Need Help with Windows 98: Sudden "crash"? (No audio devices detected)

[Snake]

Woops, posted in wrong forum


My old computer that I've got in the other room is running Windows 98 FE.

Last time I used it, it was fine, I was playing Super Mario Kart with SNES9X (which has been on there for years) and that was it.

There's nothing else on it that would have done anything and I didn't install anything new either. It's been working great, I haven't used it probably in a couple weeks and now all of a sudden it's "shit the bed". I've only been using it to write text documents for Leitor's Edge when the other computer is occupied. So naturally, I'm stumped as to why any of this has happened.

Here is what is happening:
*Windows loads with no errors.
*Screen resolution is 600x400 (which is I think the default safe-mode res)
*only 16 colors
*no mouse

When I boot in Safe-Mode everything I listed above is the same except I can use the mouse.

I have found that there is a problem with the mouse driver, but I'm sure I can fix this.

But I can't for the life of me figure out what has happened. I change the color settings and resolution in the SETTINGS thingy, but it always loads the same.

I have no idea where to start finding this problem. And what really sucks is that every time I try something it asks me for that fucking Windows 98 CD that I've NEVER had to begin with.

And if it's my video card, I don't even have that CD either. So what in the hell do I do?

I have no idea where to start. I'm hoping that somebody can at least point me in the right direction to diagnose this sudden issue.

Thanks in advance.

[Leon]

It might be a driver problem.

Is it connected to the internet?
Do you have anti-adware and anti-virus software on it?
Does it automatically do windows updates?
Do you use an onboard graphics card?
When you look in device manager, are there more devices with problems?

If you want to know the graphics card:

- If it's an PCI/ISA card, open the system and look at the card to find the make/model.
- If it's onboard, open the system and find the model number of your motherboard. Look online for specifications of that motherboard model and then the graphics chip will be mentioned. Most of the time you can also find it by looking at the motherboard and look for VIA or S3 but when it's an Intel chip, it's harder to recognize because there might be more Intel chips in there.

[Snake]

Is it connected to the internet?
No. Hasn't been for over 4 years. I had to install the USB drivers manually using the floppy drive which barely works (keeps telling me the disk in the drive is not formatted... format NOW?!1? No, you hyper cunt, calm down!).
So after finally getting USB 2.0 installed, I can transfer files with ease.

Do you have anti-adware and anti-virus software on it?
I had installed Defender Pro 5-in-1 temperarily to run a few thorough scans (found a ton of virus' since this computer has never been scanned (probably all the pr0n)) and then uninstalled it to free up space (my thumb drive has more HD space than that damned thing). This was over a month ago.

Does it automatically do windows updates?
No.

Do you use an onboard graphics card?
No. It's a PCI graphics card that I bought back in 2001. An Xstacy something. 80 bucks at CurcuitCity in Bangor

When you look in device manager, are there more devices with problems?
Only the mouse driver. This is why I'm posting here since there's zero sign of why the problem has occurred.

My guess is the video card since Windows seems to find 16 colors and 640x400 sexy all of a sudden.

But at the same time, I almost think that the video and mouse problems that occured, could be related somehow? They both happened at the same time.
The only thing that I can think of that I did differently the last time I was on it was plug in the ProPad6 gamepad to play mario kart with. This gamepad had already been installed since 2000. All I did was plug the damned thing in.

EDIT
I also unplugged the gamepad and restarted for shits and giggles, but no change.

[Mantra of Doom]

Is your mouse a PS/2 mouse or is it USB? Though if Windows is losing the mouse driver, I'm not sure if it's the port or windows.

You said the video card was a PCI, did you try switching which PCI slot it is plugged into? I once had some issues with a card like that and pulled it out, blew some canned air into the slot and through the vid card and it decided that it was okay.

It's a bit hard to track down what might be going on if this computer isn't used all the time. Usually if the computer is on and running it's easier to catch when things start going south.

[LUniqueDan]

When I boot in Safe-Mode everything I listed above is the same except I can use the mouse.

The point is here.

There's something else. Mouse drivers don't vanish mysteriously. And it's not material. I'll try to scann the computer for viruses and Registry problems. Bad news : you're on Win98.

