VTE Computer Services

This information is provided as a service and guide only. While every effort has been made to ensure that it is accurate, a condition of use is that you must agree to accept full responsibility for any results or damage resulting from the use of this information. In any event, VTE Computer Services, their agents or suppliers, or any other party associated accept no liability for any use made of this information. Should you lack the skills and experience to set up a computer with operating system software, you should employ the services of an experienced conputer professional or perhaps the assistance of a colleague, family member or friend.Windows 98 second edition, even though no longer supported by Microsoft, still is a robust and reliable operating system. It is advisable however to take care and pay attention to detail when you install this operating system to ensure a smooth process and the least chance of trouble after installation. This procedure may not be the only method, however it has proven over time to be quite effective and more convenient later.Terms used in this Guide are:-
Prompt which is the text shown on the screen when the computer is running in DOS mode.
Folder or Directory which is the directory on the hard drive.
Enter which means press the Enter Key on the keyboard.
Click means to press the LEFT mouse button once.
Double Click means to press the LEFT mouse button twice quickly.
Right Click means to press the right mouse button once.
Select means to hover the mouse pointer over a menu item and usually Left Click.
Mouse Pointer is the point that moves on the screen as you move the mouse. This can be an arrow, I beam or hourglass depending on what the computer is asked to do.
F1 or DELETE are other “special” keys used for some purposes.
Menu is a list of possible actions that is selected with the arrow direction keys on the keyboard to highlight the required option. You then press enter to complete the selection.
CD ROM support is the term given to accessing the CD ROM drive when the computer is run in DOS mode. You access it via a drive letter using DOS commands.
Utility program is a small one purpose program dedicated to initializing the hard drive (FDISK) or formatting the hard drive (FORMAT)

HW Info
If you have a copy of the HWInfo you may find benefit in running up the program and discovering the hardware in your computer. (You must have your hard drive prepared and formatted for the program to work). You would need to boot from a bootable Windows 98 CD ROM or Floppy disk and make sure you choose “With CD ROM support”. Run as below to install and use.
D: (or whatever your CD ROM comes up as) and press enter
CD\HWINFO (change to the setup folder) press enter
HW then press enter to install and run.

Make a note of the Video adapter, sound card and mainboard as well as any other info that may assist you later in the setting up process.

If the computer boots to a DOS prompt e.g. C:\ when you set it up and power it on, then this probably means that the hard drive is already prepared and formatted so you could skip the part concerning preparation of the hard disk unless you prefer to start from a clean empty hard drive.

Preparation of the Hard Disk.
If your computer has no operating system on the hard drive you will need to run the DOS utility “FDISK”. You can either set the computer to boot on your Windows 98 CD by enabling CD booting in the CMOS or use a floppy disk prepared for the purpose of booting the computer with access to the CD ROM.

Should you need to enable CD ROM booting, you can access the BIOS by pressing the designated key while the computer is starting. Often this is by pressing the Delete Key or F2. Most BIOS’s have a boot options menu where you can set the CD ROM to be the first boot device. You may also need to set the BIOS to recognise and boot to floppy drive as this option is often disabled by default.

When the computer boots, choose “Boot with CD ROM Support”. Take note of the drive letter for the CD ROM drive. It will usually be D:. The computer will normally start in virtual A: drive.

If you hard drive is not prepared you need to run the DOS based utility FDISK program to set up a bootable partition. Type “FDISK” and press enter. Choose large disk support and set up a primary DOS partition. Please note that this is not possible if the disk is already partitioned.

Restart the computer as before except this time change to the CD ROM drive, which is normally D: by typing “D:” and pressing Enter.
Change to the win98 folder by typing “cd win98? and then press enter. The DOS format utility is usually located in this folder.
Type “format c: /s” to format the drive ready for setting up your computer.

WHY COPY THE SETUP FILES?
You can of course install Windows by booting the CD ROM and choosing this option, however it will be more convenient later while instaling drivers, software and making changes if the setup files are readily accessable on the hard drive. Most installions will proceed more quickly and easily as well.

When the drive is has been formatted, restart the computer as before with CD ROM support and follow this process to place the setup files on the computer. Type each line as below and press enter.

You should see a progress of each file being copied to the hard drive. When this is done you can remove the CD from the drive and start the setup process. After the copy is done, type DIR then press enter, and you should see a listing of the files on the screen. If you see no listing you may have typed the copy command incorrectly. Try to find where the files have been copied, delete them and redo the copy command.

NOTE: If you have to restart the computer after you have copied the files. You may boot either from the CD or the hard drive, however if you boot from the hard drive you may get a message that there is no himem driver. This is not a problem but may make the installation slower, so I would suggest that you boot from the CD ROM and choose without CD ROM support from the startup menu.

If you restart you will need to type the following.
CD C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS
Make certain the prompt is C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS

Next type SETUP and press ENTER.

Follow all the onscreen instructions as below with the corect responses.

SELECT DIRECTORY (Folder)

C:/Windows.000

Other
Use the radio button (
when selected) to choose Other and click NEXT>.

CHANGE DIRECTORY
C:\WINDOWS.000 is displayed. Change to C:\WINDOWS and click NEXT>. Note that you will need to change the suggested directory as above.

