Tech: Bit Rot Hassles

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Mar 07 - 11:40 PM

Incidentally, nothing I could do would cause the new ISP dialup to work automatically - I had to have the terminal window open and type in user name, password, and hit return for the log in to work.

Then a short while ago, they changed their dialup number, and obviously too their login setup - this has now completely fixed the problem!

:-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 04:40 AM

98 SE SP 2.1a - MSFN Forums


Don't forget to Download Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 also

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 09:08 PM

Got tired of Opera - while it handles cookies brilliantly, IE - which now does not hang - can handle ieSpell - I have TIny Spell v1.3 - but it does not integrate anywhere as easily INTO the Opera typing window.

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 07:31 AM

So now I got the IE6SP update loaded...

Using Opera is driving me nuts - now I need a spellchecker - can't find such a widget - seem to remember Bill D talking about various ones...
It does everything asre about - it shifts the mouse focus off to teh new tab when i just want ti to load in teh background and look at later like IE did .... etc...

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:21 AM

Well, apart from MSIE now locking up when running a couple of windows -- but Opera seems to not get upset....

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 08:09 AM

Wellllllll.......

I have had a slight 'holiday' - mainly because I didn't want to fight the beastie for a few days - glad I did , cause when i did do 'the fix', I wasn't tired, and it was simple...


I had worked out that MSIE 'Internet Properties' stuff and put the username and password in for the trial ISP, but things still wouldn't work - then things went 'totally berko' - couldn't type into the browser url window, do the 'Vulcan Nerve Pinch' or anything....


So today I did a fresh minimal reinstall (with a chdsk /f) over the top of 98SE, then applied the 17Mb 'unofficial upgrade'... went ok - but now I got an error saying that file type 'file' could not be run as it could not find AUTOEXEC.EXE..... !!!!!! :-) and thus NOTHING would run unless it was from an existing icon....

This IS NOT part of Windoze/DOS.... found it was needed to start a 'Trial copy' of Settlers 3!!!! did the big un-install thing... :-) fixed that!

Now Spybot S&D had installed 'Teatimer' !!! which kept on sticking its d*ck in everything, and stopping all registry changes - which would be good but the prog is so poorly designed that the standard font I use for the desktop renders Teatimer's popup windows unreadable, so i can't figure which button to press, and if you don't respond quickly, it forbids registry changes.... so did a reg-hack and killed the 'run line'!!!!

NOW.... we is OK again.... after a defrag - we seem to be al ok and speed wise ok too - and NOW the dialup works fine too... :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 09:53 PM

"I bite my tongue. Why do you torture yourselves?"


Lack of hard cash - donations gratefully accepted!

:-P

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 12:10 PM

Foolestroupe -

I don't find any cumulative updates for Win98SE, but it appears that the last available Critical Update to your Internet Explorer should include all prior critical updates. Quite a few of the "Windows" patches were actually IE fixes, so getting an up to date IE may get a lot of goodness for you.

In general, patches - especially Critical Security patches - are cumulative and the last one issued should include all prior ones, so an update may not be as tedious as you'd expect if you can get the most recent one.

The exception to the fixes being cumulative are mostly "hot fixes" that aren't meant to be generally applied by everyone, and the problems that the hot fixes are released for generally are fixed in the later general patches.

Issues after you install updates to Internet Explorer or Windows (KB 325192) came up in a search for "Win98 only" KB articles. It lists (and links) a bunch of articles for specific problems, and includes some stuff that's probably not applicable to you, but a quick look at some of the "connectivity" issues might trigger some places to look for your problem. For most of them the title gives enough of a clue to eliminate ones that obviously don't apply.

I don't see anything that's obviously a fix for you, but eliminating the crap that isn't helpful is part of the job description.


People with WinXP who've updated to SP2 and didn't order the SP2 CD need to take a lesson from your predicament and RIGHT NOW:

Download the SP2 installation file and save it somewhere (a 265 MB download, but check for the appropriate place to suit your version and use.)

or MUCH BETTER:

Order the Free SP2 update CD (available last time I checked) and file it with their WinXP Installation disk(s).

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: Amos
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 09:49 AM

I bite my tongue. Why do you torture yourselves?


A

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 09:33 AM

OK - it got thru - now will just have to get A ROUND TUIT....

Looks like the dialup scripting upgrade is in there - which may fix the hassles...

Thanks for the ideas...

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 08:14 AM

Ok - found a recent version 2.1a at the msfn forum - only 17 Mb - what with the background downloader - will only take a week or two.... :-)

Can't uninstall it - but then at least I can reload the CD and limp along till I get the Linux box up... :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 07:43 AM

OK - Google turned them up - but there's so goddam many - and who knows which is the 'latest' or most complete? and do any have 'grubs'? (viral or malware loads?)

So many questions, so little time.... :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 07:36 AM

If you can provide the links, at least I can try - and I am thinking of upgrading sooner or later...

