Dawn:

After your initial installation did you attempt to run Windows Update? I am
unsure weather W98SE is still supported or not, but you might try that
first. I really don't believe there would be a problem with your Windows
drivers, although you can try to re-install your OS over the top of your
existing installation by selecting "upgrade" from the choices when your copy
of W98SE is placed into the CD tray. This way you would not loose any
existing information.

Certainly upgrading to a newer version of Windows would be advantageous
since all those versions are still supported by M$, and although I have a
copy of ME myself, I would not recommend installing it unless you are in
some sort of an emergency situation.

I believe I would look more closely at the driver disk that comes with the
peripheral since the drivers contained on that disk are specific to the
device you are installing. Occasionally, I find that some drivers need to be
pre installed, but usually that is something that occurs with a PCI device
rather than a peripheral device. Sometimes when I add new hardware, I whip
through the setup screens so fast that I miss something that causes me to
scratch my head for hours before I disconnect the hardware, uninstall and
reinstall SLOWLY to insure that I didn't miss anything during setup, and
many times THAT is where I find the error.

Perhaps others may have some more useful info than that... But good luck,
HTH

Dean Kiley

> -----Original Message-----
> From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
> Subject: [PCBUILD] Windows...Re-Install or Upgrade ??
>
> The Computer Lady told me that this is one of THE places to go to get help
> from hundreds of professionals so I am here to see what y'all suggest I
> do:
>
> I use Windows 98SE.
>
> My PC is only 1 year old (it came with no operating system so I used 98SE
> since it was what I had on my old system).
>
> I have a brand new HP PSC Photosmart All-In-One Printer, Fax, Scanner,
> Copier.
>
> I hooked it up and everything except the Scanner works fine.
>
> After talking to HP for 5.25 hours trying to resolve the problem - they
> finally determined that I need to re-install Windows 98SE or upgrade to a
> newer version of Windows (something about my drivers being corrupt ?
> funny, they weren't corrupt with my old PSC ?? - anyway).
>
> HP had me run many different free on-line virus checkers on my system (I
> already had Norton Firewall & Anti-Virus) and they all found nothing.
>
> Then they had me install the PSC on my mom's new Dell with Windows XP and
> every aspect of the PSC worked perfect on her new PC.
>
> These two things made them determine it is my Windows drivers.
>
> So I need advice as to which would be better:
>
> Re-install Windows 98SE (and can a novice do this without destroying my PC
> or loosing any data ?)
>
> ~OR~
>
> Purchase a "newer" version of Windows ?  But which one is better - Windows
> ME, Windows 2000??, Windows NT??, Windows XP ?  And can I install one of
> these without crashing my PC ?  Also, I heard that some of my existing
> software would not run under a newer version of Windows - is that correct
> ?  If so, how do I know which ones would no longer work ?
>
> Sorry this is so much - but I wanted to make sure you knew all the
> details.  And as you can tell I don't know too much about PCs.
>
> I will await y'all's direction...
>
> Thanks so much for ANY advice -
>
> Dawn Acred

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