Upgrade OS

ThePenguinCometh

Hi and welcome to the forums.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by DUN box, dial-up networking? Please explain this a bit better, if you can post a screenshot then that would help too. I'm asuming you can boot into the current OS (Win 98?), if so then I don't see how you have trouble removing a password. If it is a user account of some kind then you simply need to remove the account or the settings in whatever program you're using. That's why a screenshot would help as I could see exactly what you're running into.

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max12590

Yes a screenshot would help. And also, if you upgrade to ME, the problem should not carry over, I believe you still lose all your data, just pay less for the OS. But just a suggestion, do not upgrade to ME. You should get XP or Windows 2000. You would be better off to stay with 98 SE than ME, as it is a very poor OS.

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Rosie

I am sorry I didn't make myself clear! Yes, I do mean Dialup networking box. No, I CANNOT boot into Win 98, it only opens in DOS with the message mentioned below I can open in Safe mode.
I don't want to remove a password, I want to be able to save the password in thr DUN box, but cannot do so as it is greyed. This is what I've been trying to do, but as soon as I insert the Win 98CD into the machine and hit
OK I get error messages and the machine will not boot. Because of the computer's current condition I can't supply a screenshot of the message on the DOS screen, but the said message is as follows.

'Cannot find a device file that may be needed
to run Windows or a Windows application.
The Windows registery or System.INI file
refers to this device, but the device file no
longer exists.
If you deleted this file on purpose try
uninstalling the associated application using its
uninstall or setup program.
If you still want to use the application
associated with the device file, try reinstalling
that application to replace the missing file.
z: vvinesd.386'. (ENDS)

I haven't uninstalled any applications, so I don't know what the error message is talking about. As I said in my first message - I have tried to
find this file on the Internet - without any luck!

Actually, my desktop has WinXP. This rather ancient laptop computer belongs to someone who cannot afford to upgrade. We have been struggling to find a way to save the password and have had no success. Sorry to hear that ME is not too good. Certainly food for thought.

max12590

Ok so I am a little lost. Now you have 2 problems. Ok, I will try to help. With the dial up box, is the password field greyed out with no pwd in it or with a pwd in it? And with the second problem... Ok, I looked on Google and came up with this. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q194845/ Try there and it should help remedy your startup woes. Once you have fixed that problem maybe we can make some headway on the dial up connection.

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Rosie

I am sorry to be so difficult, but the link you gave me didn't help. When I typed vvinesd.386 in the FIND box as instructed it wasn't found.
I now find that once the DOS message opens, if I hit return and leave it for about five minutes, WIN98 boots up normally. However, dialup doesn't work.
If I reinstall Win98 will that alleviate the situation? Thank you

ThePenguinCometh

It looks like you have either a corrupted program installed or one that is no longer in use but was not properly removed. In this case a full re-installation will remove and *should* handle the problem. However make sure that it is a completely fresh installation as simply re-installing over the existing OS won't necessarily remove the errant program. You will need to re-format your hard-drive so make sure you back-up all your important files and that you remember all your auto-saved passwords (if any). Have you ever done a completely new installation of Windows before? I don't know your computer knowledge level and while installing Windows isn't too difficult it isn't something that should be done by total newbies.

Let me know if you need any further help.

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Rosie

Thank you very much for all your help. I agree that there are old programs installed that are probably corrupted. The laptop originally belonged to a guy who used it for his business. He gave it to someone who can't afford a new computer. When I looked in networking, I saw some real strange stuff installed. So I will reformat the drive and do a new Win98 installation. I have gone through this procedure a couple of times on my desktop PC which has WinXP installed. I really appreciate all your efforts on my behalf.

ThePenguinCometh

Sound like a good idea on general principles, there's no telling really what kind of junk the computer has picked up over the years. Good luck, let me know if you need any further help.

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Rosie

Before I proceed with the new installation I need just a little bit more advice. I have two Win98 disks. (It's been quite a few years since I used them) One is not SE and is dated 1981-1998. My second Win98 disk is SE updates and is 1981 -1999. Must I use both or can I just use SE?

ThePenguinCometh

That depends on whether the SE disk is an installation disk or an upgrade disk. If it is an upgrade disk you will need to install the other disk first then install the SE disk over it. If you're not sure whether the SE disk is an upgrade disk or not then you can simply try to install it on a clean hard-drive and see if it works!

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Rosie

As I mentioned earlier this ancient laptop doesn't belong to me. All this hassle with Win98 makes me feel that I want to install Win ME, but I've been told that it is inferior to Win98SE. All the owner of this laptop wants to do is email, write letters and surf the web, she is not able to do much else. So, surely ME woujld be better - at least it has System Restore. What do you think?

ThePenguinCometh

If that's all it's used for then you'd be better off running Linux! Get yourself a Knoppix Live CD and run that.

Linux, once it's properly installed, doesn't have much need for a system restore capability. It also doesn't suffer from spyware, viruses, adware, etc. As I write I'm using a fairly modest (1GHz) Compaq laptop. I used to have XP installed on it but it crashed badly so I wasted it from my hard-drive and now run Slackware Linux (supposedly one of the more difficult distros). It took me maybe an hour to install (and that's because the home-burned CD was suspect so I had to install over a network) and it's run fine ever since (I rarely ever turn it off). Install Linux, add Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice and you'll have a machine that actually works!

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