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 07:11 AM

I think when I was rummaging for ie6 updates ('cos 7 won't run with anything I use) I found a number of links for W98 update packs that you can store the whole range of and then run internally as updates - but you will want to be on broadband while looking!

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 07:01 PM

"A sometimes troublesome setting, that could be in your old dialup connection setup, is an "always use this connection" "

Set to 'never dial a connection' - I often work offline.


"For current OS versions, there are downloadable "CD format" files including all current patches, that Sys Admins can get for updating their fleets of computers,"

The ability to get the last one for 98SE would be wonderful... would even PAY MS for it...


"you may be able to save during download so you can install manually later. You might be able to save all the "install" files (if you have to get them again) so that you'd have them for future use; but some of them have to be installed in the order issued so you'd need to do some careful record keeping. "

Played that game before - it drives you nuts...

I CAN connect to the new ISP by clicking on the icon - they DO seem to have regular tech hassles - modems etc, but my hassle is just that the popup that remembers and stores the username and password for just the new connection seems to have died (so I have to do it manually), as well as the trouble shoot section.

Thanks for your time John, but of limited assistance...

I could fi/uddle with the ... oops that Win98RK seems to have suffered bit rot too... :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 08:26 AM

A sometimes troublesome setting, that could be in your old dialup connection setup, is an "always use this connection" option in the setup of the dial-up number.

There is also a setting in IE, and possibly in your other browsers, at Tools|Options at the Connections tab that let you specify a default connection for the browser.

If the "always use" choice was set for the old connection, or if a default connection is set for your browser, when your browser opens it may try to connect to the old number but will fail since the line is already connected to the new one. If the old connection is already made of course everything works.

Even with a default connection set in the browser, it should use an existing connection without trying to re-connect, but I'm not sure whether that can be guaranteed. The new connection setup wizard should add the new connection to your browser automatically, but that's another "can't guarantee" thing. You might need to manually add the new connection in the browser to tell the browser that it's a good one to use if open.

A new ICS provider is always suspect. There are numerous Microsoft Knowledge Base articles with titles like "xxx stops working when you use AOL" or "AOL stops working when you xxxx." Yahoo follows closely in number of articles. Other less popular services may have similar problems but just aren't "big enough" to get articles written. If you can browse to the service's web site, you may find something in their FAQ or Help files.

I don't find anything that says simply whether you can get updates that you'd need if you reinstall Win98SE. It's been obsolete so long that they don't even mention it at the update sites any more. The only suggestion I can make would be that before you do a reinstall you might want to visit whatever update site you've been using, or the Microsoft Update site and see if they'll tell you. At that site, they automatically launch, or try to launch, a search for updates you need, and only seem to offer info on the OS version they find on your machine. If you go in with Win98SE installed they may tell you what you can get, or what other site you should go to.

IFF the scan completes successfully, there usually is an option to "review update history" that might give you a list of updates that have been installed on your machine. Most of them should be identified by a KB article number that you could use to try to get them individually if you find that there isn't an automated update still available.

Quite a few updates incorporate or supercede prior updates, so getting a fresh install up to speed may not involve getting every update you've downloaded in the past; but I can't find anything on how many you'd need now to get a new install up to date.

IFF you can get the updates, you may be able to save during download so you can install manually later. You might be able to save all the "install" files (if you have to get them again) so that you'd have them for future use; but some of them have to be installed in the order issued so you'd need to do some careful record keeping.

For current OS versions, there are downloadable "CD format" files including all current patches, that Sys Admins can get for updating their fleets of computers, but the current CD for WinXP is right at 800 MB and my current connection won't handle it (in my remaining lifetime).

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 02:48 AM

PS - this system gets regular CHKDSK/f runs.

Subject: Tech: Bit Rot Hassles
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 02:45 AM

Well, looks like I got hit... shouldn't have mentioned it in the other thread - thanks Murphy!

Trying to change ISPs - (dialup) - and discovered that while I CAN create a new dialup icon - It doesn't seem to work properly - AND the Troubleshooting dialogue seems trashed too.

Win98SE... of course... I have the Original CD, but of course if I do a full reload, I lose all updates... (unless someone has a CD full of them!!!)

It may just need a Reg Hack (can handle if I have details!) or a reload of specific files (don't know which ones...)

The hassle is that I used to be able to just dial up and it would connect OK - remembering the username and password automagically.

Now that doesn't work for the new one (but the old ISP still does that way!), and it can only handle logging in if I fire up the 'open window after connect' and type that info in manually. It used to pop up a screen on the first connect, you typed in the info, then it allowed you to tick 'remember this', and you never saw that again...

The troubleshooter opens to the first page (the linked 'More Help' page), then refuses to respond any further - only blank right hand screen (inside the troubleshoot app). It also doesn't go anywhere if you try to play with it manually either - for any topic.

Robin