Member Avatar for captech009

I'm trying to rehabilitate a machine for a luddite ;-). It has Windows 98 (not SE). All of the relevant patches have been uploaded from the Microsoft site.

It has a USB printer that worked at one time and stopped. I have tested the printer with my laptop and it works fine, with the existing cable.

Here's the problem:
When I reload the driver for the printer, the USB port does not show up as an available port.

Two questions:
(1) Is there an available driver or patch specifically for Windows 98 (I would purchase a USB card and install it with the drivers provided, but none of them support pre-SE Windows 98).
(2) Is there a way to upgrade Windows 98 to SE? (I have a copy of the upgrade version of 98SE, but it only upgrades from 95 or 3.1 or Workgroup and [in spite of assurances from a Windows tecchie], it does not recognize an existing 98 installation).

Thanks!

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Member Avatar for Thong_Ispector

Do you have an old copy of 95 or 3.1 around?
It might be easier to just put a basic OS on it then upgrade with your CD.

I think you are trapped into going to SE if you want the USB...

Member Avatar for captech009

Do you have an old copy of 95 or 3.1 around?
It might be easier to just put a basic OS on it then upgrade with your CD.

I think you are trapped into going to SE if you want the USB...

*****

I appreciate the thought. I may need to do this. My hope is that I can fix the USB without having to rebuild their configuration from scratch. It did work at one time, under Windows 98.

Member Avatar for DMR

Pre-98SE USB support was a kludge at best; if you had it working before, count yourself as one of the lucky ones.

There definitely are 98->98SE upgrade disks out there, but at this point they may be hard to find. You might try eBay, or perhaps post a request in our "Geek's Lounge" forum; one of our members might have a copy they don't need any more.

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