los7883

Earlier this year i upgraded from 98SE to XP...after putting a bunch of songs on the laptop i had to delete the previous OS to free up some space. I wanted to revert back to the old OS due to problems with XP but since I deleted the old OS files I can't just uninstall XP. So here's what I did (without thinking of course) I have a Dell Laptop with the swapable floppy and CD-ROM drive. I formatted the hard drive on the laptop but i can't reinstall 98SE. When i have the floppy drive installed it will take me all the way to the a: prompt but then i can't do anything from there. If it were a desktop i could just pop in my 98 install disk and i would be good to go, but since i have to remove the floppy to put in the CD-ROM drive it won't work. If I put it in at that point it tells me there is a seek error on my a: drive and won't let me do it.

I've tried every combination of things i can think of and i still can't install it. Any work around for installing my old OS? If I start it up with the 98SE install disk in the CD-ROM drive I get an error message right away that i have an invalid system disk loaded, and to load the system disk and strike any key. I even tried making a CD boot disk and it still didn't like it...help please!!!!

lynx6200

Have you put the cd rom drive into the computer before booting? After starting up your system go into bios, tap the 'del' key at startup, and make sure you have cd-rom set as your first boot device. After doing that, insert your OS cd, restart, and it should load from there.

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los7883

I tried to enter the BIOS by pressing each of the Function Keys...F1 through F12 and couldn't get in. Didn't try the Delete key though. I should be able to enter the BIOS before the computer tries to startup right? I can hear it spinning up the CD-ROM but can't get into the BIOS then get the INVALID SYSTEM DISK error. On the dell it shows the F2 as the key to enter SETUP, i was assuming it meant the BIOS but I'm not sure. I'm just worried that I jacked up my laptop and won't be able to get it back. I tried putting in the XP install disk to see if it would pick up on that one and got the same error. Are there any other keys that I would use to enter the BIOS other than the F-keys and DELETE? I'm at work and don't have the laptop with me....

Scrat

Try the following.

Plugin the CD-Drive.

Turn your laptop on and imediatly start tapping the "F2" key and keep doing so untill you either get the error message about system disk, or untill you get the BIOS(setup) page. If F2 doesnt get you in try doing it again but tap the "DEL" key instead.

If neither of these work then...
Go to the following DELL website and enter your laptop's "Service Tag" number which should be on the bottom of your laptop. This will then take you to the downloads section for your specific dell laptop.
Once there look to see if you can download the "setup guide" or "user manual" for your model of laptop. If it is then download and look in it for the key to press to get into the BIOS.
http://support.dell.com/support/down...n&s=bsd&~ck=mn

Ok once in BIOS, look for something like "BOOT ORDER" then make sure that the "CD-ROM" is set a 1st boot, it doesn't matter what the rest are set as.

Insert the Windows 98 CD.

Save your BIOS settings then exit. The computer will then reboot and if all goes well you should then get prompted to "boot from CDROM" which you say yes to.

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los7883

Good deal i'll give the DELETE key a try and see if it works...thanks a bunch...

los7883

THANKS!!! IT WORKED!!! I had to put the floppy drive in to get it to go to the BIOS, wouldn't do it with the CD-ROM in though. Installed 98 and it worked...but had a problem, the screen size was half the size it should have been it was like at 600x800 or something like that instead of the 1200x1000 or whatever it's supposed to be. Went to the screen properties and it didn't have the option to change the resolution or the color (stuck on 8-bit). I'm figuring I wiped out the driver or something when i formatted the hard drive???

Well it was way too small so i went ahead and installed XP again (even though that put me back at square one), and was able to change the screen resolution to the higher one but could only select 16-bit for the color instead of the 32 it used to be on. Looked ok though. I went to the dell site but couldn't find a video driver for it, don't even know if one exists...it's a Dell Latitude CPi...

Would really like to have 98SE on it because i'm using a Netgear Wireless Router with the Laptop but XP keeps kicking me off the internet, with 98 i never got kicked off...any advise on how to get my resolution back when using 98?

lynx6200

Sounds to me like you where on topic, your missing the driver, which is why your having those resolution problems. I think in xp it allowed you to change that just because xp has some genric drivers. there should most certainley be a driver on the dell site, afterall they have to support their own computers. Type in your service tag, and pull up the model of your computer, and there should be a download section with drivers.

As for your internet connection, XP should be better than 98, it may be kicking you because of some incorrect settings or the firewall, so take a look at that.

__________________
[size=2][size=1][color=DarkGreen][color=Navy]
CoolerMaster Case
Asus A8N SLI- Deluxe
AMD athlon 64 3400+
1GB Ultra DDR ram
XFX 7600 GT 256mb videe
230GB SATA HD
Combo drive

los7883

I went to the dell site yesterday, went to their support page, then drivers, then entered in my asset/service tag and model of laptop, and it only gave me a generic list of the different driver categories ie. audio, video... but when i would click on the links it didn't take me anywhere, wouldn't take me to a download site or attempt to download the file...tried doing a search on the net for a generic driver but had no luck...

lynx6200

You should run some type of hardware test to fins out the whats in your system. When you find out what type of video card you are using, you should be able to search for a specific driver for it.

Do you not have your dell restoration cd? I think that has the driver on it.

__________________
[size=2][size=1][color=DarkGreen][color=Navy]
CoolerMaster Case
Asus A8N SLI- Deluxe
AMD athlon 64 3400+
1GB Ultra DDR ram
XFX 7600 GT 256mb videe
230GB SATA HD
Combo drive

los7883

nope this was a last minute laptop that i bought off eBay, no disks or nothing came with it...needed something fast and this was the only one i could find. Laptop worked great though before i wiped it clean...if all else fails i guess i will just have to put up with XP and see if i can figure out why it keeps kicking me off. Not sure what to look for as the router was setup by the book. Would it be the settings on the laptop or the router that are jacked up?