CAUTION The directory you have selected already exists. If you continue files may be overwritten. Do you want to continue? Click on YES.

CHECKING SYSTEM (Automatically moves to next dialog)

PREPARING (Automatically moves to next dialog)

SETUP OPTIONS

Typical – Typical is normally selected so just click on NEXT>

.

Portable

Compact

Custom

WINDOWS COMPONENTS

Install the most Common (Select this and Click NEXT>)

IDENTIFICATION (This will only be needed if your computer has a network adapter)
Enter your desired name for the computer and workgroup. Computer description is optional and would be a reminder of where the computer is used.

ESTABLISHING YOUR LOCATION
Select Australia from the list and Click NEXT>. Take care not to select Austria!

STARTUP DISK
Click NEXT>

INSERT DISK
Either insert a blank Disk and Click OK or Click on Cancel.

REMOVE DISK
Remove the disk if you made a boot disk. Click OK

START COPYING FILES
Click NEXT

WINDOWS 98 SETUP
Windows is ready to restart your computer. Remove al disks and click OK to restart.
Click OK. Will restart in 15 seconds or you can click OK immediately.

USER INFORMATION
Enter your name and company if desired or simply enter USER in the name field.
Click next when ready.

LICENCE AGREEMENT
Read the fine print etc. You have to click the I Accept the Agreement option or setup will end without the installation being finished. A fine example of stupidity really!

WINDOWS PRODUCT KEY
Enter your Windows product key as it appears on your certificate. If you enter it incorrectly you will get a message that the key is invalid. Click on OK and check the numbers with attention to number 8 and letter B which can look the same. If you have all the letters correct but still get an invalid message, you are probably attempting to install the wrong version/product key combination. There is no easy way here as I do not know the relationship of the number sequence. AlI can suggest is retrying the install with version A if you are attempting to use second edition and see if your number works.

START WIZARD Click NEXT>

SETTING UP HARDWARE / HARDWARE DETECTON Automatically executes.
If your computer hangs or stops responding here you can reset and it should attempt to install skipping the hardware that caused the hang. This may sort itself out later.

TIME/DATE PROPERTIES
set the correct time and date as well as the time zone where you are located. Remember to set daylight saving if applicable.

The following tasks will progress without user intervention.
SETTING UP CONTROL PANEL
START MENU
HELP
TUNING UP APPLICATION START
SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

Your computer will reboot when the above tasks are finished.

ENTER YOUR PASSWORD
You can enter your name here if you do not wish to use the suggested one and a blank password if you prefer not to be bothered with passwords in the future.

DETECT HARDWARE will complete without input on most computers.

WELCOME TO WINDOWS You can untick
the option in the lower left of the window for this next time Windows starts and close the window.

PLEASE NOTE: If you install an incorrect driver or version of a driver, the computer may fail to start correctly. You will probably require assistance to fix this from a computer professional or a knowlegable friend. VTE Computer Services will not accept any responsibility for this kind of problem. Instructions for removing incorrect drivers would fill a reasonable sized book and is far beyond of the scope of this web page. Many users have posted such material on the net which you may be able to use to solve your particular problem. Some manufacturers also include as part of thier installation programs the option to remove older drivers.

When the computer is set up and you have booted to Windows you will normally need to install the display driver unless your video adapter is supported directly from Windows. (You can identify most video cards with the HW Info program on this disk). Right click anywhere on the desktop and choose properties/settings. In this Dialog Box you will see if the driver is the correct type or if Windows is just using a VGA compatable driver.

To install a driver for your video adapter, right click anywhere on the desktop and choose properties/settings/advanced/adapter. Select change and reinstall the driver using the wizard to find the appropriate driver either from your driver CD or from a set of driver files downloaded from the internet. If the driver reverts to the default VGA, you can just repeat the process untill you find the correct driver. Please note that some drivers have a setup option and you should normally try this first. Windows will normally not install an incorrect driver, however if the driver you install causes lockup, start in safe mode and restore the VGA driver that uses the Windows default VGA.

If your computer is based on an Intel chipset, you should install the update drivers for Windows 98. This is a set of inf files you can download from the internet. Restart the computer when prompted and the installation will be completed.

The last part of installation process is the installation of sound drivers and possibly a network adapter. Please note that in some cases the sound card and modem, (Communications Device), may already be installed and you will have no more to do. Should you need to install, the process for both is the same. Go to control panel and select system/properties. there will be a yellow mirrored question mark with the detected but driverless devices listed. Look for PCI Multimedia device and choose reinstall driver. When prompted for the driver disk navigate to the appropriate folder. HINT: The required file is normally shown in the dialogue box.

Repeat for other hardware such as Networking device and perhaps Communication devices.

In some case if the driver manufacturer is no longer supported, you may be able get the latest drivers available by searching on the web. A search using a search engine will often uncover difficult drivers on PC makers support sites or via user forums. This can take considerable time so patience is important. Also you may not always get the correct driver first time every time.

After you have installed your operating system you should update the Direct X drivers, Windows media player, Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. You should then install the critical updates from Microsoft by using the Windows Update. You can also buy the VTE Windows Update and Driver disk which has all the drivers and instructions. This currently costs $10.