Tom's post (clipped) <<<< Sat, 22 Jul 2006 21:55:39 -0400 <<<<Any help on installing an OS on a laptop with a HD that has been partitioned and formated would help.>>>>> <<<< Sat, 29 Jul 2006 08:46:15 -0400 Subject: Win98SE only finds a default monitor <<<<I have an old Dell Latitude CPi laptop. The Win98SE set up program only recognized a default monitor. This only gives me 16 colors. Tried to install new hardware thinking the computer would see and install the correct monitor but that did not work. Can contact Dell to see what monitor is installed in my laptop but thought someone here might have a simple answer. Thanks, Tom >>>> Hi to all, if i am correct in relating the above two posts it would appear that the o/s was successfully installed. i have run into a similar problem and would appreciate any help. (1) hp pavillion N 3150. very old and somehow got loaded with win 98 AND 95. has a hitachi hdd and teac cdrom. not swappable. (2)downloaded hitachis disk fitness test tool, erased the hdd. with a win 98 se boot disk partitioned/formatted the whole capacity (4.6 gigs) into one drive. (3)some reasearch threw up (a) a combination of panasonic and motto hairo USB/DOS drivers (b)iomegas usb boot disk. (4) got hold of a very cheap chinese external usb case/ put the cd drive/connected/powered up (5)tried the panasonic/motto hairo boot disk first. usb support enabled (drive not loaded) cdrom support enabled (cdrom not loaded) then went through a series of steps where i could see ohci controller initialised/ cdrom make model detected (LG CRD 8322B)/DRIVER INSTALLED/ and ultimately came up with " available ID= NO INSTALLABLE DEVICE FOUND" (6) so after all this it was not possible to access the cdrom drive!!!! (7) next tried the iomega boot disk. all went well. usb detected/cdrom model/make detected/ INSTALLED/ but finally came up with " iomega guest.exe manager finding a drive letter for your usb cdrom driver... no drive letter ADDED." (8)so hereagain could not access the usb cdrom (9) in frustration disconnected the usb ext.case and put in my old AVG flash drive. (10) SURPRISINGLY both boot disks identified the flash drive/installed / drive letter "E" (11) A:\ DIR E: directory encrypted /volume label/ free space. (12) made sense since the flash drive was password protected and i could open it in my win 98 pc and access the contents NOW THE QUESTION: the avb flash drive needs the drivers to be installed in win 98 before it could be installed. how does these two boot disks install without the drivers? (because of DOS mode?) the cdrom needs only generic drivers which all boot disks install and so why this problem in not being able to access the drive? (13) the option is to copy the win 98 folder to the flash drive in my pc and proceed from there. BUT this is a drive of 64MB bought in 2002 when they had just come out and prices were sky high at that time. so wodering what to do next short of going in for a 1 gig flash drive or throwing away the hp pavillion which in any case has only 64 mb ram. thought i will revive and keep back ups. sorry for the very lengthy post and really will appreciate help if any is possible----Venkat The NOSPIN Group has added a new feature on our website, web based bulletinboard for questions and answers: Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com