USB Help

[gntombel]

I'm using a USB for the first time in a computer running windows 98 and it can not sense that there's something connected to the USB port. What might be the problem or what should I do to get this working?

[webado]

Have you run the installation program, drivers and all that? has it gone through the PLug & Play motions?

What device is it anyway?

[gntombel]

It's an IBM Travelstar hard drive. It doen't even show the plug & play proccesses...

[webado]

Originally Posted by gntombel

It's an IBM Travelstar hard drive. It doen't even show the plug & play proccesses...

Oh, an external had drive....

I wonder if W98 can handle that at all.

Have you looked in the bios at boot time to see what's happening?

Is it for USB1 or USB2 ? Not familiar with the differences, but there must be some.

Also is your port an original port from the PC or is it through an expansion USB hub that you added?

In any case, go through Install Hardware in Control Panel (I forget where that is in W98 - maybe in System - Devcie Manager or something like that). You can check to see what it thinks it has on each USB port.

You may need somehow to format that drive as Fat32, since W98 does not work with NTFS - unless I'm much mistaken and deluded.

[motorwatchercounter]

win 98 plug and play is really bad 98se is a little better. The USB is the worst of the worst. If the drive is USB 2 it may not work on usb1 and I also think that the format should be fat32. Not sure what model it is but have a look here.

http://www.usb-drivers.com/drivers/129/129215.htm

Please make sure that any drivers you download are for the exact model.

[Momo]

I've experienced a similar problem, but just with USB in general. About 9 years ago I got a windows 95 computer, which was later upgraded to windows 98, and then to 98se. If I remember correctly, the USB barely worked before we got 98SE, and even then it was hard to use becasue of the poor plug-and-play.

On windows XP(my current laptop and PC), however, USB works instantly, and causes no problems for me at all. Most drivers are even installed automatically.

Do you have Windows 98 or 98 Second Edition?

I know that some products only work on certain versions of windows (i.e. my Linksys network is only windows 2000 and up); have you checked to see if your hard disk is compatible?

[trackerm]

It begins to get very difficult to run Win 98 these days as the technology is now basically 8 years old in an area where things change so very quickly.

I have helped a lot of friends who have old computers (all my friends are poor!) and one thing becomes apparent: You can do most things, you just have to try lots of different tricks, keep flexible, treat it as a battle against the computer, and unlike what everyone says computers don’t work logically!

Mark

[webado]

Or is it that whoever programmed the darn things used a special blend of fuzzy logic?

[Nikkodemus]

You might find this site helpful as well:

http://www.usbman.com/

USB 2.0 is supposed to be backwards compatible with USB 1.1 and 1.0 but sometimes glitchy - especially with USB 1.0.

If you have a spare PCI slot, suggest you consider adding a USB 2 PCI host card. These usually come with the necessary drivers on CD supporting 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP, and USB 2 is much faster (480Mbits/sec). Not very costly, easy to install and make a big difference, especially if you are using the external HDD for backups.

Good luck!

PS: ...and just to confirm, the HDD should be formatted FAT32, and suggest you consider partitioning it, especially if fairly large capacity.

[motorwatchercounter]

Originally Posted by Nikkodemus

You might find this site helpful as well:

..USB 2.0 is supposed to be backwards compatible with USB 1.1 and 1.0 but sometimes glitchy - especially with USB 1.0.

If you have a spare PCI slot, suggest you consider adding a USB 2 PCI host card. ...Good luck!

There should be no trouble with 2 to any older version. If you are using a laptop they do a multi 2 hub PCMCIA card or one with USB and firewire combo (a bit like surf & turf ). Number 1 it to make sure that something works in the usb slot. With all the new stuff, bluetooth, printers etc moving to usb2 rapidly I would think that the days of win98 are numbered. Shame really, I like 98, it doesn't fill the hard drive up with a million drivers (just in case) and other junk you will never need.

I still think that Mr Gates should give people the option of temp files cookies etc. I don't need this junk and the amount of people I meet who have PC trouble and have never cleared these out as they didn't know they existed. I have a trial of spysubtract I am using (ad and spyware remover) One of the settings is to delete this rubbish on load. Not a freebee though