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Thread ID: 70413	2006-07-02 09:12:00	Various Problems on an old PC	straka01 (310)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
467987	2006-07-02 09:12:00	I've accepted the challenge to repair an old friends PC. It's a Pentium 200mhz with just 64mb SDRAM. Anyway, I've loaded win98 onto the 4Gb drive and this works well - especially as I haven't yet installed a virus scanner. However, when booting up and sucessfully detecting the drives I get a message saying "Conflict I/O : 2F8 Press F1 to continue" I haven't added any cards or hardware to the PC since I got it - I simply replaced the old Seagate HDD that had bad sectors and would no longer boot up at all. The replacement drive runs well without any bad sectors or problems. What is the conflict between and how do I eliminate the problem? Next issue is: It looks for the sound card driver THREE times! If I don't cancel each one it creates 3 entries in the device manager. I don't seem to have a sound card driver from my friend but I'm sure I can download one from the net - really I just wondered why it would look for the driver 3x? The last issue - which I find particularly annoying is with the floppy drive. It sees it and loads it into the device manager but 'no matter' how I try to open a floppy in the drive it doesn't open it or explore it but rather it keeps coming up with "Do you want to format the drive?" I have more floppy drives I can install but I wondered whether this is a hardware or software fault? Any help appreciated.	straka01 (310)
467988	2006-07-02 10:10:00	Why are you fixing it? Work out the value of your time and, unless you're particularly masochistic and gain pleasure from the sufferance that is Windows 98, it's probably a pointless exercise. Even if you get it working, it will be trashed by numerous worms within an hour of being connected to the internet as security updates are no longer produced for it. A virus scanner will not fully protect you from this, even if it works with 64Mb of memory minus whatever Windows uses. P.S. many diverse hardware failures may indicate a motherboard problem or corrupted memory.	TGoddard (7263)
467989	2006-07-02 10:19:00	Have you considered replacing the BIOS battery seeing the PC is rather old?	Jen (38)
467990	2006-07-02 10:31:00	Why are you fixing it? Work out the value of your time and, unless you're particularly masochistic and gain pleasure from the sufferance that is Windows 98, it's probably a pointless exercise . Even if you get it working, it will be trashed by numerous worms within an hour of being connected to the internet as security updates are no longer produced for it . A virus scanner will not fully protect you from this, even if it works with 64Mb of memory minus whatever Windows uses . P . S . many diverse hardware failures may indicate a motherboard problem or corrupted memory . bah ! ! sicuritys updates are stil advailable . considering most worms are w2k/XP only 98 is quite safe for some time yet . 64meg . . . . . 98 and AV (which you can still get) will run . . . . . . slowly . upgrade ram if you can . have a look to see if they have any non-pnp modems, lan cards, sound cards etc (usually isa cards) . it may have reset bios back to defaults, so you may have to check the port settings etc . sound card can often be 3 different devices . install the drivers .	tweak'e (69)
467991	2006-07-02 11:26:00	bah ! ! sicuritys updates are stil advailable . considering most worms are w2k/XP only 98 is quite safe for some time yet . 64meg . . . . . 98 and AV (which you can still get) will run . . . . . . slowly . upgrade ram if you can . Safety in old systems is unfortunately a myth . It's true that most worms can't affect it, but you have no defence against the ones that can . Updates are available for old vulnerabilities but the OS is no longer supported by MS so they don't produce new ones . Even the best antivirus systems are often too little, too late by the time you run a scan . have a look to see if they have any non-pnp modems, lan cards, sound cards etc (usually isa cards) . it may have reset bios back to defaults, so you may have to check the port settings etc . sound card can often be 3 different devices . install the drivers . Again, is this worthwhile when a better system costs less than the value of your time?	TGoddard (7263)
467992	2006-07-02 11:43:00	Again, is this worthwhile when a better system costs less than the value of your time? judging from the post the cost is properly FREE. if you can find a pc cheaper than that then i will have a few, cheers :D worms themselves are easy, firewall fixes most of those, AV will do the job for a home pc. while their may not be new fixes there simply isn't that many people looking to exploit the old systems. its just like a mac, plenty of unfixed exploits around but know one bothers with such a small number of users. there are a few people here who are using 98 in stock form without being infected. 98 is quite safe with the current tools, until such time as a highly critical exploit is found and USED in a common manner. mind you you will proberly third parties will come to the rescue :)	tweak'e (69)