Try (re) installing : Win98 UltimePack (Kind of free Uber ServicePack created after the fall of W98), and check if you can use CCleaner (Be careful say YES to backup). There's old version of AVG on the net.

Good Luck.
(SNES rocks)

[Stee]

If its first edition, I'm assuming the mouse is ps/2 as if I recall usb support wasn't that great until 98SE (second ed).

Do you have usb ports?

If the mouse your using is usb try sticking it in another port, I've had some fiddly usb things before that just randomly pitch up one day. If its ps/2 and you have a usb mouse lying around, try the usb mouse. It sounds like the mouse is conflicting with something in normal mode and not in safe mode (maybe something like network cards etc that are generally disabled in safe mode).

To be honest Im surprised theres people still using win 98. My grandparents even have xp on their machines now.

Will your pc meet the specs for xp?

[Snake]

Stee:
The computer is one that I had built back in '99 with a buddy of mine. I got the Win98 installation CD from him that he had burned for me. I can't remember if he needed the disc back for whatever reasons, but I just don't have it any more. The computer was still at my mum's before I retrieved it a few months ago.

And no, there's no way it would run XP. It's only got 1.25GBs of harddrive space anyway. Like I mentioned above, my thumb drive has double!

\\--EDIT--\\
And btw, the mouse port is an older version if ps/2. It's the flat connector type with 9 pins - similar to the photo I've attached.

\\--EDIT2--\\
Serial Mouse?

\\--EDIT3--\\
Here we go! It's the blue one in the middle...

[Leon]

That's serial. But there's also a port for the PS/2 mouse (the green round one). And one for USB. Tried switching to another mouse?

If you need a Win98 disc give me a shout, I've got several versions.
If it asks for files, you might want to point to c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 to use the files already on the harddisk. Besides, with pre-installed versions, there's most of the time something like a c:\windows\options\cabs folder with all files needed (look for a folder named 'cabs'). Point to that one and you should be able to continue without problems. Win98 needs to reboot quite often though.

You don't want to change to XP, certainly not with older machines. Win98 runs much faster on lower specs.

But it's the resolution that's wrong, not the mouse?

Come to think of it, did something change in BIOS? Did you leave the machine without power for some time and is the BIOS now back to default settings maybe? Can you select the type of graphics there? Or enable/disable the mouse port?

[Snake]

I've got the mouse working again - thank god the USB ports still work. All I did was look for Logitech MouseWare installation and drivers and reinstalled.

But... why were they unable to be loaded to begin with? Strange.

Leon:
Hmm. You could be getting somewhere. Every time I'm done on that computer, I shut down, then UNPLUG it all. It never stays plugged in.

Unfortunately, Leon, I can't enter the BIOS and take a look since I don't remember the password I had set on it. Bah.

[Leon]

There are ways around the bios password. On the motherboard is often a jumper to reset the bios. And... when BIOS resets to default, often also the passwords are being removed. Did you try it?

[Snake]

Leon, what about the battery? Would it be safe to reset it this way?

Look here...

\\--EDIT--\\
Is the jumper next to the battery the same jumper you are refering to?

Sorry, but I had no idea the bios HAD a jumper... 

[Mr Flibble]

Could it be general wear and tear on the HD or lost/corrupted files? You could run Scandisk to check for faults.

[Leon]

Leon, what about the battery? Would it be safe to reset it this way?

Look here...

\\--EDIT--\\
Is the jumper next to the battery the same jumper you are refering to?

Sorry, but I had no idea the bios HAD a jumper... 

It certainly can be. And that's indeed the jumper I'm talking about.

[Snake]

Alright. I've done the jumper thing and it didn't bypass the password (waited over night). So while I try the battery, here's what's been going on:

Note: This is prior to switching the jumper around...

When Windows loads in Normal Mode, not every time but enough, it now keeps complaining that Rundll is causing illegal operations and must end. I click OK and everything runs as normal. It will also pop up and tell me this at random times.

In both Normal Mode and Safe Mode it is now telling me that there is not enough memory to take certain actions. I've never had this messege before.
At the time, I was trying to change the resolution and color depth (which never works, but I keep trying for the hell of it). I can almost always recreate the messege by doing this.

