead and delete pagefile.sys from your root directory ? there should be a warning of some sort about deleting the file. Ignore it and delete it anyway, and then reboot again. Check and see if the file was recreated ? if it wasn?t, you are in the clear.

To change the name and directory of the swapfile in Win9x so it uses the Win2k pagefile, you need to go into the system.ini file and insert the following lines underneath the [386Enh] section:

PagingFile=z:\pagefile.sys
PagingDrive=z:

Where z: is the drive on which your pagefile resides (ex: c: or d: ). After changing the setting make sure that the permanent swap file size settings for Windows are identical to the ones being used by Win2k (you can either do that from within the system.ini file or using the system applet in the control panel) and reboot Win9x and delete win386.swp. Yes, this is much easier than the previous method. Why do I include both methods? Because choices are important!

Now, to the Networking issues. We have to find out what kind of issue this is. Have you tried pinging your router? If you can, try pinging some site on the net, like your ISP's homepage. If that's good, you know you probably have a DNS issue where you can't resolve names for some reason. In any event, if you can't even ping anything, I would go through the tedious effort of removing everything in your networking section and letting Windows 98 reinstall the clients/protocols. That should clear up any registry issues you might have since we copied over some files. Who knows, there might still be even more files that need to be replaced even though you don't get blue screens anymore.

Step by step instructions on how to ensure you have a new, complete set of MS Networking files

Something's obviously not clicking, even though it appears you have it set up correctly. Reinitializing the network process by removing everything in your networking area and reinstalling might get you back up to speed. Do the ping test, however. "Ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" where x=ip address. Or, "Ping www.yourispname.com" You should actually do both ways, because if you can ping with an IP address but not via a fully qualified domain name, then you've narrowed the problems. Apologies in advance if the ping stuff is old hat to you...I'd rather just put it out there and not make any assumptions about what someone knows or doesn't to save time.

Later!

 

[HiHoStevo]

<< Putting the swap file on a small partition on the WD drive makes more sense (in my opinion, I should say), because it's got an entirely different controller that can transfer information concurrently with whatever's going on with the Raid array. No sequential read/writes like you would have with the array, meaning if you're moving around files during an operation, the drive can't access the swap file concurrently. Swap actions have to wait. Does that make sense? >>



Yes that sounds logical... obviously why I did not think of it!!




<< Now the Networking issues. We have to find out what kind of issue this is. Have you tried pinging your router? >>



Yes the ping fails. Eventually I just drug the new computer upstairs to try it on my normal connection. The minute I plugged it in it worked fine. So I must have some type of a cable issue in the downstairs bedroom. It is kind of strange because my nephew used to live in that bedroom and had a desktop PC plugged into the same port and working fine... also this weekend that same nephew was back with a Mac laptop and it plugged into the same cable I was running to the new PC and worked instantly. I do not have an answer... but as my nephew originally was using a small hub down there for two pc's perhaps the long cable (when I wired the room, I put the rj-45 plug in the wrong spot) I was using is setup as a "crossover" cable. I don't know, but it is something to test......... perhaps the mac does not care about the cross over???

However I am typing this on the new PC so something is OK!

No problem on the ping lesson....... It never pays to assume......

The only way I could get the new pc to run without errors was to breakdown and do it the "hard way!" I installed the promise card, setup the array, and then did a clean install of win98...... ba da boom it all works.

I tried to follow MaximumK's advice on moving the files, but after cloning the original drive I mounted it in my new pc on the MB secondary ide channel. When I read through the instructions on Partition Magic 7, it cautioned that if you were merging partitions to not merge two partitions that both had an OS on them..... as the resulting partition would not boot! Well both my old drive and my new array have an OS, so I guess that is not the answer. I could not see any function that would accomplish my goal other than the merge.

What I was hoping for is a program that would say OK I'll move your MSOffice from drive=old to drive=new and copy over all pertinent registry entries while I am at it!!!!!!!! Do you know of a program that does this??