467993	2006-07-02 11:52:00	judging from the post the cost is properly FREE. if you can find a pc cheaper than that then i will have a few, cheers :D I was talking about cost of time. Not all costs are measured in dollars. worms themselves are easy, firewall fixes most of those Firewalls fix practically nothing. They provide a means for administrators to control access to unprivileged users' services. On a home PC they are all but useless. , AV will do the job for a home pc. while their may not be new fixes there simply isn't that many people looking to exploit the old systems. its just like a mac, plenty of unfixed exploits around but know one bothers with such a small number of users. there are a few people here who are using 98 in stock form without being infected. 98 is quite safe with the current tools, until such time as a highly critical exploit is found and USED in a common manner. mind you you will proberly third parties will come to the rescue :) You may be right that users of 98 gain some security benefits from obscurity, but I've had a Windows ME box turn zombie on me before. Security concerns should be a factor in deciding whether to bother fixing a defunct old machine.	TGoddard (7263)
467994	2006-07-02 12:01:00	i think your forgetting its a mates pc . ie done for the fun of it . Firewalls fix practically nothing . They provide a means for administrators to control access to unprivileged users' services . On a home PC they are all but useless . o god . . . . . don't tell me your another one of these IT gits i have to kick with my steel caps again . that attidude is so old its not funny its so disapointing that some IT pro's are still years behind the ball game . i'll be kind and leave the rant till another day .	tweak'e (69)
467995	2006-07-02 12:20:00	I've accepted the challenge to repair an old friends PC. It's a Pentium 200mhz with just 64mb SDRAM. I must say you are quite mad as I would get frustrated at a computer that ran well with those specs. "Conflict I/O : 2F8 Press F1 to continue" Well "2F8" refers to the onboard serial port 2 address so may be it is causing a conflict with some other hardware. I would have thought unlikely as nothing else has that address, but saying it is an I/O could mean that that it may be conflicting with an internal modem. Do you have a serial mouse plugged in to the other port? If you have an internal modem you should be able to get into BIOS and disable Com Port 2. This may resolve that issue. It looks for the sound card driver THREE times! How old is the sound card? Did it come with the computer or is it a new one(well later than the computer). May be a BIOS update could be in order butfrom what I guess (big guess) it may be trying to recognise the audio, midi and game controller but not doing it correctly thus giving three of the same entries. MY old SB Live took a bit of coaxing in an old system and a good look for alternative drivers. It sees it and loads it into the device manager but 'no matter' how I try to open a floppy in the drive it doesn't open it or explore it but rather it keeps coming up with "Do you want to format the drive?" I had this problem on a laptop and it was purely connectivity, but on a desktop it could be anything. CMOS setting, physical hardware (cable or FDD) possibly the controller could be just giving up the ghost. Check the BIOS battery (I would put in a new one anyway, save a lot of probs), and if it is the drive, throw it buy a new one. They are so annoying when broken and so cheap to get new. But do that last it could be a software config after all. Hope some of that helps. :)	mantermite (9652)
467996	2006-07-02 21:01:00	Thank you mantermite for your comprehensive reply. I'm fixing this PC for an old friend who only uses it for emails I think. And Yes, my time & labour is free - I doing it in my spare time. Just out of interest - I have six other PCs for all the members of the family and they all are different - from a 3.1gHz running Oblivion smoothly on XP down to this 333mHz PC running win98. I have proven that, a well configured win98 system, kept clean and with up-to-date Virus definitions, runs every bit as well as XP on the internet - in fact - I prefer it for everyday use. Plenty of RAM is a must and keeping adware 'at bay' is essential. I now have a policy of only running win98 on the internet rather than XP as it attracts much less unwanted problems. Again, I thank you for your valuable advice.	straka01 (310)
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