On C:\ I've got over 400MB of space left.
On H:\ (which is the host drive for C: and created after I compressed C:\ some years ago) This drive has only around 3MB left. Now, I don't know if that has ALWAYS been like that or if something exploded in there, but I'm just noticing it now.

If I remember correctly, I think I've only got 64MB of RAM.

\\--EDIT--\\
The battery thing didn't work.

\\--EDIT2--\\
Finally bypassed the BIOS password with the help of Google No more password.

I can't seem to find an option for the graphics card. The only thing I can find is an option for EGA/VGA, MONO and something else. On my COMPAQ I remember being an option to select ON-BOARD display or PCI whatever. This BIOS doesn't seem to have it.
??
At the same time, there is no ON-BOARD graphics anyway. There's just the card I've got. Maybe that's why.

[Mantra of Doom]

Snake: Could you go to selective startup? Though if Safe Mode is acting all insane as well, this might not help you much. Those new messages don't sound very good.

Go to Start> Run  and type msconfig
On the General Tabclick the option for selective startup
Uncheck load all startup items
Go to the Services tab
There is a checkbox under the list that says "Hide All Microsoft Services". Check it.
Then click Disable All.
Then Apply, then OK, then restart. It should start up without out any unnecessary services and programs.

Something is causing Windows to freak out. I vaguely remember something about rundll acting up when I was on Win98... but that was a long time ago. But then again, I was on the internet and Hijack This and pc-cillin seemed to take care of that.

You may have to format and install again if you can dig up a Win 98 disk... if you're trying to find a new 98 disk, go for SE (second edition) it was better.

[Snake]

MantraofDoom:
I don't see a "Services" tab... what now?

\\--EDIT--\\
Still nothing. I followed the directions here which are the same as yours, except for the differences with XP and 98. Everything is still the same.

And actually, I had it already on Selective Startup since I unchecked all the junk I didn't want starting with Windows in the "Startup" tab.

Pain in the ass.

[Snake]

BUMP

SOLVED! (or partially anyway):
Video is back to working again! As a LAST RESORT I searched for video drivers and finally decided that I didn't have anything to lose. So I searched for drivers for AOpen and found NVIDIA drivers that were compatible with AOpen.
It worked! Now it's working at 1024x768 @ True Color.

But now, there's another problem. There's NO SOUND. I never checked the sound before, but I'm thinking it's safe to say that there hasn't been any since I first discovered everything else... I just hadn't noticed, or tried, or cared at the time, really.

I go into the Multimedia section in Control Panel and everything is greyed out and it says that there are no audio devices. So before I did anything, I shutdown and disconnected the sound card and turned it back on. After Windows loaded I shut it down and put the card back in and turned it back on again. I was thinking that Windows would recognise new hardware and install it, but nothing happened.
So then I manually searched for new hardware and managed to find all the files needed by using Leon's idea with redirecting the search to system32, system or windows.
After restarting, still no sound. Nothing detected in multimedia. Alrighty, at that time I'm thinking I'm pretty swift, since I fixed the video card problem, so I decide to look for Creative Sound Blaster 16 PCI (which is the card I have) drivers and install those, thinking that's all that's needed (like the video).
So I do. Or I think I find the right ones. I install them, restart and the same bullshit, "No Audio Devices Detected".

So now I'm stumped. Where am I supposed to go to install this thing? It doesn't seem to be the same setup as what I did for the video card.
Why is this even happening to begin with?
It's like somebody went in there and manually went through and deleted all the necessary drivers for everything. The Creative Sound Blaster 16 program group still exists, but nothing can be found. I searched for the Creative folder but it's not there.

*whimpers*

help...

[arj0n]

I don't know if you need these but anyway, I upped a full setup + just the driver for sb pci16 from the original Sound Blaster PCI 512 CD here. Should work fine for 98ME.

[Snake]

Thank you for your help, Arj0n. I tried installing the Sound Blaster PCI 512 from the SETUP folder:

It got just a bit over 60% installed and wanted disc 3. Did I miss something or did you?

[arj0n]

right:
If you use the setup folders setup file it will stop around 63% done and ask for disk 3, you cannot find it in any of the files on the download
The drivers can be installed by using the update drivers tab in the device manager section of control panels system icon."