Thanks,

Steve

Oh yeah....... while I was trying to clone the old drive to the new array I did learn something interesting........... this WD 100G is a pretty fast drive... the Ghost reports the transfer speed while it is operating........ would you believe 1070MB's per minute.....not to shaaaaaaaaabby!!

Oh yeah.......... Have you played around any with XP?

I had planned on setting up a dual-boot system with either XP or Win2K... I remember when I upgraded another system with Win2K...... I had the system up and running Win98 when I put the Win2K disc in........ when the cd autostarted it asked me if I wanted to upgrade or do a clean install with a dual-boot.

I have two partitions on the array right now....... both are FAT32 and they split the space about 38Gig's and 42Gig's. I had planned on Installing XP on the second partition. When I popped XP into the drive (Win98SE was running) it offered me the option of upgrade or new install, but did not mention a dual boot or ask me what partition I wanted to install on........ the minute I had given it the CD key it was off to the races downloaded and installing files, without so much as a "by-your-leave" about asking me where I wanted them installed......... when the system did it's first reboot it was booting into Win98 again....... but attempting to load all of the MB drivers and all from the very beginning............ luckily I had installed "Go Back" on the Win98 OS earlier today........ so I punched out of the install and used "GO BACK" to get me back just prior to playing with the XP disk.

Another long sad story......... but thanks to some nice programmer I was saved from having to start over. Is there something I missed in telling it where to put the files?? and does XP not offer you the option of a "dual boot" system?

If you haven't fooled around with this one, don't lose any sleep, you have been extremely helpful and I appreciate it.

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

Hey...the XP issue is a simple one to deal with. No kudos to Microsoft, though, because it's not very intuitive, and I had to find this out myself.

During the install process, watch for an "Advanced Options" menu. That's where you'll tell XP where to install. Otherwise, it defaults to your c:\windows folder, which obviously will totally hose Win98.
Choose "New Install", obviously. You don't want to upgrade.

As for the Microsoft Office deal, there's far too many registry entries, in my opinion, to try to move drives successfully. I would uninstall/reinstall, myself. I would uninstall first. Then, I would download/run this freeware Registry Cleaner. When you run it, go to the Tools menu and choose "Do them all"...it will run all the registry checks, then provide a list of all bad entries. You then have to "select all" with the Select button to highlight them, and click on the "Remove Selected" button in the lower right.

Then, I would reinstall Office.

 

[HiHoStevo]

Thanks for the reply Slick......... I was thinking maybe it did not offer that to me because I had booted into Win98 when I put in the CD... I wondered if I boot off the CD itself if it would ask me where I want it.

I will go back and look for the advanced options button you mentioned. Does XP also offer to set up a dual boot for you like Win2K does? or am I better off getting a 3rd party bootloader?

While we were trouble-shooting this system last week I noticed something else kind of strange....... during the boot sequence the computer pauses for 30 seconds while loading the file "viagart.vxd"..... obviously this is something to do with the VIA chipset on this motherboard, but do you have any idea why it is pausing for this file for so long? Is it necessary? If not can the delay time be adjusted without dorking the entire system?

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

Hi. I'd install XP from 98...otherwise, you'll have to choose the "Boot from CD" option in the bios. In either case, the startup should be the same. Just look for Advanced Options. As I said before, the same thing happened to me when I first tried to install it.

Yes, you will get a dual-boot option, just like Win2K.

As for the viagart.vxd issue, I'd download/install the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers. They work for both 98 and XP, so you only have to download 1 file (here Via 4-in-1 Drivers...latest version. Of course, you'll have to install them separately in both 98 and XP.

I'm at work now, so brevity is key!

 

[HiHoStevo]

Thanks for the VIA link.......... I made sure I had the latest version of the bios for this MB, but did not think about updating the VIA drivers....

Thanks,

Steve

**see page 3