Well I always fancied myself a computer know it all but I don't know what is going on with this one.

Did a fresh format c: to get rid of everything. There's only one hard drive, and I verified it empty.
Fresh install of windows 98 like i've done so many other times. Everything seems to be going alright until windows loads for the first time and starts installing stuff. The first file it can't find is dhcpcsvc.dll so I extracted that file from the NET7.CAB dumbfounded as to why it's missing, and it keeps asking for files. I figured something must be wrong so I did another format and started fresh installing again. Same thing happens. What is going on here?

I am fixing it for a friend and the only thing I can think to do is extract every single .CAB file into a directory so I can't point the computer at it, surely this isn't the solution? What did I do wrong?

-Shaun

Hard drive might be hosed. Let Windows do a surface scan during installation. It might find some bad clusters. That's about the only thing I can think of. Sounds like you did everything correctly.

wonder if it's not the cable, because it seemed the old 3gb hd was bad too... hmmm will try a gain with a diff cable.

I had a problem just like that when installing windows 98 a few years back. There were actually 2 problems. The CD-ROM was going bad and never would install correctly. Another problem was a bad Hard drive. Try doing the surface scan like they said above and if it doesn't find anything swap out a different CD drive to test it. Just remember to do ONE thing at a time so you know what the problem is.

So there are no "read errors" during the install? You know the ones where it says "cannot find file XXX.xxx" " press Cancel, Ignore, Skip to continue"

It was the cable. 80 conductor and windows 98 don't agree doh
Something has to be screwy when you start thinking both hdd's went bad.

Sounds like what you tried worked this time?

There is nothing wrong with using an 80pin ribbon with Windows 98 at least that is what I think you are saying.

One thing you can try is format the hard drive then make a directory called "win98" copy the files from the CD to that directory, and run the setup program again with out the CD. This will require that you boot the computer with a floppy disk. I've had the same thing happen, sometimes it doesn’t read the CD drive correctly. Hope this helps.

As I understand it, never had time to dig into it...

If the system has one of the faster ATA interfaces that require a 80 pin cable (ATA 100 and 133. Maybe some ATA 66) and you use a 40 pin cable, the system actually knows you've done this and slows the HD interface down to prevent data errors. (There are utilities that actually tell you which cable is in use on many of these systems.) That will slow pretty much the whole machine any time there is disk I/O.

The 80 wire cable is likely bad. They are easy to damage as the wire is only slightly larger than a few hairs. I've seen a couple guys swap cables and all were bad because they pulled on the wire when unplugging them. Many of them have pull tabs, use them. It will save the wire from damage.

The 80 wire cable shouldn't effect Win98 or any other OS. I would recomend you look up the disk interface specs for that system board and make sure you have the right cable for maximum performance.

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The only thing George Orwell got wrong was the year.

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top of every forum page...)

it's an ata 33... no need for an 80 cond cable

Are you installing from a CD?
I never do that
I had a floppy that would boot up and make the CD the z drive.
Then it would format the HD and make it bootable.
Then copy the CD to a folder on the HD.
Once it is done with the copy I just pull out the cd and floppy and reboot.
It would then start the install from the HD.
I have had problems installing from a CD and when I copied the files it fixed the problem.
Plus you never have to look for the CD when you install new software/hardware.

quote Originally posted by Jake_Dragon: Are you installing from a CD? I never do that I had a floppy that would boot up and make the CD the z drive. Then it would format the HD and make it bootable. Then copy the CD to a folder on the HD. Once it is done with the copy I just pull out the cd and floppy and reboot. It would then start the install from the HD. I have had problems installing from a CD and when I copied the files it fixed the problem. Plus you never have to look for the CD when you install new software/hardware.

Yup, dats what I do. Works great!