Windows 98 Device Manager Cont3

THE WINDOWS 98 DEVICE MANAGER

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Floppy Disk controllers:

Generally most floppy disk controller errors are due to Windows 98 not identifying the controller correctly based upon the information reported by the motherboard’s Bios or a corrupted driver. The easiest solution would be to go into device manager, expand the floppy disk controller area and remove the controller and restart the system. The following procedure should help you. If you still have a problem, please contact the Technical Support department.

• If you have read through these pages, then you might recall the issue with the IDE controller and restarting in Safe Mode and checking for duplicate or multiple entries for the floppy disk controller. If there are any duplicates or multiples, remove them all.

• If none of the above resolves the issue, start backwards from the floppy drive, making sure that it functions properly. Then check the cable from the drive to the motherboard. If you still have a problem, the floppy disk controller on the motherboard may have gone bad. If you are one of our customers, please contact Technical Support.

Keyboard:

Keyboard errors are extremely rare to say the least. Most standard keyboards, including the ergonomic keyboards and the Microsoft Natural Keyboard are all recognized easily by the standard Windows 98 driver. With the advent of wireless (infrared) and USB types of keyboards, device errors in Device Manager are becoming more frequent. Usually this is resolved with the addition of the third party drivers supplied by the manufacturer. In some cases, a keyboard will fail and need to be replaced.

As a caution to our customers, we neither recommend, sell or support wireless or USB keyboards. Our reasoning is simple, software crashes, whether in Windows 95, 98 or 2000, do occur and for a multitude of different reasons. If a crash does occur and you are unable to boot your system into the operating system you will not have access to either an infrared keyboard or mouse if they are installed as the drives must load when Windows starts. In this case, you will need to access your system through the use of conventional methods, either through an MS-DOS prompt or via the base operating systems command line. This cannot be achieved with either infrared or USB devices.

Modem:

Errors in Device Manager relating to modems occur frequently and are usually caused by driver problems 99% of the time. While you can update and change modem drivers through Device Manager, it is usually quicker and easier to do so through the modem icon in Control Panel. How you handle this issue depends largely on the type of problem you are having and whether you are a customer of ours or just a visitor looking for help with a problem.

If you are one of our customers, your computer will have either a US Robotics or Hayes modem unless you specified something different. Check the packet of diskettes you received from us with your computer. In that packet will be found a modem drivers diskette. All you need to do is follow the instructions in the next segment in order to reload your modem device. (While Hayes, as a company, has gone out of business, their technology and assets were purchased by another manufacturer and the brand will remain and all warranties will be preserved.)

To restore a modem to your system, please follow this sequence.

• Presuming that you found this error in device manager, click once on the modem entry to highlight the entry and then click “Remove” at the bottom of the Device Manager page. Now close Device Manager.

• Click Start, Settings, Control Panel. Once the Control Panel has opened, click on the modem icon. Since you removed the only modem device while in Device Manager, there shouldn’t be any modem listed in the Modem Properties panel. Your Modem Properties page should look like this.

• Now click the “Add” button. This will bring up the modem installation wizard. As you can see by the picture below, you have two options.

• You can either click “Next” and let the wizard search for your modem and then install a driver for it that the wizard finds (you can also install your own driver as well), or you can click the “Don’t detect my modem; I will select it from a list” box to select it and use the drivers disk that we have provided to you or that can with your modem.

• Once the modem has been added, click the diagnostics tab at the top of the Modem Properties page the click on the “More Info” button to test the modem. If the modem is functioning correctly with the appropriate driver, you will get a response similar to this:

• If this is the response you have received from the test, then click the “OK” button at the bottom and then close the Modem Properties page as well as Control Panel.

If the problem has not been resolved, then we need to look at other possibilities such as the following:

• Have you had any problems recently that may have effected the modem, such as power problems, lightening or power surges?

• Have you had the case open recently and possibly moved or disturbed the modem card causing it to not be fully seated in the slot.

• Are you certain the modem was working before you installed (or reinstalled) Windows 98? Modems, like all other electronic devices, do go bad. If you believe this is a possibility, then contact Technical Support immediately.

• When loading the modem driver (selecting the modem) using the add modem wizard, did you select the correct modem from the list? If you are uncertain, check the literature that came with your new computer or the modem to determine the modem type, remove the modem via the Modem Properties page and then restart the add modem wizard and choose the correct modem.

Note: Although we do not install any of the Win modem type modems in our systems, if you are a visitor, we urge you to replace any software generated modem with a typical style modem. 

Monitor:

Monitors rarely, if ever, show up in device manager unless there is some form of defect at the hardware level or the monitor has special features that require that a specific driver INF file be loaded.

• If you are one of our customers, the driver INF file will be included in the diskette pack that we provided you at the time your computer was shipped. If you cannot locate it, send Technical Support and email message providing them with your customer number and a new INF file will be sent to you via email.

• If you are not one of our customers, check the make and model of your monitor and then visit the manufacturers site. Most manufacturers provide INF driver files for their monitors free of charge.

• To load the INF file, go into Control Panel and click on the Display icon. Now click on the Settings tab and then click on the Advanced button. Now click on the Monitor tab and then click “Change”. Use the INF driver file to properly identify your monitor.

Mouse:

Having an error relating to a mouse device show up in Device Manager is as unusual as a keyboard or monitor error. Usually these errors occur as the result of a change that has occurred at the system level, not necessarily within Windows 98. Here are some things to check before calling Technical Support.

• Make sure that the mouse is attached to the mouse port at the rear of the computer and is firmly seated into the socket.

• If you have made any changes in the motherboard’s bios setup, then recheck your settings. If necessary reset the bios defaults in the bios as per the instructions that we have provided you for your particular motherboard and bios.

• If you have changed the mouse type from the one that was provided with your new computer, make sure that it has been identified by Windows 98 correctly, and if necessary, load any “special” drivers that may have come with the mouse. Note: If you have replaced your former mouse with a scroll mouse (presuming that your old mouse was not the scroll type) do not load the scroll mouse software as Windows 98 comes with support for the scroll mouse.

• If you are using the new Microsoft infrared mouse, you must load the mouse software and you must have the support enabled on the computer.

• Restart the computer into Safe Mode and open Device Manager. Make sure that there is only one mouse listed. If there is more than one, remove them all and then shutdown and restart your computer.

• If, after reviewing the above and checking your computer, the mouse still appears as a Device Manager error, contact Technical Support for assistance.

Network Adapter:

Network Adapter errors in Device Manager are a common occurrence, and normally result from misidentification of the card (device) during the Windows 98 installation process. These errors are easily remedied when you follow a set procedure. If you are one of our customers, the network adapter that was installed in your computer was manufactured by 3COM, unless you specified otherwise. Regardless of the manufacturer of the network card, in the diskette pack that you received with your computer you will find a floppy disk with the specific drivers for your network card. Follow the procedure below to install (or reinstall) the correct device driver.

• First, make sure that your network card is properly connected to the network. Verify the connections and depending upon the cabling used, make certain that hubs are properly connected and powered and networks using coaxial cable are properly terminated.

• Second, if you are reinstalling Windows 98, ask yourself whether or not this computer was working properly on the network before you began the process of reinstallation. If it wasn’t, it may be a hardware problem that you are trying to resolve through software changes. If you believe it may be hardware related, contact our technical support personnel (sorry, customers only!).

• Third, if you have made any changes at all to the motherboard’s BIOS setup, especially with regard to changes to slot assignments where the network card is installed, reset those assignments to the BIOS defaults. Alterations to the BIOS by anyone, other than our technical support personnel, after the computer leaves our facilities are not supported.

• With the above having been done, then proceed with the following:

1. Click Start, Shutdown and then choose Restart.

2. As the computer begins the startup process, and just before you see the “Starting Windows….” dialogue, begin taping the F8 key to bring up the Windows Start Menu.

3. Now choose Safe Mode. You will be presented with a dialogue box advising you that you are starting in Safe Mode. Acknowledge the message and boot fully into Safe Mode.

4. Once in Safe Mode, click Start, then select Settings then select Control Panel. Now double click the System icon. When the System Properties page is up, choose the Device Manager section.

5. Now scroll down to the “Network Adapters” section in Device Manager and click the “+” to expand it.

6. Click once on each Adapter entry and then click the “Remove” button at the lower portion of the properties page. Once you have removed all of the entries (make sure this section is indeed empty), then close Device Manager as well as all other open windows on the desktop.

7. Now click Start, Shutdown and Restart. As Windows begins the restart process, it will find the device and attempt to reinstall it. Windows may attempt to load its default drivers or it may ask you for a drivers disk. If you are asked for drivers, then use the network drivers diskette from your diskette packet.